LIBERIA...


(The poster in Liberia telling people to vote. They voted for Ellen, first woman president in Africa!).


(Our first impression of Monrovia... burnt houses, barbed wire/sand-bag UN check-points, burning trash, people on foot in the rain... For a minute Julie had second thoughts about moving here from the paradise-like Freetown Peninsula).


(A lamp post. Swiss-cheesed with bullet holes. The rebels and government forces fought in the outer neighborhoods of Monrovia. The Nigerian Troops eventually came and contributed to a cease-fire).


(Billboard in Monrovia).


(Billboard in Monrovia).


(I flew back from Monrovia (Liberia) to Conakry (Guinea), via Freetown (Sierra Leone) on the World Food Program plane. High above the dust, heat, and endless check-points...).


(The Guinean Forests -- stretch from Guinea, Sierra Leone, Monrovia and into Ivory Coast. I read that they are habitat to half of all mammal species in Africa. All, except for Guinea, are or were just recently in civil war).