June 9, 2007
First thoughts of Monrovia
Today my dad and I got to see the great city of Monrovia for the first time. My first impression of Liberia came yesterday after we left the terminal at RIA (Roberts International Airport) immediately we were surrounded by people who were offering (forcing) to carry our bags for a few dollars, also there were about 10 kids who were asking for money so they could get school stuff, one even went so far as to bring a luggage lock insisting I had dropped it (I’m assuming he wanted money for the find because it wasn’t mine), all this along with the idea of just being in a foreign country was just to much to take in all at once. But after a somewhat good nights sleep I was ready for the real view of Monrovia. So after finishing a few things in the morning we set out to see how Liberians really acted. My mindset was not quite in the right place to begin with and I was judging everything I saw and feeling sorry for everyone who lived here (this could be because of my past experience at the airport). But as time went on I began to see that these people are really very nice, they are just caught in a world that has been neglected for many years. I don’t know if anyone else has seen the movie “Liberia; an uncivil war” but we drove around and saw most of the buildings and places that were mentioned, we even bumped into one of the ladies that had had a part in that documentary (more on how small this 2 million person city is later). Overall Monrovia is extremely worn and tons of work and rebuilding still needs to be done, but one thing this city doesn’t seen to lack is a since of hope and faith that I’ve never really seen in America, it seems like most Liberians are proud to call Monrovia home, something I’m not feeling in America. There are Church buildings and huts everywhere, and on almost every one of the 1000’s of taxies there is some type of spiritual saying like “Jesus is Lord” or “you are forgiven”, I would like to see something like that in America.
new record set! I stayed up a total of 34 hours without sleep over the past 2 days ... something i have never done before.
First thoughts of Monrovia
Today my dad and I got to see the great city of Monrovia for the first time. My first impression of Liberia came yesterday after we left the terminal at RIA (Roberts International Airport) immediately we were surrounded by people who were offering (forcing) to carry our bags for a few dollars, also there were about 10 kids who were asking for money so they could get school stuff, one even went so far as to bring a luggage lock insisting I had dropped it (I’m assuming he wanted money for the find because it wasn’t mine), all this along with the idea of just being in a foreign country was just to much to take in all at once. But after a somewhat good nights sleep I was ready for the real view of Monrovia. So after finishing a few things in the morning we set out to see how Liberians really acted. My mindset was not quite in the right place to begin with and I was judging everything I saw and feeling sorry for everyone who lived here (this could be because of my past experience at the airport). But as time went on I began to see that these people are really very nice, they are just caught in a world that has been neglected for many years. I don’t know if anyone else has seen the movie “Liberia; an uncivil war” but we drove around and saw most of the buildings and places that were mentioned, we even bumped into one of the ladies that had had a part in that documentary (more on how small this 2 million person city is later). Overall Monrovia is extremely worn and tons of work and rebuilding still needs to be done, but one thing this city doesn’t seen to lack is a since of hope and faith that I’ve never really seen in America, it seems like most Liberians are proud to call Monrovia home, something I’m not feeling in America. There are Church buildings and huts everywhere, and on almost every one of the 1000’s of taxies there is some type of spiritual saying like “Jesus is Lord” or “you are forgiven”, I would like to see something like that in America.
new record set! I stayed up a total of 34 hours without sleep over the past 2 days ... something i have never done before.
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