Travels and Rain
Yes- that's right- RAIN!! In the middle of the dry season! Although we did have some last year as well- apparently it's called the 'New Year' rains, which only last for a couple of days and then it's all hot, dry (ok- humid would be a more accurate rendering of the climate here) and sunny until the rainy season (due to start May or June ish). I'd forgotten how loud the rain can be at nights, so the one night that we had a huge thunderstorm, I slept a lot less than I intended.
Anyway, travels- a group of us went upline (upcountry) for the weekend a couple of weeks ago (pics on facebook-if you're not on there, let me know and I'll try to get round to putting some on my blog as well). We went to Sierra Rutile- a concession where rutile is taken out of the flooded ground, cleaned (several times), dried and then sent to somewhere that uses it (I think it's used for pigmentation in paints, but beyond that my knowledge is pretty limited). We were given a tour of the dredger- pulling up rutile plus a who lot of other gunk from the bottom of the lake, the wet plant (first stage of cleaning) and the dry plant (next few stages of cleaning plus drying the rutile and putting it in sacks. One of the people I was travelling with mentioned as an aside that it didn't look much different to wet cement in its soggy state and that they could see much of a difference as a result of the final cleaning processes, although admitted that it felt pretty different when finally dried and in the sacks. I'm sure someone who's a professional and actually understands the processes and the need for the rutile to be dry would be able to see many more differences than we did!
Anyway, that was just the first night and morning of the road trip. The second part involved driving (round in circles to start with) off the concession and towards the edge of Bonthe. From here speed boats picked us up and took us to Sherbro island (I'm still not sure if that is meant to have one 'r' or two, I'm sure someone will let me know if it's really important). This island is also known as Bonthe island because the Bonthe district is divided into two parts- that on the mainland and that on the island. On the island there are two types of accommodation available- the very up market (from 1o0USD per night) and the very basic (12,000Leones per night- that's about 2 GBP or 4USD). Since we were there as part of a celebration of my friend's birthday, we had opted for the more expensive option. It's the
Bonthe island holiday resort and is apparently a really big place for 'big fish' anglers and if you go at the right time of the year you can get some pretty amazing catches of big fish such as tarpon. They have a chef from Benin and I think the French influence has ensured he's a very good cook- the food we had was excellent, particularly the fish!
In the afternoon (after a fantastic lunch), we went walking round part of the island for about 3hours, we went through the market, along the main street, past the church commemorating the Amistad and briefly visited the hospital (somewhat bare in terms of facilities). We also took loads of pics, particularly of the kids, who loved having their pictures taken and then seeing them on the backs of the cameras. Since (as far as I'm aware/at least for the part of the island that we were on) Bonthe island is surround by mangroves, there's not much opportunity for swimming, but there was a lot to look at and see. There's several colonial buildings on the island, I think it was quite popular among the first colonisers of the Portuguese, but was eventually eclipsed by the Freetown peninsular (probably due to the natural deep water harbour whereas the part of the island that we were on had too many shallows for the comfort of sailors). As such the mainstay of the economy of Bonthe island is agriculture and artisanal fishing. It lacks the beaches of the Western area to make it a popular tourist destination, but I think it will remain popular with the niche market of tarpon anglers for sometime to come. The accommodation at the holiday resort was excellent- very clean, it felt very fresh and well cared for, it also had hot water showers, so definitely a bit of luxury compared to the compound in Freetown. We spent the evening chilling out on the verandahs surrounding the villas in the resort and savouring the fact that we were a way away from Freetown and the freshness of the air.
On the next morning, after a delicious breakfast, we hired bikes and cycled over to the air field. There's an abandoned plane there, which was interesting to explore. My body reminded me that I hadn't cycled for years and that there would be serious repercussions to this unnatural exercise in the days to come. I also discovered that it's really difficult to cycle on sand- I'm sure most of you know this already, but since I very rarely go on a bike, this was quite a discovery for me! After another delicious lunch of fish, we departed the island along with some local handicrafts- most popular were the semi-reclining seats that several of the group had purchased (for an extortionate 3,000 Leones each!!). It was quite amusing to watch as these were then manhandled into the vehicles we'd brought with us so that they wouldn't fall or cause too much chaos as we headed back to Freetown.
