Chapter 10: Road Trip

Chapter 10: Road Trip

Saturday
July 13, 2019

Road trip: that was the theme of this Saturday. So this morning into the white NGO (non-governmental organization) Toyota Cruiser we climbed and off Jay and I went. The first part of our itinerary took us into downtown Monrovia for a few everyday errands: new servingware for the office, diapers, toys, snacks.

Now that I’ve been here for a few weeks, I’ve had the chance to drive with a few local drivers besides Jay. With that in mind, I can now confidently say Jay is in a class by himself when it comes to driving from point A to point B with maximum efficiency and speed (and ballsiness) through the streets, dirt roads, and alleys of Liberia. The choice of a Cruiser for the day was strategic. For the Cruiser was the right type of vehicle to navigate through many of the challenging routes we found ourselves. In the city, we passed cars struggling to climb hills and raced past packs of motorcycles weaving through traffic. In the backcountry is where the truck truly proved worthy in Jay’s capable hands. We passed everyone we could, bounced through deep muddy puddles, and scraped past trees and bushes hanging far into the road. Jay’s audacious navigation

that once made my heart jump into my throat two short weeks ago, now makes me barely raise an eyebrow. Exhilarating.

After the in-town errands, we stopped at Jay’s office for a bit. He caught up on work and had a meeting. I completed yesterday’s diary entry. Lunch was sweet and sour chicken with rice, cooked by a friend of Jay’s and brought to the office. Quite good. With this stop out of the way, it was time to head out of town. Clogged, suffocating streets became open roads with greenery as far as the eye could see. In forty-five short minutes, we found ourselves deep in the Firestone plantation where we visited a week earlier in a comfy Toyota Corolla sedan. Today, however, we were driving a machine capable of chewing up any path it came across. So we ventured much further and to places, we didn’t make it before.

A short stop for a roadside snack gave us one of the best pictures from my trip so far. A trio of children was selling items on the shoulder of the road. They carried their refreshments on

giant bowls balanced on their heads. Jay pulled over, asked for an egg. We bought two hard boiled eggs and two very small containers of spices for 50 Liberty. Tasty. Better, we got some great portraits of these beautiful children.

We also made a few quick stops for a couple, somewhat stealthy photos. All I mean by this is that Firestone has had enough bad publicity that it aggressively dissuades anyone from taking photos on their property. So more than once, Jay brought the truck to a quick stop and I jumped out to get a closeup of some trees or latex-collecting cups mounted to rubber tree trunks. A dash into the edge of the woods and back to the car.

We made it back to the house by 5:30, a great way to spend an afternoon behind us.