Oldest Running Catoon

First impressions

The other members of the team had me on the previous day receive a warm welcome, a colorful mix of people of various nationalities and professions: doctors, nurses, pharmacists, public health specialists, a dentist, a Protestant priest and several non-medical volunteers, the youngest just 16 years old. We all wear blue T-shirts and are supported by further 15 Liberian translators. The day begins at 5.00 clock in the morning. A short breakfast, we head out to improve the world (at least we think so ...). The base is a hotel in Monrovia. "Medical Team" is written on the four-wheel vehicles. The first impressions of the early morning Monrovia let me fall silent. The main road outside the hotel, "UN Drive" has yet to be built . drag the window past the ruins of burned houses. Yellow, battered taxis fight through the potholes and pollute the air with black smoke . 1989 began the civil war in Liberia. Only in 2005 was the first president in Africa, the peace process be completed with the election of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. Everywhere you see police officers, always in between vehicles of the United Nations, the WHO and other aid organizations. We cross the bridge to downtown Monrovia, the river lined with shabby huts. Countless people scurrying through a muddy market place, where are offered for sale under tattered parasols and wooden tables, food and other daily needs. "Diamond Foods LTD" or "God will hope Grocery Store" are sounding names.
make the large posters on the roadside even more thoughtful:
"Violence leads to jail, youth do not fight"
"Learn a trade, emply yourself"
Rebuilt Liberia, act against gun Violence "(a mob of people going at each other with clubs)
" Stop Mob Violence
"Raped? Seek free treatment now" (a girl is with her legs spread in a man)
or "Your wife is your friend, not your enemy" (a man beats his wife the whip, which is crossed out in red is) as to read and is illustrated with color images. Other posters have to wash your hands before eating ("What do do to avoid running stomach?"), The use of mosquito nets (It's easy to Prevent Malaria ") or repeatedly, at the risk of AIDS (" Abstince is cool, til i decide "I do" or "You do not know if your partner has HIV. Get tested" out). Among all the advertising Coca Cola, baby food, a mobile network, the Miss Liberia ...
The posters are only a first indication of all the trauma, the atrocities and problems, of which I will learn in the next 2 weeks.