Fidgety boys and girls in school uniforms gawked as the sport utility vehicles rolled up. Teachers snapped pictures, bodyguards stood watch and Liberia’s female president stepped out of a car at a Tampa preparatory school.
Florida is not a hub for Liberian immigrants and most students at Berkeley Preparatory School knew little about the West African nation weeks ago. But they began studying up on the country after learning Africa’s first democratically elected female head of state, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, would visit.
On Friday, a school chorus sang “Let there be peace on Earth” as the smiling leader clapped and posed for photographs in her traditional green dress and shawl.