We arrived back on the Western peninsula in time for the guys to watch one of the Cup of Nation's footie matches (might even have been one of the semi-finals) and then proceeded to Freetown and the awaiting showers, since however clean we were on setting off from the resort, a boat ride followed by alighting on a muddy beach, plus a 6 hour drive and a break in the dusty district capital of Moyamba always means you end up covered in red dust and dirt by the time you get back to Freetown.
It was a brilliant time! It also means that I have now visited every district in Sierra Leone (previously I had only been to Bonthe mainland and not to Bonthe island and several people felt that this was 'cheating', so now I can say that I have visited all the districts here. It was great to spend the weekend away with friend exploring new parts of SL.
Labels: bonthe, rain, rutile
There and back again- a trip up country in Salone
After two weeks of travel round Sierra Leone, I feel I know the country a bit better- tho’ I did comeback to town last weekend which was appreciated, as it meant I could see friends and go to the beach (harder to do inland). Well, here is a brief resumé of what I have been doing while visiting the provinces up country. There are 13districts, split into three provinces- North, South, East and West, although the Western province is entirely made up of the peninsular that includes Freetown and which is where I have spent most of my time so far, so I won’t say much about that here. We were doing all this travelling to set up Monitoring and Evaluation committees so that we can see to what extent SL is decreasing poverty and to introduce the focal person for doing this in the district to some of the major players.
First stop- Bo (same name for district and district capital), we left Freetown before it was light in order to arrive early enough to hold morning meetings. Bo is the second city in SL- at least that’s what I’ve been told. They’ve been working hard to keep it clean and while we were sitting waiting for the meetings to begin, I saw one group of people come round and sweep the rubbish into piles and then a few moments later another group came round and put it into a cart and take it away. There’s still some way to go, but it felt like a good start. I think attitudes in SL towards rubbish are very different (at least to mine, tho’ I have seen plenty of people throw their rubbish on the ground at home)- there are no (or at least I haven’t seen any) rubbish bins on the streets, so people just throw rubbish into the gutters and roads and paths (anywhere really) and wait for someone else to deal with it. When travelling along roads, people just throw rubbish out of cars as well- I guess it’s to do with the attitude that if I pay taxes then the government ought to keep the streets clean and it doesn’t matter how I behave. Anyway, I didn’t mean to rant about rubbish, so will leave the matter for another time. In Bo there are loads of motorcycles-more than in Freetown, or at least in the ratio between cars and motorcycles. The roads to Bo were graded but not tarmac the whole way there.
In the afternoon we travelled onto Pujehun (town and district name I think), this was a rebel stronghold during the war and they stayed here for some time, as a result, the town and district still show a lot of scars and it was more or less totally destroyed by the war. There was no running water in the main town- hand-wells are the main source of water for many people. Several news buildings have been built since the end of the war but a lot of burnt out shells remain.
We stayed in Bo the first night, the hotel I was in was very nice- even had CNN Europe, so I could catch up on some of the news.
Day 2, (Thursday) we finished our extra meetings in Bo and headed down to Bonthe. Bonthe province is split into 2 parts-the mainland and the island. We didn’t go to the island (the main administrative centre), but went to Mattru, where a lot of the people we needed to meet also have offices. The roads were very poor to get here and due to the Vice President going there on an official visit, to open a ferry (among other engagements) some of our meetings took place at an agricultural fete rather than in the normal office environment. I was informed that it takes 2-3 days sail to reach some of the areas of the province. We met almost no traffic on the roads and it seemed to be very poor.
Day 3, after having spent a second, very comfortable, night in Bo we went onto Kenema- a big diamond area in the east of the country and a therefore an area that the rebels wanted and fought strongly over during the war. It also has a lot of agriculture and is probably the breadbasket of SL. The roads between Bo and Kenema were good (tarmac) and we managed to push up our agenda and make it to Kailahun (in the far east of SL) in time to have meetings at the end of the day. Kailahun was one of the main rebel strongholds and is very poor- tied with Bonthe in terms of poorest district in SL. The roads were very bad- potholes that you had to drive into such that the sides of the roads were as high as the windows of the car. All buildings were destroyed and there’s a big NGO presence in the area. I think there’s also diamonds here and it borders both Guinea and Liberia, making it a ‘good’ area for smuggling during the war. The road to Kailahun was impassable until about 2years ago and I still wouldn’t want to go there in the rainy season at all.
