I was right
This week has been totally manic in getting all the preparations done for the meeting next week. It's been really interesting and fun as well, tho'!
Some good news-have passed my Masters, which is a relief and means that I do have a reason for heading back to the UK slightly earlier than I would otherwise (of course, 2 of my friends are also getting married at the end of that week, so I was planning to come back around then anyway of course!)
So what news from hot and sunny Salone? Well- the weather's heating up at bit, which means it can be really nice to escape into an air con room for a rest. It also means that sleeping is getting harder because our fans are broken and the main generator still isn't fixed (meaning air con units won't work), plus our connection to National Power still isn't working. The main upshot is that we still eat out a lot- which is of course very sociable but could pall after a while. however, we do have light in the evenings, which is nice and means we can do more stuff round the house than was previously possible.
Anyway, am hoping to escape work early today so will sign off and wish you a happy weekend (am hoping to see if I can begin to learn surfing if all goes well).
Labels: electricity, weather, work
And work got really busy
Hence why I didn’t write at the end of last week. I did have stuff to write about though, for example, on Thursday evening we went to an African night at the British council. It was done by the Ballanta Academy of Music and involved a singing (esp gospel), African dancing, fantastic drumming and their ‘Pets n bones’ (trumpets and trombones) group playing a mix of Salonion (Sierra Leonean) folk music and some from elsewhere in Africa. Was very cool- tho’ unfortunately we missed most of the choir due to bad traffic. The audience was mainly expat, but that didn’t stop a (somewhat cheesy) impromptu dance happening at the end.
Anyway work has suddenly got very busy- we’re preparing for a big meeting between high level donors and high level government people, so lots of work to do and things to finalise, which is really interesting and certainly keeping me out of trouble.
Our house is also beginning to look at bit more like a home, which is nice- we’ve finally got some stuff (cane furniture) to sit on for the veranda, thus making it a lot more homely and nicer just to sit and chill together in the evenings or first thing in the morning when we eat breakfast. We’ve also had the bars painted, so that they are no longer a dirty greying white, but a clean, shiny white, meaning it feels a lot less prison like (tho’ still very secure).
This weekend has been spent mainly at the beach; there’s several to choose from. On Saturday afternoon we went to Lumley beach- the closest one, tho’ certainly not a favourite of mine- tho’ does have several places you can sit and eat. Anyway, we were at Harry’s (not sure on the spelling) and sitting in the hammocks provided- v fun, until a huge wave comes up the beach and soaks everything on the ground- not good when that involves a friend’s bag (inc clothes, towel and a now very dead phone) and so the evening ended on a slightly more stressful note than would be hoped after a day on the beach.
Sunday afternoon we went the River No. 2 beach (v. original name) and this time I’ve got photos to prove it! Obviously this weekend is having a lot of very high tides because the tide came in a long way while we were there (also moving up to where we and our bags were but no ones stuff got wet, which was a relief. It was just a slight surprise, because the sandbar between the ‘kiddies pool’ (well, one that had been made naturally by the way the beach went) and the ‘proper sea’ had been big enough for some of the guys to play a bit of cricket and this got totally swamped over the course of the end of the afternoon. We ate supper on our way back to town at a popular restaurant (called Franco’s) near Sussex beach- where do they get these names from ;-) their menu is interesting and extensive tho’ it’s always wise to check what fish they have available because they invariably don’t have everything. Due to shortage of other dishes, I had lobster- was v nice, tho’ I’m still not sure what all the fuss is about, plus you have to work fairly hard to get your food.
I think that fairly much sums up what I’ve been doing. You’d be wise not to expect too much on the blog this week, since I think work is going to get even crazier as we head towards the upcoming meeting!
Labels: CG, lumley, music, river no. 2, sussex
Pictures from River No. 2 Beach
Well, I managed to remember to take my camera with me, so here are some pics from the weekend...
One of the shelters that you can use at River No. 2 beach. And the white sand on the beach!
Looking down the beach as it moves towsrds high tide- you can also see the river that the beach is named for (tho' a lot less clearly than you can at low tide). On the right you can see the remainder of the bar of sand on which some of the guys were playing cricket.
Enjoying the waves and warm water at the beach
The beach was pretty crowded this Sunday- I have been told that it's normally a lot more deserted than this!
Labels: beach, photos, river no. 2
Making batiks
It has suddenly got much warmer- so the fact that our generator has packed up again isn’t pleasant. Having said that, we spent very little of the weekend at home. On Saturday we got up early and went into town to sort out some curtains for our Kitchen, which used to have very old, greying, dirty curtains that really weren’t very pleasant. However, without anything round the window, it looks a bit like a prison cell, so we wanted to get something to brighten the room up a bit. We also went to look at fabrics that could be made into Africana clothes for my housemate and myself. In Sierra Leone, on Fridays, people generally wear ‘Africana’ to the office, which are very brightly coloured outfits in African styles and look brilliant. It’s a bit of a change to the ‘dress-down’ Fridays at home- more of a ‘dress-up’ day instead.
