The fact that Ebola is spread through bodily fluids means reducing physical contact has become a national obsession.
At any time of day, outside banks, shops and homes, people disinfect their hands with chlorinated water. Shaking hands is forbidden and some have donned latex gloves.
Last week Liberia's President, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, declared a state of emergency for 90 days. Her televised statement sent a new wave of fear through communities. Last week three days of national fasting and prayer pushed many businesses into shutting up shop.
But Sirleaf's message that the new arrangements allow the Government to "institute extraordinary measures, including, if need be, the suspension of certain rights and privileges", has left many wondering what will happen next.
"No, I don't think the Government has made the right decision," says one of the flats' residents, Christina Quinn, who has come down from the upper balcony clutching her 1-year-old twins. "Three months is not a short time to declare a state of emergency. How do you expect citizens to get food and do their normal business?"
Quinn says her mobile phone business has declined sharply since the Ebola outbreak reached Monrovia. She is a single mother with four children to support. "It will increase the hardship, tension and prices, because now there is no cargo in the Monrovia area - they have closed the roads."
Troops set up checkpoints last week to reduce people's movements in five of the country's 15 counties. But Operation White Shield effectively trapped hundreds of travellers and traders in Ebola-affected areas outside the city. Liberia's land borders have also been closed since July, cutting off vital trade routes.
Watch: Videographic: Ebola
The overcoated women position their bucket to catch rainwater shooting off the roof, and their organisation's director begins his Ebola speech. Michael John Bull of the British charity Street Child Liberia implores the group to take precautions.
"Please wash your hands several times a day - we want you to be alive when this Ebola thing is over. People are dying, medical staff are dying - even American doctors - so we know this is real."
Mentioning the two medical staff from the US charity Samaritan's Purse who contracted the virus is necessary to convince the crowd that the threat is legitimate. One of the reasons Ebola is spreading is because people presenting symptoms do not believe the disease is real until they become highly contagious.
Another reason is the wild rumours circulating in Monrovia, such as the one about doctors harvesting organs from unconfirmed Ebola cases.
Since the crisis began, medical staff have fled to avoid Ebola victims, forcing clinics to close. People with diseases common in the rainy season, such as malaria and typhoid, are thus unable to find treatment. Some fear if they do, doctors will suspect them of having Ebola and quarantine them with infectious patients.
Bull produces a bag of chlorine powder and adds it to the now filled bucket. But some of the men on the porch have lost interest and start asking for food. "If we don't get some support for our condition, we'll make trouble," one threatens, shivering in damp clothes.
His threat is a reminder of what Monrovians really fear: that the stability they have built up since 2003, when the country's horrific civil war ended, will fall apart.
- Observer
