Sweet Liberia: Finding My Way Back Home: Sightseeing in Liberia

View from Ducor

Today, I spent the day with my ma sightseeing! I took about 400 photos!! All of which can be seen here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tweefur/sets/. We started off heading downtown FINALLY. Heading on Capital Bypass into Broad Street, I began to recognize locations! There are new trees planted in the middle of the street on Broad Street and the city doesn't look too bad. With the exception of some bad potholes, the road is decent and is being worked on. We headed up to Ducor--my first stop, where the Nigerian and Jordanian soldiers 'showed' me around. I was even offered tea by the Jordanian guy who acted like he hadn't seen a woman in years. He asked to take a pic with me, which I obliged, all this with him speaking entirely in Arabic. lol.

The Nigerian guys didn't want me to take their pic at first, but finally succumbed. They both escorted me INSIDE that nasty, dilapidated hotel and it was such a shame to see how bad off it is. But I hear there are plans to work on it soon, so maybe we will get our beautiful Ducor back someday. Seeing the pool me and my sister learned to swim in was crazy. It's just a dirty nasty hole in the ground but he view is still amazing there though.

A funny sidenote: when I first walked up to Ducor and started snapping pics, these two Liberian girls said: looka dis olla one with her tattoo dem..that genah [genie] o! to which I replied: da me you calling genah?? And they laughed not realizing I was Liberian.

Next we headed to Mamba Point, which has a lot of nice hotels. I went to my godfather, Sam Gibson's Krystal OceanView Hotel which is lovely. Also went to La Pointe restaurant and Cape Hotel as well as Mamba Hotel, all of which were top-notched locations with incredible views of the Atlantic.

Next we headed to the back of the Executive Mansion, on one road that was so stink I could barely stand it. We headed back to Sinkor to see our house, where Mom is staying.

Old Road has a new road and it looked a lot like I remembered it. Lots of market stalls and bike congregations. We went to all the old houses where I was born, my sister was born etc etc. I'm really annoyed by the high fences in Liberia, b/c it ruins the view and you can't see any of the architecture. It also gives the impression that the place isn't safe, but apparently that was a UN requirement for safety.

We went to see my grandparents' old house, which is now a Chinese clinic. We asked the people if we could take pics and they graciously opened the gates for us. The Chinese lady said in her Chinese accent: we fixed the prace but it used to be chaklah [Liberian term meaning 'messed up'!" It was TOO funny to hear. We picked my brother up and headed to Thinker's Beach....next to Barnes Beach. Finally, I was at the beach! At dusk, our rental car time was up (Mr. Tamba our driver was a great tour guide along with Mommy) and we headed home. Maya, Debra and I went to Palm Casino for the night for drinks and dinner. It was a hectic and fun day.....now I'm back to the grind and am glad I got a chance to see more of the city.