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
Very bad economist joke
When your neighbour loses his job, it is called an economic slowdown. When you lose your job, it is a recession. But when an economist loses his job, it becomes a depression.
Otherwise, not much happening here- tho' the weather last night decided that the rainy season hadn't ended yet (despite there being enough sun for a lovely trip to the beach last weekend)and so decided to bucket it down, causing many roads to turn into rivers (as per usual in the rainy season).
The Meatrix
Since I sent out a newsletter today, this is going to be really brief- I receive emails from a network of personnel in the agriculture sector in SL designed to enhance agricultural production and productivity etc. Sometimes there's a lot of very serious agronomics on the system, sometimes something slightly more light-hearted is sent round... today's light hearted banter was:
http://www.themeatrix1.com/Otherwise, all I have to say is that it's great being properly back online and as was pointed out by a very good friend of mine, I am finally beginning to recover from a serious bout of discomgoogolation.
Labels: agriculture, fun
Impressive driving!
Unfortunately I wasn't able to get a picture/video, but I did see some very impressive driving last night, imagine a road and let's say it's running north-south. There's 1 lane in either direction, it's a pretty busy road and not really wide enough to do proper manoeuvring without someone getting really annoyed and leaning on their horn for longer than is polite. I'm travelling south. There's a traffic jam in the other direction- for all the traffic heading north. A car travelling north suddenly sees the tail end of the traffic jam- did I mention this all happened at night?- and he wants to avoid the traffic jam. So, instead of trying to turn round, he manoeuvres his car to be on the 'wrong' side of the road (ie where all the traffic's heading south, while he's still facing north) engages reverse and drives at a 'normal' pace reversing in a southerly direction along the road for a long enough distance to make it pretty impressive before reversing into a side street and turning around properly so he's able to join the traffic heading south with the car facing the normal direction and heads off to try and find a back-route round the traffic jam that he'd managed to avoid in his journey north. It's just a pity I wasn't able to take a video of it because it was all very impressively done and not something I've ever seen really tried in the UK.
The rains are back, although they do seem to time themselves fairly well (or not)- sun during the week and then puring rain at the weekend- ah well, I won't be ending up my time here with much of a sun tan!
NPA- the national power authority has really impressed me- we had power from at least 8:30pm on Friday evening until 7:30am this morning- a whole weekend with power!!! This is (as far as I can remember) the first time that we have had constand power for so long- which is absolutely astonishing. I wasn't at home the entire time, but whenever I was at the house, we had power- I really hope that this is a sign of things to come in SL as it makes life here so much easier and nicer- especially when it's raining so hard you just don't want to go outside. This may not seem a big thing to most people in most countries, but when power is as sporadic as I've been used to here, it's really quite wonderful to have electricity on in the middle of the day.
We did a new walk this Saturday- through the middle of the town. Most people stayed at home (enjoying the electricity!) but it was a good chance to go at a slower pace than you normally would through some parts of the town (ie foot rather than car). I don't think it's going to be a walk we do a lot of the time- walking down Wilkinson road with all the pollution from the traffic is probably not as good for your lungs as wandering through the forest/jungle on the mountains, but it was good fun for a different experience and it was flat, which given the lack of exercise I've done recently was much appreciated by my legs!
Labels: power, rain, traffic, walk
Back in Sweet Salone
So far there’s been no real rain since I arrived, although I’m told there was a bit of rain in Freetown just before we landed at Lungi (as evidenced by the large pools of water).
I had a full compliment of choices on how to get to Freetown from Lungi last night- hovercraft, helicopter or ferry. I still haven’t used the hovercraft, although I’m told it’s a pretty decent journey and before I leave I do intend to do so, but I was tempted by the swiftness of the helicopter (even waiting around in the heliport for a bit didn’t delay us much) and so I was home by 9:30pm, where awaited another pleasant surprise- NPA was on. Not only was NPA on, it stayed on until at least 8:10am this morning, when I left for work! I’m hoping that this will be characteristic of my last few months in Sierra Leone, but I’ll try not to get my hopes up too much. However, considering that I wasn’t particularly excited about coming back to the dysfunctional lifestyle that has characterised much of my time here, a swift journey home from the airport as well as power on the whole evening, it was something that definitely cheered me up a bit!
