progress

a portion of the new road
the road is still being worked on

On Saturday night I had my first Liberian outing. Seven girls piled into a Landover and I once again got to relive the excitement sitting in the back trying to balance my coffee cup, while taking a picture, while avoiding hitting my head as we pass over the large potholes.

Ahhh. After two months away, it's good to be back.

As we drove to Monrovia things looked pretty much the same. Mass amounts of people walking along the streets, carry large items on their heads and babies on their back, street sellers offering grilled cassava and other specialties, old yellow taxi's buzzing through the streets like anxious bees. But halfway through out drive on Broad street, a road that runs through the center of town, something exciting happened. We stopped hitting potholes.

We were shocked to find a beautiful, freshly paved road that ran for (I would guess) at least two miles. Not only was it a smooth ride, the first I had experienced in Monrovia, but the trash on the sides of the road had been removed. Later that night, we also realized that the same street was now lined with lit street lights.

The excitement we derived from a paved road and few street lights was enormous. We laughed thinking of what people at home would think if they knew we were screaming and cheering over a paved road and a few lights (uuh..what do you think?)

But it was progress, a small step, but a step in the right direction. My friend Sarah commented that seeing this progress reinforces your belief in what your doing; it confirms that the long days and hard work are really doing something.

I'm still pretty excited about it.