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Going Back

11/11/2017 GMT

BBC World Service - From Our Own Correspondent, Going Back

What Ebola taught Liberia; Dominica's true grit; author Colin Thubron returns to Damascus

Lessons learned from the Ebola epidemic in Liberia; the indomitable hurricane survivors of Dominica; and author Colin Thubron's return to the beloved, storied streets of Damascus

Pascale Harter introduces stories of devastation and reconstruction from around the world.

Colin Freeman covered the 2014 Ebola epidemic in Liberia, when the country's then-Assistant Minister of Health was so busy he barely had time to talk to reporters and certainly wouldn't shake hands with them. Back then the nation was on an emergency footing, with panic as well as infections at a high point. But recently Colin returned to Monrovia for a more optimistic talk with Tolbert Nyenswah, who now argues the crisis actually ended up improving the Liberian public health system. 

Angellica Bell grew up in the UK surrounded by her grandfather's stories and memories of his homeland, the famously verdant "nature island" of Dominica in the Caribbean. She'd never been there before, but recently visited to see how the island and the islanders are coping in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria.

Colin Thubron is one of Britain's most respected author of travel narratives and novels. Over fifty years ago, he spent time in the capital of Syria, and was so entranced by the city's layers of history he ended up writing an entire book about it: Mirror to Damascus. A great deal has changed since then, over the decades of rule by the Assad regime and the years of civil war - so before a new edition of the book came out, he revisited the place. His memories and meditations on this great city evoke the full weight of all that has been lost. 

Photo: Syrian girls stands next to a poster of President Bashar al-Assad in the old city of Damascus on May 25, 2017. LOUAI BESHARA/AFP/Getty Images

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