Another day in the Books

I arrived back to the Team site on Thursday afternoon. On Wednesday, we loaded LTC Cortez's remains and personal effects on a USAF C-17 that flew in from Germany. It offered a bit of closure to see him on the American plane, especially knowing that he was in good hands and going home. He will be buried in Arlington National Cemetery, and we all plan to pay him a visit when we all arrive back to the states in May 2011 while we are there for our debriefings.

Things at the Team site have been very very busy, which is really nice. There is only 4 of us here, which means two MILOBS go on patrol all day, one is back at the office on duty, and the other MILOB hangs out at the office, finishes weekly reports, and catches up. We have a nice little rotation going. I cant believe that in 2 weeks I will be home. Im so excited!!!

The electricity still has not been fixed at the house. They received the part last week, replaced it, and it worked for a few hours.... only to fail again. So, we have been without electricity for over a week now. I am still grateful for my head lamp and chemlights. I have been finding my hours at the office increase over the past week. It has internet, A/C and fairly comfortable. I have been getting into the office around 730am in the mornings and leaving for the house around 930pm just to take a Liberian Shower (in the dark) and fall asleep on my fan-less bed. Everything is still going well out here.

Here are some more pics from the past few days:

Here is the USAF C-17 that flew in last Thursday to pick up LTC Cortez. It truly was an amazing site seeing this American plane land in Monrovia. What made it amazing was that the plane was COMPLETELY empty. The only mission of this plane was to pick up LTC Cortez and his personal effects and fly him home. It is comforting to know that the USA takes care of its servicemen/women and will spare no expense on flying a multi-million dollar asset out to Liberia, just to take one man home. It was an emotional moment seeing his casket draped with the American Flag pass by us Americans, as well as the multitude of people who came by to honor him. In the five months he was here, he had touched so many peoples' lives. We knew he was in good hands and headed home.

This was a recent patrol to Mologbarnga.

I always wondered how Pineapples grew. I didnt know if it grew underground and you had to dig it up or what... but here it is for those of us who always wondered.

Here is a larger pineapple growing out in the bush. These things are literally everywhere and you can buy them for about 120 LD, which is around $1.50. The fruits in Liberia are bountiful; Banana, plantains, Papaya, coconut, pineapple, Oranges, Mango, grapefruit, potato, limes, just to name a few. The Liberian people are far from starving. They have plenty of food that grows naturally in the environment. A saying Evgheny taught me (which isn't PC, but oh well) is "In Liberia, you can plant something, piss on it, and it can be harvested in a couple of days." It is so true. The climate here is perfect for growing anything; a constant 90 degrees and rain everyday. It is nice to be able to eat a lot of fresh fruits and veggies. The only food items that I crave are milk, eggs, and "salad-like foods". In Monrovia you can find milk, but it is all UHT... which brings back bad memories of being on a US Navy ship, and it isn't that tasty. They have eggs here in Gbarnga but they sit out in the sun for days and days and I don't trust them. As far as salads, they just don't have lettuce or tomatoes here. I don't know why, they just don't. The general rule we use is, "If it can't be peeled or cooked; Do not consume." Sterilization and cleanliness is not a high priority in Liberia.

Like I mentioned before, Liberia is known for their rubber exports. Firestone has plantations and buying stations everywhere. The other African officers that are in the mission say that no other African country has the amount of rubber trees that Liberia has. You can literally look anywhere and see rubber trees growing. One day on patrol, we stopped to talk to some men that were in the process of tapping the trees.

The procedure to tap a tree is to "scar" the tree from high left to low right with a sharp tool. The scar creates a highway for the rubber to run down the tree in a controlled manor to the bucket that is at the bottom. The rubber travels at a pretty good pace into the bucket and the man said that with one scarring, the tree will produce between 1-2 buckets of rubber before it has to be re-scarred.

Here is the collection bucket at the base of the tree. The white liquid is the sap (aka: rubber) that comes out of the tree once it is scarred. It is in a liquid state and must be heated for it to thicken and turn into the rubber-like feel/texture. Once it is thickened, it is taken to the buying stations. The rate right now is between $1,200-$1,300 USD per Ton of rubber.

With no fencing or security to secure the trees, the stealing of the filled rubber buckets is a problem. People can just walk up to the tree, poor the contents of the bucket into a bucket of their own, and sell it themselves. There isn't any regulations on who can sell the rubber to the buying stations so anyone can get some rubber and take it to the buying stations to sell. The trees will produce rubber for 4o years as long as you don't abuse the tree. You have to allow it time to recover before re-tapping it.

This was a recent patrol to Goketah-Ta. The town (only 20 people) was out bathing and washing their clothes in the creek. This creek water is their only source of water.