Arrival

After 26 hours of transit time, we landed in Monrovia without any troubles. We arrived in the late afternoon to a bright and wet day with high humidity. Passengers gripped the rail of the exit stairs as they descended to the tarmac from the Airbus A320 that seemed a bit out of time compared to its surroundings. The airfield was small and without the shopping mall feel of Brussels, Dulles or Pittsburgh. Everything was simple. The baggage area had a single carousel. The space contained about 3 large advertisements and that was the extent of its commercialization. The terminal had only 3 customs workers and a few security guards. Our flight was all they had to process. While each of them were efficient and orderly, nothing gleamed or seemed polished like in our previous airports. The airport was an excellent introduction to the utilitarianism of Liberia. This sparseness persisted outside of the airport and could be seen in the cement block buildings and numerous all terrain vehicles. It is in most things. The contrast to The States is great, but there are more important things to be changed.