The next morning Karrus met me for breakfast at the hotel, and we went for a walk into the centre of town. It was better than I expected. I had been expecting badly potholed roads, shelled buildings, hardly any open shops or stalls, and a grim population. In fact, it could have been any city in West Africa. The roads were basically sealed and in good condition. This is Africa so there were still potholes, but it was totally drivable. Karrus explained that the Chinese had been in replacing roads and highways. Many roads looked new. Apparently President Johnson Sirleaf had engaged Liberian engineers to start replacing road a few years ago. They did, but the roads quickly fell apart. The Chinese rebuilt the roads again, very professionally, using huge heavy machinery. Many times in this trip I would point something out and ask about it, and the answer was, the Chinese are building that.
There were certainly a lot of building shells: concrete structures a few stories high, with no windows or doors. And if you looked you would see evidence of rocket holes. RPG’s were used indiscrimanetely during the war. But the strongest impression was simply, this is a typical West African city. I was really surprised. Karrus said that 4 years ago it looked like a war zone, but now it had vastly improved.
The city is a total cash economy. I doubt anyone uses the local banks or pays taxes. US dollars are used for any amounts over $1, and Liberian dollars (64 per US dollar) are used as coins. It means paying something in US dollars, say handing over $5 for a $3.50 purchase, means you might get USD 1 and LIB 50 change; or you may get LIB 230 change, same thing. It takes a bit of getting used to. You need to carry both currencies on you and notes just fly around.
A hotel car costs $10 per hour, and a Landcruiser with a driver is $150 per day, plus fuel. Getting around would be expensive. As an experiment I went with Karrus to his place in Sinkor, about 6Km out, in a taxi.