Private Richard Pabai

I first met Liberian refugee Richard Pabai in Benin in 2004, when he worked on the Anastasis as a day-worker in the Deck Department. He sailed with us to Liberia in 2005, and left the ship's employment in early 2006, when I tried to help him set up in business selling firstly tools and then clothes from a wheelbarrow. In 2007 he got quite sick with typhoid, and then I didn't hear from him for over a year...until this week when he visited the ship in army uniform. Yes, Richard Pabai is now one of the American trained new Armed Forces of Liberia! I am very happy for him! He has five sets of uniform, three meals a day, clean water to drink, enough current to charge his mobile phone, and a doctor to treat his malaria and reoccurring typhoid...what more can a young Liberian need? Olly

Libby, me and Private Pabai.