John in Ghana: Liberian Refugee Camp

Last weekend (#4) I stayed in Accra. On Saturday, I learned that there is very little to do in Accra as a tourist. I visited the National Museum. It's small, poorly curated, and shamefully deficient on the issue of slavery. It relied too much on poor quality photos and most items were presented with a descriptive name, without any further explanation. Some items had no name or description.

On Sunday, I jumped at the chance to visit the Liberian Refugee Camp. Two of the volunteers had gotten to know a teacher who volunteered at the Camp on weekends. They visited a few weekends ago and were asked to come again and bring more people.

The Camp about one hour drive from downtown Accra and is filled with refugees from the civil wars that plagued Liberia from the 1980's to about 2003. You may recall hearing about Samuel Doe and Charles Taylor and their ruthless attempts to take control and keep control of portions of Liberia, with child soldiers, blood diamonds and horrendous treatment of the population that made the news for quite sometime. Liberia had two civil wars, one in the late 1980's and a second in the 1990's into 2003. The camp is the largest Liberian Refugee Camp in Africa, with one person telling me there was up to 52,000 people at one point and now down to about 40,000 as some people have returned to Liberia. A recent article I read, said the maximum was 32,000 and is now down to 5,000, with most having repatriated to Liberia. Liberia has a new woman president who recently won the Nobel peace prize (2011) and the UN and Ghana no longer consider the people in the camps as refugees, because Liberia is considered safe gain. That means they now get little to no support, and they are no longer legally in Ghana. The camp did look a lot smaller than 40,000 people.

When we first arrived, we met with the people the two volunteers had met before and played with the children they care for. They were doing school work and seemed a little shy at first. Once we started to engage them, they were literally all over us. As I sat and talked to some, they started to climb all over. Mostly they want to sit in our laps. At one point, a little boy put his head down in my lap and didn't want to be moved. Some would touch my hair, clearly curious about my curls. One blond Danish girl became a living doll for them to play with her hair. While it's all cute, the desperation for affection is alarming. One of the teachers told me that many of the kids are orphans, some being children of rape (in Liberia) and their mothers refuse to care for them.

The kids were remarkably well behaved. Then I took out a large bag of "Malt 'n Milk" cookies, they come in packages that hold 3 little cookies. I was stormed by every child at once, until everyone got a little 3 pack. While with the kids, 2 of the older Liberians told us about their experiences in Liberia that led them to be here. The stories are very tough. The easiest thing to say is that everyone lost a lot of family and saw a lot of death and horrible depravations.

We then took a tour of the camp. The camp started in the 1980's in an area under the power lines that was all brush. The tents were eventually replaced by small concrete homes and a couple of years ago they finally got electricity. It now looks like a poor town. I don't think they have any water supply. It's likely trucked in. I saw that they have communal facilities for toilets where you pay a small charge.

We walked through the market and then walked through a few neighborhoods. The community has small businesses like any other place. At one point we stopped at a shop to get cold drinks and the owner talked about his Liberian experiences, as well as another man. Both were very articulate. They said Liberia has not improved as people claim and they feel they cannot safely go back yet. Afterwards, one of teachers told me that many people here participated in some way in the war and fear going back and begin recognized.

As we walked through, two people separately made the effort to get my attention and to talk to me. Both are unemployed and clearly desperate for any break. Each eventually asked for my email or phone number to be my friend, but clearly with thoughts of help on their mind. As we walked, I was talking to a young woman who teaches in the camp. I asked if she used a cane and she said she did at first but did not like that the kids were afraid of her. She no longer uses it and talked about how she has a relationship of trust with her students. This was wonderful and surprising to hear after my talks with other teachers who insist on using the cane. The teacher told me about her trip to Ghana as a child with her grandmother. They walked for days to get to a port and the boat was packed with no extra room. Her grandmother took in an orphaned child from the boat who was raped in Liberia, who still lives them. She said soldiers had sliced off her grandmother's ears and forced her to chew them or be killed. She then said her grandmother is very tough.

Pictures from my day at the camp: