Bong Mines

So, as expected the trip was as amazing as I thought it would be. One of the guys who now works on the ship actually worked at Bong Mines for 10 years and was working the day the rebels came. They held all the workers at gunpoint and took them down to the main gate. There they either approved you to go on or shot you dead. It was pretty crazy hearing all he had to say..fascinating but SOO heartbreaking. He actually escaped and fled to Guinea and returned after the war. He had friends that joined the rebels just so they could eat and survive. He lost 2 children to hunger during this time. The mine was actually run by a German company for iron ore. There is a hospital there too that he showed us. As we went into the mountian he showed us where the Germans came and actually landed a plane to get all the German workers out when the war broke out. The Germans ran the hospital...so now it is government run. You have to see the pictures I took... CRAZY! No running water most of the time and electricity by generator that comes on a couple times a day. They do a few surgeries daily..mostly c-sections, and hernias. The pictures of the ICU would amaze you...so dirty..and ancient. They just do not have the funds to run it like they did when the Germans ran it.
The mine is going to be rebuilt though. There are bids in for it now..I think it is narrowed down to 3 companies. So that will be good. There are still many ppl who live in the mining towns there.
So as far as the trip...wow. We left the ship at about 730am and drove to the train. We then waited awhile to load the cars on the train beds...in the mean time of few of us went off exploring and climbing oil tanks:) The trip was AWESOME! And the train didnt break down at all which I guess is unusual. We all sat on top of the land rovers or the hoods on the way there...or the hamock Carlos brought and tied between two of the cars. Def. nothing that would be legal in the US...walkin around and climbing or standing on landrovers on a moving train. The train ride was about 2.5 hrs. one way...through little villages and jungle. We got there and drove up to a lake where we had lunch. We couldnt go swimming though..even though it looked SO clean and SOOO inviting..even cliffs to jump off...but I guess the last group that went is still on pills for the parasites they aquired...glad they were the ones who had to learn for the rest of us;)
After lunch we got back in our cars and went further up the mountain..some fun off roading:)...until the road pretty much got impassable. Then the man who went with us who worked there took us to the different mining sites and explained the process and where he was when the rebels came, etc.
Oh, and when we were pretty far up on the mountain we stopped where there was a SWEET overlook. As we were standing around enjoying the view somone noticed there were a couple areas of piles of bullet shells laying on the ground..some big and some small. Just a crazy reminder of how real and how recent the war was. I guess the mine was one of the main rebel camps and some pretty gruesome things happened there.
We got back around 6 just in time for dinner. There were about 30 of us that went (3 landrovers). That night we were all pretty exhuasted...I just ended up watching a few episodes of The Office with a friend and went to bed.