nimba county, part III

as we snaked out of red light i had a foretaste of the road conditions i would face on the journey ahead. potholes were ever present. things and people ran across the road without warning.
during the trip i would see chickens, pigs, sheep, goats, kids, men with large burdens, massive potholes, massive puddles, broken down cars, broken down trucks, broken bridges, wreckages of vehicles, trucks stuck in mud and probably many other things i am failing to remember right now.
some interesting things:

• when a car or truck breaks down on or near the road, they do not have the reflective triangles we have. instead, they pull out clumps of grass or weeds and place them on the road to give drivers a warning.
• taxis honk. and then honk some more. honking can mean the typical "get out of my way" or it can mean "hello", "what's up", "come over here", "test, test, 1,2,3, test", among others.
• much of liberia was paved before the civil wars broke out in '89. so in places there are vestiges of good road but most of the roads are like a war zone. if you could watch people drive, you would think they are drunk as they weave back and forth across the road to avoid the pot holes. what i found to be really interesting was that as we went further and further from monrovia the roads seemed to be as bad or worse. but instead of weaving back and forth on the pavement, the most common path was off the pavement entirely. visualize a paved road ahead of you with multiple potholes. then imagine ruts off the road on either side where the cars actually pass...