Liberia: Monrovia
April 16 – 17, 2012
Aboard National
Geographic Explorer
Monday, April 16 – At Sea to Monrovia, Liberia
Sunday evening (15th) at the Recap before dinner
we learned a lot about the violent history of Liberia and how things are
changing since the end of the civil war in 2005.
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| President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf |
The current President, Ellen
Johnson Sirleaf was college educated in America with business degrees and in
2011, won the Nobel Peace Prize with two other African women for their
contributions to stability and peace in their counties. She has recently been
re-elected to a second term as president.
At the end of the briefing, we were told that she had
accepted an invitation to come aboard that night for dinner and a talk, which was
very exciting. There were also a couple of passengers on board whose son has a
high position in the American Embassy in Liberia, so he and number of others
from the embassy were scheduled to come. They were expecting some 48 guests in
all: obviously not all for dinner as we can’t accommodate that many.
Since passenger ships have been having a difficult time
getting permission to land in Liberia, we were going to arrive somewhere around
4:30 in the afternoon instead of in the morning, allowing lots of time for
immigration and docking formalities. We hoped for the best. We were then
getting back to some countries that are not used to having tourists and are
only recently peaceful after years of internal wars. The recent history of
these areas was almost more than we could absorb, but we were trying.
We would also be watching the news in the next week or so,
because the ex-president of Liberia (Charles Taylor) is currently on trial in
The Hague for horrendous war crimes in Sierra Leon and his sentencing is
scheduled for April 26. (Update: he was found guilty and on May 30 sentenced to
50 years in prison.)
April 16 Liberia
After we had some lectures and I did a little picture
editing during the day, our ship pulled alongside the port of Monrovia, Liberia
about 4:00 in the afternoon.
Soon there was a dance group performing for us on
the pier to welcome us. The performance was provided by the local tour agent; a
27 year-old gal from Vermont. She went to Liberia to help get tourism going
again after the civil war. While we were out along the rail watching, the
expedition leader announced that the President would not be able to join us,
but was sending the Vice President, Joseph Boakai, in her place.
Dignitaries started arriving about 5:30. We went to the
lounge by 6:00 to have snacks and sodas and at 6:30 the whole entourage of over
40 people came in. Of course there was heavy security and their own media
people as well. It turns out our visit was a REALLY BIG THING for Monrovia. Ours
was the first cruise ship and group of tourists of this size (150 passengers) to visit in over
30 years. (Read and listen to the NPR report on our visit.)
Ralph Hammelbacher, the Lindblad employee who did all the
planning and pre-trip visits to all locations, introduced the main people. The
US Embassy representative, Carl Albrect, spoke about the ways the US is helping
Liberia. Then Elizabeth Hoff, the Deputy Minister of Tourism and Culture spoke.
Finally, the VP spoke. He had just returned from traveling around the US,
visiting many cities including Phoenix, AZ, looking at continuing education
systems that might help rehabilitate people in Liberia who have been fighting for so
many years. He was impressed with the Phoenix Community College system. He then
took and answered many questions from our passengers. The big way the US is
helping the Liberian education system at the moment is through the 45 Peace
Corp members in the country and they plan to bring in 30 more very soon.
A lady sat next to us who is the Finance Controller
for the Port of Monrovia. She was very interesting. She fled to the US at the
start of the civil war and only returned three years ago. She is now an
American Citizen but wants to remain in Liberia to help improve her country.
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| VP in black shirt behind Paul |
Eventually, dinner was served and we all went to the dining
room followed by the VP and dignitaries who also ate. The security people stood
around looking official and I’m sure others must have left because we could not
seat them all.
Tuesday, April 17, Monrovia, Liberia
We took the Historic Tour of Monrovia, Africa’s oldest
capital. It was interesting to see the many ruined buildings and how the
country is patching things back together after it was so badly devastated. They
have been making some good strides over the last 8 years of peace. We stopped
at the Provident Baptist Church, Centennial Pavilion, the National Museum.
On Snapper Hill we walked through the ruins of the once world-famous
luxury Ducor Hotel. From there we had a panoramic view of the city and the
bridge, which had been destroyed and just recently rebuilt by the Chinese.
The
stop at the Obaa Girls’ School was fun, as kids always are, and we left a number
of large boxes of school supplies for them.
We were all back to the Explorer
by about noon where we found a handicraft market set up for our convenience.
By
1:00 were having lunch and cast off, headed for Sierra Leone.
That's it for now. Grace and Paul
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