First night at Jay's house was a success. Both Xane and I slept well, the first time in two days. My morning bucket ablution (wash) went quite well, all things considered. We then dined at the Kendeja for breakfast.
And then the day began. Our drive to start the day took us past this school, just starting its day.
Our first official stop was a meeting with Eugene Lenn Nagbe, Minister of Information, Cultural Affairs and Tourism for Liberia. However, before entering this building, as is the case with many buildings here, we had to stop at the entrance and clean our hands with chlorine water. This is part of the campaign to keep Liberia ebola free.
A note about Xane's outift. While it may seem inappropriate given the circumstances, I would say the business professional look here is very different than what we expect in the states. He looked fine every where we went.
Our meeting with Mr. Nagbe went very well. We were lead into his office by his assistants, we took our seats and began. Tim took the lead, presenting an overview of the program. Mr. Nagbe was very honest about the poor condition of education in the country. It was clearly an area of concern for him and the government. I gave an overview of Study Tech from an educator's view. Xane gave examples of seeing the change in students who are new to this methodology at Delphian and the transformation they go through, from very good memorizers to students who can USE the data. The gentleman on the left is another of Tim's Liberian friends, Calvin Sanvee. He was crucial in arranging this meeting.
Next we headed for Cathedral Catholic School, Jay's alma mater, for a meeting with Principal A. Massaray Jallah. We followed a similar pattern in this conference as the last. Here we confimed that we will be giving a presentation to their 248 12th graders next week.
On the principal's shelf was a plaque from Tim's Youth for Human Rights group, celebrating this school's win in a 2008 human rights competition.
We got some great photos from this school...
Here's a great shot of Jay. We were waiting on the school's basketball court while Jay told us many funny stories of his time at Cathedral Catholic.
Some shots from our errands about town. Jay got a hair cut here. The barber did a great job using only a comb and razor blade.
Girls walking by the shop.
And from inside the truck.
One stunning fact we learned at last night's dinner was that the entire country of Liberia has zero libraries. None! But, more stunning, we also learned at last night's dinner that one of our dinner guests, Boerson Hinneh, the Director for Sub-Saharan Africa for Youth for Human Rights, is going to make sure Monrovia gets a large, modern library. He is starting a project to make this happen.
From allafrica.com, January 19, 2016, we learn: "Former Miss Liberia, Patrice Juah, has relaunched the Miss Education Awareness Pageant Platform to help inspire young girls to strive for higher education and contribute to the development of Liberia."
Finally, here is a brief vignette from one of our stops today that I hope conveys the craziness that is Liberian business. We went to Lonestar Cell, the apparent leader in mobile phones in Liberia. Given the number of advertisements and Monrovians on cell phones, they seem to be a leader in the economy. By the way, West Africa is a no-credit region. The people don't have credit. It is a 100% cash economy. Both cell phones and electric are pre-pay services, for example.
Anyway, back to the vignette. To drive into the small parking lot of Lonestar you must pass through the guarded gate, this allows you beyond the tall cinderblock wall which surrounds the property. Those who enter on foot are stopped by the guard and scanned with a "temperature gun" to see if they have a fever, then they must wash their hands in chlorine water. Of course, just outside the wall is a group of some four to six young boys hawking Lonestar sell phones. They see you drive in and quickly flock to your windows trying to get you to buy one of their phones. Jay was not interested.
We parked and headed not to the building entrance, but instead to an area that looked like a giant carport, to the right of the lot. We made it to the carport and stepped atop a raised concrete platform twenty or thirty feet wide. This was their version of the Genius Bar. Here we were met by a handful of young staff clad in yellow Lonestar t-shirts. They were randomly situated around an old white countertop just in front of three mobile offices. Behind them were also two non-working, four-foot tall amplifiers. These amplifiers were pointing in opposite directions and were on each side of a giant five-foot safe with a key in the lock.
Jay walked to this group of yellow-clad sellers and began. The leader (manager?) was dressed like an American hipster teenager: slim fit purple plaid shirt, tight orange pants, matching purple socks and slick loafers. He was the leader of the staff negotiations. Over the course of the next forty-five minutes, Jay sat in the middle of the sellers, bantering back and forth with one or the other, trying to get exactly what he wanted.
At one point, one seller who was trying to change the sim card in a phone while holding this giant wad of cash, a mixture of American and Liberian dollars, struggled to handle both the phone and money. Jay offered to help by reaching out and gently holding the wad of cash from the seller. Astonishingly, the seller obliged. For some fifteen minutes Jay held and counted this cash. None of the employees caring in the least.
By the time it was all said and done, Jay got what we needed from the orange-legged employee. Jay, just prior to leaving, left the females of the group each with $10 Liberian bill in their palms, much to the chagrin of he males.
Until tomorrow...
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