Patrolling Liberia

I have been able to stay busy out here. This week I went on patrol just about everyday. Today I have duty, so I was unable to go out. The patrol are still what makes this deployment interesting. Driving out to these remote locations is fun and you never see the same thing twice. Yesterday we took two vehicles up to the Guinea border. Guinea is a neighboring country to the North east of Liberia and shares a common border. They have a few checkpoints where the boarder crossers are supposed to stop at once they arrive. The border is nothing spectacular and the immigration office consists of a bamboo walled/thatch roofed hut.

On our way to the Guinea border, we came across a pig that was walking on the road in a town. We stopped to ask how much they would sell the pig to us for and the man said he would sell it to us for 1,500 LD (about $21 USD). We told the man on the way back, we would buy it and to please have it washed and tied up for transport. We proceeded on patrol and on the way back, we stopped at the same town. The pig was not out wandering around on the road, which we thought was a good sign. We stopped and asked the town chief where the pig was, and that we were here to buy it. He didn't quite understand us so we tried to explain. Well, it ended up that the guy that told us the pig was $21 was not the owner and that the owner wants to sell it for $70 USD. He wouldn't budge on the price so we told him, thanks but no thanks. So, since we were unable to track down a pig for these weeks BBQ, we went to the market today and bought a baby goat for $35. We will be seasoning it tomorrow so that we can bbq it on sunday.

On a separate note, I really cannot believe that we are less then 1 month out from Baby C's birthdate. It is crazy how fast time has flown by.

This was one of the towns we visited on Monday. Once we pulled our vehicle up, all the kids came running out of the school and followed us around everywhere. They loved having their picture taken too (which is not usually the case with the adults). Whenever the flash went off, they all started to cheer. THIS is what makes these patrols great.

This is the border town (Guinea/Liberia) of Gbaota. Here is our Acting team leader (Lt Col Dossou from Benin) talking to the Immigration "officer" in the immigration office.

This is one of the bridges we crossed on the way to Gbaota.

Here is another bridge that we crossed on the way to the border. Not too bad.

Crossing the bridges with our 2 Nissan Patrols.

This was the road we traveled on for about 1 hour to get to Gbaota. It was rough at times, but for the most part fine.