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
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
