Mood swings
I originally sat writing this in the middle of a rain storm, on a computer that had the potential to lose power any second, with no internet connection, with the possibility that rain would again start pouring through the ceiling (slight exaggeration), while smelling the sickly sweet smoke that drifted overhead in several very artistic rings as one of the strip lights decided that it no longer wanted to provide us with light. However, by the time you read this (and now as I am editing to put it online), the sun is shining, work is suitably busy, the generator is working and the internet too, the lights have been fixed and I’m looking forward to heading away for Christmas in the hear future.
An update from my (fairly) recent trip up country is probably in order- we returned in the pouring (unseasonal) rain, although the rest of the trip was warm, dry (except for high humidity) and sunny. I was even privileged to stay in a room that had air conditioning and power from dawn to dusk. There was a lot of travelling around, but otherwise the supervising role we had for the meetings was pretty routine-oh, except for the money issues- as the civil servant in the Incredibles would say, while shaking his head sadly, it’s ‘money, money, money, money, money, always the money.’ Which in a country as poor as Salone is very true and it does overshadow everyone and everything, particularly when it is lacking (or just not as much as people expected they would receive). SL has now slipped back down to 177th out of 177 in the human development index (Afghanistan and Iraq aren’t included due to a lack of indicators)- probably partially due to the fact that- despite the calm quiet of the elections- the country basically stopped operating for the five (optimistic assessment) months leading up to the elections. Things still happened, but no one invested, the government went quiet, very little money was entering the country and everyone held their breath until it was seen that the new administration was calmly elected with a peaceful handover of power. The newspapers still scream wonderful headlines everyday- either of a witch hunt going on through the civil service, or a power struggle in the opposition leadership, or (as ever) at the donors (for various things they have or haven’t done).
Life here is a totally set of contrasts, particularly as an ex pat; everything can seem to be going to pieces one moment and then suddenly you find yourself mixing with people and going to events that would seem as distant as the stars when at home- all somewhat confusing. A friend of mine had a particularly stark experience as she spent the afternoon working with children on the floor of a mud hut and ending up with maggots in her hair and then drinking cooled white wine and G&T’s with high flying members of the diplomatic set in the evening- definite extremes.
Labels: elections, electricity, money, rain, travel
No desserts
Sierra Leoneans make fantastic food- particularly in my opinion when they don’t throw in hundreds of very small ‘pepe’ (read chillies in English). My main experience of Sierra Leonean food has been when I’ve eaten out at African restaurants; this has been fine, but due to the huge numbers of chillies that are thrown liberally into the dishes, I wasn’t a particular fan. This was until I went up-line (up country) most recently; we stopped in Moyamba for a night and a couple of meals and we went to one of my companion’s friends houses. The first meal-cassava or potato leaf stew was ok, but very fiery. We’d had plenty of discussions about food as we travelled and about how Sierra Leoneans like their food very hot (and I don’t) and so, I was very pleasantly surprised to find that the second meal was groundnut soup (with no chillies!!!) and was delicious- lots of flavours and tastes to enjoy, without burning my mouth in the process, so as a result, I’ve decided that Sierra Leonean food is really nice, so long as they leave out the chillies.
Back to the title of this article; very rarely does anyone eat dessert in Sierra Leone. It just isn’t the done thing, even at more Western style restaurants, desserts are seen as something to tag on the menu, even if they are rarely actually ‘in stock’. However, on very rare occasions, such as a dinner party there might well be dessert available, this was the case last week when people of all nationalities were invited to celebrate American thanksgiving (there was even a turkey) and were asked to bring side dishes and desserts. There was a totally amazing chocolate cake with gorgeously gooey icing-mmm- not just dessert, but delicious ones too. Admittedly in the heat, few people feel like making dessert and some of the ingredients can be difficult to get hold of, but it’s certainly brilliant to have as something a bit different every now and again.
One of the things mentioned in the handover notes is that it in order to get all the foods that we want in order to make something (such as a cake, or to hold a dinner party), we’d need to go to several different supermarkets to get everything we need. This still holds true and for some things it’s just impossible to get ingredients- blueberry muffins for example require milk (hmmm- uht or powdered??) and blueberries- well, there might be some in a tin somewhere, but you’re not going to get fresh ones here and frozen ones are pretty far off the radar as well. However, something like banana cake- well, bananas are in plentiful supply and the basic ingredients of flour, sugar, eggs and margarine aren’t hard either. I was speaking to someone who used to live here in the 70’s- her father worked out here then and she was saying how some things have got better- i.e. there are supermarkets here that stock a variety of foods and other goods, whereas before the choice was rice & fish, or rice & plantain, or rice & cassava leaf stew, which isn’t much if you’re here for sometime. In some ways, things have got a lot worse- mainly the infrastructure; the roads (I won’t go on about this too much, but…), for example the road which used to got to where her family lived was once tarmac, but now (despite being a main thoroughfare) is earth, also power- some villages up country have power lines and poles, but definitely no actual power running through them today- well, currently there’s a plan to get Freetown sorted with power, but the rest of the country is going to be waiting quite a lot longer- except Bo, where the district and town councils have managed to get a decent infrastructure system together such that most people in the town have grid power each evening.
Anyway, that’s a long was from desserts, but just to close by saying that however unhealthy desserts are (and most that aren’t fruit probably aren’t particularly healthy for you) when you haven’t had them for ages, are a delicious way to round off a meal.
Labels: food, power, roads
