Landmarks

Tomorrow will mark four weeks in Liberia. Things are finally starting to make sense to me.

But I can't shake the feeling that directions should include a cross street and a subway stop. 

"Hey. Where are we meeting?"

"Tides."

"Where is Tides?"

"Waterside."

"What?" 

"Just tell the driver to take you to Tides. The cab will be $5."

"But I'm coming from--"

"Doesn't matter. $5."

I don't like not knowing where I'm going. I don't like it at all. I'm a quick study if I can just walk around but my mom's sure I'll be kidnapped by the opposition. (She forgets I come equipped with the Perry family rage and a mouth like a sailor -- I'd be returned by noon.)  

I get sent to places that are "near Nineteenth Street" or "at ELWA Junction" or "behind City Hall"  since only major streets are named: everything else is a dirt road or an alleyway identified by its distance from the fish market or by which politician once lived there. 

Landmarks are my best friends here. But not everyone sees the same landmark, revealing a lot about the person giving directions. 

"Hello?"

"Hi, I need a taxi."

"OK. Where are you?"

"At the compound next to Palm Spring Casino."

"Next to what?"

"Palm Spring?"

"The compound with the red gate?"

"Yeah."

"The one across from Charles Taylor's place?"

"Across from WHAT???"

The New York Times

A warlord during [Liberia's] civil war in the 1990's, Mr. Taylor became president after the war ended. His forces [coerced] children into combat and made the hacking off of limbs their signature.

In 2007 Mr. Taylor became the first African head of state to be brought before an international court on war crimes allegations when his trial opened in The Hague. He is charged with instigating murder, mutilation, rape and sexual slavery during intertwined wars in Liberia and Sierra Leone that claimed more than 250,000 victims from 1989 to 2003.

Only someone who watched the war from 4500 miles away would give Palm Spring Casino as the nearest signpost. The locals know better; they share a nightmare that had a street address.