First Patrol

Today I went on my first patrol. We were scheduled to visit the villages of Dennis Town and New Building. It was an 85 km drive to get there and let me tell you, the “road” was out of control. Once we got off the main road, it turned into some serious 4x4 worthy terrain. There were creeks, puddles, giant potholes and large ruts that we navigated through. Evegeny drove most of the way and then turned it over to me to get us there and back to Gbarnga. One of the bridges crossed was pretty questionable (by my standards) but Evegeny said this was one of the better bridges, and that he has crossed much worse. When we got to the junction of the path where you normally branch off to New Building, we determined it was impossible to get there. There was no road, just a trail that led to the town of New Building. We drove on the narrow path for a few minutes and determined it wouldn’t be a good idea. We couldn’t continue on foot because the map we had indicated that the town was around 3km from where we stopped and the UN has strict policies about leaving the vehicle unattended in the bush. So we pressed on towards Dennis Town. When we arrived, we noticed that this village was off the main path as well, but only by 100m or so. We went the rest of the way by foot and went through their gate, (that secures the live stock) proceeding to the buildings. There was a few kids running around and a woman was with them. We asked her for the town chief, and she ran off to get him. We met Dennis Yulo. He is the town chief of Dennis Town (yes, the town was named after him) of 22 people and 2 houses. We talked with him for a few minutes and asked him all our UN questions. His son came out and he was able to speak better English, so we were able to talk to them both. Some of their main concerns was the location of their water supply. They have to walk ~ 5km to get their water…. And the water they do get is from a well and not safe to drink. Dennis stated that they cultivate rubber, rice and cassava and they raise livestock. There were pigs and goats running around everywhere. Even on the drive in, there were so many goats, sheep, and chickens always blocking the road. Apparently if you run them over, the locals get very upset and you have to end up paying for their loss. Thankfully we did not hit any (that I know of). Adult chickens run $10, baby chickens are $5, goats are around $35… and I don’t think you get to keep them. After our interview, we snapped a few photos and then walked towards the gate. We saw that they had a really nice coconut trees and so we asked how much he would sell some of his coconuts for. He sold us ten coconuts for 200 LD (Liberian dollars), which comes out to be a little under $3. One of his other sons climbed up the tree and cut them down for us and 4 different kids helped carry the coconuts (on their heads) out to the car. The drive back to Gbargna took around 3 hours to cover the same 85 km but we made it back safely. I have to admit, it was pretty awesome. Every town we would pass, the kids would smile and wave so energetically as we drove by. The people we talked to were very friendly and you could tell they were very intrigued with Evegeny and I. I don’t think they see too many white folks around. It was a great experience interacting with the indigenous Liberians and I am already looking forward to my next patrol.

Here are a few pictures I took:

This is the Office where we work out of.

This is what the road looked like for most of the way.

This is the booming metropolis of Dennis Town.

Here is Mr. Dennis Yulo (man on far left, next to me) and his sons. He is the Town Chief of Dennis Town.

One of Mr. Yulo's sons climbed up the tree to cut down the coconuts that we bought.

Here is myself in front of a Cocoa tree. You can use the fruit from this tree to make chocolate.

Here are the kids helping Evegeny and I carry the coconuts back to the Nissan Patrol.

Here is one of the bridges we crossed. Apparently, this was one of the better ones.