Bong Mines Train Excursion

Sunday, 21 June 2009

How many people does it take to charter a train? Apparently about 35. That was last Sunday’s activity: boarding a train and heading out to Bong Mines (where I had gone by car a few weeks ago to meet with the Malayah Association). It was cool to get to see the countryside while sitting on the outside deck of an old train. The trip there was uneventful except for the random woman in our group who decided to fulfill a lifelong dream of standing on the roof of a moving train and raising her arms in the arm as a sign of victory. I don’t know who she is or where she came from – but I couldn’t even watch. I enjoy doing things that are a little risky, but that was just dumb. There’s a line. Anyway, aside from that the train chugged on up the slight incline to Bong Mines and we arrived in style, though a little later than planned.

Some people had their cars on the flat bed of the train to go tour the mines, but I was amongst those who did not. So we went into town and grabbed motorcycle taxi’s to take us around. I shared with Maura, and was driven by a guy who recognized me from my last visit: You are the white woman who came here before and spoke Fula. He was a good driver, but sadly the bike was not strong – we got a flat tire at the first lake. Which was really fine, he went back to fix it and me and Maura sat in the grass to wait. Some people with pineapples and bananas passed us, so we purchases some and enjoyed them while we waited. It was pretty great, even though we didn’t get to see much of the mines. A random man did approached us and demand to know what our “mission” was at the mines, we kept explaining we were just tourists, but he was not appeased. Nonetheless, he left us alone. By the time our driver, Jacob, returned, it was time to head back to catch the train home.

We stopped to see Ma Finda in the town and she, of course, gave me 50 plantains to bring home with me – even though I only stopped to see her for a few minutes. So nice. We rushed down to town to meet the train, which was a little ways outside of town loading the cars and those people. We waited and waited and Maura started a game of duck duck goose with the crowd of kids who had gathered to stare at us. Still the train didn’t come. Apparently, the guy who kept asking us what our mission was, had called his friend and they were preventing the train from leaving. We were supposed to report our presence to them, but didn’t know. They held us up for a while, but after about 45 minutes we were allowed to go.

The way home was gorgeous with the sunset and much much faster – the slight incline down made a huge difference. Just outside of Monrovia, we were picking up speed as we passed through a town, blowing the horn all the way. But right after passing over the main road of the town the train started to slow dramatically, and one of the train guys ran past me to the back, saying, “We’ve struck someone.” It was truly an “Oh shit” moment. We struck someone!?! The train we’ve chartered has potentially taken someone’s life?!? Seriously horrible! That alone makes you think “oh shit.” I can’t not go look though, so I rush to the back of the train too. From the last flat bed, we can see a huge crowd forming around the tracks behind us. It’s getting dark. A huge crowd is forming. IF the person was struck and if the person was killed. . . how will the huge crowd react to the train-full of foreigners? Another dose of “oh shit.”

Luckily, we didn’t actually hit the person. Apparently, it was a guy on a motorcycle who wasn’t paying attention – so as the train was coming he kept crossing, the front of the train passed him without striking him but the conductor thought it would have been impossible for him to stop himself from hitting or getting pulled under the side of the train. But somehow he actually did. Once this was clear that we didn’t kill anyone, we got the heck out of there and home to Monrovia.