No choice
When the latest fighting broke out here, Comfort Zerzay could not run far. She hid in the woods nearby with her elderly parents, while her husband fled with their son. A midwife by training, Zerzay returned when LURD boys showed her the way to the clinic.
"I didn't have a choice," she said. "You have to work to save your life."
On the day of the visit, the fighters were apparently under orders to put away their weapons, but no one had bothered to keep the child soldiers away from view.
One boy, who looked barely 10, wearing a brown T-shirt that hung past his knees, explained in broken English that he was brought here after being injured in the war. On Saturday, he hobbled behind the visitors on his crutches, once gingerly approaching to shake Sheriff's hand.
Neither guests nor hosts mentioned the unsavory history between LURD fighters and UN workers. But in their messages of good will and cooperation lay hints that neither side could afford a replay of the past.
"Those that came to help us, those are dignitaries you are seeing here," Sheriff told his men. "Whether they come by road or they come by air they are welcome."
The first truckloads of medicines could begin to come here within a week, UN officials say.
By the end of the day, LURD officials had offered a battered house for the UN to set up its operations.
The town's commanding officer rode up on a scraggly white horse. "Please tell your people," urged Omar Khatib, the country representative for the WHO, "don't spoil things beyond what's been spoiled."
Then, the UN team climbed aboard the helicopter bound for Monrovia. Voinjama falls under the strictest UN security guidelines. No one is allowed to spend the night here.
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