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Monrovia – Meeting the Minister of Trade

dani — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 21:03:50 +0000

Today we had a productive day. We met the Minister of Trade and her Chiefs.
Here you have some photos: the toilet in the floor of the Minister (they have no water and no electricity, only own generators), the Ministry of Trade Building and stairs, the bullet hole in the glass in the Minister’s meeting room… and a beer in the best spot we found in Monrovia, all in our UNDP 4×4.

Monrovia National Holiday

dani — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 13:12:46 +0000

Sunday. We had the day free after a meeting with our local guy here. We did plan the week and then Francis took us with his crappy car to have a tour around the city.
What can I say about it. It is a post conflict zone. The few big buildings that are still standing are all burned and destroyed. There are visible signs for war everywhere. Poverty is everywhere.
This is the poorest country I ever visited. I can not complain of not having hot water or no choice for food.
Judge for yourselves:

Liberia, day one

dani — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 20:20:27 +0000

Here I am, in Monrovia, in the Corina Hotel. A 5 stars hotel… I’m joking. There are no 5 stars hotels here. This in fact a place with clean sheets, and free wifi. That is good enough.
The flight was long. Flying economy within Africa and in a 5 or 6 hours trip, with stop over in Accra is not the same as flighting in Europe.
Anyway, we had no problems to get into the country. We had no visa but we had a letter from the Minister so we just got it.
I would like to post pictures but it takes like ages to upload. I will try to put at least one.
Well, today is Saturday. It is a long weekend here. Monday is holiday. We work though. Tomorrow we might go to the beach but the weather is not that nice. It is cloudy. Not too hot.
I will write again tomorrow. I try to upload a photo that I took in the airport.

Going to Kenya and Liberia

dani — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 08:36:26 +0000

Well, here I am at gate B37 Terminal 5 in London Heathrow airport. This time on my first trip/mission with the ITC, that I joined 2 weeks ago.
I am now using my iPhone and we are ready to board.
I will be arriving to Nairobi late at night and tomorrow I will be meeting a couple of colleagues. We have a pretty busy agenda for Friday. On Saturday we’ll be flying to Monrovia (Liberia) where we will spend 8 days.
Now I am boarding. Next post from Africa ;)