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
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
Another weekend, another adventure
This Saturday was so tiring that I really could do with last week’s bank holiday to be repeated, although I did have a huge rest on Sunday which was much needed.
On Friday evening we had our second Krio lesson- lots of grammar and background, which means it’s all v interesting but is also hard work and requires a lot of concentration after a week of work, especially since it lasted for 2hours- I think in the future we might just have 1 hour on Fridays.
We had a very early evening to bed on Friday, but this was partially because we were going to get up unreasonably early for Saturday morning in order to get to the pick up point (Congo Cross for those who know it) for a hike we were going on.
Anyway, Saturday was great fun but a long hike- there are some photos from it below- involving going a very long way up a fairly steep hill and then another lesser hill and then another very steep hill. However, we did get some good views of the city and were also able to enjoy a relaxed lunch while some of the guys (both expats and local since we went on the hike with a group of local scouts) with us played football with locals living at the top of the first hill. We then walked back a different way (passing the new US embassy that’s in the process of being built). It was wonderful to get home and put my feet up (really aching after 5 hours of walking).
Saturday night involved several options- a relaxing movie with some of those we had been on the hike with, chilling at home, or a party. Since I’m still trying to get to know people and be friendly and sociable, I chose the latter, which was fun- potentially amazing views from the balcony, well, there would’ve been during the day. At night you could just see loads of lights over the hillsides, which was pretty but not amazing.
Sunday morning was a youth thanksgiving service, which was good, tho’ the invited speaker perhaps included a bit too much prosperity than I’m used to. I spent the afternoon with my feet up (still needed after Saturday) reading a fictional novel based on the West Coast of Africa; it’s v good (am almost finished despite having only started yesterday but then have always been fairly voracious in terms of reading) and I think I’ll have to try and find some more stuff to read. Fortunately all the expats seem to bring a fair amount of books with them- especially if they’re out here for sometime- plus the British Council is meant to have a fairly extensive library, so I won’t run out of books to read for a bit. In the evening we went to Alex’s- a bar/restaurant on the beach, which I really like (and the company was fun too).
Didn’t quite make it down to the beach proper (at least not during the day) this weekend, but this wasn’t really a problem since we’ve already been to 3 and have only been here 3 weeks- ah well, I’ll look forward to exploring another beach soon.
Labels: church, Krio, trek, weekend
