Bunce, beach, birthday
It’s sometime since I’ve written up here and life carries on. Last weekend, instead of going walking, I went to Bunce Island with some friends. Bunce Island is the site of an 18th century British slave castle about 20miles in the Sierra Leone River. You can only get to it by boat, fortunately we were able to hire a speedboat from some friends, which meant the journey was only 45mins each way.
It’s very much a ruin and the jungle has reclaimed a lot of the fort (fairly successfully). Bunce island is fairly small and there’s a huge amount of history behind it- apparently a lot of people were sent to work in the West Indies, South Carolina and Georgia. Slaves from West Africa were highly prized because of their rice growing skills. Women were also more highly prized (and therefore more expensive) than men because they worked harder and were also able to bear children (which would then become the property of the slave’s master). This was backed up by anecdotal evidence given by an American who was with another group that arrived at the island the same time we did- when the owner of his grandmother and grandfather (both with several ‘greats’ in the front) died, the woman was sold off for 400USD and the man for 280 USD according to the accounts that the family now had.
We were given a guided tour by a local who has been tasked with taking visitors around the island and explaining its history. When understandable, his interpretation of the history of the island did slightly differ from that available elsewhere. But the basic fact that many hundreds of men and women were sold as slaves still remains shocking and chilling. The BBC even has some pics of the island (and a bit more info on the history: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/picture_gallery/07/africa_bunce_island/html/1.stm)- they've even managed to take some of the same pics I have !
Archway near the entrance of the fort- looking inwards
The motley crew who I travelled with
Our guide on the island, telling us about the founding and building of the first fort on the site
One of the cannons that has been left on the island for sometime- including the royal cipher of King George III
Two storey building at the centre of the fort- probably where the Chief Agent and senior officers lived
The afternoon was more relaxed- we went to Tokeh beach which was enjoyable and relaxing, although they didn’t have enough crockery and cutlery for us to eat our fish and rice/chips with, which was annoying.
Oh and (going backwards in time), I celebrated becoming another year older last week, which was fun (pics on facebook). Since it wasn’t at the weekend, I had someone else do the cooking and Bliss (new patisserie/café that has recently opened up nearby) provided the cake, was a relaxed and chilled evening. Those of you who know a little bit about me, will probably be somewhat surprised at two of the main dishes in the meal that I had requested- curry!!!! Now, I had asked for the chicken curry be very, very, very mild and it was, which was nice (and very delicious) and I have to admit to not eating any of the vegetable curry because I’d said that could be a bit warmer. In any case, with plenty of fish (2 barracuda), mountains of rice and couscous, plus a delicious salad and fantastic new potatoes, we weren’t going to go hungry. There was ice cream and brownies for dessert (the latter very kindly made by one of my house mates) and then a huge cake from Bliss- chocolate of course and it fed all of us, plus several of my work colleagues and there still remained enough to be enjoyed afterwards. So all in all, a relaxed and fun evening with friends in SL, which was a brilliant way to celebrate turning another year.
Labels: beach, birthday, bunce island, tokeh
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
