Trip to Bong Mines

At the weekend I had the opportunity to go with about 25 of us to a place up country called Bong Mines. The whole thing was quite an experience. We got up early Saturday morning and drove a mile or so up the road to the railway ( I say railway, I wouldn't really call it a 'station'!). There is a 'flat' or open train which heads up to the north to the Iron Ore Mining areas taking various goods and chattles up and down the same route every week. The rail line is pretty much the only direct connecting route to the area apart from some roads which are pretty ropey in rainy season, so is the main route for 'trade' etc.

The landrovers drove onto the very rickety looking train backwards, and then we were able to sit up on top of the roof. A few of our group cycled to the train, and joined us. Just next to the train there was a huge area where there had been a delievry of rice, charcoal and fruit etc, so there were hundreds of people swarming round to buy thng sto sell at the markets, quite a colourful site!

The train set off, and the journey was fantastic. We passed through Monrovia and the chaos and the tin roofs by the hundreds all swarmed together. People already outside, kids waving frantically, chickens all over the place. As we went further, the surroundings became more and more lush, there was some farmland, samller villages, with houses grouped around fires. eventually the vegetation was thick as can be. Every now and again people would appear at the side of the railway track from paths we couldn't even see. Lots of people were carrying machettes, presumably coming from fields or work. The further we got, the more 'activity' there was in front of us. Many people use the railway track as their walking route, so the driver had to continually blow the horn so people would move out of the way. Many people had huge and amazing bamboo contraptions on wheels that they had to hurrdily heave out of the way when they heard the train coming. The response as we went past was crazy! All the children and a lot of adults would point and shout and wave and leap around, I guess 25 white people sitting on top of a landrover, flying past on a train is not exactly a common place site.

We did have a few mishaps with the train breaking down, and we gathered quite an audience at one point. One of the kids who had seen us dashed off in the undergrowth and came back a few minutes later with several eager faces. We waved and asked for names and they giggled so much. Then we decided that singing and action songs cross all boundaries, so we started a 'heads, shoulders knees and toes' rendition which they caught onto pretty quickly. After much giggling they then sang us a song, this went on until finally after hoying some water from a pretty grimey looking stream into goodness knows where in the engine, we set off again.

We eventually arrived at Bong Mines and were shown by the guy who was our guide where different areas of the mines were. We went up some pretty steep 'roads' but the fantastic views were worth it. We also saw a huge valley where in the war the rebels had taken many innocent poeple to , tortured, lined them up and shot them. Our driver and guide, had actually been there in that valley lined up, but for whatever purpose his life was spared. Pretty horrific to think of, and amazing that he was prepared to return there. We then headed down the mountain , after spotting a clearly leaking tyre, 'we'll fix it when we get down' said our guide...what are you kidding me...were you there when we barely made it up in first gear??!! But. we survived with a completely flat tyre by the time we got down, quickly repaired by the blokes ( I don't do tyre changing...!).

We visited the Bong Mines Hospital (see hospitals post) and then headed to catch our train back. Our guide bought some bags of charcoal, and people purchased a few other things from the locals, who were very interested in these strange white poeple. being so far out in the bush, it is quite likely many of the people had never seen a white person before.

On the way back, it was the time of day when lots of people were out doing their washing in the rivers, so there were lots of families washing themselves and their clothes. All along the railway there were little areas where clothes were lain out next to the railway tracks, presumably to take advantage of the heat of the tracks and the rocks. I did wonder if that was a bit risky though! We had an awesome day, and everywhere we looked on the way back there were new things to see and my mind was overloaded with images of homes, chickens, children, lush vegetation and trees. It was such an amazing way to see more of Liberian life out in the sticks!