Sunday July 21

Today we had a major expedition! We left in a 30 car convoy to drive to Bopulo City for a church service. I don't know if I mentioned it earlier but we have a fairly new Black Range Rover at our disposal for the week, with Dewalt and Macintosh sharing driving and security duties. Anyway, the road to Bopulo was paved for about an hour north from Monrovia, and then dirt road for another 2 hours. As we passed through small villages on the first road, groups of children and adults would be standing beside the road cheering and dancing. Every once in a while, we would stop so that the President could get out and greet the people, offering soccer balls to the kids and dispensing cash to the chiefs of the village. Security was always tight, as it is around her; fortunately I appear to stick out so they know who I am and would typically encourage me to get closer to her ! We arrived in Bopulo City and went into the service; it was attended by many of the cabinet as well as some Ambassadors. Fortunately the service was not too long, except for the minister introducing the guest speaker; the introduction went on for so long that eventually he had to be told to stop ! They then served a lunch, which we were told to eat quickly because we were behind schedule and the President wanted to get going. The next stop was Bella Yaleh.

Bella Yaleh is a town best known for having a prison that people went to and rarely came home from. There was no road to the town; apparently during the time of Charles Taylor, prisoners were brought there by helicopter. Soon after President Sirleaf took office, she promised the town that a road would be built to Bella Yaleh, and that she would visit them at Christmas. That was a couple of years ago, and she took a group to Bella Yaleh; unfortunately the road was not quite finished, and she famously led the group on foot through the jungle over the last couple of miles. With our visit, the road was finished, and so we drove into the village to the cheers of the hundreds of inhabitants. During the dedication ceremony in the village, the tribal chief gave her the traditional welcoming gifts of a plate of fruit and vegetables, a hammock, a chicken, and a sheep! The District superintendent announced during his remarks that they were going to petition the government to name the road the "President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Highway". He also announced that the local government was giving her 10 acres of land so she could build a house and always have a home in Bella Yaleh.

The road to Bella Yaleh is a dirt road, and during rainy season like now it is a mud road. There were several times when we nearly got stuck in the deep mud, in part because the Range Rover has relatively low clearance. Having arrived in Bella Yaleh at about 5:30pm, we could see that most of us would have to sleep in the cars if we stayed there.  The President was staying in a small 2 room house, and she said we could all bunk in there, but that seemed impossible. So a convoy of about 15 cars was put together to drive back to Monrovia, which is what we did. Fortunately we had security and 2-way radios to communicate and stay together; as with the trip out, there were a couple of times when i thought we would be stuck in the clay-like mud, but we got through. The convoy was led by Representative Edwin Snow, who took us via Tubmanburg where he has a farm; we stopped there to use the facilities and have something to eat. We ended up arriving back at the guest house around 1 am, and found that not only was the front door locked, but our bedrooms were locked also and no one knew how to find Comfort, the housekeeper, or the keys to our rooms. So Debbie and I slept on couches, but at least we got to sleep.