Some friends of ours have just come back from a trip to Liberia and the Central African Republic. Simon and Laura are involved in setting up the London branch of hl’s favourite charity charity:water so they took the opportunity to get a firsthand feel for the situation themselves and to bring back a record of what they had seen.

One of the great things about charity:water and specifically it’s founder scott is the way it manages to make incredible cultural leaps seem natural and easy. That a former nyc party promoter has gone and set up a really practical way to help thousands of people somehow makes it possible to be involved in engaging with people in a completely alien environment without your cultural identity being a massive obstacle-it just seems like a natural, obvious response.

Anyway Laura tells a great story and there is an unpretentious honesty that comes through in her blogging that makes you think, firstly ‘damn that sounds crazy’ and then ‘maybe that’s the kind of crazy I could do with a bit more of’.

Check out the first 8 parts of her blog on the links below.

I couldn’t find any Liberian music to post . (I’m sure that’s more a reflection on my lack of knowledge more than anything else) But here is an incredible track from another West African nation (Mali), which I absolutely love. (and am tempted to get my re-edit on with)

Amadou & Mariam-Coulibaly

Laura’s Blog Parts 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8