Viva la Liberia

I'm finally back in Nairobi after a long journey. Driving back through the city on the way home last night, I was surprised at how happy I felt to be back. Maybe that was my wallet talking. I had just come from a 24-hour layover in Brussels, which distinguished itself mainly by high prices, and Liberia, where the prices were even higher. Over the past two weeks, I spent money like Paris Hilton.

In Liberia I didn't have a choice -- the economy is completely shattered, U.S. dollars are pretty much the only legitimate currency, there are no banks or ATMs, and no one ever has any change. Ever. So depending on what you have in your wallet, a taxi ride to the corner can cost $5, $10, $20 or $100. I brought a thick wad of $10 bills into the country and guarded them with my life. At restaurants, when people asked me if I could break a $20, I said no, and then fished exact change from my wallet like a jerk.

Despite all the difficulties of working in Liberia -- the expense, lack of amenities, intermittent power and water, occasionally unruly crowds, death-trap taxis and potholes the size of dumpsters -- it was pretty thrilling to be there for the election. I'm not sure whether it registered in the American media, especially with world news this week understandably dominated by the earthquake, but the election was a historic moment for a devastated country. Even a cynic would have had to be impressed to see people wait seven or eight hours in the searing heat to vote, and continue to wait long after dark, in a country where political leadership has brought nothing but destruction and disappointment for the past century and a half. Whether they're in for more disappointment with the new administration remains to be seen -- in any case it looks like the election is headed for a runoff.

As all us exhausted, sweating journalists waited for the flight out on Wednesday night, the frontrunner in the race -- George Weah, a soccer legend who in Liberia is revered like Ali -- showed up at the airport. The journos started buzzing -- Wait, he's leaving the country...he knows something we don't. But actually he was just dropping off his wife, who lives in the States. Weah has a huge fortune and has basically been giving his money away to various causes in Liberia for the past decade. His wife wasn't so lucky -- she flew coach.