Road trip to Firestone Plantation

Yes, THE Firestone.  As in the tires.

Little know fact: Some of trees that Firestones taps to get rubber to make their tires are in Liberia.  Bought for a ridiculously low price, the Firestone company owns a HUGE plantation that is like a city to itself with a hospital, clubhouse, golf course and even a school.  It's one of Liberia's best kept secrets. They also did an amazing job at curbing the spread of Ebola on the plantation: Article with video Firestone Did What Governments Have Not. A briefer albeit inaccurately titled article is How Firestone Shut Ebola down in Liberia.

One Sunday I spontaneously joined three colleagues for what ended up being an eventful yet delightful day.

Fascinated by how the trees are "tapped" or cut at a were precise angle in for the rubber sap to flow correctly.  Buckets are attached to the trees to catch the slow drips for days.  For some reason looking at this gave me an appetite.

After explaining to me how the seeds of the tree drop to the ground and create new trees like weeds, Ken went off searching for seedlings. The seeds come in clips of 3, sometimes 4.  In the background are beautifully manicured rows of trees. 

Firestone golf course.  Lessons $10 an hour?!

  

Me and one of my favorite folk.

After leaving Firestone we made a stop for catfish.  We ended up taking a look at the other items for sale.  We got nothing but a few laughs with the ladies.

Friend inspecting dried fish at the side of the rod to Monrovia.

Palm oil seeds

After leaving the catfish/palm nut/dried fish stand, Ken's car refused to start.  We were still a ways outside of town so we flagged down some help.  They jumpstarted the car.  A few miles down the road the car started sputtering and slowed down to a stop again.   By this time we were already in Monrovia. 

The remnant of the 11 dudes plus an Embassy colleague.

 The way crowds gather around unusual events, especially those involving foreigners, is uncanny.  When dudes started crossing the road to the car I estimated 15 people would gather.  I was too amazed to take a picture.  We ended up with 11.  They were unable to jumpstart the car this time around.  We called the Embassy and they sent a vehicle to tow us home.

Favorite picture of the day: Damsels in distress.

Lourdes and Ken happy to be towed.

Altogether a delightful day.