Today in Liberia, it is a national holiday today in observance of the inauguration of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who is now serving her second term (and last, as she stated in her speech) as President of Liberia. Because it was a national holiday, all non-medical personnel at Ganta Hospital had the day off. Though this was the case, our dedicated Monitoring and Evaluation Team, Julius, Gabriel and Gary, came in for the day to finish data tabulation for the Family Planning mid term evaluation.
As we ate pepper soup (a typical Liberian dish- spicy and delicious!) at the office, we listened to Ellen speak over the fuzzy radio about hope and how far Liberia has come in the last 6 years, and how though Liberia has a long way to go, she knows that if the people work honest and hard, we will get there. It was a passionate and inspiring speech and the team commented that "this was the president we were waiting for in Liberia".
In the end, it was a peaceful and celebratory day, I am proud of this country which could have so easily slipped back in to old and bad habits towards violence but instead made the conscious effort to do the right thing for themselves, their children and their country.
Leah, Program Associate
