Peter Levitov makes it to Harper

Having taught in Harper, Cape Palmas, from 1969-71, I was determined to get back “home” as part of the FOL service trip to Liberia. Prior to leaving the U.S., I had made numerous contacts to see if I would be able to get there following the service project in Kakata – – – but it wouldn’t be easy.

The regularly scheduled Liberia National Airlines (LNA) no longer flies down the coast. Missionaries don’t have fixed wing aircraft on which someone might beg for a ride. Private bush planes, which used to fly people and goods around the country, are no longer to be found. There is a ferry that transports gold ore but it does not have a reliable schedule and would take more time than I had, not to mention that I wasn’t looking forward to bobbing on the Gulf of Guinea for days. With the rainy season having come early, I did not want to venture on a 24 hour laterite and pothole road trip each way and wouldn’t have the time even if I had the inclination. I was told that the United Nations Military Mission (UNMIL), which has a significant presence in Liberia, has both a helicopter and a fixed wing aircraft that may allow certain people to occupy available seats to Harper and other destinations. Through the Guinean godfather of a friend’s son’s wife (yes, you read that right!) who is a senior U.N. official, I was able to get permission. So I sent an attachment of my passport and traveled to Liberia. My friend’s son confirmed that I was scheduled to travel on the Monday after I left Kakata and return two days later.

Upon arrival, I contacted the fellow who had made arrangements and was informed that the flight would not be available Monday because it would be moving troops that day. There was a flight scheduled for the next day, Tuesday, from Spriggs Payne Airfield just outside Monrovia. That sounded great because getting to Robertsfield in morning traffic would take an hour and a half. The Tuesday flight was canceled, however, because it was a national holiday, Unification Day. So I was confirmed to depart Wednesday and return Friday, which was fine with me. When I got to Robertsfield two hours before the scheduled departure, according to the April-May timetable issued by the U.N., airport personnel told me that the schedule had been changed, it was leaving from Spriggs Payne and it had already left. Not to be deterred, I was able to get on the manifest for an early flight on Friday and come back later that day as per the earlier confirmation. So on Friday I boarded the helicopter with a Russian crew and sat with about 10 soldiers from the Pakistani Army en route to the southeastern region of Liberia. Flying from that low vantage point gave me a birds’s eye view, literally, of the coast and the contiguous bush.

Although I had been back to Liberia for brief visits in 1973 and 1978, this would be my first chance to see Maryland County after the war. I was met at the airport in Harper by a delegation from Education First, a Liberian NGO to which FOL had given two Small Grants and escorted to their academy. The entire school, teachers, students, president of the school board, president of the PTA had a formal welcome program for me, replete with a cola offering, a benediction and welcome speeches by six year-olds students and several songs. After touring the building I was driven to see an old friend, the former Father Boniface Nyemah Dalieh in Pleebo about 20 miles up the road from Harper. After I had left Liberia, he had been elevated to Bishop in which capacity he served for 20 years before retiring on account of poor health five years ago. It was great to see Nyemah, now Bishop Emeritus, again and comforting to see that he was fully alert and quite conversational as we reminisced about old times.