Picture of the gangway being lowered from the ship during the opening ceremonies. Brad, the caucasian guy on the gangway, was one of our Segue participants from this past program. He's actually from Prince George, BC and came back to the ship after the Segue to serve a month in the deck department.
This was on the dock where all the dignitaries and important people were sitting. This was at the end when they stretched out their hands and were praying for us.
He was the US Ambassador to Liberia. He came and gave a short speech at the opening ceremonies and sort of stuck his foot in his mouth. He told the americans on the ship that he was proud of them, and that he was proud of us if we weren't american as well. Everyone sort of laughed it off cause it was pretty funny at the time.
At the present time there are 16,000 UN troops here in Liberia. Everywhere you look you see a UN vehicle, a tank, helicopter or something that has a UN sign on it. There are lots of checkpoints, but we get waved through them. But this guy was one of the guys who came with the UN ambassador. Big gun. We're not suppose to take pictures of them but I did anyways, this time.
This guy didn't stick his foot in his mouth. Actually gave a pretty good speech. The UN has done a lot for us. Given us armed guards on the dock and outside. They also haul in about 80 tons of water for us a day at a cost of $200/day because in Liberia there's no running water and no electricity.
Picture of the dock beside our ship. It's long and narrow. But we're the only ship docked there so we're well protected and have a lot of privacy. Kids are able to go out and ride their bikes and rollerblade. It's a nice setup.
People from many tribes throughout the country came and danced for us. Some of these pictures didn't turn out the best, but you get the idea. They sort of looked a little weird with the white powder on their faces. Cause in Benin a lot of people who were involved with Voodoo would do the same thing. But we were assured it didn't mean the same thing here.
Don't know if I spelled it correctly, but these guys played the djembes for the dancers and provided the beat. They were pretty amazing.
