Mission Accomplished

"Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take but by the places and moments that take our breath away." I think I speak for both I and Torli Krua when I say that this quote summarizes our experience on this trip. What was my first return to Liberia since fleeing the war as a child turned out to be one that filled my spirit with a immeasurable amount of hope for my country and the continent. YOUNG-Africa allowed us to travel to so many regions of the country and to meet so many people who were striving to return this little war-torn nation back to the vibrancy that some of its children have never seen throughout their entire lives. We found out that despite the what pure statistics state about the economics of nation, the actual situation is far different. The country is rich in so many ways, from the hospitality of the people, the richness of the soil which provided us fresh fruits on a daily basis, to the richness of the minds of the young people. We know that this is true for so many African nations and we hope that someday, our efforts can help transform that richness into physical wealth for the continent and its people.

The worst thing about the journey back was not the amount of time it took flying from Liberia to Ethiopia and then back across to Washington, DC. In fact, it wasn't even the extra scrutiny given to us by the Customs and Border Protections (CPB) officers, which I assumed was because we were from West Africa and had transited through Ethiopia (a close neighbor to Yemen). The only negative thing about waiting to be examined by CPB officers was that we weren't being fed constantly as we were while on the Ethiopian Airlines flight. The worst part of the journey was arriving at Dulles airport during one of the worst winter weather that the area had experienced in a while and while wearing only a t-shirt and a spring jacket.

With regards to the selection of the competition winners, we've had a hard time deciding upon the top three winners therefore we're working with our three advisors to develop a relatively objective method of judging which will be used in the future. In the mean time, we've appointed a temporary country director for YOUNG-Africa in Liberia - Ms. Elvina Kolleh - who will coordinate all our activities in the country including the preparation for the big awards ceremony (tentatively in February) where the prizes will be presented by the president herself, H.E. President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.

Announcement of Finalists

Merry Christmas to all followers of our blog. I took a short hiatus from posting on the blog for the Christmas season and to attend the ceremony celebrating the union of Mr. and Mrs. Torli Krua. On Dec. 24th, however, we held a press conference to announce the finalists of the business idea competition for inventors and entrepreneurs. The significance of that date is that it marks the 20th anniversary of Charles Taylor's launch of the civil war from Nimba County. The war was aimed at improving the lives of the people but 20 years later, most of those who participated and even those who didn't find themselves in either the same condition or a worse one. Here was a less dramatic approach to the same problem which would help people pull themselves out of poverty.

Later this week, we'll announce the 3 winners and in February, we'll have the awards ceremony, where H.E. President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf will present the awards to the winners. More updates on that specific date will be given in the future. The following is a list of the finalists, a summary of their ideas, and the location from which they will operate their businesses.

YOLITAGLWO (Tappita)

A mini-printing press. The team already runs a desktop publishing center and wants to expand their business.

God’s Grace Enterprise (Tappita)

Ground hog farming as a way to alleviate the ground hog problem farmers face while also providing cheap and tasty meat on the local market.

Future Determiners for Electric Supply (Sanniquellie)

Providing electricity through setting up units of generators

Young Break Through (Sanniquellie)

Use palm kernel that people already waste to produce palm kernel oil and use the shells in making roofing tiles and decorations for homes

Installation of Rice Mill Shop in Sanniquellie

Rice processing plant (rice mill)

LAO Yeedell AMCOS (Ganta)

Production and cultivation of moringa (a crop which has been identified as having tremendous health benefits) on a large scale. 

Saclepea Community Blacksmith Shop (Saclepea)

Producing metalworks, which would otherwise be imported, locally. The team currently makes cutlasses, axes, knives, hoes, rakes, buckets,   hinges, cement block molds, and have recently perfected the production of cassava grinders, kernel crackers, and rice mills.

Ahamed Konneh (Bahn)

Invention of a new tool for loosening soil and scraping weeds that is superior to the hoe.

Gbusair Aeronautics Research Institute (GARI) (Ganta)

A research institute to produce the first aircraft made in Africa. He has already created a model airplane that glides but needs an engine to propel it.

His Grace Desktop Publishing Center (Yekepa)

Printing, photocopying and scanning of documents in Yekepa. The town has nowhere for this and residents can travel at least 20-30 miles for the nearest center.

