Hey, there. Dan Hymowitz, one of the new fellows here. I've been in Liberia for two weeks now. So far it's been an incredible experience and obviously there are lots of interesting things to report. But I'll use my first entry to describe something surprising (to me) I saw before I even landed in Liberia. The main route to Monrovia right now is a flight that leaves from Brussels. My plane from New York got in to Brussels about five hours before my connection so I had plenty of time just sitting around in the airport.As other Monrovia-bound passengers wandered into the waiting area I found myself surprised by the types of things the other non-Liberians were traveling to the country to do: a couple from Alaska moving to a remote part of Liberia for a year to help rebuild the country's Jesuit college. A group of American couples on their way to adopt orphaned children. A man headed into the country for two weeks to train a class of Liberian ministers. And all sorts of groups of businessmen.It's probably just a reflection of my background but, prior to seeing this, my notion of a "typical" non-Liberian waiting for that flight was a World Bank consultant to the Ministry of Finance or a young NGO worker helping to reassimilate recently returned refugees.Admittedly, since arriving here, I have mainly been encountering that more "stereotypical" development worker. But fascinating to see there is a far broader array of rebuilding/aid efforts going on inside the country than I'd realized.
