Dry Season Approaching

As the month transitions to November, the Ebola situation in Liberia appears to be slowing.  Not out of the woods yet, but the news is for once positive instead of negative.  There remain a lot of bodies to be buried but the new cases are diminishing.  Whether this is just a lull or actually turning the corner is yet to be seen.  With the amount of outreach and education on the matter, including telling people to stop their traditional burial practices, the message on how to protect yourself from getting Ebola has spread and that may be conquering the virus.  Fear definitely spreads faster than the virus and just yesterday someone was saying how he’s used to have clients to train at the gym but now without clients, he stays at home, washing his hands and afraid of Ebola.  There is an influx of expat workers now entering Liberia, including military, so maybe he’ll find new clients.

Kid at one of the check point hand washing stations

One of the methods combating the spread of Ebola is to take people's temperature and enforce hand washing before entering stores, restaurants, government buildings, offices, etc.  Even outside Monrovia, along the road to Robertsport, there are three stops where everyone in the vehicle is required to wash hands and have their temperature taken.  On the last trip my temperature varied from 29C to 36.6C so I’m not sure how reliable that is.  

Last thing you would want to have happen is to have a high temperature and get stuck in the middle of nowhere.  One of the stops is a major checkpoint along the Monrovia Road call Clay checkpoint. Make sure to travel with current resident permit or passport, immigration may ask for it.  I only had an old photocopy of my permit and forgot to copy the renewal stamp from a few months ago. I was able to explain my way out of the situation and promised to return with evidence I am legit. The Officer in charge was gracious and understood the nature of our work so let me go.  A good rule of thumb – rather an obvious rule of thumb - is to always have your current documents on you.  I don’t like moving around with a passport for fear of having it stolen so will make copies of the necessary pages.  In Liberia, the main document you should have is your resident permit – unless you cross a national border – then you will need a re-entry letter and the appropriate visa. 

Entering Robertsport, our "Men at Work" Sign

In Robertsport, we finally have construction on the watermain ongoing.  It has taken a long time of battling the challenges of Liberia.  Challenges that ranged from a couple rounds of bidding to find a "qualified" construction contractor and once a contract was finally awarded, the contractor struggled to procure the materials due to limited capital and delays from the bank to approve a loan, and then Ebola showed up and delayed start of construction further. Once the contractor started the physical work, things started moving.  There are many challenges faced when contracting work in an emerging market and it's necessary to have strategies in both the contractual language and approach taken with the contractor.
  

Progress being made on the pipeline installation

We are at the end of the rainy season so moving forward, delays should be minimal as the pipes are installed and water service expanded into the Robertsport community. 

Robertsport crowd 

Girls collecting water