Monrovia - 3/14

Interesting place. Thriving, humming, and broken all at the same time. Little if any electricity, poor water, little sanitation, housing crises exacerbated by internally displaced people and refugees from surrounding conflicts, a poor police force, an educational system that isn’t getting the thousands of kids off the streets and into schools. Things are no longer desperate here, but there is a reason for concern. The people are open, warm, friendly, and feel both entitled and abandoned. I hope the world won’t turn its back on Liberia too soon as it has almost found its feet. The influence of the US here is palpable, from the Ambassadors regular appearance in the papers to the design of the flag. There is clearly a special relationship that is bittersweet. The freed slaves which returned to Liberia have created an elite class that while binding the country to the US, also economically suppresses the indigenous people to this day.