Liberia

My trip to Liberia in February, 2011, was an amazing adventure.  I went with a group of 10 other newly ordained clergy and some other conference staff.  We spent the first week at the United Methodist mission center in Ganta.  There, we attended the Liberian Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church.  We had the joy of hearing four different UMC Bishops preach.  Bishop Gregory Palmer, the leader of the Illinois Great Rivers Conference, gave exciting and inspiring sermons each day.  We were all astonished at how much the annual conference experience was distinctly United Methodist.

We also spent time painting some of the buildings in the mission station and held an impromptu vacation Bible school with some local children.  We painted the administration building as well as the Ganta School.  While painting the school, some of the students picked up brushes right along side us, and proudly told us, “This is my school.”

We also had the chance to tour the Ganta Hospital.  The hospital was destroyed in the Civil War, but has been rebuilt and has seen steady improvements since 2006.  In a video produced by the IGRC in 2006, the hospital had no refrideration and only a hand-cranked centrifuge.  They now have two electric centrifuges, two large refridgerators and a freezer.  We also toured the bold building project of the new Ganta Hospital.  Larger churches in the IGRC have largely funded the creation of the new hospital, which is still in need of funding to be completed.

After the week in Ganta, we traveled to Monrovia.  While in Monrovia, we focused on two projects.  First, we went to West Point.  West Point is considered to be one of the worst slums in the world.  While in Ganta I told one Liberian that we would be going to West Point, and all she could say was, “Wow.”  I got the feeling that she had absolutely no desire to come with us.  During out two days in West Point, we had a chance to help with the John Kofi Asmah school.  It is an unfinished, three story building.  When completed it will be a beacon of hope to a much blighted community.

We also worked on pouring the floor of New Hope United Methodist Church.  Our last work day in Monrovia was spent at New Hope.  It was probably the most rewarding day of the trip for me.  I wrote about it here.

November 2011

Prayers for Liberia are needed.  For months people have been looking to October 2011 as a major test of Liberia’s fragile peace.  The wounds of 14 years of civil war are still fresh, and many of the major players in that war are still in positions of leadership in the Liberian government.  The Presidential election of 2011 was basically a three-way race between current President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Winston Tubman, and Prince Johnson.

On October 11 the election saw a voter turnout of 71%.  In that election, it was Johnson-Sirleaf (44%), Tubman (33%), Johnson (12%).  Since no candidate won a majority of the votes, a run-off election was planned for November 8.  After the election Johnson threw his support behind President Sirleaf, essentially ensuring her victory.  Despite the fact that all independent election authorities called the elections fair and transparent, Tubman declared that there was mass voter fraud and disputed the results.

He advised his followers to boycot the run-off election and staged demonstrations across the country which intimidated people from voting.  Some of the demonstrations became violent.  Clashes between the Liberian National Police and demonstrators caused at least two deaths.  The leader of the LNP recently resigned after pressure from President Sirleaf.

In the run-off elections, the turn-out fell to 38.6%, and President Sirleaf received over 90% of the vote.  Tubman’s party, the Congress for Democratic Change (CDC) continues to protest the elections.  They have promised to make Liberia “ungovernable” if their demands are not met.  They are calling for a second set of elections, and seem to be holding the nation hostage with threats of violence.

The situation remains fluid, but there seems to be some signs of hope.  On November 29 there was a Peace and Reconciliation Jamboree.   And the CDC seems to be falling apart.  According to this news article, five influential leaders have been ousted.  From what I have gleaned from different sources, these leaders were the most vocal and were the ones trying to organize the kind of rallies that so often turn violent.

Brief summary of the primary candidates in the 2011 election:

Prince Johnson was a primary leader in the civil war.  He gained much notoriety for capturing, torturing and executing President Samuel Doe.  In the early stages of the war, he was an ally of Charles Taylor, but the two ended up bitter rivals.

Winston Tubman is an Americo-Liberian and was a member of the Doe administration.  He was Johnson’s  primary competition in the election after joining with George Weah.  Weah was Tubman’s running mate, and was the runner-up to Johnson in the 2005 elections.

George Weah is probably the most famous Liberian in the world.  In 1996 he won the FIFA Football Player of the Year Award, and was named the African Football Player of the Century.  He ran for President in 2005, but lost in the run-off with Johnson.

Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf has been a public figure in Libria for three decades.  She is a Harvard-educated financier, and worked for many years for the World Bank.  Her international and business experience is second-to-none in Liberia. In 2011 she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

March 2012

February 2011.

February 2011.

March 2012

Above are three pictures.  The one on the left was taken in February, 2011.  It is a view of the ocean in West Point through the unfinished wall of the third floor of the John Kofi Asmah School.  The center picture is our group before we started working.  The picture on the right is of the school, which was finished and dedicated in March, 2012

Another group of ordinands from the Illinois Great Rivers Conference made a trip to Liberia this spring.  This group had the privelege of being a part of the dedication of the John Kofi Asmah United Methodist School.  The school, which our group worked on for two days last year, is the only three-story building and only middle/senior high school in a community of 70,000.

In February 2011, I was a part of a group that mixed sand, cement and water to make mortar.  The sand had been brought from the nearby beach and carried up three flights of stairs by the students of the school.  The cement had been carried by our group.  We purchased it at a nearby shop and carried it through the streets until we reached the school.  Once there we carried those 50 kg bags one at a time.  The cinder blocks that made the walls of the school were passed up the stairs by hand fire-drill style by members of the local United Methodist Church and our group.

Once all the material was on the top floor, we mixed the mortar with spades while skilled workers laid the cinder blocks to make the walls of the school.  It was perhaps the most demanding physical labor I’ve ever done.  At the end of each day I was completely exhausted.  And those were only two days.

The school stands in West Point, which is home to 70,000 people.  The buildings of West Point are difficult to describe.  The only way I’ve been able to come close is to ask someone if they had seen “Slumdog Millionaire.”  The view of the community from the roof of the school last year was astonishing.  The school is the sturdiest and tallest building in the community.  The surrounding buildings can hardly be described as buildings.  It is more like an extensive house of cards.  Each card leans on another, with a sheet of cards over the top that overlap so that it is difficult to differentiate between inside and outside.  This house of cards is not made of cards.  It is made of cardboard, cinderblocks, tin, plywood – anything that can be stood up and act as a barrier.

West Point was like nothing I’ve ever experienced.  The people live in a level of poverty that is difficult to comprehend.  Yet in the middle of it stands a beacon of hope.  When I learned that the school has been completed, I was overjoyed.  My sweat is literally in the mortar of that school, and it is mixed with the sweat of dozens of others.  It is mixed with the hope of so many that know that education is the key to a lasting peace in Liberia.

The finished school makes my heart glad.  It gives me great pleasure to know that I was a tiny piece of that school.  I love to think of the kids that now fill that school, eager to learn and make a better life for themselves and their family.  To many, that school stands as a chance for peace and a reason for hope.