Saturday September 18

Another fascinating day in Liberia ! And it's only half over ! This morning Laura, Jennifer, Adamah and I had breakfast with the President. Also there was Aunt Jenny, a female Superintendant from Bassa County, and Eric Werker, an Assistant Professor at Harvard Business School and Special Advisor to the President. As before, Madame President was her usual engaging, charming self going around the table asking each of us about our experience in Liberia etc. We all also particularly enjoyed talking to Eric, and having him explain to us as an economist how Liberia might start to get back on it's feet. A major step recently was the 97% "haircut" (the term used these days to describe the forgiving of national debt) recently agreed to by private debt holders...well all except one...such the Liberia no longer has debt that needs to be paid back. In terms of economic advise, he suggested that the way to move forward was the ascertain where the country wants to go, and then figure out what are the obstacles to accomplishing that, and then set about to remove those obstacles. Obviously it all takes time, and can be frustrating, but it makes sense. Along those lines is also figuring out ways to incentivize people to work harder, produce more, and grow the economy; he used e example of China figuring out that a farmer growing rice will produce more if he can keep a portion of what he grows to sell, thus putting money in his pocket which will be used to buy things, etc. Another point Eric made was that in attracting foreign investment and companies to mine, drill oil, etc. what is hoped is that at certain nodal points there will be opportunities for Liberians to become part of the process whether driving trucks, providing food, providing legal services, or whatever. Eric's wife is an ER doc, so it is possible that she will become part of the HEARTT team at some point. We remarked later that it was one of the unexpected benefits of these trips that we are able to meet such interesting and informative people !

Laura and Jennifer then went shopping while Adamah and I went to his late uncle's clinic in downtown Monrovia. Adamah still owns the property, and a clinic stills runs there staffed by a PA with occasional visits from a doctor. His uncle was a real general doctor who did surgery, delivered babies, and saw medical patients. He lived on the third floor; on the second floor was an Operating Room, a Delivery Room, and several patient rooms. In the OR we found some log books of nurses notes keeping daily track of patients: one entry indicated that there were 9 patients as inpatients at the clinic, including a couple of women who had just delivered babies and a man who had undergone an appendectomy. There was also a picture of Dr Sirleaf in his robes with a medallion, and Adamah tells me that he was once President of the West African College of Surgeons! I think it would be worth investigating whether the WACS would be interested in rebuilding Liberian surgery...

This evening we are all going for dinner at the house of Adamah's brother Rob, who is in charge of national security in Liberia. should be interesting !! According to the New York Times, he recently participated in a sting with the FBI in which a Columbian drug attempted to bribe him so that they could use Liberia as a shipping transit point for selling in Europe etc. They were subsequently arrested by the DEA here in Liberia; there is some concern that the cartel will seek revenge on Rob, so he is laying low.