Hotel Provident Monrovia

... tour of the land and showed us where they have planted okra, corn, potatoes, green beans, pumpkin and casava. As part of thier schooling each grade takes on a part of the farming and learns by hand the value of planting and growing your own food. Johnny also earns money by making coal- which is a month long process. We brought soccer balls and jump ropes and watched the kids play with them for a while before we left. They loved having ...

... sap to sell to Firestone or the local county agent. An absence of vegetable sellers along the road (markets in the towns only) and no interesting/exotic birds seem to tell some stories of the hardships - but the breaking of rocks by hand to sell to local mining groups or construction companies seems to be a sign of poverty in this and other countries. It was interesting to be in a country with Phase II and III security alerts still ...

... downs from other countries. The kids literally ran to the front to line up to get one used article of clothing. I took a picture of a 6 year old girl holding up her used pajama bottoms (no top came with it). They broke out in a cheer when we held up the soccer balls and loved having their picture taken. When I showed the photo I just took they laughed in amazement ...

... asked what Liberians thought of Americans and Rosie said they feel like the "little brother" of the U.S. and Fidesco (our security gaurd) felt like they "owe everything to U.S.". We saw U.S. flags painted on many buildings. The USAID and Mercy ships have a presence here and Akon is coming tomorrow night. They have not had a celebrity come during war years so this is very exciting to the people here.

... are having a BBQ tonight for all the people that are here. It's been raining like crazy since we got here, so I hope we can stay dry for dinner. Thank you to those who have written emails. I will try to respond as soon as I can, or when the internet decides to cooporate. Talk to you later. Jordan

... on all that later... we drove through the city and it was great. i loved seeing everyone out and all of the activity. it definitely felt like an active town! people out selling stuff, walking around, children playing... despite all of the destruction from the war, it seemed like there was movement, and progress... but what do i know since i've only seen ...

... templates!) actually, i guess i didn't work straight through the day. took 2 breaks - one for lunch at the "canteen" (the little cafe on the compound) and sat outside, facing the atlantic ocean... very peaceful. the second break was to sneak off for a little shopping at 'artisan alley' in front of the embassy - a little road ...

... which had just been put up 6 months ago with USAID support. in the inaugural address of president sirleaf (in jan 2006), she promised to bring electricity to monrovia within her first 150 days in office. i know my boss was working very hard with the USAID mission to make it happen - and they did! during her 6 month address, she flipped a switch and on came streetlights! (or something like that) i've heard that in some places, children are even found ...

... Randall Tobias, has been initiating some foreign assistance reform. (http://www.state.gov/f/releases/factsh eets2006/68202.htm) as part of that reform process, a numb** of USAID Missions around the world (including all of the Missions in Africa) have to put togeth** Op**ational Plans for Fiscal Year 2007 (FY07). what i'm doing in Lib**ia is helping them put togeth** their FY07 Op**ational Plan. this means collecting ...

... very often because he is unemployed and ashamed to face his starving family. They eat crawfish caught in a river nearby with traps that they weave from palm leaves. They produce palm oil every week and sell it in town along with extra crawfish to buy rice for themselves. As primitive as these conditions are, I know that some children in Liberia live with even less. At least this family has each ...