 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| Liberia: The Mud |
| Kolahun Highway. Lofa, Liberia |
| Ah! Mud! If there was one striking aspect about Lofa County, it was it's mud. The knee deep rust cake that permeates everything with that sweet effervescence of dirt, stagnant water and rotting foliage. ..... uh gorgeous. "Dig" was our mantra. And I loved it. Coming home covered in muck and sweat from head to toe. The giggles that happened as you lost a shoe or did a face plant. Clean was an anomaly. What else would a boy want?. Power, in Lofa, came in the form of terracota clay. It stopped everything from our Toyota Land Cruisers to UN tanks and bulldozers. We couldn't reach our sites. In fact we had trouble selecting sites because no one could return to their old villages until the roads were passable. During the disarmament exercise trucks carrying medicine, food, tents etc., sat in the mud for up to 2 weeks. The district Vahun, was completely cut off. We were all stuck but we did our level best, however slowly. Technically the rainy season is to last between June 1 - October 15, but during the year I lived in Liberia there was a total of three month in which we could access all areas of Lofa County. At points Voinjama was completely isolated. The road leading to Monrovia had a variety of mud spots that would shift over the season. In general the road was rather decent for a dirt highway. But there were a number of areas that would get bogged down. As one mud pit was cleared several new bad spots would appear. It completely cut off our access to food and escape routes to Guinea if security incidents rekindled. At times we relied completely on UN helicopter flights fly us to Monrovia, old russian tin cans that made you happy to be on the ground. While the roads to Monrovia and Guinea were had periods of bad times. The road to Kolahun was pathaetic. We literally had three months to access Kolahun and Foya districts. The roads dried up in January and shut down again by April. Even during the dry period there were some nasty holes. It's amazing how mud forges camaraderie. There is no doubt between the people and agencies I worked with that our collaboration and friendships were bond in mud. In order to get around this obstacle we had to band our resources together and therefore worked closer together. |
| road in Voinjama between town and IRC office. Lofa, Liberia |
| "sea of mud" on the Monrovia Highway. Lofa, Liberia |
| Monrovia Highway. Lofa, Liberia |
| Kolahun Highway. Lofa, Liberia |
| Monrovia Highway. Lofa, Liberia |
| Mud pit dug out by trucks and jeeps trying to pass Kolahun Highway. Lofa, Liberia |
| after driving the Kolahun Highway. Lofa, Liberia |
| Kolahun Highway. Lofa, Liberia |
| 45 miles with joy like this ,Kolahun Highway. Lofa, Liberia |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
 | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |