Getting sorted
Joe Leesolee always thinks big. A former police officer, he is now a director at the headquarters for postal services in Monrovia, Liberia.
"The budget [of the post office] is very small in terms of the big dream we want to offer our people," he says.
Mail, according to Leesolee, ignores the entrenched social stratification that has been a source of so many of Liberia's problems.
"We breach divisions between the haves and the have-nots," says Leesolee.
At the end of the civil war in 2003 the postal service was low on the priority list but deliveries resumed in 2006.
Recent stamp issues have 'borrowed' the leader of another country
Most mail is sent to or from the capital, very little internally; probably because of very poor roads and low rates of literacy.
There are few physical addresses. Boxes are available, or the sender can scribble a telephone number of the receiver on the item and they will be called when it arrives.
An estimated 10,000 letters and 600 packages come into Liberia monthly, about 500 of each are sent out.
International deliveries are at a very low level
Can 'snail mail' withstand the forward march of email and the internet?
While Leesolee knows many other places in Africa are increasingly turning to the internet for most of their communication needs, he is confident that his beloved 'snail mail' will be around for a while to come.
"How will you check your email when you don’t have electricity?" he asks.
Glenna Gordon is a journalist based in Monrovia