Each year I go to Liberia for about two weeks.  I work with LIBTRALO (Liberian Translation and Literacy Organization) in providing computer support very similar to what I do at GILLBT.  Although there are many problems waiting for me, my primary goal is to teach Liberians how to handle the same problems in the future.

Thomas is the computer support person at LIBTRALO.  Most of his training has been hands on experience and so we spend a lot of time talking about the concepts behind what we are doing.  We spent a lot of time discussing virus removal and retrieval of data.

In the background you can see Omiga behind a computer.  He is LIBTRALO's desktop publisher.  When I wasn't working with Thomas you would often see me with Omiga or David Setiyee (not pictured).  My goal for this visit was moving LIBTRALO to Unicode (Unicode explanation).  As the desktop publisher Omiga got hit with the brunt of the work and so I wanted to make sure he fully understood what he was doing before I left.  David Setiyee was involved with both the Unicode conversion and virus removal.  Every moment of my time at the office was spent in the prescence of one of these three if not all of them together.

One of the highlights of my visit was seeing Liberia's president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.  I was in her convoy going to an event.  (She is the one in the middle of the group in brown)

Whenever she travels into the interior of Liberia she stops at villages along the way to talk to the people.

A truck follows her convoy.  Whenever she stops treats are handed out the kids and several bags of rice are also distributed.

A sample of signs that were held up by people in the crowd.

Not only did I get my picture with the president, I even got a few minutes to tell her about what I was doing with LIBTRALO.

Cultural dancers at the event.