The big news here at the moment is the landing of a cocaine plane, which landed on the apparently unlit runway of Lungi airport and then taxied to a corner of the airport far away from the terminal, a Landrover then rushed to the plane and picked up the people on board and fled. Lots of people were arrested in connection with this and the Minister of Transport and Aviation has now been relieved of his position, from what I’ve heard, it’s suspected (by the Freetown rumour-mill) that he and or his brother were closely involved in this saga. The President has sworn to bring to justice all those responsible for this, although critics are expecting him to try and protect the former Minister. All told, it will probably continue for a long time as each piece of the puzzle is carefully picked over, I hope that if heads high up were involved that they are rolled as this may eventually bring people to have more faith and confidence in the SL legal system as one where justice is done to all.
Labels: power, rain, travel
Blundering in the dark
Last week, we had some truly terrific thunderstorms for those of you who like watching them (N.B. they can get a bit boring after the while but the light shows are still pretty spectacular), so much so in fact that it was still very heavily overcast when I got up in the morning, reminding me of the middle of winter in the UK when I much prefer to hide beneath my duvet than face the cold of a new day. Anyway, it was still warm, so that wasn’t an issue, but the potential problem was the darkness- when there’s no NPA in the mornings (quite possible/probable) and the clouds are keeping the sun from shining, it can be a real pain to get washed and dressed and ready for the day- at least here I rarely wear socks so am unlikely to get to the office and realise I’ve got odd socks on. So of course, the main way to get around a lack of light is to light a candle. Now perhaps you’re one of those people who gets up in the morning, is totally awake and fully functioning from the moment yours eyes are awake/the alarm goes off, I’m not! It usually takes 2 alarms to get me out of bed and even then my sense of awakeness is probably questionable, so trying to light a candle without dropping the match, burning a hole in my mosquito net or anything else that’s likely to happen while in a semi-cognisant state is a bit of a trial. Ah well, I’ll just have to hope that on the mornings when there’s not light that there is NPA (or that I remember where I put my torch) J
Saturday was great fun- after a most relaxed morning (slightly more relaxed than planned due to closing my eyes for a 5 min doze and waking up 3 hours later) and contemplation of the fact that I really should do some exercise and even making the arrangements to do so, I received a call from a friend, who had a spare ticket to the football match between Sierra Leone and South Africa that was happening that afternoon at the National Stadium and she asked if I wanted to go. Well, I wasn’t sure (it was raining at the time) but after having been told that it was in the covered stands (about ¾’s of the stands are uncovered), which would give protection from sun or rain, I agreed. The match itself was a bit scrappy- at times it seemed the ball never changed teams except through a foul or a mad kick from one end of the pitch to the other. Having been shown the football stats, which seemed to indicate that South Africa was the better team, my limited knowledge of football seemed to suggest that SL were actually playing the better game, tho’ neither side seemed to be able to actually get the ball into the goal. Sierra Leone scored from a penalty, which helped the atmosphere get a bit livelier and then fraught with tension as the match came into the last 20minutes and people realised that they only had to hold on for a bit longer in order to win, which eventually they did and led to a huge outpouring of emotion from all the Sierra Leoneans in the stadium (and outside it as well).
Some of the main advertisers in SL are the mobile phone companies, who are also happy to sponsor events/ places, as long as their colours/ logos are brightly emblazoned thereon. At the national stadium, the light towers (have never seen them working but the metal work’s in place) and the exits are in bright red and yellow-sponsored by celtel (one mobile company) and the seats/blocks of concrete (so that they can’t be stolen/easily broken) are sponsored by Comium- 3-tone blues (another mobile company). SL’s national stadium doesn’t have the flashy signs and automatically changing ad-boards that you generally see in the football matches of western teams- there just isn’t the money for it!
Lobster at Franco’s was Sunday’s highlight and it was delicious; we also shared a crab between the party, which was more fun than food. One person in our group asked for ‘Crab Venus’, which is crab in white wine sauce and therefore a slight variation on what several of the rest of the party were having, which was lobster in white wine sauce. We were told that grilled (or even steamed) crab was possible, the lobster in sauce was possible, but crab in sauce was not possible. One of our group tried to make the waitress see that since both the crab and the sauce were available, surely it wouldn’t be difficult to put them together…? But it didn’t happen, so we just shared a grilled crab between us and enjoyed trying to pull it apart with (and in some cases without) the nutcrackers that we had been given. The crab was v tasty, but certainly not the dish you should have if you’re hungry as there’s quite a bit of work to be done to coax the meat out of the crustacean!
