All quiet on the Western Seaboard
Sierra Leone is a net importer of rice and other food stuffs, it is also among the poorest and least developed nations in the world (it was last in the UN’s 2007 Human Development Index). Sierra Leone is split into 4 regions; North, South, East and West. Geographically, the Western area is the smallest; it is also the area in which Freetown is based. It's on the top end of the Western Area on the map below.
After a sustained effort under the previous government the country is getting closer to food self-sufficiency. In fact, according to one report I heard last year, all regions except the Western area were food self-sufficient. This is mainly because there is a very high concentration of the population in the Western Area. One of the problems is getting food from the regions to the city, which always makes prices here much higher than they are up country. The previous government- under the SLPP focused on food security, one of its main pledges in the 2002 was that no Sierra Leonean would go to bed hungry and as such the government subsidised the price of rice. Now, I’m not sure if this worked and given how tough life is here for the majority of the population, it’s possible that no Sierra Leonean ever went to bed hungry but I take leave to doubt that. When the APC administration came into power in September, they announced a change in their focus; they would try to improve the situation regarding power and electricity, as well as other infrastructural issues and so they got rid of the rice subsidy.
The international situation is causing these prices to go even higher, but there’s (as yet and as far as I’m aware) no likelihood or threat of rioting or protests about the higher food prices. I was confused, since the prices have increased dramatically for basic food stuffs and spoke to some friends about this and the reason for the lack of discontent is politics. The ‘Youth’ in Freetown (anyone aged 18-35) who are the majority of the unemployed and therefore/also those most likely to riot, voted in overwhelming numbers for the APC in the elections last year and therefore are much less likely to riot under this government than they were under the previous government due to the issues of political allegiances and loyalties and the need for the party that ‘they’ put into power not to lose face by having to deal with rioting youth. They may make their concerns known when the local elections occur in July/August this year, but since the President does seem to have delivered on his promise to bring power to Freetown (even if the method used does not consider the long term fiscal impacts that this will have), so the people are more likely to consider him as a man to keep his promises and that he will be doing all he can to sort out the current problem with the food prices.
Tyre bursting records and other travels
What with trying to develop a new PRSP (the poverty reduction strategy paper, which will be the guiding force behind the development plans of the government for the next 3-5 years), as well as various other projects that I’m involved with, I really haven’t had much time to sit down and write recently.
I managed to escape from Freetown over the Easter weekend (longer than normal due to a Muslim holiday being on the Thursday as well!). A group of us were trying to go and see the dam at Bumbuna- a large edifice which has been about 40years in the planning and construction (depending on who you speak to) and will eventually provide power for Freetown- it being a hydroelectric power plant. As far as I’m aware, it’s currently empty and they’re finishing off the final points that need to be constructed with the hope that this rainy season (or possibly the one after that) will fill the dam and they can start using it to produce much cheaper power for the capital. On the subject of power, NPA has been much better recently. We’ve had power most evenings in the house- which given the fact that we’re now in the warmest part of the year is very useful as it means I can use a fan all through the night which helps me sleep a lot better.
However, we didn’t manage to go to Bumbuna- there was no room at the inn/holiday resort/construction site, so we decided to head up into the north east of the country to Kabala in the Koinadugu district. The roads are tarmac the whole way (a few holes but probably fewer than Freetown has), with the road to Makeni being very good and the road from Makeni to Kabala being pretty decent. Having said that, when we set out on Good Friday, we didn’t manage to get very far with the journey. We got to one of the first main junctions after the peninsula and just as we’d got about 2 villages beyond that there was a rumbling sound- which didn’t stop. We pulled over and realised that our back left tyre was totally gone- so much so that the rim of the tyre was close to being on the road. Then all the usual fun of sorting out the jack (the alan key was missing, so we went and borrowed a jack-meant for a taxi rather than a Defender- from the next village along). All was going well with the process until the driver decided to take a look at the other tyres- since the road was good and it was strange for the tyre to have suddenly burst. Unfortunately, it was noticed that the front left tyre seemed to have sustained some damage, with a hole exuding air in the wall of the tyre. We only had one spare with us and this was going on the back left, which was really in dire straits.
Half the group were left with the vehicle and the other half walked back to town- fortunately it wasn’t the predicted 2hour trek, since it was now getting close to 11am and therefore heating up a bit. Once we arrived in the town, we found some helpful police who took us to a mechanic’s and I got a good opportunity to explain the situation using my Krio (we’d left one Krio speaker with the car while I went into town to practice mine there). We then took Okada’s back to the car (much quicker than walking, tho’ not my most favourite experience), along with two mechanics- having organised where we could get 2 tyres in town from. As we returned to the spot where the car had been, we found it was no longer there! The two people we’d left with the car (one non driver and one who only drives automatics), had managed to roll it down the hill and off the road a bit more- so fortunately we soon spotted it again! This might be a suitable time to mention the way that Sierra Leoneans mark out that a vehicle has broken down- they/ we take handfuls of grass and earth from the side of the road and lay out 5-6 pieces at suitable intervals leading up to the vehicle. This means anyone coming along the road will know that a vehicle has stopped/broken down just ahead and therefore will be more likely to slow down and keep a wary eye out. However, this green method doesn’t always work as people just leave the organic warning system on the road when they drive off- well it is biodegradable! This can mean people have slowed down for other ‘bits of vegetation’ before for no reason and therefore aren’t always as bothered about slowing down for the ‘real thing’.
