Grand Kru County – The rumbling sound of a passing Tractor, being operated by Rose Sieh, 26, at 4:50 am disrupts my sleep in my visitor’s room in a house two kilometers near the Tractor’s track in Zoloken, a Town in Grand Kru County in Southeastern Liberia.
“I do this every working day — Monday to Saturday: Waking up from bed at two thirty and riding workers to their assignment points in the fields from four thirty,” Rose tells me during a brief chat at 7:10 am, after she had completed her assignment.
Rose is working for Indonesian palm company, Golden Veroleum, with plantation in Zoloken, one of four Towns of Grand Kru County with the company’s presence.
Why did this 26-year-old pick out driving of Tractor as a duty among several others jobs available at Golden Veroleum Liberia?
“To get daily bread for me and my five-year-old son, which is the paramount reason,” she responds.”
“The second reason is, to prove that a lady can do what a man can do. You know, most people think operating a Tractor is a man’s job.”
Rose, a single mother, and a high school graduate from the Richardson Baptist High School in Zwedru, Grand Gedeh County in 2011, joined GVL in 2014.
“I was taught driving at GVL in 2014,” she recalls.
A member of the Grebo ethnic group, Rose says she experiences no intimidation by her male colleagues or her unit’s supervisor on her sex.
“Since I joined GVL, no man has harassed or threatened me over the job because I am a lady or a woman,” she notes.
Rose experiences no discomfort from the job, not even from being forced out of a nerve-soothing and energy-replenishing rest at an early 2:00 am, she swears.
“I don’t feel any strange way from the work, except when I’m experiencing a natural sickness like Malaria,” she says.
Golden Veroleum’s salary and incentives to its employees assigned to operating the company’s Tractors causes a no-discomfort feeling, says Rose.
“I’m given two hundred and twelve United States dollars and a fifty-kilogram bag of imported parboiled rice,” she reveals.
The salary enables her pay her rent (US$10) for a one-bed room she occupies in Geneken, a community near GVL Field (plantation) where many of the junior employees are currently based due to its close proximity to the plantation.
Other incentives are Housing Benefit (US$20 per month) and Education Benefit for workers’ children.
A product from the union of Isaac Sieh and Martha Sieh, company’s Tractor operator Rose Sieh is given only one day by the company to rest.
“Only Saturday I have to rest,” she discloses.
“We work half-time on this Saturday,” she adds.
The Saturday is for leisure or relaxation, Rose notes.
“I cook, wash my cloths, read, and visit friends on this day,” she answers to the question about her domestic activities on this day.
Saturday is not the only day Rose has “resting time,” she says.
“I also rest or relax from four-thirty in the afternoon, the time I’m home from work, to two twenty nine, when my mobile phone’s alarm tells me it’s time to leave bed to prepare for today’s work,” she informs this writer.
What is the greatest thing Golden Veroleum has done for this 26-year-old Liberian lady who has been left with a five-year-old child to raise alone?
“The greatest thing Golden Veroleum has done for me is offering me a job that pulled out of relying wholly on a man for my life’s needs,” she replies to my question.
What advice does Rose have for other ladies in her age-bracket who are unemployed — and making no attempt to go out to find a job or refusing offered job considered a “man’s job” due to its nature or its demands for a ‘masculine strength’?
“They should go out and get any job, which won’t spoil their names, so that they won’t be a rug under man’s feet,” she answers.
“I’m not a common lady, based on the nature of my job at Golden Veroleum,” she replies, and giggles.
Rose’s right hand moves toward the Tractor’s key in the ignition point and turns the key.
The machine sparks to life and begins moving gently. I understand the Tractor’s movement as Rose’s unvoiced message to me:
“Let’s end the interview here. I’ve given all the information you wanted to know.”
This is my working time and I must leave.”
“Thanks for your time,” I voiced my acceptance.
“You’re welcome,” Rose said and dragged the Tractor from my presence.
Rose Sieh is one of two female Tractor operators with Golden Veroleum’s plantation in Grand Kru County. The other lady is Gertrude Toe — a native of Grand Kru as Rose is.
Report by Samuel G. Dweh/Freelance Journalist – [email protected]