In the afternoon we (several girl friends and myself) learnt how to make batiks-fortunately we had an expert with us to help and guide us through the whole process. Batiks are wall hangings produced by drawing a design on cotton, then painting the parts of the design you wish to stay the background colour with molten wax, allowing the wax to dry and then dipping the cloth into dye. It’s a fairly long process (with me all arts and crafts are in any case) and we only put one colour onto the cloths each, but it’s amazing how good they look despite being just two colours at the moment. Since this took up most of the afternoon we’ll have to go back and do some more colours another day. I'll see if i can find some pics of the batiks we made (NB, the professionals' ones look hugely better) so you can see what we were making.
On Sunday afternoon we went to one of the hotels which has a pool. The pool’s quite nice (tho’ warmer than you’d want) but the general pool area lacked much character- it could’ve been a hotel anywhere in the world that’s warm and sunny, I think I’ll have to try for a beach again next weekend. In the evening I went to a leaving party for some who’d been here for about 7 years- he’s hoping to come back in February but nothing’s definite yet. It was a lovely evening to chill and relax and say goodbye to him, as well as to meet more people who’re going to be around in Salone while I’m here. It is amazing how much of a state of flux the expat community is in tho’- there always seems to be loads of people coming and going all the time- I guess this is something I’ll just have to get used to while I’m here.
Labels: africana, batik, electricity, swim
The weeks just fly by
Once again have reached the end of a week and realised that I’ve not added anything to my blog- ah well, never mind I’ll just try and write something interesting instead.
… Or not- I think it’s much easier to ramble on about life, the universe and everything and anyway, I did manage to send out a newsletter this week, so I guess I could say that took up my time instead ;-)
A whole load of people have gone to Dakar (Senegal) for a weekend of French patisserie, wine and cheese (the first and last are somewhat lacking in affordable quantities in Freetown). After the recent problems with various Nigerian airlines, they’re a little cautious because they’re travelling with Bellview (don’t think this one is allowed to fly in European airspace due to safety issues, but I could be wrong on that)- they intended to fly with another airline but that one cancelled the flight about a week before they were due to go, which wasn’t particularly helpful of them. Anyway, assuming all goes well with travelling they’ll be having fun in Senegal (practising their almost non existent French too!)
Yesterday evening there was a public lecture on the challenges and prospects for Sierra Leone’s economy- fairly interesting (for an economist at least) and the talk was done by the outgoing World Bank head of mission- a very astute guy. Some of the questions from the floor were also quite pertinent although some of them did go on a bit trying to make their point. I think patience is a virtue that I need to learn (either that or have it thrust upon me) while I’m here.
We’ve got a Krio lesson tonight- my Krio spelling is pretty bad but then they do have several extra vowels to remember to put in the right places. It’s definitely not the hardest of languages to learn but at the moment my Krio is still only small-small (English spelling). Ah well, I'll keep practising.
Labels: bellview, economy, Krio
The weekends just get busier...
Or so it can seem, they can also be somewhat stressful- such as managing to lock myself and my housemate out of our house, we eventually managed to get in again but not without a huge amount of effort and a similar amount of stress and this was before we had our the Krio lesson (which in the event went pretty well).
Power has gone again- there’s a problem with our connection to National Power, but hopefully will manage to get this all sorted soon but can be annoying at times.
Saturday was amazing! We were invited down to Tokeh beach (about and hour and a half’s drive from where we live) to join the 700 marines in their leaving party. By ‘we’ in this instance I mean about 10 girls who I’m friends with. We were very helpfully given a lift there and back by some of the IMATT advisors stationed in Freetown. It was a totally surreal experience and a very crowded beach (compared to the normal deserted nature of the area- see pictures which I hope to put on). There was a dance troupe engaged to perform some local dancing and what I saw was kind of cool but they didn’t do a formal performance as such. There was free drink (the Fanta here is a slightly more fluorescent colour than at home but tastes good and drinking something like that means you’re less likely to get so tired compared to just drinking water which doesn’t have the added sugar,) and free food (I know, I still haven’t kicked student habits yet!) and friendly people to chat to, but the best part of the day was when we took a trip down the beach on the front of a tank type vehicle, to be more accurate it was a BARV- a beach recovery armoured vehicle (there should be some pictures on my blog at some point) also known affectionately as a hippo. The handling was very impressive and it manoeuvres pretty quickly along the sand. It also goes into the water up to the front window (in order to rescue any vehicles that don’t quite make it onto the beach during a beach landing). Since it is/can be used in the water we did get pretty wet but had a brilliant time.