The rear tyre had been replaced by the spare and the car was quickly jacked up again and the front left tyre removed. The mechanics carefully balanced the two burst tyres on the backs of 2 of the Okada’s and those of us who had previously gone into town then got back on the other Okada and heading back to Masiaka Junction. Once there, it was decided that the front tyre could just be patched up. They proceeded to do this, using spit, earth and super glue- and possibly a small piece of rubber. The other tyre was properly burst- so much so that there were two huge cracks in the wall of the tyre (oh and a pretty massive nail had gone through the tyre as well- see pics on facebook). A replacement tyre and inner tube were found and after a lot of sweat (and many other Sierra Leoneans just standing round watching the entertainment), they managed to put the rim from the burst tyre onto the new tyre, filled up the inner tube with air and then we got back on the Okada’s and went back to the car, with one new tyre (which we put on the front left of the car) and one ‘patched’ tyre (which now became our spare).
We decided that we wouldn’t go onto Kabala that day (it was around mid day, so we still had plenty of time) since we wanted to make sure we had a proper spare tyre rather than one that had been patched up and we weren’t too convinced about. We’d passed back through Masiaka when things started feeling strange in the car- the driver noted that the steering wasn’t quite right! So we quickly turned back towards the town. Just when we’d got to the sign post for the edge of the town, the tyre decided to give up- and guess which one- yes, the new one that’d we’d just purchased! The inner tube of the brand new tyre had totally disintegrated in the short distance we had just gone-grr. So, that was the third tyre in one day- pretty much a record as far as we were aware, especially since we were travelling on ‘proper’ roads. So, we walked into the town again- not too far fortunately; we found some more mechanics (there were a lot about, this one we’d been introduced to but he’d decided not to come out to the car earlier on). We then decided to just try using the spare ‘patched’ tyre instead of sorting out a new tyre. After this had been changed, we then slowly made our way back to Freetown, and that night, we went out for a meal. Now the person who had been driving us had brought his car to the meal- with the patched tyre holding up pretty well, although he was worried that the front right tyre wasn’t looking very healthy. By the end of the meal, the front right tyre was looking distinctly unhappy and so he very slowly drove back to his house (with an escort) and by the next morning, his front right tyre was totally flat. So, that was how we managed to have four burst/flat tyres in one day!
We decided to try again on the Saturday and since I had borrowed a vehicle suitable for up country travel, we decided to give it a go. Unfortunately one of our group had to drop out, since they planned to use the bank holiday Monday for work (some people here are very keen) and we were now not planning to be back until later on the Monday afternoon. So, we travelled up to Kabala, smiling sweetly at the police en route- although we did get stopped by the military so that the Vice President could hand over some new tractors from Libya to one of the villages on the road to Makeni. The recipients took great pleasure in racing the gifts up and down the fields (at least that’s what it looked like from the road). It was hot when we stopped and got out to watch the tractor racing- the area was flat and fairly low lying, so lacking in breeze and just sitting there taking in all the heat that the sun offered- the agricultural work here is back-breakingly hard and the heat of the sun does nothing to alleviate the difficulties. Where we stopped there were even no trees for what felt like miles around, so no shade to stop and rest in at any point. These people are really Tough- they’ve been doing this type of work for years and were then interrupted by the cruelties of the civil war and are now back trying to scrape a living from the sun boiled landscape in which they live. Seeing small glimpses of this just makes me so thankful for all the huge opportunities I was given in where I was born and grew up- I am so amazingly blessed.
We did make it to Kabala, with no car problems. We found the guest house without too much trouble and they had kept the rooms that we booked and then had rebooked due to the problems on the road the previous day. After relaxing for a bit and eating our packed lunch- we had a lot of bread and cheese and bananas that we’d brought with us (and two tins of tuna that stayed shut the entire time), we wandered round the town, met one a friend living in Kabala and just enjoyed being away from the business of Freetown. That evening we had couscous and vegetables at the ‘JustInn’ restaurant and bar- delicious and not too spicy! On the Sunday, we went walking up a mountain/hill overlooking Kabala- the views were beautiful, the breeze gently cooling and the company… (well pretty good actually). We chatted about why we celebrate Easter, what actually happened at the first Easter and why that matters for the salvation of our souls.
Our time in Kabala was good for getting away from the Western peninsula, reading, chilling out and just chatting about life, the universe and many other things. It was also much less exciting than out first attempt at a journey to get there and since we were trying to get away from the stress and hubbub of Freetown that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing! Discussions about materialism came up several times- particularly given the state of existence in some of the villages that we’d seen on the roads and these were the villages that had access to ‘easy’ transport to get to the main towns. There are many others living in villages that are much harder to reach (although the National Electoral Commission did manage to reach almost everyone who was eligible to register to vote when it was doing the elections last year).
This is getting to be an extremely long post, so congratulations if you’ve made it all this way! Just to say that we stopped in at Mama beach on the way back to Freetown on Easter Monday, which was fun but the beach isn’t a patch on John Obey or Bureh town beaches. There were also at least two large outings of Sierra Leoneans on the beach, plus sound systems, which made it somewhat noisier than it would otherwise have been.
Labels: bureh, car, kabala, power, roads
