Small small (How change happens)

Liberia – like a lot of other countries – has been celebrating Obama’s election.

Yesterday I travelled with Allen and Renita to Gbarnga (Bahn’ ga) in Bong County, which is east of Monrovia three hours, towards the Guinea border. We were visiting new businesses with our local staff Daniel and Curue, and somehow a discussion began whether Barack Obama was a name everyone in Bong County would recognize. At the first business we visited, whose portrait should be posted in a place of prominence but “President” Barack Obama and family. I guess the inauguration is just a formality.

Last week after Election day, I was greeted by the security guards on my street with “ObamaObamaObama!” instead of the usual (He-llo. He-llo. He-llo…). I passed a Liberian guy on the corner whose t-shirt bore a huge screen print of Obama’s face, and when I got to the office (grinning), my colleagues congratulated me. I found out I was the only one who had gone to bed that night. (I’d though I was hardcore because I was at an expat party from 10pm-4am. I stand corrected. The LEAD staff didn’t go to bed, staying up to watch the final results and speeches. Hardcore.) So Liberians are jubilant. Obama even made the prayer list at Providence Baptist Church Sunday morning – as an item of thanksgiving. “Thank you God, that the US election went smoothly, and that our brothers and sisters in the United States have elected their first black president, and for what this means to the world…”

I’m sure it is true for many of us that the reaction of “the rest of the world” is moving, and this is true for me in Liberia.Regardless of how much I’ve missed being in Brooklyn to experience this piece of history with my community… I have been surrounded by Liberians who are celebrating Obama, and its kind of great. And humbling.

I was discussing the election with Sis. Hawah this past weekend, comparing Obama to Liberia’s president. President Ellen was democratically elected in 2005 on the promise of hope and change for Liberia. Her status as the first female president in Africa has made her a symbol for gender equality and women’s rights. And a tremendous amount of expectation, idealism, and optimism was attached to her presidency.

Sis. Hawah thought that there has been a certain amount of inevitable disillusionment in Liberia with the president’s administration, as she has worked to tackle corruption, bureaucratic inefficiency, and the tremendous infrastructural damages caused by the war. Needless to say, there is so much work to be done, and change is slow. Liberia’s economic and social infrastructure was destroyed during the war, something I knew before I arrived here, but am learning to recognize around me only with time. Our home runs on a generator in the evenings, because the electric grid is still under reconstruction. There are street lights up and down Capital Bypass which give no light. There is no trash collection, so you burn, bury, or transport it to a dumping ground. There has been much progress on the roads, but there is so much left to do – dodging crater-sized potholes is something I have gotten entirely used to already. There are buildings like the Dukor Hotel, which was a beautiful hotel atop the highest point in Monrovia, which was looted and destroyed during the war, and it just a shell. (Incidentally, Liberia is looking for someone to redevelop it, so if you know anyone, have them call President Sirleaf.)

So those are some of the challenges. Progress is slow, or, as Liberians would say, “Small small”. I found it interesting that Sis. Hawah said the biggest challenge to progress in Liberia was not a lack of financial capital, but the lack of qualified, trained, committed people to do the work. The international community is pouring enough money and resources into Liberia to cover funding for rebuilding the country, but a major missing link is finding the right people for the job. The war interrupted the education of a generation – my generation – and caused thousands of educated, professional Liberians to leave the country, if you had the means to do so. Some returned, many did not. And corruption is still a huge issue in all sectors of the government, partly because so many Liberians were forced to focus on basic survival for well over a decade.

Ultimately, Sis. Hawah believes President Ellen is doing a good job. My coworker Andrew agrees. Sis. Hawah says that, at the end of the day, she has the commitment she needs to have, and that is why change happens, however small small. She also has the intelligence, the savvy, the education, the connections… those too. But it is her genuine commitment to the Liberian people that makes her a great leader. That commitment is what I see in Sis. Hawah too. I am still getting to know her, but that commitment is fierce and strong. I hope it’s catching.