The weather report
I totally forgot to add this in to the previous post- hitting the publish button can do wonders for your memory!! ah well, instead of editing it, I'll add this post as well- I will not quickly forget, but I'm not sure whether I'll miss or not the weather and traffic reports on the radio- as far as I can tell, it's identical every day. In the evenings everyone is always 'heading home after a hard day's work' and traffic is moving slowly in the same places all the time- it would be a surprise if traffic was free flowing given the number of vehicles on the roads at the moment!
The other light amusement from the radio is the weather report; at the end of the rainy season (ie now), in the evenings the weather report for 'overnight and into the morning' usually mentions the possibility of scattered showers and a 60% chance of rain- even when it's actually raining at the time of the report. Although last night I did hear a slight change- there was a 90% chance of rain and it really did rain- the rainy season was back with a vengeance, despite the fact that we're currently trying to enter the thunder and lightening season (I'm not sure if there's a formal name for it), but it's apparentely one of the reasons for the name Sierra Leone (Lion Mountains) is beacuse the loud rumbles of thunder in the mountain sounded like lions roaring at each other.
Anywaym that's enough of a postscript for now, am sure will think of more to add soon!
Labels: roads, weather
Looking Back, Tying Up
I’ve been in SL for 2 years and my time here is coming to an end. I need to sit back and reflect think on all the things that I’ve learnt, realised and begun to understand during me time here, once I’ve done that I’ll try to do a final update to my blog, but until that’s done, I’ve been thinking of things that I will (and won’t) miss when I leave here and I’ve thrown them in together- the only order is the one in which I wrote them down:
- The fantastic traffic safety sign- I’m lacking pictures, since I’m normally driving when I go past, but the captions are great (admittedly some of them are on one of the roads with more precarious edges than you’d generally find in Europe):
o Hug Children at home, Belt them in the car
o No Safety, Know Injury, Know Safety, No Injury
o Drive Safely…Today Heaven can wait
- Driving home over the hills in the evening and having a beautiful view down to the sea and being able to watch the sun set into the sea in a myriad of beautiful colours- one time recently, when I’d just finished playing squash, I walked out towards the beach and the sea looked as if it were made of molten gold/bronze
- The potholes in the major roads and the totally potholed other roads
- The totally crazy taxi drivers-including the ones that drive around at night with no headlights on in order to save fuel, or only have one headlight that works, so use that on full beam, or have decided to have the ‘coolest’ car on the road, full blinged out with loads of lights and stickers and toys and ski racks (yes- even tho’ I don’t think SL has ever experienced snow)
- Being able to buy fresh bread from the car window (as well as fruit, sweets, toiletries, DVD’s, school books, fried plantain, new windscreen wipers and other car accessories/essentials, boards games and probably anything else you can think of). I was recently offered two cows horns while I was driving by- with bits of the brains still attached in the middle, I wasn’t keen, which prompted one of the wits who I was driving to question why didn’t I want to buy the ‘bloody’ cows horns? I wonder…perhaps it was the anticipated smell, the likelihood of not being able to get it through customs and the fact that it really wasn’t something I had a hankering to put on a mantle piece…?
- The amazing beaches- beautiful, generally very clean, the water warm and clear and being able to eat freshly caught and BBQ’d fish with locally cooked rice and sauce after having enjoyed a swim in the sea.
- Being overcharged for anything because my nose is the wrong shape (or perhaps it’s something to do with the colour of my skin?) and then trying to barter prices down to something a bit more reasonable… well, sometimes!
