Adventures in Liberia

For all of the ridiculous things that happen to me in Israel, hearing stories from my brother, who is currently working in Liberia, puts things into perspective. Check out his latest story of purchasing a car.

I have been in Liberia (West Africa) for the last few months and I am planning on sticking around for a while longer, so I figured I would buy an SUV (what they call here jeeps), which I should be able to sell relatively easily whenever I leave. I was told that Toyota Forerunners and Nisan Pathfinders are the two best vehicles to get in Liberia - mainly because there are so many of them that spare parts are easy to find and dealers know how to maintain them. So instead of buying a small, energy-efficient sedan that I thought I would be the first car I purchased, I ended up with a gas-guzzling Nisan Pathfinder. It is worth pointing out that the streets are in terrible shape (one of the things the World Bank is trying to fix), and driving a sedan is asking for trouble.

I finally found one I liked in my price range and decided to buy it last Saturday, after having a garage run by a Lebanese friend of mine check it out. The only problem was a minor one with the starter. I went to the garage that checked out my car and asked them to fix the starter; they said I could wait until I went on vacation in December.

I got back into the car to drive to the office, but could not start the car. Then I tried to turn the ignition really fast and killed the battery. I called the garage and asked them what to do. They said bring it over. I asked, how? They said get a jump, or get some guys to push it. Fortunately, I was facing in the direction of the garage, only about 300 meters away. I found some motorbike taxi guys nearby and asked them if they wanted to make small money. They gave the car a slight push on the decline toward the bridge. When the engine is off, the brakes don’t work. The only way to slow down was by pulling the emergency brake, which I gripped tightly in case I needed to use it. It was a typically warm and humid day, and I could not unroll the windows, so I was baking on the inside. The car went down the decline and fortunately I met no other vehicles or pedestrians in my way.

Midway over the bridge the momentum stopped and I needed another push. More guys joined in, seeing a white guy in the car who would pay them money. Many climbed on the side and roof of the car as we hit another slight downhill. They were so eager to take me for a ride (pun intended) that they pushed me passed the garage, so we had to go back about 100 meters in reverse. One of the guys almost convinced me to let him steer the car, but then I came to my senses, despite the disorientation of being inside a sweltering car I just bought with a shady bill of sale and no brakes, surrounded by about ten very excited Liberians, all arguing for money, many of whom were probably ex-combatants (which is the case for many of the motorbike taxi guys).

The guys pushing were not listening to the guy directing. If not for the emergency brake we would have hit several cars and bikes going both backwards and forward. Finally we made it to the garage and the guys demanded $20 US among the group of them. I told them that that was ridiculous. I was planning on giving them each 20-40 Liberian dollars (between 30-60 cents), which is still probably more than the job was worth ($20 is a lot for Liberia, when they did 15 minutes of easy work, and most people in the city earn between $2-$5 per day). They hardly exerted themselves, but they were starting to get agitated. The leader lowered his demand to $15 and then $10. Finally I gave then about $8.50 to split, which was way too much, but I wanted them to go away. When I left the garage I still saw them arguing over how to split the money, so I went to the other side of the bridge before walking back across the river and called a taxi. Four hours after I left the office I got back to work.

Liberia is a little bit like the Wild West. It is important to be able to flow with things, but to have enough sense to know when a situation is becoming unreasonable.