Burning Rubber

Tininga Medical Clinic to receive a new Maternal Waiting Home

We eased past the lopsided car that was packed with passengers as it jolted along the road. The jagged chasis was listed over what was left of the tyre as it slashed and burned around the rim of the wheel. "...These people - ruining their wheels..." said Sam exasperated...

Adolphus (left) with a Pharmacist Maxford

With Engineer Adolphus Gwaikolo and Logistician Sam Endee and we were visiting villages to select locations for medical facilities before preparing the tender information and newspaper advert for their construction.

The irony that we were traveling through what was once the largest rubber plantation in the world was not lost on us. Sam described how his father had risen up the plantation career ladder to be in charge of over 200 people. before surviving in his old age on the pittance of a pension the Firestone Company managed to provide for him.

Amos Z. Boyer (left) discussing plot options with
community members and health workers.

In each village we would seek out the local elders.

At Worhn Clinic, Amos Z. Boyer, the District Commissioner took the lead thanking everyone from God, President Sirleaf, Margibi County Health Offier to the Birtish people for our auspicious meeting. With the impromptu committee of men, we sucked our teeth and lined up the plot by eye against the papaya tree that everyone agreed was the boundary line.

In White Plains (which was neither white not plain) Mrs Massaquoi, the Chief's Wife, led a gaggle of ladies through the unruly undergrowth. We surveyed for the ideal position between the sheltering banana trees until amongst spontaneous dancing, the plot was finally approved. It was satisfying to see what a difference it will make when the clinic relocates and expands from its current home in the outhouse of a derelict house.

Mrs Massaquoi celebrating site selection at 3rd
attempt with staff and community in White Plains

Driving back to Monrovia we passed through villages where mansions were the only remaining monuments to the plantation owners who had pillaged the land to take profits back to America. In many of the clinics the wells hadn't made it through the dry season and women filled the corridr floors waiting for treatment. Gleaming churches of every denomination stand guard up the road against the oppressive poverty of the huts that people call home. The dried up swimming pool outside the house of an old presidential henchman used to house crocodiles apparently. The Chinese  Government had just finished a colossal new university; some mining interests were rehabilitating a railway line to reconnect rich mines of Bong County with the ports of the city.

Half build Taylor era Radio
Station in Monrovia

I arrived back at the hotel to find the security guards listening avidly to his mobile as Martin Luther King proclaimed once again that he has a dream. They mouthed the words in unison and nodded approval to the unshackling of slaves. An unfamiliar but strangely recognisable speech from Charles Taylor followed. I was tired, and didn't have the strength to ask about how the two were linked.
In a bar a week later, an oversized man in black polo neck and light grey suit finished up his plate of chicken wings. Senator "Do you know who I am?" Marias. was also the former Interior Affairs Minister under the Taylor government.

Monrovia city centre

The Senator sees the Premier League as England's greatest export and Liberia as it's own closest ally. He earnestly wishes that his people will have diverse opportunities in rural agriculture, back in the hinterland where they came from, easing pressure on a Monrovia that foreign interests have left bloated.
After a Google search it turns out that he's also been under investigation for murder recently, and was directly implicated  in a 2003 massacre of 369 people in the town of Glaro.

Old habits die hard it seems. Earnest wishes, whatever they are, might have to wait.

New Chinese made University

Beach in Monrovia

View across the bay from
Anglers Restaurant

Proposed site at Tucker-Ta