- Having to buy cooking gas from the side of the road and hoping that it has been filled up enough such that it’s worth what you paid for it
- The highly erratic electricity and the ‘fun’ of depending on small generators for everything most of the time
- The friendliness of everyone here, especially when you need help or assistance
- The crazy rain, which totally soaks you if you get caught out in it for even a couple of seconds- my umbrella decided that it had had enough by the end of yesterday and now barely works- I’m hoping that the rain stays away long enough that I won’t have to get a new one before I leave! It turns roads into rivers/car parks and has caused some people to die due to the ferocity of the water as it heads down to the sea, sometimes catching people and washing them out to sea
- Coming home to a clean house several times a week, where even the ironing has been done- wow that’s brilliant and not something I can expect to happen for many years, if ever again
- Beach bars where you can sit and watch the sun go down over the sea in the early evening
- The interesting work ethic- some people work really hard and are very good at what they do, some just drift by waiting on handouts from others (ok- this could be any society in the world), but when you see young guys just sitting around during the day on the side of the road, just passing the time with each other, scepticism creeps in about whether they really want to work. It’s also interesting to see in offices how many people aren’t being that productive and also the extent to which friends and family ‘drop-in’ for a chat and sometimes with a request for assistance in the middle of the working day. Also if there’s no power in the offices, work can be difficult- e.g. computers won’t work and neither will a/c or fans and in the middle of the dry season it can get very hot and tiring just being
- The general harmony between people of different religions
- The general rancour between people of different political affiliations
- The huge amount of respect shown to parents- especially to fathers e.g. a friend of mine was told by his father that he had married a woman from a certain tribe who’d turned out not be exactly what he wanted / a ‘bad’ wife and so he wouldn’t allow his son to marry a woman from the same tribe. But this father would apparently have no problem with the son marrying a white woman who he didn’t know
- The huge amounts of chilli that is included in food here
- The 3 genders in development- man, woman and white-woman, with ‘white-woman’ being more or less on an equal footing with man, but with ‘woman’ being a lot lower down the scale. Women definitely have a much harder time of life here than men- they are expected to do a lot of the work in the fields, as well as caring for the family, any cooking and cleaning that needs to be done. I know some of the men work very hard as well, but it seems that it is always the women here upon whom the ultimate burden falls. Women are expected to be utterly faithful to their husbands, whereas not only does Islam allow men up to 4 wives, culturally it seems acceptable for a man to have other girlfriends as well as his wives/wife. Oh and women are expected to bear lots of children- especially boys. Girls tend to get less education, tho’ this is slowly changing, but even if they are educated, some are taken out of school in their mid-teens in order to be married off.
- There’s a huge disparity between rich and poor in SL- a recent article in the economist put the gini coefficient for SL (a measure of inequality) at above 0.60- according to the data they had collected this meant that SL was one of the most unequal countries in the world. This picture came from the
Economist website
- Handling dirty money the whole time…perhaps I should rephrase that- handling cash where the notes have varying levels of dirt and germs on and having the constant desire to clean your hands after handling money here. Mind you, since a lot of the money is often kept hidden somewhere within various pieces of clothing, it’s hardly surprising that it isn’t especially clean
- The newspapers and their sometimes unique versions of English grammar and syntax
- The fact that almost everything in SL is sponsored by one of the mobile phone companies
- When the weather gets too cold (below 25 degrees centigrade), Sierra Leoneans will don thick jackets and woolly bobble hats, despite the fact that in the UK as soon as the temperature hits the 20’s, everyone starts wearing shorts and summer dresses
- That almost all buildings and compounds employ guards
- That you can measure how wealthy someone is by the type of wall they have round their compound and the thief deterrents placed in the top of the wall- ranging from bits of broken glass to electrified fences
- When something happens e.g. a car touches another car, people are having an argument, everyone comes and stands around shouting at the tops of their voices and joining in
- Shouting is used as a normal method of communication
- The difficulties of just living when you don’t have money
- The large amount of long complicated words that are used in documents so that the author can sound educated- so far as I’m aware, the ‘Campaign for Plain English’ obviously hasn’t put up offices in SL just yet
- The generosity of mind and spirit of so many people here, which is so lovely
Okay, that’s enough for now- I'm sure there's more I should include, but that's enough for a start. Overall, I’ve loved my time in SL, tho’ it’s been a bit of a rollercoaster-especially emotionally- and I know there’s still loads for me to learn about the country and people etc. I think living in any country that you don't know well/haven't been brought up in can bring difficulties, confusions and emotional highs and lows, I'm sure it's not just in SL that you can go from being pretty depressed to very happy within the space of half and hour, even when the reasons for each emotion are entirely different. Maybe it's just that I've been taking more time to examine how I react to situations, but I think it's also the effect of Africa and for me in particular, from living in Sweet Salone.
