Saturday March 16

     Today we took the day off from surgery to travel to Tubmanburg, which is about a 2 hour drive from Monrovia. We were invited to "The Farm", which is former President Sirleaf's country "home". We met at her Monrovia house, and then proceeded in a convoy with a police escort, which was a great help in dealing with the traffic in Monrovia. The trip is about 1.5 hours on paved roads, and then 30 minutes on a dirt road. At points along the dirt road, there would be groups of children waving and shouting, and singing. The convoy included a busload of college students who were in Liberia for 10 days to do service work of various types as well as relatives of Madam President and others. We arrived at her house, and we were immediately offered a coconut with the top cut off and a small hole with a straw to enjoy the coconut milk.
     Santiago and I had been to the Farm once before: it was at the declared end of the Ebola epidemic when we sitting on her veranda sipping coconut juice when she received a congratulatory phone call from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton! Since then she has closed in the veranda and put in a beautiful swimming pool right next to the house.
     It was really quite a remarkable afternoon. The students were fascinating and refreshing, and wonderfully easy to talk to. I was impressed that so many of them came up to me and introduced themselves. We had lots of excellent conversations with many of them including the two young guys who started the program. They have a 501(c)3 which is funded by the universities that they work with.  Then Santiago, Rob Kimmel Sr, and I had an awesome chat with Madame over lunch in which she talked about personalities and issues on the world stage.At one point in the afternoon I was interviewed by 3 young reporters. One of their questions was: "Why is it taking so long to see improvement in health care in Liberia?" I tried to explain that it is a process, and patience is required
     We left around 4 pm in a convoy; this time with the President in the lead car (She was already at the Farm when we traveled there this morning). e arrived back at out hotel and had some dinner, then decided to go to the rooftop bar at the Royal Hotel just down the street. It was a fun evening to conclude a rather amazing day !