Taking Liberia out of Monrovia

Just me and my motorbike rider chillin' in the claw of monstrous machinery at the edge of an old iron ore mine. Note the difference in attire. West Africans freeze to death when the wind blows. Hey, I think that's my Dallas Cowboys starter jacket from seventh grade.

We picked up this hip old lady on the road and gave her a ride to a village. She asked us to pump up the jams in the car so she could get down in her shiny sequin blouse. Turns out she's a country doctor, offering up several variations on the same thing: mud. This one is for your ankle. You take this one for the knee. This one will clear your head. Hmm...thanks but no thanks, ma.

The Fertility Stream is teeming with giant catfish. If you're having trouble conceiving a child, the oracle will send you there. You must throw a piece of bread into the stream. If the catfish go for the bread, your problem is solved and you shall give birth. But if they don't, you will remain barren. Locals worship these magic catfish and will never eat them, even though they're tremendously fat and probably delicious.

Believe it or not, until just last year this was the prison for the tiny town of Zorzor. The UN found out, and now the prisoners are held in a new screened-in gazebo just a few yards away. Unconventional? I'd say so.

The Organization of African Unity (now the African Union) was first dreamed up in this Sanniquellie building during an historic 1957 meeting of three West African leaders. The white sign above has a nice slogan: Taking Liberia out of Monrovia. It's good to get out of the city and into the 'hinterlands' or 'leeward counties' as they call it. Charles Taylor dubbed it Greater Liberia in his heyday. And if you prefer to take your world out of Liberia, the web has come to Nimba County. The little internet café there is called "Nimba is connected to whole world."