I’ve also really enjoyed travelling around the country, both for business and pleasure. In my time here I managed to visit all the districts, including Bonthe island and the Turtle Islands just off the coast and I definitely agree with people who say that Freetown is definitely not fully representative of Sierra Leone as a whole and that although you can get an idea of SL from being in Freetown, to really know what it's like you need to go upline and meet people there and know and understnad more about their lives. It has been an incredible experience and I can’t quite believe that it’s coming to an end. However, I’ve still got two weeks to enjoy being here, so it’s not quite over yet……
Labels: beach, car, poverty, power, rain, roads, weather
Busy week
It's been about a week since I last added anything- it's been a busy week- loads to do at work, as well as several things in the evenings. Even had the study group at mine on Weds night, so that kept me busy- particularly when I wasn't sure if we would have enough fuel to last the evening. This meant that I cooked for a friend and we ate by candle-light so that we would have enough fuel for the generator when everyone else came round. In the end i decided that i'd ask one of the guards to get some more fuel- 'just in case' and probably also 'just in time' (sorry- really bad economist joke there- my apologies- it has been a long and busy week).
Last night we were out at Chez Nous- one of the many beach bar/restaurants on Lumley beacg- they have live jazz on Thursday evenings, which was good fun- also saw (and heard) a very nice tenor sax being played live there. Am tempted to bring my own out- tho' I probably wouldn't play it as often as I should (I definitely don't play it as often as I should at the moment!).
The weather (well I do come from the UK)
Last Friday it rained- now I know those of you in more temperate climates will say 'so what'- but here is really is an anomaly- it doesn't rain in the dry season here. Basically the idea is you get 6months of rain and 6months of dry-tho' I think May/June and Sept/Oct are a bit of a mix of wet and dry as the seasons swap over. I have sicne learned that sometimes at the end of the Hamattan (Salone's version of winter) there's some rain. This means that the Harmattan is now well and truly over and we are likely to have increasing heat and humidity until May/June/whenever the rains decide to come this year-last year they were late and this year is unlikley to be very different.
The main problem with the rain coming last Friday was that a group of us were planning to camp out on the beach on Friday night. However, this didn't happen, since no one wanted to sleep out if we were likley to get drenched, plus it would be unlikely that we would find much dry wood in order to make a fire with. Now, the fire would definitely not be for warmth but more for light and something to sit round (not sure if anyone was planning to take a guitar with them or not) :-)
ah well, we'll see what this weekend brings-hopefully sometime down on the beach enjoying the warm weather if all goes well!
Labels: beach, bible study, electricity, jazz, rain, weather
HAPPY NEW YEAR
I know it’s a little late to wish you a Happy New Year, but I’ve only just got back to work, so I think it’s just about allowed!
Anyway, I’m now back in SL and this time it looks as though I’m going to be here for sometime! It’s much warmer being back than it was in the UK (tho’ much cooler than it was when I first arrived, which is making reacclimatisation much easier). In another sense I also I came back at a pretty good time- basically when I left I was told that the 1st Jan was a public holiday and the rest of the week would be work as normal, but now I discover that the 2nd is as well, which means I have been able to rest and relax and make sure I’ve got me and my stuff sorted before heading back into work.Although a few of the expats are around (especially those who stayed in SL/ Africa for Christmas and the New Year), as yet there doesn’t seem to be that many people around, but I have been taking life fairly quietly so there are likely to be more people around than I realise.
Have still got a slight sniffle, which is annoying as means I shouldn’t do any swimming at the moment since I really don’t want it to get any worse-but hopefully plenty of rest yesterday will have gone a long way to sorting that all out!
NPA is back on and some people have even had it for 24 hours a day. Our meter has been replaced but they think there might be a problem with the connection hence meaning we still have to rely on a generator whenever we want some power (which is working at the moment!!)
I've tried to put some more photos on this blog but it doesn't seem to want to work at the moment, so I'm afraid you'll just have to wait until I find a computer with a better browser!
Labels: electricity, New Year, weather
I was right
This week has been totally manic in getting all the preparations done for the meeting next week. It's been really interesting and fun as well, tho'!
Some good news-have passed my Masters, which is a relief and means that I do have a reason for heading back to the UK slightly earlier than I would otherwise (of course, 2 of my friends are also getting married at the end of that week, so I was planning to come back around then anyway of course!)
So what news from hot and sunny Salone? Well- the weather's heating up at bit, which means it can be really nice to escape into an air con room for a rest. It also means that sleeping is getting harder because our fans are broken and the main generator still isn't fixed (meaning air con units won't work), plus our connection to National Power still isn't working. The main upshot is that we still eat out a lot- which is of course very sociable but could pall after a while. however, we do have light in the evenings, which is nice and means we can do more stuff round the house than was previously possible.
Anyway, am hoping to escape work early today so will sign off and wish you a happy weekend (am hoping to see if I can begin to learn surfing if all goes well).
Labels: electricity, weather, work
