Pleebo & Harper

A little girl resting on a bag full of Casava



Marylanders returning from the bush

Even though Pleebo is the biggest city and business hub of Maryland County, I did not come across a single paved road in the city. The roads were potholed and the houses just seemed like a minor improvement from the mud houses that we had seen in the forests. It just appears as though a small village grew to be this city in a blink of an eye but somehow it remained a village since it never wanted to grow up to be a city.

Harper entrance

The late President Tubman's home

A lot of people (especially my colleagues) would be surprised to know that my company actually had some serious operations here back in the days before the political turmoil that embroiled this nation in the 1980’s. There is a different company that has a concession with Government of Liberia now and operates the estate that my company once operated.

Immigration check point at Harper

The kid in the white jersey is the one who lost all his money

Pleebo though an over grown village, does have a couple banks. There was however a period of 20 odd days while I was there that there was no money in the bank. Evidently the only way physical cash can be brought to Maryland County is by air as both the land and sea routes are susceptible to theft (which is a serious problem in a lot of places in Liberia). Since there were no planes flying into Harper due to the runway being in a bad shape, there were no substantial funds in Maryland to conduct normal business operations.



This is one of the boats that we used to ship our rubber



That is perhaps the first time I have encountered a situation when there is just no money in a city to perform any business activity and it just seemed unfathomable that something like this probably happens even today. It’s a far cry away from swiping a credit card or stopping by the nearest ATM machine to withdraw cash. It’s a welcome reminder than plastic is just plastic in some regions of the world.

An idle canoe in Harper

City of Harper from a distance

Since there’s not a lot I can write about Pleebo other than its humble infrastructure I will reflect a little on the city of Harper. Harper which is the administrative capital of Maryland is about an hour away form Pleebo and even though the road leading to it is unpaved and uneven, the city itself is surprisingly decently developed compared to most other places in Liberia. Most of the roads in Harper are concrete and even though they were laid out before the war, they have stood the test of time and war pretty well. It is said that the reason for Harper having decent infrastructure is because the late President William Tubman who is considered as the father of mordern Liberia hailed from this region and he is credited to having done a lot for this region. We even drove past his mansion which now is occupied by squatters and only its shell remains as a proud reminder of what it used to be. More info in him can be found here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Tubman

The historical monument

Kids at the monument

We visited the port from where we load our rubber purchased in Maryland and it was a very small one at that. There was only one ship that was anchored and it was a half sunk corroding defunct one. The city is also a base for a lot of UN operations and we actually had our lunch at Pakistani camp. It was good to gorge on some good South Asian meal after a while of living on fish and rice with lots of oil. After lunch we visited the city center which had the typical open air market and a few Lebanese general stores lining its main road.

A typical rainy afternoon in Pleebo...rain every afternoon is not uncommon here making it one of the most wettest part of Liberia

There was a bunch of kids that were gambling and I decided to try my luck. I bet just 20 Liberian dollars as a token with the hope I loose it but the first bet I had, I won twice the amount I bet. Feeling bad that I was winning money from the kid, I tried three more times and each time I won. At this point I was pretty embarrassed that I was draining the poor kid of all his money but it was all fun for the more than ten other kids who were watching my winning streak. After the 4th win, I decided to quit to not win all the kids money, and bought candies with the money that I had just won and distributed it amongst the kids. I even allowed the kid running the operations to take the majority of the candies which he promptly did. After all, the poor dude had just lost a lot of his money. I returned an hour later to see if I could be lucky and loose some money and maybe let the kid recover his losses but I learnt from the kids nearby that I had bankrupted him for the day so he had closed shop for that day.

This guy caught a wild rat...hmmm...a nice lunch

Just an unsuspecting stroll in the city and we came across an unexpected historical monument. The monument was very close to the city center (in fact it could have been the city center a long time back) and it commemorated the very first pioneers who landed in the region on February 22nd 1834 and the head of the indigenous people who received them that day. In the background of this monument was a very elegant church. Considering the less than unkempt condition of the surroundings, I wonder if the people of Maryland really appreciate the significance of this monument.

Grilled fish with Liberian pepper for dinner

Path to a small village called Dweh Blo

The next day we decided to visit the Ivory Coast border. Now, during the time that I was there the political turmoil in Ivory Coast was very much active and there was a thought that maybe there could be a problem visiting there. We check around and found that the border was open and the locals had absolutely no problem passing through the border so we decided to visit. Earlier we had already encountered the Guinea border from Ganta so we had to complete the deal by visiting the Ivory Coast border.

People crossing the Ivory Coast border...it was as easy as it looks

A local talking about how the Ivory Coast crisis has affected him

The border was about 45 minutes form Pleebo and contrary to what the general perception would be of the border it was very calm and sleepy. In fact, life was going on as usual for the locals who took a dugout from the Liberian side of the border to the Ivory Coast border to shop at the market. The Liberian immigration officer later showed me a special pass that is given by the Liberian Government and accepted by the Ivorian counterpart than is given to people who were crossing the border for the market. It was just an indication that life just goes on for the locals, political crisis or no crisis.