First Liberian Holiday!

Yesterday was the first holiday I have experienced in Liberia. It was Voter Registration Day! ...Yay!

That might not seem like a big deal for us, but for a country that was in civil war for 14 years, elections are a big deal and being able to register to vote deserves a holiday. Everything was shut down, stores, offices, etc. Liberian people who had not yet registered to vote had the opportunity to do so. I spent the day relaxing and ate Lebanese food. J Why Lebanese? My hotel is owned by Lebanese people. I noticed Lebanese people control quite a bit of property here…

I also recently saw my first parade here in Liberia. It was a “Pay Your Taxes” Parade! People had t-shirts, hats, banners and signs. Bands played. People danced. Good times. This is the moment when I knew I MUST have my camera with me at all times.

You might think, why would you need a parade in support of taxes??? We in America sometimes take for granted all of the things our taxes do for us. We’re able to have roads, sidewalks, public transportation, traffic and street lights, electricity, waste management, police, public officials and so much more because our tax dollars help pay for those things. Liberia doesn't have a lot of those things. It's still recovering from the war, so in many ways, they’re starting from scratch. Many children don’t get to go to school because there aren’t schools for them to attend. There are only roads in about 10% of the country and there are no traffic lights. Liberia’s police force started 5 years ago. Many of them don’t even have guns or weapons of any kind because they don’t have money to get them. (This also leads to corruption but that’s a story for another day…)