The Crane

April 13, 2008
This crane sits on the dock to the west of our ship. It was used to load iron ore from the Bong Mines onto the ships before the civil war.

February 5, 2008
The picture above was taken the first week we arrived here in February.
Every day we watch young men in shorts and bare feet balance their way out along the ties and with a small hack saw start sawing at the massive beams.

April 8, 2008
Above is the picture of the crane taken last week. The whole diagonal section on the right is now gone.

Each beam is tied with huge bags full of polystyrene (which you can see in the picture above). Once the beam is severed it is dropped into the water and allowed to float with the bags.

One member of the team jumps into the water and swims the large beam back to shore. Such is the ingenuity and hard work when food is a basic unfulfilled need. Scrap metal can be sold by weight.

Mercy Chips

About twice a month we serve African style dinner on board the Mercy Ship. Everybody's favourite are the plantian chips we fry up from scratch.

Mercy Slips©

How would I make Mercy Ships a household name? I favour a similar route that Absolut Vodka took in linking a variety of outside sources (often pop culture and art related) to a recognizable phrase that immediately links it to a product (itself) while keeping the viewer interested in what the next cultural link might be. See Wikipedia for more details on Absolut's marketing history. Strategically placed ads, perhaps called Mercy Slips (Freudian...) or Mercy Clips, on specific Internet sites might capture a young audience and trendify NGO's (heaven forbid).

Let me see if I can give it a try with an old post of mine...Mercy Patterns.
Keep posted to get more Mercy Slips...

Downtown Monrovia, Liberia

Above is a map of downtown Monrovia. The port where the ship lives is north of this layout.

The streets are thronging with people. Surprisingly walking as a foreigner in the streets and markets bring very little harassment. Mostly people are curious to stop and say hi and ask you a few questions. They are extremely friendly.

Heading down to Water Street is always a busy market area. It is a great place to buy fabric, flip flops, soap, and to get your hair braided.

Large festering puddles that smell like sewage. At times the puddles are so big that you have to balance your way over strategically placed rocks through the middle of them. I can't imagine losing my balance, particularly in flip flops.

To the left is a UN tower guarding the broken bridge and anyone from going on it. I am not sure how the wheelchairs function as part of the barbed wire barrier.

A view of the broken bridge from the water.

One of many vacant and desolate buildings in the city core. It gives an idea of how opulent a country it was in West Africa before the war.


One of the inlets.

UNMIL (United Nations Mission in Liberia)

Here is a great little business venture that was started in someone's bedroom. A simple screen print with the UNMIL logo on it and suddenly you are bombarded with NGO's buying your shirts.


This is the entrance to the "shop". You have to duck your head to get past the door. I wasn't sure if these were all employees or it was just a place to hang out.

Here is the shop. The shirts hanging are still drying. The rest are stacked in womens tank tops, kids t-shirts, and full size t-shirts.

Women's tops are 3 for US$5.

Children's shirts are 3 for US$5.

Adult shirts are 2 for US$5 (and come in a great variety of shirts and colours). The shirts are all different makes and shrinking capabilities, but the price is cheap and we wear them all the time.

One of my favourite things is the sign outside...absolutely cool.

This was the first one that appeared.

Hand Painted Billboards in Liberia

There actually is a lot of work for illustrators in Liberia. Each of these billboards with a social message is hand painted.