Today I went with eight other people to the Firestone plantation. It was very interesting. I did not know rubber came from trees. If I understand correctly, the Firestone plantation is a compound of sorts. The people that work there, live there, and their children go to school in the community. They also have their own hospital. When we first got there, we took a tour of the hospital. It was very basic. Not much equipement, medications, etc. However, to the others who have seen other Liberian hospitals, they thought this one was pretty nice.
We went to lunch at the Firestone Staff Club. It was a country club and we sat outside overlooking the golf course. I had a ham and cheese sandwich. It had some kind of cucumber sauce on it. Not something I would normally go for but it was sooo good.
We then tried to get a tour and were unsuccessful. We went for a drive down a side road and stopped to take pictures. (I will try to include some later). One of the workers came over to us and taught us all about the process of collecting rubber from the trees. Unfortunately, I couldn't catch all he was saying because he wasn't that close to me and the English is a little different. The rubber actually drips tike sap into little buckets that hang on the tree. (I'm not going to go into great detail). It is white when it comes off the tree. They then put a reddish die into it that is unique to Firestone so that if it gets stolen they know it belongs to them. We saw a big truck come and pick up the days worth of it. I asked if the man thought Firestone was a good company to work for and he seemed to indicate it is not. I think they work really hard there. One man has to collect from 800 trees a day is what I understood him to say. There has been controversy over the work conditions at this plantation.
They do get retirement pay, and healthcare, but they have to save for a house for retirement because they then have to move off the plantation. The man said that they don't actually make the tires here though. Their were many tires around in the playgrounds and along the road. At any rate, it was a fun learning experience.
We went to lunch at the Firestone Staff Club. It was a country club and we sat outside overlooking the golf course. I had a ham and cheese sandwich. It had some kind of cucumber sauce on it. Not something I would normally go for but it was sooo good.
We then tried to get a tour and were unsuccessful. We went for a drive down a side road and stopped to take pictures. (I will try to include some later). One of the workers came over to us and taught us all about the process of collecting rubber from the trees. Unfortunately, I couldn't catch all he was saying because he wasn't that close to me and the English is a little different. The rubber actually drips tike sap into little buckets that hang on the tree. (I'm not going to go into great detail). It is white when it comes off the tree. They then put a reddish die into it that is unique to Firestone so that if it gets stolen they know it belongs to them. We saw a big truck come and pick up the days worth of it. I asked if the man thought Firestone was a good company to work for and he seemed to indicate it is not. I think they work really hard there. One man has to collect from 800 trees a day is what I understood him to say. There has been controversy over the work conditions at this plantation.
They do get retirement pay, and healthcare, but they have to save for a house for retirement because they then have to move off the plantation. The man said that they don't actually make the tires here though. Their were many tires around in the playgrounds and along the road. At any rate, it was a fun learning experience.