Modern African Bamboo Industry (Tappita)

Establishment of an institute that will educate people in working with bamboo in the process of working on huge projects constructing many things out of bamboo. The team leader has already constructed many structures of bamboo including furnitures and a huge ceiling of a church.

Menretha Christian Textbook Publishing Company (Tappita)

Creation of a company to create and print textbooks to be used by Liberian schools.

Starting a Library Company (Tappita)

A public library in Tappita.

Anti-Dermatosis (Monrovia)

Establishing a business to spread awareness about skincare and diseases associated with it and  researching and marketing a product (which is being branded as Anti-Dermatosis) that cures many skin diseases. The product has already been sold and users claim it is effective.

A commentary on NGOs

As the deadline to the business competition for 2009 has arrived, we’ve retrieved the boxes from the five (5) towns. Because there’s no courier service or reliable mail available here, individuals on motorbikes delivered the boxes to us. We’ve picked these up and will be heading to Monrovia in a few hours. We still have yet to hear from the president’s office on a firm date but we’ve decided to proceed to conduct the awards ceremony in Monrovia whether or not the president is able to make it. In Monrovia, we’ll have better coverage by the media and YOUNG-Africa will gain a lot more exposure than we could by holding the ceremony in Ganta, Nimba County.

In the meantime, I have a short commentary on how the existence of some NGOs within Liberia has hindered progress and sometimes made our work more difficult. Some of these are based on my observations and the opinions of people I’ve asked while in the country. Foreign NGOs really began their influx into the country when the civil war ended because Liberia was an attractive place for funders. You have rape victims, war orphans, traumatized war victims, destruction of food production processes, etc. Whatever problem you could think of that an NGO wanted to tackle, Liberia had it.

These NGOs would send their experts into the country and start doing their work. Most of these “experts” would not be Liberian nationals and the programs planned generally wouldn’t have input from the constituency they desire to serve. These experts would be paid salaries that are too high compared with those they’re working with (the Liberian staff) and most of the money coming from funders would go into the pockets of the “experts.” And from what I hear, these “experts” are merely just monitors, keeping watch as the Liberians do the work. It’s almost like using a $500,000 bulldozer to mow your lawn.

Additionally, because they are in control of a lot of resources in a place where resources are scarce, you have a potential for exploitation. Some recent examples include the case of the sex for aid scandal that involved some UN agencies and other organizations where local girls would engage in sexual acts with NGO workers for quick money. Another example includes the reselling of fuel allocated for use in the vehicles of the organizations to the local people.

These organizations also have workshops and other events where they take people from many regions and pay all their expenses and give them a stipend among other free things. There have been so many NGOs coming into the country and offering free things that we decided that, because of limited funding, not only would we reduce our workshops to 2 hours but we wouldn’t offer food. When we had our workshops, some people made the comments, “papay, we gappin’ ooo” meaning “old man, we’re hungry” and Mr. Krua offered a word of advice to the complainants, “Big problem, big opportunity… maybe in the future you can start a business that sells food at our workshops.”

The presence of these NGOs creates a culture of dependency where people and community institutions are continuously looking for quick short-term benefits and often stop taking initiatives on their own. This has been reflected in the hesitation on the part of some community radio stations to broadcast our advertisements freely in exchange for us helping them acquire computers and the equipment to establish internet cafes to bring income into the stations and to allow them more access to the world of news. They figure that because we’re like an NGO, we must have a lot of money to spend on them, as most of the NGOs usually do. It’s almost as if they’re trying to wear us down, because we have the money and eventually, we’ll give in and pay the over $800 USD for continuous advertisement of YOUNG-Africa over 6 months.

At the end of the involvement of the NGOs (and there is always an end because another country or situation will eventually become more attractive to funders), who really benefits? There was a case where a hand pump was being built in the village of Ziah (shown below) and as soon as funding dried up, the project was left uncompleted. It’s almost as if these guys are benefitting off the miseries of others for as long as they can and they leave to find another misery. Mr. Krua described the never ending revolving tactics of international NGOs from one misery infested country to another as: “short-term gain for long–term pain.” Eventually the NGO would leave and the targeted country descends to business as usual.

