Governance

     Many things are familiar when you are in a foreign county, even one as poor as Liberia.  People are friendly, they (generally) follow the rules of the road, restaurants can serve good food (at least in Monrovia).  These are things that you see which look pretty normal, but there are always structures, beliefs and asumptions that underlie what can see.  In the US, we pretty much know what to expect  of the underlying  assumptions when we see something, but that is something that you can't assume in the develping world.  Take for instance governance relationships.  

     Liberia is a country only a dozen years removed from a decade plus of civil war.  The warlords called the shots and had their ways of establishing relationships.  These were usually patronage systems of mutual obligation (you provide me with resources and I'll provide you protection etc).  Something also to remember is that as a warlord, you don't get your power because you have 'soldiers' and guns.  Causation often was the other way around.  You get 'soldiers' and guns because you have power.  The power base came first through money, tribal position, personal charisma and things like that.  The warlord then deploys that power (with or without guns and 'soldiers') to further his position or pay back obligations that he incurred.  This dynamic persists even after the end of the civil war.

     The civil war ended due to external pressure and the collapse of the country's economy.  No side really won or lost.  The leaders of the factions (except Charles Taylor) still wheedled power, just not through military means.  The elites came to the conclusion that they were better served by competing using other methods besides warfare.  Thus the frequent 'ballots not bullets' signs scattered throughout the country.  You still find warlords in key government positions, the same family power brokers are in place in Monrovia and you sometimes need to work with the warlords even during times of Ebola.  

     This can be a bit tricky as the relationships that they are used to are very much person centric and not rule centric.  That places us in interesting positions when we are and have to respond to rule centered structures.  A warlord may request financial 'consideration' and expect you to provide it because that is how people do business in Liberia.  If you don't provide 'consideration' (and we didn't) then you must be their enemy.  It also flows from a (Liberian) perception of zero sum games where if you aren't for someone, you must be against them.  This would leave us in the middle of a conflict between our morals standards, USAID rules and the need for cooperation from Liberians in positions of authority.  It gets even trickier with things like consulting fees, equipment distribution and inflated costs for resonable expendatures.  We didn't buy influence, but I can see how easy it is for some organizations to go down that path.

     Well, we have managed to provide our services and to take care of people despite these challenges.  These phenomina aren't unique to Liberia, they were just exacerbated and magnified by the recent civil wars.  From all the reports, things are getting better.  But it was still a learning experience for me.  

Germany

     This is a funny title for a blog from Liberia, but that is where I am.  I flew out of Monrovia last night and arrived at my brother's appartment in Berlin late this morning.  I left Tappita one week before that to work on a grant request for Heart to Heart.  There was a lot of work to do with a very short deadline.   After a lot of progress, we decided that we didn't have enough time to finish that part of the grant request so we concentrated on another funding line that was listed in the funding oportunity.  Once we called off my line, it was too close to my departure to go back to Tappita, so I flew directly out of Monrovia.

     Monrovia is a lot different than Tappita.  It is definately deep in the developing world but it also has lots of expats and non governmental organizations.  That lead the local economy to adapt and a bunch of resturants and hotels arose to meet the demand.  While there isn't much that would get an epicure excited, there is some variety and it is safe.  The hotel where I stayed was clean, had doorways that I didn't have to duck through and had toilets that flushed.  It may seem that my standards for hotels  aren't high, but it is so much better than we had in Tappita.  I was more isolated in Monrovia.  Yes, Julie or Brian was there, but not the people that I spent 5 months working with.  In Monrovia, much of the time was spent locked in my hotel room, away from distractions, writing or researching the grant request.  It felt a little like a golden prison.  But, it got the job done.  

     It will be interesting to see Berlin.  I haven't done anything here yet but take the subway with my brother's wife and put my bags down in their apartment.  We'll go out this evening when my brother finishes his classes.  Despite living in (West) Germany for over 4 years, I never visited Berlin.  I will spend a week here before flying to Dublin to meet Jo, Jan and Ric.  I still don't know how I will react emotionally.  I don't feel anything weird now but I did spend 5 months in a pretty weird place.  I remember when I flew out of Iraq in 2004.  The first place we landed was in Germany and I remember the contrast as pretty jarring.  We will see.

     There were so many other really odd things about Liberia.  With a little more free time now, I will continue to write and post.  Thanks for following along with me on this and keep all those in West Africa in prayer.