Saturday March 11

Today we planned to do 3 cases in the morning, and finish by noon so we could drive to a lake house near Robertsport which is owned by the family who owns the Murex Hotel, our home in Monrovia. The 3 cases were an anal fistulotomy, and abdominal wall mass, and a huge lipoma of the upper arm. We arrived at JFK at 9am, and by 11:30 we had done only the 15 minute fistulotomy. Yes i was quite frustrated, but there are some things that we just have to accept. The abdominal wall lipoma was quick; the arm lipoma was intramuscular, but came out more easily than I expected. We then went back to the hotel and we’re ready to leave by 3:30. We had the same EPS drivers who brought us from the airport, and was again a high speed siren enhanced jaw clenching 50 mile drive with about a third on dirt road, and the paved portion is rutted and potholed. I was riding shotgun in the 2nd car (of 2) when we passed thru some small community at high speed. A motorcyclist pulled over when he heard the siren of the first car, but apparently didn’t know we were coming as he turned into the middle of the road striking our front tire on my side. He wasn’t hurt and got right up, but he destroyed the tire. We had to stop to chsnge the tire, and soon a crowd gathered with a lot of yelling going on. They called the police; one came and after some time an agreement was reached in which we paid $40 to the motorcyclist for damage incurred, and $10 to the cop for his service. While the negotiations were going on, we were chatting pleasantly with a number of the young men who had gathered. There was never any threat of violence; it was just a lot of yelling, and another interesting experience in Liberia!