So what then can be the solution to the problem? I actually met a pastor who advocated that the government ban foreign NGOs from working within the country and instead encourage donors to fund projects led by people in the community. He also warned that they should not even give the money to the national government. I would actually say they should start by taking a softer approach and suggest that foreign NGOs be required to partner equally with a local organization or community for whatever projects they conduct.

And Now We Wait…

After all our travels around Nimba, we’re back in Ganta, waiting for the deadline of the competition to arrive. We had five wooden boxes created for each of the town. These boxes have only one entry – a slit on the top for the papers to enter. If there’s any tampering with the box, we’ll know. After the deadline passes, these boxes will be delivered to us in Ganta and the evaluation process will begin. Initially, there weren't a lot of people submitting entries into the competition; however, as the deadline approaches, the traffic of people submitting has increased. People even gather outside the radio stations to copy the questions that they have to answer.

For now, we’re not sure of the exact date or location of the awards ceremony. There are currently two plans that could go into action depending on a variable. That variable is the decision from the office of the President of Liberia. For the past weeks, we've been aggressively finding ways to get a letter through to the president, asking her to present the awards. We received a phone call from the president’s office a few days ago stating that the president is interested in the program and that she would be glad to present the awards, however, our suggested date of the 24th of December does not work well for her. Luckily, we had expected that and we've asking them to chose virtually any day between next weekend and the 31st. If any of those dates do work, we’ll transport the winners to Monrovia to have the program there; if not, we’ll have the program in Ganta.

We've already begun asking district representatives, mayors, and the two senators to volunteer to help out with transportation of the winners to Monrovia if that plan goes through. Already, a few of them have pledged to assist with whatever resources they can provide. In the meantime, we've been spreading the word about our program through whatever means we find. What we actually want to do is to get the Nimba legislative caucus to help us to be able to present to the national legislature.

Stuck on Mount Nimba

On our time off from workshops, we decided to visit the campus of the ABC University in Yekepa, a town situated below the Nimba mountain ranges in northeast Liberia. Because the area is mountainous, the temperature in the town is sometimes as low as the high 50s (Fahrenheit) at night. The result of this is not only a lot of Liberians complaining that the place is cold but also the sometimes humorous sight of people wearing heavy winter coats and hats. 

 The town has a relaxing feel to it, almost as if it should be a vacation spot. Maybe it was this relaxing atmosphere that led us to go touring the Nimba Mountain ranges. The trip that should have lasted only about 2 hours ended up taking us almost 12 hours to finally get back to the ABC campus, during which time, we were without food or bottled water.

We decided to drive up to the highest peak to be able to get a good view of the area. We were told we would see towns in Guinea and Cote D’Ivoire from there. The road up the mountain was paved very well, so driving wouldn't be a problem. We told the folks at the university to expect us for lunch at noon. Because we were strangers in the area, a local pastor volunteered to be our guide up the mountain.

Everything went well until we were a 5 minute drive from the top when the car started making sputtering noises and was spewing steam from its hood. We all got out of the car to examine this phenomenon. The problem appeared to be coming from the radiator which was not properly sealed and all the water in it had spilled out leading to the car overheating. Since we were close to the top, where most of the cell phone companies had their towers located, Pastor Kwaibiah suggested that we go ask one of the attendants under the tower for water. We borrowed his container and went back to the vehicle to refill the radiator. It seemed as if everything was fine again. 

So in a show of gratitude, we decided to refill the man's container for him. This was where things really went wrong. Pastor Kwaibiah was directing us around to where the water source was and he pointed at a path that went off the paved road. My uncle was very hesitant to drive there. In fact, he asked, "Are you sure there's road here?" Our guide confidently answered, "I wouldn't take you anywhere I haven't been before." And so we proceeded. The car was entering into the high grass and one could not really tell what the condition of the ground was really like. 

Suddenly, the tires started to spin. We had entered mud without even knowing it. Big Problem! Our vehicle was not four-wheel drive, and to add to that, our tires were not made for mud or rough terrain, it was the smooth type. We decided to turn the vehicle around, but it was already too late for retreating. Pushing the SUV only led to progressions of a foot or two each time and then the tires would start spinning in place. 