We travelled back to Freetown on the Saturday, and then on Weds 24th we set off again, this time to visit the north and the rest of the eastern provinces. We held a workshop in Makeni (capital of the Bombali district) which went well. Makeni is a thriving town with really good roads between it and Freetown. The city is fairly well developed, tho’ I didn’t get to see much of it (until Friday but more of that below).
We travelled onto Kabala (the capital of Koinadogu district in the north) in the evening and stayed ay Paygay’s guest house (I think it’s pronounced Peggy’s) which was very nice-had running water, a generator and mosquito nets over the beds. We visited the old residence of the British colonisers- it was fairly high up (I think because they though malaria was caused by ‘bad air’ in the valleys so built at the top of hills up to stop them from catching it) and had good views over the town and is not the President’s residence when he comes to visit the district. In the evening, since I was with some fairly keen Arsenal fans, we went out to watch the London derby against Tottenham- in SL people adore football and all support at least one European (usually UK) football team and avidly watch all matches they can , as well as arguing voraciously with each other about tactics etc. Since we had had a pre-dawn start again and I hadn’t slept in the car, I was exhausted and because I ended up sitting on a very comfortable sofa (near the back of the room), I was falling asleep by the end of the first half, tho’ I did manage to just about see the two goals scored for Tottenham. This discouraging result at half time meant that my companions (who were also quite tired by now) were happy to forgo the second half (where I believe Arsenal equalised) and we went back to Paygays to sleep. The road from Kenema to Kabala was pretty good, but I was told it’s the only good road in the district and friends who’ve gone furher up country from Kabala towards the Guinea border said how it recently took them 7 hours to cover 70 miles because they kept needing to check whether the car would manage to get through the roads!
Koidu (capital of Kono) shows the riches of a major diamond town-at one point, you could apparently walk along the roads and just pick up diamonds as you walked along. There are diamond mines in the middle of the town and it’s a bustling place. This was again an area the rebels held during much of the war. The roads are fairly good to get here-not surprising since you get a lot of mining investors coming here. What was really sad was the stark poverty and riches so close to each other- the Koidu Holdings area was well lit (looking like a small town at home, with an orange glow from the street lights) and the surrounding areas in total darkness at night. It was more expensive to eat here than in any of the other districts- due to the riches from the mining. The roads to get here were littered with skeletons of cars that had been ambushed during the war.
Our car broke down (well, something split on the back axle and needed to be soldered back together), so we spent a bit of time in Makeni on our way to Kambia in the far north of the country. This meant I saw a bit more of the town and managed to buy some Africana fabric to be made into more African clothes when I get back to Freetown, the market was busy (and cheaper than Freetown) and I was given goat to eat (by a relative of someone I was travelling with)- it’s nice, but the smell is very pungent and stays with you for ages. Anyway, the problems with the car meant that a 6 hour journey became an 11 hour journey, which was exhausting for all of us and the roads to Kambia were only partially graded so felt a bit like being on a roller coaster with all the ups and downs of the road- tho’ fortunately we never went over our heads! The guest house here was more basic than the one in Kono- not having running water, so it’s a ‘bucket job’ in order to have a shower and you had to fill up the tank in the top of the toilet before you flushed it-but at least it was half connected!
On Saturday we held the necessary meetings first thing in Kambia and then headed off to Port Loko to hold meetings there on our way back to Freetown- Port Loko holds the airport, so is partly well developed but most of the district needs a lot more development. We bought fruit and veg from the many stalls on the side of the road on our way back- it’s much cheaper here than it is in town and managed to arrive back mid afternoon in Freetown, which was nice as it meant I could go for a swim and do some exercise after being in a car for most of the week!
Well, that was my time spent up country in the past couple of weeks- a really interesting experience and although we spent most of our time on the main roads, the poverty we saw is still amazing and I’m sure not as bad as that experienced by those who don’t have so much access to markets and roads. SL is an amazing country and so beautiful and yet so needy in terms of development, but people are very welcoming and friendly wherever I’ve been, which has really helped.
Well done for making it to the end of this post!!
Labels: ambush, bo, bombali, bonthe, car, districts, football, kabala, kambia, Koidu, Koinadogu, Kono, makeni, port loko, roads, rubbish, travel, water
