TEM Lab: Liberia 2

Taking a break from our endless report writing, my teammates and I soaked up the view at a local restaurant overlooking the Atlantic Ocean while enjoying some delicious seafood and plantain appetizers. With the stereo in the background playing Sade’s “Smooth Operator” I could not help but think how surreal it felt to be here in Monrovia enjoying a peaceful afternoon with great company in such a serene setting. I immediately also found myself wondering which part I actually thought was most surreal: the fact that the afternoon was peaceful and the setting serene or the fact that the stereo was playing Sade and the company delightful? I sadly have to admit that like many before me, what most amazed me is that yes we were enjoying a very pleasant afternoon in Monrovia and it is hard to believe that not long ago the country lived through such turbulent times.

Liberia will be remembered for a very long time for its war but as we have discovered firsthand throughout our five week stay here, Liberia is surely breaking away from its past. We have been fortunate to have met some amazing young entrepreneurs who are eagerly working to change things for the better. We have seen passion, resilience and commitment. We have also seen some of the remnants of the war but this is a conversation that most avoid and understandably so.  We have had some good Liberian food from pepper soup with fufu to BELIEVE it or not, agouti with palm butter (a wild rodent that is quite a delicacy here and apparently tastes like rabbit.- can’t say I’m a fan, but I’m also not a fan of rabbit and I’m still working on becoming a vegetarian).

Today as we were enjoying the view, the company and the music we truly felt that we could have been anywhere in the world but being in Monrovia just made it that much more special and memorable.

The Team at Sugar Beach

Compared to many of the world’s major travel destinations, Liberia sees relatively few foreign visitors.  It is understandable, since the nation is still in a transitional period, moving into its ninth year of stability after enduring over thirty years of warfare.  Dilapidated buildings continue to litter the Monrovian landscape, a visual testimony to the long lasting effects of conflict.  Once opulent embassies, offices, and houses now stand as open structures, often housing overgrown vegetation, passersby or city dwellers seeking a place to sleep, meet, or simply pass the time.   Each structure seems to house untold stories, locked in an eerie silence that seems to prevail in the country.

For those visitors who do have a chance to visit Liberia, The House on Sugar Beach is a must read.  The memoir details the life of Helene Cooper, an Americo Liberian who fled Liberia with her family during her youth in 1980, shortly after the country fell to the rule of Samuel Doe, and returned in adulthood as a journalist.  Familiar with the story of Helene Cooper, our team wanted to find the old house on Sugar Beach, with the understanding that it would now appear as another dilapidated structure waiting to be rebuilt.

On a cloudy afternoon last week, the team took a spontaneous trip to a strip of beach toward the southeast edge of Monrovia.  As we approached our location, our team member, Fabienne, remarked, “isn’t the old Cooper house on Sugar Beach somewhere nearby?”  We began to ask passersby if it was feasible to reach Sugar Beach and received a series of vague instructions.  After just a few wrong turns and one episode of getting the van stuck in a particularly sandy patch of road, we finally came upon the area known as Sugar Beach.  While there are now several structures that populate Sugar Beach, we immediately identified the old, grandiose frame of a building, two stories high, with a curved roof, just several yards before the sea.  The team immediately felt that this had to be the house.

As we pulled up to the structure, we met a construction crew working on rebuilding the interior.  The manager came out and welcomed us through a small tour of the building, pointing out a few of the poignant locations from Cooper’s childhood stories.  The property was stunning, with a fresh sea breeze blowing the surrounding palm trees, waves crashing on white sand, and a few rays of sun peeking down at us.  We took a few photos, sat on the edge of the deck, and absorbed the general experience.  Although we’ve come across countless structures in Liberia, the House on Sugar Beach marks the first which houses stories and a history that we’ve been able to access.  As we left Sugar Beach, we remarked at how unique the atmosphere was that surrounded the whole experience.  In five years, we plan to revisit the property to see its next phase, as its owner is in the process of transforming it into a bed and breakfast.  In Liberia, as people like to say, things change “slowly but surely, slowly but surely.”

Barely 1 hour into our 3 hour drive our Toyota 4Runner broke down …. We had to wait another 2.5hours before getting rescued but we certainly made the best out of our time by the side of the road and compiled a list of 10 things-to-do when your car breaks down:
1- Take a Nap
2- Visit the nearby village
3- Visit the village school
4- Compare and contrast different type of governments
5- Read a book
6- Get our car parked OFF the road crashed into by a speeding car (no one was hurt and the damages were minimal considering the noise of the impact)
7- Get rained on
8- Bet on what time the mechanics would finally arrive (the bets ranged from 25mins to 2 hours…thankfully the 25mins bet won! This after we had already waited for 2.5hours)
9- Eat LOTS of plantain chips
10- Make new friends (i.e. ALL the kids from the village)

The team at the Brooklyn Beach in Monrovia

After two days of constant raining after arriving in Monrovia, the sky has cleared up and the sun has appeared from behind the clouds. We are siting at the Royal hotel, the prominent place for business meetings and I can smell the cheese on the pizza is melting in the toaster oven right behind me. I imagine everyone is hungry, since we have not gotten any food the whole day. Fabienne is flipping through the menu as our meeting draws to an end. As soon as the meeting is over, in one unified voice, the whole team comments on how expensive a burger is and that we want to get some local food. Where to go…Sam’s BBQ!

Sam’s BBQ is a local eatery introduced to us by Katy. The restaurant has a daily special menu that consists of different stews at very reasonable prices. In the first week, Sam has become our favorite place to go to get some local Liberian hearty food. You cannot beat a plate of palm butter with mystery meat and a large portion of country rice.
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