We had to think of other ways to get out of this problem. The tires of the vehicle needed some traction, so we tried placing the mats from the car under the tires but the tires would just shoot the mats back, even if you stepped on it. We then tried calling our contacts at UNMIL in Monrovia to see whether they could ask the Bangladesh soldiers at the base of the mountain to help us out. Unfortunately, they said they could only help us if we were on the main road; since we had strayed off, they couldn't do anything. We tried everything we could, including removing all our load from the vehicle and gathering small gravel to spread it on the tire path, however, there was just too much land to cover and this process was too energy intensive. 

Then Pastor Kwaibiah noticed a pumpkin in the car as he was rummaging for tools and exclaimed, “Who put this pumpkin here?” We had received the pumpkin as a gift from a guy in Sanniquellie just as we were given a rooster in Bahn but we could actually travel with the pumpkin so we brought it along. Apparently, a lot of Liberians in this area believe in a superstition that traveling with pumpkins in vehicles was a sure way to create problems for the vehicle and the way to avoid that was to mark the pumpkin by chopping some part off. So the pastor decided to do that. But that didn’t help our case. We were still stuck in the mud!

Someone came up with the brilliant idea of placing some planks under the tires so that the vehicle could just roll over them. The plan sounded like something that would work. We decided to make the 15-20 minute climb up to the highest peak where one of the cell phone companies had its tower. We would ask the guys there for some planks. 

It was at this time that we were not only really hungry but also very thirsty. Hunger, we could deal with but thirst was something that needed to be quenched instantly. My uncle and I had made a practice of only drinking bottled water so far and we were hesitant to drink the water coming out of the mountain. However, it was a far way down the mountain (3 hours walk to be exact) and our thirst was extreme. We also reasoned that the water was not coming from an open source, but from in the rocks so it must be relatively safe for drinking. So we decided to obey our thirst. As for the hunger, we could do nothing about that. Besides, the human body has an amazing ability to forget about hunger after several hours of feeling hungry.

We came back to the vehicle to try the plank idea but we received only little positive results. It was only when the two guys from the cell phone tower came that we had four people pushing and one driving - enough manpower to make significant moves. We had also changed one of the back tires to give us more traction. At this point, it was already past 7 pm and we had already spent over 9 hours on the mountain. We were really hoping that we would stay there till night and have to sleep in the wilderness. Not only is the area is known for its wildlife but it's also known to be very cold up at the peak when nightfall comes. The guys who guard the cell phone tower do not usually go down at the end of the day; they actually sleep in a small shack on the mountain. If our vehicle was not out of the mud by nightfall, we rationalized that we would pile up with them and sleep in the shack.

Luckily, we received phone calls at that moment that help from the university was coming but they couldn’t pinpoint our exact location. Before they even got to us, we were able to get the vehicle out of the mud. As quickly as we got out of that situation, another situation arose – one of the vehicle’s tires was punctured. 

We were finally able to change that and then went down the mountain. Down there, we went to get fuel for the car. At which point, the clutch decided to stop working properly. With all these problems arising, and given that YOUNG-Africa is asking people to seek business solutions to problems, we couldn’t help but think how quickly we would be able to get out of that situation had there been some sort of rescue service similar to AAA in the US. The experience did however exhibit all the elements of a good “African” adventure – hunger, thirst, danger from wildlife, etc – and for some reason, I did enjoy most of it.

Workshops All Completed

As of Dec. 7th, we've completed all our workshops including the one in Sanniquellie and the one in Ganta on Saturday. Both Mr. Krua and I have been feeling a big wave of relief. Between moving from churches to schools to radio stations to publicize YOUNG-Africa, the process got to be pretty tiring. Then when you factor in the process of projecting your voice to such huge crowds, you can see how strenuous things were. But it was an exciting process because we never knew who or what we would find in each town.

We believe so much in this program's potential to impact the economic scene of the country that we've actually invited the President of Liberia to present the first set of awards given to those who win the business idea competition. We have a letter addressed to the president from one of our advisors, Massachusetts State Representative Benjamin Swan. Although the Liberian ambassador to the US has already agreed to deliver the letter and we've also given a copy to the Chief Protocol Officer, we still have yet to get a response from the president's office. While in Ganta, we also asked the district representative to deliver our letter to the president who was arriving in the city to dedicate the representative's office. Basically, we're making every attempt that there is to ensure that the president reads the letter. In Sanniquellie, we found out the president would be attending a football game between Grand Gedeh County and Nimba County. We decided to yet again make another attempt but that didn't carry on well.

