a presidential encounter

So yesterday, after 4 days of continuous torrential Liberian-rainy-season-rain, the sun finally shone, and a few of us took the opportunity to head to the beach. Another Mercy Shipper who had left ahead of us phoned to tell us that an entire beach resort next door to the patch of beach we were heading to had been washed away in the rains. So we drove off on the usual route only to get stop on the last section of dirt road by a bunch of armed guards. They informed us that the president was down there surveying the damage and that they weren't allowing vehicles to pass any further. We were welcome to get out and walk, however. So we did. A short distance down the road and round the bend comes the first vehicle in a long convoy, full of guards and AK-47s. We step to the side and wait as car after car in the presidential entourage passed. We just stood, waving, feeling somewhat underdressed in typical beachwear (boardshorts and flipflops) to Miss Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf herself. Granted we couldn't really see her due to the tinted glass of her car, but it was somewhat of a bizarre encounter. I certainly wasn't planning on waving to the Iron lady on the side of a dirt road in my favourite old boardshorts!

The damage to the area was astonishing! Apparently the whole area had flooded, many people losing their homes. The water had chosen the path of least resistance, which happened to be right through the middle of the beach area. All that was left was collapsed buildings and piles of debris, as the new river flowed right through the middle of what had once been a resort thriving on NGO business. The destruction caused by the rainy season is often a result of non-existant drainage systems, and is yet another challenge facing Liberia as it begins to rebuild.