How to Make Liberia Work: Six weeks

After six weeks in Liberia, I don’t have too many discoveries to share. I go to work, I return home to eat and sleep. There isn't much to do, therefore few pictures to share or posts to write. I don't have mastery of the culture yet, therefore few interesting things to share. 

I find myself reflecting constantly about this place in relation to other places I've lived. I haven’t lived in Africa since early 2009 (see those older Zim posts). I've never been to West Africa. I've never worked in Africa. So my most recent point of comparison was Cambodia. And Liberia doesn’t match up to Cambodia. I decided this yesterday. As an expect working in the development sector abroad, Cambodia is significantly superior.

Liberia (like Cambodia) is post-conflict. However, Liberia’s post-conflict is fresh from the late 1990s. The UN peacekeeping operation withdrew only June 2016 and there is anxiety about security and this transition from Liberian colleagues. Like so many countries, it was a beautiful developing country once, with strong connections to the United States. Liberia was created as a “homeland” for African Americans in the 1800s, one of Africa’s first democracies, later growing into a prosperous--if inequitable--country, an exporter of iron and rubber.

Now, there’s really nothing left. It hasn’t recovered. Everything is imported right down to tomatoes, making cost of living the highest in West Africa. Wealth is measured by how many meals you can eat per day; one or three. There is Monrovia, and nothing else. Even Monrovia is fairly small by national capital standards though we have at least 15 good restaurant options.

By and large, life isn’t hard for me as resident. But there are no motorbikes, it’s costs hundreds to thousands to travel to the nearest country or Europe, there isn’t vacation infrastructure (i.e. beaches and resorts), everything from frying pans, to dinner, to fruit is ridiculously expensive. While on a day-to-day basis, life isn't hard, it's also not particularly fun or easy. 

After six weeks, I'm beginning to see why people don't particularly love it here. I don't think I particularly love it here either. But I have several things going for me that I hope will sustain some of the challenges while I learn and grow both personally and professionally; access to my Virginia library's ebooks, my podcasts and coloring books, a few board games, and knowing this is a nine-month contract. I can make anything work for a year.