Closed to thirty (30) women gathered in the Merry-Go-Round Park. The Merry-Go-Round is a park sitting directly opposite The Mount Scott United Methodist Church on Maryland Avenue, Harper City (Liberia).
It was about 3pm in the afternoon. The sun was still blazing in its celestial duty. The women that came to the meeting came from different backgrounds.
Most of the women are business women. They sell used clothing and other merchandise to help pay their children’s school fees and feed their homes and as well pay rent. Others are just housewives who engaged in front-yard sale (peanuts, candy, pepper, charcoal, etc).
These women left their marketplaces and household engagements to attend the meeting.
Senator Ballout was due to be at the meeting. These women had been attending series of meetings geared towards seeking reparation for them. They thought this meeting to be attended by Sen. Ballout (after three years of running to and from meetings on reparation matters) would yield better fruits than the rest of the meetings did. But not too long, they realized they were wrong. Sen. John Akel Ballout, Snr., senior senator of Maryland released a barrage of insults on them. And they were all disappointed.
According to Ballout, some Marylanders were engaged in a political demonstration during which time they asked him to resign his post as senator of the county. So he takes serious offense. Because he thinks the shipwreck victims (mainly women) did nothing to stop the demonstration. The women did not hesitate to tell him they could do nothing. Because it was not their business. Their business is in the marketplace where they sell their goods. If anyone asked him to resign, they (shipwreck victims women) believe it is the right of those involved to seek whatever they wish to obtain. This response pissed Ballout off. He launched another platitude of insults on the women.
One of the ladies is a young woman. She’s 23 years old. She came from Pleebo where she resides today. Well, she used to live in Monrovia (Liberia’s capital). But because of the shipwreck, she could no longer return to Monrovia. Her business broke down completely and her 11-year old daughter died in the wreck. Her 11-year old was killed by a sugar mill that dropped from the top of the ship on her on deck. She died instantly.
The other woman (Betsy Seeboe) came all the way from behind the Martha Tubman Ball Park located around the City Hall vicinity. They called this new area, “Stadium Road.“ She was pregnant on the ship with twins. Containers fell on her in the ship and pinned her down to the floor for over eight hours. Some of the containers rested on her belly. The other containers rested around her throat. The ones around her throat were gas containers. The gas poured into her mouth for a protracted period of time. She was locked down by the other containers. And so she could not prevent the gas from entering her mouth. She drank and drank until she could drink gas. According to Betsy, the gas container rolled over her and fell into the Ocean. That’s how she found some relief. But she was still locked down on the floor. The gas ended up burning her body and peeled the skin. As rescue team pulled her from beneath the containers, her flesh began to fall apart. The rescue team could not handle her situation directly. And so it rolled her up in a cloth that it used to transfer her from point to point. When they got her at the hospital, the doctor told her one of the twins had died in her. The doctor also told her that both of her legs had to be amputated. She and her family refused to let the doctor amputate her legs. And so the doctor informed her that she would not live too long for failure for blood to flow from her legs. The other twin is born with many complications. Betsy spends all her time today at the hospital with her son since he‘s always sick. She calls her son, “God’s Gift.” Betsy too has her own medical problems. Her legs are numb. She collapses most of the times. And when that happens, she in bed for a week or a little bit more. Her poor husband has to redouble his efforts to bring home the “bacon.” Her business completely collapsed due to the shipwreck without any reparation.
Ma Eliza Dennis has her own story. She’s about 70 years old. She attended her daughter’s wedding in Monrovia. While returning, the ship that she was in wrecked in Sinoe County (Liberia). Three of her left hand middle fingers got severed. She was taken to Sinoe hospital to no avail. She went to Monrovia through her daughter’s support. She was admitted at the Catholic Hospital. But before going to the hospital, she stayed with her kids in the same house. The kids could not stay with their mother in the house because fingers were rotten and with a very strong foul smell. The kids could not withstand such foul smell. Every now and then they had to leave their mother in the house and go walking about. They all went through all this with their mother. Ma Eliza had her some business goods on the ship. All the goods now sit in the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean without reparation from the ship-owners or Government of Liberia. More insults and injury were added to Ma Eliza’s life. Upon her return to Harper, one of her grown-up daughters who used to be Bishop Dalieh’s cook died instantly. Immediately after her burial, her youngest son died from heart failure. Two deaths in one month and three severed fingers without reparation is Ma Eliza’s life story.
There were more women at the meeting with similar stories as shipwreck victims. They all fell under the blade of John Ballout’s verbal violation of good diction for no apparent reason.
The poor women left the Park but in tears, pain and sorrow.
The young lady from Pleebo, whose 11-year old daugther died in the wreck, says she’ll never return again for any meeting pertaining to reparation. She says she wishes Sen. Ballout the “best” life can offer. She expressed her dissatsifaction over Senator Ballout's attitude towards them as women of shipwreck. She says that she intends to go on living her life as long as there is life without begging for help from the Government and/or Ballout.
Betsy blasted Ballout without fear. But Ballout never stopped there. He continued pouring more insults on the women as if he is mad! And all this is because he (Ballouts) thinks it is bad for Marylanders to ask him to resign.
I am Thomas G. Bedell working and speaking on the ground in Liberia.
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