Why hello! I figured that I’d have an ‘about’ page since the blog doesn’t really tell you anything about what I’m doing here in Liberia. Come to think of it, the blog doesn’t tell you much of anything…
First, the title. Journey Without Maps is the title of a Graham Greene travelogue recounting a journey he took, oddly enough without maps, through Liberia. Yes, it’s kind of pretentious to name a blog after a book, and a Graham Greene book at that…but all my other blog title ideas were vaguely offensive (I doubt you’d want to check back on the happenings at www.thehorrorthehorror.wordpress.com)…AND as I thought about the title more, Journey Without Maps made sense. In many ways, ahem, I am journeying without a map here. I’ve never been to Africa, save for a day-trip to Morocco where I rode a camel, watched a snake being charmed, and bought a fez. Not necessarily in that order.
I decided to create this blog to give you something entertaining to read as I ‘journey’ here; the one thing I don’t want to do with the blog is to ramble on about all the things I’m doing, how fantastic life is, etc. In my experience, no one wants to read the travel blog that catalogues the minutiae of bloggers orgasmic experiences.
So, what am I doing here? I work for The Carter Center on a rule of law program. The Carter Center works with the Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Internal Affairs and traditional people to help to create a working and responsive justice system, accessible to all. I work with some fantastic people and the job affords me many opportunities to travel around the country. A lot of the most hilarious things that happen here, the things that I would like to sit down and type about, happen during the course of the job. For obvious reasons, these things are absent from my blog.
I hope you enjoy the writing. If you’d like to be in touch, I can be reached at seanmacleay@gmail.com.
Thanks so much for your blog. I am originally from Liberia. I live in the ELWA area of Robertsfield Highway before coming to the US. I miss Liberia. I use to walk those beaches along Kendija and Coopers beach. hope you had a good stay in Liberia. Even though we been through war. Liberians always are decent and friendly people. We especially feel that towards America and the American people. There is no place in Africa that certainly feel close and cultural aware of America. There is so much influence of America on Liberia. From the money to the pledge of Allegiance, flag, to the free slaves and most importantly English and civility.
People ask me all the time, how you adapted to American society so well. I tell well I am from Liberia. If I was from Kenya or Zambia things would have been harder for me. By the way I am 23 years old. I been here for 7 years now. I love to go visit back in the near future.
I want to know how are things going on. What are the improvements and new developments in the country. What are the prices for things like basic stuff. Daily things we take for granted in America, like grocery, gas, rent, food (eating out) water. What is you typical budget for a westerner like. If I go back my like as it once was will not be the same. America will shall I say “spoiled” me.
My email. cldsleyon@yahoo.com
By: Claude on April 13, 2009
at 8:34 pm