I have travelled down to Buchanan to visit Palm Bay, one of the concessions leased to my client. The coast road was good having been the subject of a major aid programme. Buchanan is the second port of Liberia and the point of export for iron ore mined in Liberia and Guinea.

The best of Buchanan, Feb 2011

There is a railway from Buchanan running 300 miles north to the Guinea border. It was out of commission for the war years but has been rehabilitated in expectation of the resumption of iron ore mining. Believe it or not some of the granite chips now used as bedding material for the relayed track was imported from the quarries in the Outer Hebrides. There is suitable stone in Liberia but no company capable of quarrying, transporting and guaranteeing delivery on time. So stone from the Lord of the Isles is shipped a quarter of the way round the world. The locos are coming from Texas and expected ‘soon’.

The railway was used as a route marker during the height of the civil war and an army entered and occupied Buchanan. How bad was it? Very bad I am told. A Liberian told me he decided to flee when he heard that the US embassy was advising all Americans working at Buchanan to pull out. He left town immediately with very little in his car and was not able to return to his home for 2 years. The army of occupation comprised a high proportion of child soldiers and I am told a child with a quick temper and an automatic rifle will strike fear into the most hardened of regular soldiers, let alone mere mortals like us.

Today, if you are Liberian, in your twenties and thirties, and you did not complete elementary education because your country slid into civil war, you are very focused upon opportunities for your children. Everywhere along the coast road one sees children in smart clean school uniforms emerging from semi derelict houses; a mother and her child sit at the road side and mum proudly brushes her daughter’s hair. How come the uniform is spotless and the blouse freshly pressed when there is no house and no electricity?

Must be training day at his school!

So it should be: that children of the previous generation who were so intent on violence and mayhem have become so family oriented and determined to secure the best for their children.