What is that hypnotic sound? Proof positive that African taxi drivers have the best taste in music:

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I asked this University of Liberia student (see photo below) what Christmas present I should bring back to America for my 4-year-old.

"Maybe a monkey?" he suggested.

Me: "As a pet?"

Student: "Yes, as a pet."

Me: "But don't Liberians also eat monkeys?"

Student: "Yes, but first you can play with them. Families do that sometimes, raise monkeys and then eat them."

Me: "What about dogs, do you eat them too after they're pets?"

Student: "Yes, dogs too."

Me: "Cats?"

Student: "Yes."

Me: "Birds?"

Student: "Yes."

Me: "Lizards?"

Student: "Yes."

Me: "Chameleons?"

Student: "No." (Makes a disgusted face.)

Maybe he was putting me on, but I kind of doubt it. Bushmeat is a big, unapologetic family cottage industry in Liberia, hence Sapo National Park signs and bumper stickers with "please don't eat the wildlife" messaging, like this one:

"Please don't feed the wildlife" stickers might be a ways off.

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The Liberian lady holding our latest issue is Margreat Malley, one of
the market women leaders in the West African Network for Peacebuilding
(WANEP). She—along with Etweda "Sugars" Cooper and the other smart,
fearless feminists pictured here—helped bring an end to Liberia's
civil war through nonviolent protests and mass sit-ins. (Watch the
documentary "Pray the Devil Back to Hell" to learn more about their
struggle.) Now the Liberian women's movement faces a new challenge:
With peace on the ground and Africa's first female president in
office, can leaders find a way to engage younger feminists?

Malley leads the call and response you'll hear in the attached
recording, taped in Liberia earlier this month. The words she's
singing: "Tomorrow's a brand new day."

Edwina Sugars Cooper Peace Hut Women.aiff Listen on Posterous

See the full gallery on Posterous

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"Me? I'm Pentecostal," says Comfort Willie, my hard-hat wearing
Liberian seat mate. We are nattering on about the new houses Firestone
built for its rubber workers, the crumbling brick buildings circa
1926, and the vast ecosystem of Christian churches in Liberia.
Comfort, who in 2006 helped found the Firestone Agricultural Workers
Union of Liberia with the online international help of United
Steelworkers, is my new BFF. (When I disclosed earlier that I was in
the Mother Jones union, she hugged me hard and said: "Eee! My union
sister!," then waved over her labor colleagues to meet another member
of the flock.)

Read the rest here:
http://motherjones.com/rights-stuff/2010/11/liberia-firestone-rubber-labor

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Jessy was one of those drugged-out 10-years-olds holding an AK-47
during Liberia's long civil war. Now he sells kola nuts and changes
money in the capitol. There are an estimated 22,000 former combatants
in country.

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Believe it or not, most African babies aren't actually starving waifs.
Here's an antidote to all those sad pics you've probably seen over the
years that make you want to go find the nearest ledge.

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Well, it's either a minor West African miracle or a Potemkin village
conspiracy. So far not one Liberian child has asked me for pens,
money, candy, stamps, my photo, their photo, a plane ticket, a tenfold
price increase on a tourist item, or any address in the US.

I've traveled through 7 West African countries and never been
this...not harassed. Good on you, Liberia! I imagine this attitudinal
shift could make international funding for local fair-trade coffee
projects, rainforest eco-lodge construction, and
wandering-Australian-friendly surf camps a little easier to come by.
Perhaps your neighbors could learn from this beautiful, baffling
development. (Togo, I'm looking at you.)

What, you want more? Bookmark MoJo's human rights blog-o:
http://motherjones.com/rights-stuff

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I write this in a hotel room with my head lamp looped around my neck,
off but ready, in case the lights go out again. Though the Cape Hotel
has good WiFi, magnificent feats of ongoing electricity are still rare
in Liberia, a fragile country whose capitol is either powered by
generators or not at all. Nothing's darker than a night road in
Monrovia; no streetlamps, only rare lights in houses, the occasional
car. Here in the hotel, a Stephen King movie was just starting when
Teddy, a smiling hotel employee, flipped on the TV in my room to
demonstrate how well it functioned at the same time as the air
conditioning, the lights, and the fridge. Later I unplugged every
appliance I could reach. (Sorry, Teddy!)

Tonight I'm staying with 10 other journalists at the Cape Hotel in
Monrovia, our first evening in Liberia on an International Reporting
Project-funded fact-finding tour. Basically we're here to see how a
country rebuilds after virtually cannibalizing itself during a
gruesome and protracted civil war. We'll meet former child soldiers as
well as the inspiring Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Africa's first female
president and a Nelson Mandela-like figure to many on the continent.
There are also planned jaunts up country to meet former warlords like
General Peanut Butter—a potential 2011 presidential candidate—and
Jewel Taylor, the ex-wife of charismatic war criminal Charles Taylor.

First: sleep, if jet lag and malaria pills allow.

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when you have two young kids, nothing sounds more relaxing than a 10 day reporting trip in Liberia. off to the airport to meet up with this crew: http://www.internationalreportingproject.org/stories/gatekeeper-trip/1557/ 

will post daily once in-country, gods (and wifi) willing.

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Oh wait, is this thing on?

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