Life goes on
There's not really a huge amount happening at the moment- that's the main reason why I haven't posted for sometime- tho' I did send a newsletter so at least there's information flowing somehow. work has been pretty busy- lots of things to be organised and information to be gathered (still working on this one) and then reports written up, so enough to keep me out of trouble.
We (meaning about 5 cars worth of people) went to a private beach last weekend- was great fun- it's in a small bay which means it's much calmer than the other beaches and the waves are a lot gentler, which meant a lot of people spent sometime chilling and chatting in the water and then came out more prune-ish than they meant to. There was also a BBQ there, so we had bacon and egg sarnies for lunch- v nice, plus lots of pringles (yep- they've made it out here tho' they're not cheap and I know they're environmentally pretty atrocious) and wafers/biscuits.
We had a birthday party at Mamba Point (Guest House/Restaurant) last weekend as well. The wife of the 'birthday-boy' had made an amazing cake with a gorgeous chocolate sauce (shame about the diet) and the restaurant put mini fireworks on top-mini versions of the fountains that you get around November 5th- tho' it's quite an experience to see them on a cake being carriend towards the table!
Mangoes are in season- this is great and means there's a bit more variety in the fruit available, also- i love mangoes and some of the ones I have had here are totally gorgeous- so sweet and no stringyness at all. We had a false start to the season back in early January, but I think the season is now in full swing. Apparently there are so many mangoes each year that people can't eat all of them and so you end up with a lot of rotting mangoes at the end of the season. I was discussing this problem and the idea of dry mangoes out and exporting came up- the main problem here is that people don't want to invest in something like this- that takes time to put in place and time to make money back on (compared to say the mineral extraction that's happening all over the country, where it's much easiser to make quick money). It's sad because something like this could provide a lot of employment for people but just won't happen due to lack of investment.
Labels: beach, birthday, mangoes
Busy week
It's been about a week since I last added anything- it's been a busy week- loads to do at work, as well as several things in the evenings. Even had the study group at mine on Weds night, so that kept me busy- particularly when I wasn't sure if we would have enough fuel to last the evening. This meant that I cooked for a friend and we ate by candle-light so that we would have enough fuel for the generator when everyone else came round. In the end i decided that i'd ask one of the guards to get some more fuel- 'just in case' and probably also 'just in time' (sorry- really bad economist joke there- my apologies- it has been a long and busy week).
Last night we were out at Chez Nous- one of the many beach bar/restaurants on Lumley beacg- they have live jazz on Thursday evenings, which was good fun- also saw (and heard) a very nice tenor sax being played live there. Am tempted to bring my own out- tho' I probably wouldn't play it as often as I should (I definitely don't play it as often as I should at the moment!).
The weather (well I do come from the UK)
Last Friday it rained- now I know those of you in more temperate climates will say 'so what'- but here is really is an anomaly- it doesn't rain in the dry season here. Basically the idea is you get 6months of rain and 6months of dry-tho' I think May/June and Sept/Oct are a bit of a mix of wet and dry as the seasons swap over. I have sicne learned that sometimes at the end of the Hamattan (Salone's version of winter) there's some rain. This means that the Harmattan is now well and truly over and we are likely to have increasing heat and humidity until May/June/whenever the rains decide to come this year-last year they were late and this year is unlikley to be very different.
The main problem with the rain coming last Friday was that a group of us were planning to camp out on the beach on Friday night. However, this didn't happen, since no one wanted to sleep out if we were likley to get drenched, plus it would be unlikely that we would find much dry wood in order to make a fire with. Now, the fire would definitely not be for warmth but more for light and something to sit round (not sure if anyone was planning to take a guitar with them or not) :-)
ah well, we'll see what this weekend brings-hopefully sometime down on the beach enjoying the warm weather if all goes well!
Labels: beach, bible study, electricity, jazz, rain, weather
Diamonds- the wealth of a nation??
