Thursday July 25

It was a cloudy morning, but the beach at Robertsport was still beautiful. I could see the fishermen going out in their skiffs from the beach which reminded me of Duxbury Beach. Apparently the surfing here is spectacular, though Aunt Jenny says it is best during dry season for some unexplainable reason. Anyway we piled into the cars, and drove back to the Lake Pizo guesthouse for breakfast. The President has oatmeal each morning, and so this morning I tried it and discovered one of the secrets: nutmeg !! Something else is added to sweeten it, but the nutmeg gives it a great flavor!

We left at 9 am to start a long day dedicating bridges, markets, clinics, and a Baptist mission school ! President Sirleaf has inspired the Sirleaf Women's Market Fund, and she dedicated one of them in Gbah today. The idea is to get women to sell their produce and wares in a fixed building, rather than alone or in 2 or 3 along the side of the road. Incorporated into the concept is that by having many women together, other services can be provided such as literacy training, business training and basic economics. Additionally, her idea is to have a school as part of it, so the women can bring their kids to the school, knowing it is safe, and then start to build around the market such things as stores for goods, a clean water supply, and maybe even a health clinic. The market then serves as a nidus for growth in the community, making it even more desirable for the women to be a part of.

The clinic she opened is a new maternity unit in an existing clinic. One of the health care delivery issues, and a part of the reason for the high maternal mortality rate, is that women stay at home or in their villages for far too long. The concept of this maternity clinic with about 15 beds is to get women to come in to stay there sooner, so that when they deliver, it can be under more controlled circumstances. This would help decrease infant mortality as well as maternal.

An interesting aspect of these visits is  that she rewards the workers with cash, rice, or both. One of her staff is the "purser" (well, that's what I call him), and he has a backpack with bundles of cash. Remember that 72 Liberian dollars equals 1 US Dollar, so bundles of Liberian dollars are not necessarily a lot of money to us, but it is to them. Anyway, he hands out cash...usually a wad of it to one person in a crowd, and I guess that person is responsible for dividing it up. I asked my driver, Macintosh, today why the person who gets the wad wouldn't just take it for himself; he said the crowd makes sure that doesn't happen.

Anyway, after a long day of driving around, and a stop outside of her farm near Tubmanburg, we went to the hotel we had christened the day before to stay for the night. After getting a room, and getting unpacked, we were informed that in fact we would be staying in what they referred to as the "Presidential Palace", which is another guest house for the President. So we packed up and went there, and it certainly was quite nice. She invited a number of officials, including the guy who is in charge of urban water and sewer; he was very interesting, in part because he was formerly a banker, and he decided he wanted to do something different. He felt that the department needed management more than a professional engineer, and so far he feels like he was right. After a lovely dinner, I went to bed in preparation for the big day tomorrow.