It is great to be back in Liberia spending time with the faculty and students of ABC University. I departed Phoenix the morning of April 19th, arrived in Monrovia the afternoon of the 20th and made the trek to Yekepa on Saturday 21st. I flew my normal Delta route through Accra, Ghana and once again the plane had issues there. Must be something about that airport, this time a blown tire and fallen ceiling panels inside the airplane from a rough landing....yes it was about the roughest I have experienced.
I met up with Vicki Kloosterhouse in Atlanta, Vicki is a professor and the Dean of the Education program at ABCU. Sounds like we will have all of the "Deans" in town for the big event (Chuck - Biblical Studies and Nancy - Communications are on their way as well) and the four of us should all be together by next weekend in preparation for the monumental graduation on May5th.
The drive to Yekepa was interesting as ever, there is lumber and construction materials being sold on every corner, logging trucks running up and down the road, ore cars coming down the tracks from the mine, bridges being build and miles of light poles in preparation for a new road. So encouraging to see the communities around here begining to proper. It convinces me that the time is perfect for our Entrepreneurial program at ABCU, we have the perfect opportunity to teach sound business and business principles in the midst of this developing society.
I saw first hand the corruption this trip, and am now convinced in the truth of many stories I have been told. On the road from Monrovia to Yekepa there are numerous check points, verifying everything from driver credentials to vehicle safety. I am not sure I have ever had to stop at one of these points and because we are in ABCU vehicles we are generally waived through. Not such the case at one of our last check points, they decided to give Emmanuel a hard time. Now when Liberian argue there are a lot of loud voices, waiving hands and no one listening. Imagine this going on in front of you with a unformed policeman...needless to say I was a bit nervous. Turns out, he would make his infraction go away with a cash payment of $10 usd. Emmanuel, being a man of God and extremely ethical would not pay the bribe, so in return they gave him a $40 usd fine and took his license from him until he paid the fine. While we were waiting for them to issue Emmanuel his ticket, about 5 more vehicle were stopped and I saw cash exchanged on every one, although the amounts were lower because there were no foreigners in the car. For the next hour, we ran around this small city of Sanequille looking for the revenue officer to pay the fine and release his license. I suppose the good news is since there is no concept of insurance, there are no points to go against him, but on the other side there is no insurance!
It has been Africa hot here (appropriate I guess). Temps in the 80/90 with about the same humidity, and not much repreive at night. Last night I woke sometime in the middle of the night and it was pitch black and dead silent, as I lay there thinking I realized how much noise and light we deal with at night.
I woke early this morning and went for a long walk around the outer perimeter of the campus. I noticed in some of the surrounding perimeter, houses buried in the bush that I had not noticed before, there are others that were once buried and now occupied with restored roofs and doors. Progress is even making its way to Yekepa. God willing, the community will continue to rebuild.
More to come....
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