Diamond mines inside Kono town- the diamonds are fairly near the surface still, tho' not as much as they once were when you could walk along the streets and apparently find diamonds.
more of the diamond mines- those who've seen blood diamonds will have seen the workers in the water looking for diamonds and that's a fairly accurate portrayal of most diamond mining in Sierra Leone from what i've seen and heard. This photo was taken once most people had already left for home.
not a great photo-but the best I could manage from the car- one of the many diamond offices in the towns near where diamonds are mined. In Bo there seem to be entire streets which only have diamond trading offices (slight exaggeration I know, but that's how it felt).
mobiles are big in Salone- almost everyone has one (especially in the cities and towns). Celtel is the longest established- it came in during the last few years of the war. It has the best coverage, but probably the highest prices compared to the other networks.
While we were in Kabala, the guest house we stayed in didn't provide breakfast, so we walked across the dirt road to this restaurant, where I had spaghetti bolognaise (a nice change from rice and stew) . Koinadogu is a big area for livestock and meat is much cheaper here than elsewhere in Salone.
the war still impacts Salone
These first 2 pics are of the same car- part of a graveyard in Kono (or possibly Tonkolili)- over in the East of the country. apparently these cars have been here for 10-15 years-long enough for fast growing trees to grow up through them.
what's really scary is the amount of ambushed cars you still see the skeletons of on the roads in the east- admittedly everything that could be useful has been removed, but it's still a scary reminder of a reality that only 6 years ago was life in Salone.
Some of the buildings around were probably beautiful before the war, but are now just shells of their previous states-this one seems less burnt out than many others, but has still lost everything except the bricks it's built of.
Another building that was once elegant but was destroyed by the rebels in their systematic destruction of towns and villages as they left them.
Hidden in the long grass are many more skeletons of cars that were ambushed during the war. I went for a wander round while there was an attempt made to fix our car while we were travelling- there were more ex-cars than I could easily count, plus sometimes not being able to work out where one car stopped and another began- a very sad and stricking scene.
Labels: ambush, burnt out buildings, car, war
Pics from travels round SL
The main trunk road to Kailahun- without the major potholes going up to the car's windows that we encountered later on this road!
Back to Bonthe and a large mud hut dwelling typical of those in the villages on the 'main roads'. It's nicer than many houses in east and central Freetown to the extent that it is a fairly deceny size and has some land surrounding it, although much of the land is does not look like it's being put to productive use. There's a lot of debate over land issues here- some people say that almost no land is being used productively because it 'belongs' to the paramount chief and/or to all people in the chiefdom ie is communal land and it's too uneconomical to work round or through the system in order to make it productive. However, there's another view that says all land that is productive is used somehow because people are good at finding ways round the system and therefore any land that hasn't been cleared and used is deemed as unproductive. I'm not sure about this and I'm definitely not convinced with the idea that there's so much land in SL that's unproductive, because (and again i'm only commenting on the land closest to the main roads to towns and hence to the major markets) that would be a huge amount of land that's unproductive and given the rainfall and lush greeness of the savannah (for want of a better word), I'm somewhat sceptical about the latter viewpoint.
At the agricultural show in Mattru Jong (Bonthe mainland), this was the most impressive of the corncircles on display.
Palm oil fruits- a big business in the south where there are several palm oil plantations
The main district council office in Mattru Jong- may well be newly built after the war, tho' may also be an oldbuilding that has been rehabilitated.
Labels: agriculture, Mattru, palm oil, photos, roads, travel
Some pics from up country
After a meeting with one of the district Agricultural Department, we saw all the tractors available for use in that district-assuming they work ok and are looked after suitably by those who are hired to drive them
The main water pump at Kailahun's medical factility- common in most districts, including the district capitals. Since we were traveling on the main 'trunk' roads, we probably saw those villages and towns with the most advance sanitation systems outside of Freetown.
A failry well-to-do family in Bonthe would probably live in this house- it has a metal roof, which is a major sign that a family isn't in absolute poverty. in fact, when people are asked in surveys, what they see as a sign of riches, they don't talk about consumer goods such as radios, TV's, watches and mobile phones (although these are expected to come later as signs of wealth), instead they talk about people having metal roofs on their houses.
The crowd waiting for the VP to come an officially open the ferry that has reopened on this stretch of river- it can take 2 cars and several people across, whereas the canoes that previously served as the main form of transport couldn't really take any vehicles!
Labels: ferry, house, hut, kailahun, pump, tractor, water
