Hello, Dolly! Storms That Head to My Home.

Right now, I am in Liberia. It has been raining every day for the last few days. It was pouring rain almost all day yesterday. I started thinking about the old Creedence song "Who'll Stop the Rain" ...And I wonder, still I wonder Who'll stop the rain ...

I happen to be near where most of the hurricanes and tropical storms start as you can see in the pic below.
Unfortunately Dolly is kinda headed towards home. I am supposed to fly home soon - well in a week or so. I hope the storm is a long ways away from where I am going... DOlly isn't so pretty - I have her picture here:

Fortunately the "probability tracking shows it going far south of my home in Texas. Anyways. these are just the wonderful kinds of things I get to think about while here in Liberia.

Celebrating America's Independence in Liberia

Well,I am not used to people coming up and saying Happy Independence Day! Here working with the UN it happened all day. The US Contingent celebrated with a contingent meeting - it means no UN work that day. (OK say it- you know you want to "unwork") The greetings were nice - and somewhat unexpected by me. :))


We also had our medal parade on the 3rd of July, 5 guys got their medals for service in a UN Mission. I won't be eligible here for another 3 months. UNMIL policy is that you get the medal after 6 months. It was very short and non-ceremonial, as we did not want a lot of pomp and circumstance or whatever you get when you get medals. You can probably pick out the medals on the guys shirts.


It is kind of nice to have a peacekeeping medal - not everyone has one. I got one in Kosovo - it is a bit different.


Not much else - y'all stay safe!

Liberia Random Tid-bits

I have been in sort of a random this-and-that mode. I figured a lot of folks "back home" don't know much about Liberia.

Liberia's Flag was designed bases on the US Flag.

Liberia is the oldest Republic in Africa. It was formed by former freed slaves from the US.

Monrovia is named for James Monroe 5th President of the US

The official language of Liberia is English (though you may not recognize it when spoken by a local)

The country came out of 14 years of civil war in 2003 when the UN Mission (UNMIL) started here. Over 250000 people died in that/those civil war(s).

Liberia produces lots of rubber - Firestone has a large plantation here.

Liberia is where some believe dinosaurs still roam. The Kumbway and the Gbahali

Y'all Stay Safe!