The 4th Annual Surf Liberia Contest

Four years ago, Nate and I  hosted the 1st Annual Surf Liberia Contest at Shipwrecks in Robertsport. This year again, with partner Surf Resource Network, we're thrilled to be a part of such a great event.

Get there, if you can, and be a part of Liberian surf history.

We'll have t-shirts for sale at the event and The African T-Shirt Company will be re-launching just in time, with a full stock of Liberian and African-themed t-shirts to order!

Robertsport Community Works showcased at UNESCO Africa Week

We had the good fortune to have our community conservation and microenterprise projects featured recently at UNESCO's Africa Week in Paris. I designed two posters for the Liberia booth, both attached. If anyone wants the full files to use these at similar events, just let me know by email: elie(at)robersportcommunityworks(dot)org. 

The Cassava Beach trees

As of last Saturday, you are asked to pay $5.00 to sit under this almond tree and two others that border Cassava Beach. But only if you sit under it for the whole day. I saw a group of bikini and board-short clad visitors sleeping under the tree, but as they were asleep could not ask them whether the mysterious and well-anchored sign had been enforced. If it had, whether it had been enforced with cheerful hospitality. I wonder.

For the last few weeks, we've been seeing signs of life at Cassava Beach. The road, an overgrown path crowded high with elephant grass, was cleared. Areas around the trees were burned and small grasses now grow between the char. There is a wonderful little umbrella thatch on the sand that I'd love to copy for our campsite, and even a little changing area shelter made of bamboo. All wonderful and thoughtful. But I wonder how they decided to charge people who sit under the tree--and how that will work for them. There are quite a few trees on the beach in Robertsport--one of my favorite is the less-photographed giant cotton tree that borders Cassava Beach.

To me, the remarkable thing about this sign is that it's on a tree. At the Robertsport Community Campsite, we encourage our day guests and picnickers to hang out at the shade trees and hammocks next door. Our friend Aaron, who we're always giving our watermelon seeds to, runs a picnic site there. It works well. He makes a little money for helping out with tables and chairs and keeping the place clean. Our campsite guests get their peace and quiet. Everyone shares the pit latrine (or sneaks up to Nana's Lodge--we don't ask).

I've thought about it, and I'm happy in both cases to encourage people in Robertsport to charge people for services. I coached Aaron on how organize the picnic in a way people would pay him for it. Nate and I have worked closely with Wallace and T-Boy, who now work full-time at the campsite, on how to cheerfully request a $5 overnight campsite fee. All three men (two of them young--Wallace is a retired police chief and has the relaxed energy of someone at least 70 in my culture; a story about him later) collect a reasonable income from their mostly-weekend work.

I think the guy at Cassava Beach might have a hard time though, and not because people don't value the work he's put in. Paying for a person-to-person service seems fair and reasonable in West Africa--the people in Robertsport are happy to lend a hand no matter who's visiting. I think Cassava Beach's attempt to get in on the action would do best if if they focused on being there as "security" for the car or actively doing something. Anything! But asking me to pay to sit under a tree and I balk: trees are nature, part of our makeup, for relaxing. No one--not any one--should have to *pay* to sit under them. Looking at that sign makes me oddly offended.

This is either a sign of the industriousness of the people of Robertsport or the kind of impact all this dry season's visitors are having on people in Robertsport. If it's both, that could be good news. But on principle, I'm not paying $5 to sit under that tree.

The 1st Robertsport Community Beach Cleanup

Photos courtesy of Myles Estey.

On Saturday, 12 September, about 30 community members and expatriates met under the cotton tree at the Robertsport Community Campsite to participate in the first Robertsport Community Beach Cleanup. September's cleanup was part of the Ocean Conservancy's 24th International Coastal Cleanup -- the largest volunteer event in the world with over 400,000 volunteers in over 100 countries. The event raises awareness about the importance of clean beaches, oceans and waterways to human and environmental health.

Our goal was to collect plastic and marine debris from Fisherman's Point to Shipwrecks -- the main stretch of tourist and surfing beach. We gathered around 9 AM and by 10 AM had divided into teams lead by community members and RCW-sponsored surfers Alfred Lomax and Benjamin McCrumuda.
Each volunteer had a pair of thick leather work gloves and a rice bag to collect the trash, but the bags soon filled up and people began dumping the trash into a large pile at the campsite so that they could reuse their bags. This created a logistical challenge at the end, because we needed the trash in back in the rice bags to transport it to the dump, but it did create an impressive looking pile of plastic. We're scaling up our supplies for next month's cleanup and expect more volunteers as well.
We collected 28 rice bags in less than 2 hours -- over 500 pounds of trash. There were a large number of single-use plastic bags that, judging by the newish looking state they washed up in, are from around the Robertsport area. There was also a sizeable amount of older plastics that had broken and decomposed in the water. With the help of a marine biologist who is kindly guiding us, we're collecting data on the types and amount of marine debris collected -- data that will help us form intervention programs to reduce, reuse and recycle local waste in the future.

Every second Saturday around 10:00 am we'll be leading similar cleanups, so please join us or show your support by buying a $10 Cotton Tree t-shirt -- all the proceeds go to our environmental projects. Email me to get involved or pick up a shirt!

Behind Surf Tourism

Now and then Robertsport Community Works is approached by international journalists who seek a better understanding of our mission and our projects. In a recent interchange with a journalist who has considerable experience with surf publications and sub-Saharan travel, we were asked a question that gets to the heart of surf tourism:

"How much are you interested in increasing surf tourism in the area, and how much are you interested in just seeing to it that whatever comes is positive, clean and beneficial to the locals?"

Waves can only handle a certain number of surfers before they get crowded and become an unrelaxing hassle. All of the expatriate locals in Liberia enjoy waves that are shockingly uncrowded; they can be hesitant to embrace programs that provide Liberians with more surfboards or initiatives that attract more foreign surfers.

This journalist's question probably splits surf communities apart more often than it knits them together. My original thinking was definitely protectionist. I wanted to "see to it that whatever comes is positive, clean and beneficial to the locals" and I looked forward to enjoying the uncrowded waves with a few good friends. But against my own better interests as a surfer, we're focusing more and more on "increasing surf tourism in the area."

Why work to clutter up something that sometimes feels special because it is so isolated? The answer can be found in a raft of analytical documents about Liberia's current vulnerability. Youth unemployment is estimated at around 50% (at the absolute lowest) and opportunities for education and employment border on non-existent. This is the most destabilizing fact about this country--and it is a fact that is making many investors (private and governmental) too worried to inject real cash into the Liberian economy. Tourism can add to the nation's stability by providing lots of low-skill jobs and by providing a clear incentive to control violence and the country's public image.

I'd rather see more surfers in the water if it brings more jobs and if they help to jump start the tourism industry of Liberia. Sitting at the inaugural meetings of the Tourism Association of Liberia--to which Robertsport Community Works is offering support--makes it clear how much work must go into rebranding a country that is still widely associated with terrible things. Surfers are often some of the most adventurous travelers, some of the people who are most willing to give image-challenged nations a second chance--and then to brag about it to everyone they know.

Liberia doesn't need a closely guarded secret; Liberia needs help.