I was riding in the convoy of Madame Edith Gongloe-Weh, County Superintendent (a position similar to that of a governor if Liberia were a federal state) and a close friend of Mr. Krua, to meet the president to hand over the letter when we noticed that the president's convoy was already pulling out to leave the city. There had apparently been some miscommunication about the time when she would be leaving. The president's convoy stopped for a brief while for the superintendent to speak with her however, there wasn't even enough time to give her our letter. In the upcoming days, the superintendent will be meeting the president again in Monrovia, where she has agreed to ask her on our behalf to present the awards.

Since our upcoming schedule will be dependent upon whether or not the president agrees to our proposal, our plans are not set in stone for now. For the next week, we'll be networking and seeking areas where we can expand in the future. We've prepared a short video that has shown what we've been doing in Nimba County and we hope we can get the other counties' officials to lobby us by offering certain services and provisions. We'll give this video to officials in the counties and ask them for what they have to offer the program to ensure its success. When the officials are alligned with our goals (as in Bahn), our programs are a lot more sucessful. In Sanniquellie, the superintendent provided us with a very comfortable lodging in the mansion with 24-7 access to electricity (a very rare luxury in Liberia). Additionally, we were also provided food and entertainment, in the form of traditional performers. Such accomodations allow the program to run very smoothly.

For now though, we'll be running advertisements on community radio stations to remind people of the competition. We're also heading to ABC University in Yekepa to visit the school and the mining area being managed by the steel giant, ArcelorMittal.

Below are some pictures of some of the dignitaries from Nimba who were in town for the president's visit. Others included the Minister of Public Works (Kofi Woods), Minister of Labor (Tiawan Gongloe), Telecommunications Commissioner (Harry Yuan), Dep. Minister of Commerce (Dr. Norkeh), Chief Education Officer for Nimba (George Wuo), some paramount chiefs, and many more.

The Sky is No Longer the Limit: Nimba County Ready for Takeoff

Today (Friday Dec. 4th), we were scheduled to conduct another workshop in Liberia's second largest city, Ganta. Our exact plans did not materialize because of the lack of proper publicity surrounding the program and other bureaucratic obstacles. We've postponed the workshops for Saturday morning. The extra time will give us the opportunity to have enough copies of the program for our participants. Our delay also allowed us the opportunity to discover some amazing talents that the city of Ganta had to offer. We encountered a few extremely talented and gifted young people while traveling around town.

Today's discoveries reminds me of a quote that my co-director and mentor, Torli Krua, once made more than a year ago:

"The first air plane never took off from the ground and didn't even fly in the skies; it took off from an imagination and flew in the mind of someone who, not only dreamed to fly but also reasoned that all things imaginable are also possible."

Two young men are involved in business ventures that supply the very much needed IT resources and another has a vision to expand his small video theater. He wants to purchase a projector and satellite dish to capture the huge market of young Liberians who closely follow the European football leagues but often cannot afford to own a TV because of the lack of electricity. We also met an aspiring judge who also happens to be the winner of the Miss Ganta beauty pageant.

The headliner of the day, however, is one Harry Gbusseh who is on a mission to build one of the first airplane or helicopter to come out of Africa. Since graduating from high school, he has been working at the United Methodist school campus as an Arts and Crafts teacher for a mere $65 per month salary. He's been able to construct among other things, a few model airplanes which can fly on battery power and he wants to design and build more ambitious projects.

Since graduation from high school, Harry hasn't been able to afford the education to obtain the education of his dream - in aerospace engineering, but he has done his best to educate himself in Physics, fluid dynamics and anything pertaining to airplanes as much as his sparse resources can permit. He clearly understands and can articulate what makes a plane fly and the accompanying natural laws that permit these phenomena to occur. Harry has been trying to build a helicopter but lacks the money to purchase not only an engine but also to pay for a welder to create the parts he needs. His ultimate goal is to work with an educational institution to augment his knowledge of the aviation field for the purpose of starting an aeronautical research institute here in Liberia whose goal will be to produce one of the first aircrafts made in Africa. Given that this promising young man shares a birthday (August 19th) with one of the Wright brothers, I don't think this is something beyond his reach.