About leaving the capital for once

Since I came to Liberia I have gotten stuck in Monrovia (except for a day trip to Buchanan where I saw nothing else than the county administration building and the trips to Sierra Leone, but this does not really count) and had not seen much of the country. But eventually the day had come where I was able to escape the capital and to travel up country: I headed off to Foya in Lofa County where a friend/ temporary flatmate/ colleague of mine lives and works to spent a couple of days there before we both travelled back to Monrovia.

Liberia is separated into 15 different counties which serve as administrative units with local authorities in place. Different to neighbouring Sierra Leone (and also Germany) though, Liberia has a rather centralised political system and local officials are not elected by the people living in the respective county, but appointed by the central government in Monrovia which is seen by many as a power-keeping mechanism of the ruling elite in the capital. However, this is just a side note, as I actually wanted to say that Lofa County is the largest county in Liberia, located in the North and rather sparsely populated. It borders with Sierra Leone and Guinea and the distance to Monrovia is quite a bit - geographically and also when it comes to the question if the needs and demands of Lofa people are properly considered in the capital. At least six different tribes (there are about 16 different tribes in entire Liberia) call Lofa their home - the Kpelleh, Lorma, Mandingo, Kissi, Gbandi and Mende. In Foya, the Kissi are the dominant ethic group.

The GIZ programme my friend works for is focussing on food security issues. The team supports local rice and cocoa farmers to increase the cropyield as well as the quality of their products in order to ensure food security on the one hand and increased income through selling more and higher quality products on the other hand.

Before I came to Foya though, I had to make it to Gbarnga, capital of Bong county first as there as there I would get a lift to Foya. So my colleague in Monrovia succeeded in helping me to find someone with a car and at 6am I got picked up by that guy. We kept chatting while we left the greater Monrovia region, mainly about life in Liberia, his family, my work and all that stuff. On the way you have to cross several police and immigration checkpoints (so better have your passport with you). You likely may be asked for a bribe, in particular when you are Liberian and you are squeezed with seven others in a shared taxi on your way to the market to sell cassava leaves. We were lucky and were not even asked, so we hence also avoided long discussions.
However, when we passed the last checkpoint close to Monrovia, he told me: "So, during the war, this was a dangerous checkpoint." I asked why and he explained: "Well, outside, where we are now, there were the rebels. Inside you were safe as the area belonged to Monrovia where the rebels did not go. But it was not easy to get inside. When you came here, you had to kiss a skeleton which they hang up. Or sometime you even had to kiss a freshly chopped man's head, where the blood was dripping from. If you would not kiss that, the rebels would kill you. Very dangerous checkpoint." And he looked at me and laughed. Looking at the driver, who was just about my age, I recalled what he'd just said and froze internally. Having built up a working and living routine here, it is somehow easy to forget about the country's past for a while, and then it will just hit you in situations you wouldn't expect and once again you realize what kind of memories each and every single person in this country carries around.

Market day

Back to driving to Gbarnga though. After crossing huge replantation areas for rubber tree

Foya 'Highway'

s (run by one of the world's largest tire companies Firestone) we made it to the city in just four hours and I jumped in the next car. We instantly left the paved road and for the next six hours I found myself on a sandtrack,  listening to very interesting details about the villages we were rushing through and enjoying the beautiful landscape with its various greens. And then we were in Foya where my friend was waiting to show me around.It is a rather small place, with only about 2000 people living there, three junctions, one 'highway' (still not paved though), one bar, no grocery store, millions of mangotrees, one Ecobank branch as well as one Total gas station to come (no one knows when though) and many friendly people who get themselves through the day somehow.

Blacksmith in Foya

Lappa sale at Foya Market

We spent the weekend preparing a workshop for following Monday, reading, doing Pilates (!!!), walking through the village and certainly going to the market. The market is the weekly highlight and the entire village seems to be on the move. We shopped lappa (African fabric), bread, vegetables and a as a small snack some cassava balls and fried sweet potatoe slices to take away, before we walked back home, already melting in the baking heat. At noon, barely anyone is one his or her feet, everyone is just resting as currently - when dry season turns into rainy season - the heat is just too much. I got used to be sweaty here most of the time, but Foya was even a bit more.

Boy from the village swimming in the river which is used to irrigate the rice

Rice Farmers

On Monday, after an early run in the morning towards the border to Sierra Leona and after my friend finished her workshop, we left for a field trip and I got introduced into the specialities of how to properly grow rice. Water is the key to success. Grow rice in water, and you won't have problems with grass, the rice will grow quicker and be more resilient. Grow it in drylands, and you won't succeed. Well, this was obviously a little too simplistic, but indeed the GIZ programme supports the community members / farmers to build up dams and to establish irrigation systems to ensure that the rice always will have sufficient water. I found it extremly interesting and hope to learn more about cocoa farming next time when I'll be there.

Kpatawee waterfall

The next morning we left Foya early the next morning to head back to Monrovia. My colleague came along as she had some thing to sort out in the capital. Travelling together is more fun than just being on your own so we decided to seize the ooportunity to have an overnight stay in Gbarnga and to visit the beautiful Kpatawee waterfalls. It is quite a highlight as it is actually signposted as a Ecotourism Sight - one of the very few they have in this country. Obviously it is taken advantage of it and you have to pay an entrance fee: After paying 100 Liberian Dollars each (about 1 Euro each) which ist meant to be spent on community development (although the man in charge was not sure if that will be spend on building a school or drilling a well - difficult decision, in particular as he could also just keep it for himself.....) and a nice ride through large rice farming areas, we reached the lower waterfall and it was just perfect.

Upper waterfall

River in the thick forest

Quiet and beautiful, no people around (apart from an older man who was forced to get dressed when we came) and huge trees - I have not seen any bigger so far. As we knew that there is also an upper waterfall, we decided to climb up there and our colleague and super reliable driver served as a perfect guide. He literally ran through the forest (although you could barely see that he lifted his feet - it was highly impressive) and it was a challenge to catch up with him. Which means it is not true that Liberians are slow walkers - they are just smart walkers: Taking their time in the heat of the day, where is no shade, they are fast and extremely efficient walkers as soon as the air cools down a little and trees are covering the tracks.

Downstream view from the upper waterfall

So eventually we sat on a big rock in the river and enjoyed the cool breeze while small butterflies were dancing around us, greedily soaking the salt from our skin. Definitely worth the effort to get there. On our way back we met a couple of Liberians - members of the community next by - who were on their way to do some fishing, carrying fishing rods and machetes along. I have to admit, once again, when they moved through the thick and sounding forest it did look way more elegant than it did for me and my friend.

After a sleep-over in Gbarnga and an spontaneuous meet-and-greet with a 24cm long and 1,5cm thick centipede which ended with the centipede being kicked out of the room and me being a little disgusted, we returned to Monrovia the next day and went straight into the office. It was a great chance to see more of the country than just Monrovia and I am looking forwards to travel a bit more inner country in the upcoming months.

Banana