In the late afternoon, when all the marines had headed back to ship, we went down the beach to a house owned by a friend of many of the friends we were with. Here we enjoyed a swim in the rain and I had my first taste of lobster (it’s nice but I’m not sure what all the fuss is about and why it’s quite as expensive as it is in Europe).
Saturday evening/night involved two birthday parties and meant we didn’t get back till 4, so getting up the next morning was more challenging than normal, but I did make it to the service on time. In the afternoon we went back to Tokeh beach for a couple of hours to chill and relax and enjoy the beautiful white sands with a lot fewer people on it. A couple of us also swam out to the helipad in the sea. Sometime ago there was a Club-Med resort on the beach but this is long gone and all that remains is a helipad in the sea (the fairly long bridge out to it was destroyed long since) and a greying, empty building which has had everything stripped from it. But I can so understand why people would pay to come here and enjoy the pristine sands, the warm water and the amazing mountainous (well, largish forested hills at the very least) as a stunning holiday destination.
Labels: beach, electricity, tokeh
Tokeh beach
Tokeh beach slightly overcast but more desrted than it had been earlier in the day- the water was amazingly warm.
Locals selling various handicrafts, from wooden eagles to elephants, as well as jewelry and cloth. In the back is the BARV tho' am sure this photo doesn't do the size of it any justice
Marines waiting to leave on the transporters
A quiet evening at Tokeh beach, with the helipad (near set of rocks) and Billy's island the further piece of land
Labels: beach, photos, tokeh
Fish
What more do I need to say- other than the fact that it tasted really nice!!
Labels: lobster
Another week gone...
Hmmm,
Not entirely sure what to write about- there’s not been much going on this week. We’re more of less settled in and are now car hunting. In the middle of our Krio lesson we lost national power (somewhat annoying tho’ might be our fault for not topping up our account recently enough) and now the generator seems to be being moody. It’s amazing how useful electricity is and how annoying it is when it goes, although I’m beginning to get more used to doing things by candlelight when needs be.
It’s not true that nothing’s happened this week. As I said, we had a (short) Krio lesson on Monday, on Tues evening we went out to the film night- they were ‘seasonal’ and did something Halloween-ish which was fairly dire, although the eye-candy of George Clooney made it a bit more interesting ;-)
BA recently launched flights between Heathrow (I think) and Freetown and on Tuesday evening held a reception to celebrate it, although I haven’t met anyone (to my knowledge) who was actually invited to attend but then there are a lot of people out here who I don’t know you so am sure plenty of people turned up. The flights are probably going to be fairly expensive and currently everyone who I’ve spoken to is keen to continue flying with Astraeus, mainly because they have a 60kg luggage limit which is brilliant and altho’ the on-board entertainment might not always be described as state of the art, the flight times are good, the staff friendly and they have cheap flights around Christmas time!
Wednesday involved a leaving-do for one of the guys from Dfid who I’d got to know slightly. The reception was held at the house of the head of office and has a gorgeous pool (I haven’t been in), as well as a really nice open area to stand/sit around and meet people. A friend and I have decided that we’re not quite up to ‘oiling round the room oozing charm’ (or something similar that we were ‘recommended’ to practice during our pre-SL training week). This ended with half-a-dozen of us going to PB’s for a light bite (although for some reason the burger I had seemed to be spiked with chillies), generally PB’s food is really good but I’m discovering that they do like to litter their food with small pieces of chilli, which makes it much warmer than you first anticipate.
Thursday involved another leaving-do, which was great fun, with amazing views from the apartment out towards the beach- it’s a bit up the hill from where we live and you can see for miles around. That’s one of the things that seems to make Freetown so different to many other cities- it’s so green, everywhere. Having said this I haven’t been far towards the eastern end of the city yet, which is meant to be the poorer end, so it might be a lot less green. I think the greenness is probably because of the (up to) 5 metres of rainfall that hits this part of the coast every year.
We've also started looking for cars; there's a fair number to choose from but nothing suits yet. We'd like something suitably rugged so that it's easier to get out of the city and onto the peninsular and possibly even up country as well. We've looked at 2 this week and have heard about plenty more. Fortunately, since neither of us know much about cars, our friends have brilliant mechanic who's been helping us look at them and discuss the good and bad points of them- very useful to have around!
Enough ramblings and I definitely look forward to going to the beach this weekend- I didn’t manage it last weekend and although I’m not having withdrawal symptoms I’m really looking forward to going to explore another beach.
Labels: electricity, Krio, travel