Labels: crab, electricity, football, lobster, rain
Food, fuel and tourism
I took a week off recently to be a tourist in Sierra Leone (it helped that I had a friend from school coming over to visit too). SL is beautiful- look at any pictures that you can and a beautiful country to be a tourist in. We spent time at the beaches, lazing at a couple of pools, tramping through the bush, visiting the Chimpanzees, and going to Banana islands just off the tip of the peninsula. We also went to the National Museum and spent time ‘discussing’ prices in the craft markets.
The infrastructure in Sierra Leone isn’t really set up to receive tourists, from the airport itself (which has improved markedly while I’ve been here), the chaos of getting out of the airport, picking up luggage and getting over to Freetown itself are probably worthy of a short story. Despite making arrangements for my friend to be met at the airport, booking them onto a bus that would bring them to my door; it took as long to get from the airport to my house as the flight from Heathrow to Lungi took! Arriving at 2:30am in the morning (after having gotten to Sierra Leone in the early evening) is not a way to encourage people to come and visit a second time and may make some travellers prefer to turn round and go back home). The situation has eased slightly since my friend arrived; the hovercraft has begun operations again, which saves a bit of time getting over from the airport, but still means it’s a bit of a hassle.
I have expounded before about the beauty of SL, its beaches, the mountains, the views etc, so I won’t do so again except to say that it is gorgeous and currently fairly unspoilt by any developments, so now is definitely a good time to come and see it.
The food and fuel price rises that have been going on throughout the world continue to impact Sierra Leone. One of the figures I have seen recently (tho’ I can’t vouch for its accuracy) says that the average monthly wage in Sierra Leone is about 150,000 Leones (just over 26 GBP and 50USD). A large sack of rice (that might feed an average family for a month) costs about 120,000 Leones. This means people having fairly small portions (especially considering the amount of hard labour in a hot climate that people do here). On top of this, most people would also want to purchase salt and chillies (the latter being an integral part of the Sierra Leonean diet) and would have palm oil splashed (less and less liberally) over the top. If you add in a smidgeon or protein (which most people can’t afford), then you’re getting closer to a balanced diet. In order to pad out the rice and make it last longer, many people will add cassava, sweet potatoes and garri to their meals, although the nutritional balance stills needs improvement. But this is just food- so basically, a wage (and many people here are more likely to be casual workers and so may not have a definite wage coming in every month) would cover enough food for the family for the month. The other costs that aren’t met are: rent, clothes, school supplies, any emergency medical treatment, travel, fuel and anything else- I’ve tried to only mention the essentials here. It’s in places like Sierra Leone that the rising food prices push more people back into poverty as they grapple with trying to balance getting enough nutrients with all the other essential expenditures- I haven’t even mentioned the issue of getting clean water here or disposal of waste.
Life at the ground level in SL is tough, really tough. I was chatting to a friend involved in children’s medicine here- they are seeing more and more children who are malnourished and as a result open to many other types of infections. What makes it even more heart rending is that the medical facilities in SL are so needy that some children who in the West would be in high dependency units being treated as outpatients here.
It’s an age-old cycle and breaking it is really hard (ok- I know it's really simplistic, but it shows basically how the cycle can work):
- First, you don't get enough to eat (or a balanced diet with a good nutritional intake) for whatever reason (too many mouths, prices are too high, money needed for treating a family member in hospital etc.)
- Then you become ill (meaning more money needs to be spent on medical treatment if possible)
- Because of the illness you are unable to work/or at the very least your productivity goes down (since in many situations in the developing world your wages depend on how much you produce e.g. breaking stones, carrying headloads, picking/tending agriculture etc)
- You receive lower wages
- You are unable to buy as much food/ have a nutritionally balanced diet
- You don’t get enough to eat,
- You become ill…
And the cycle goes on, as I said, this is a really simplistic version and lots of other factors can play into it. One of the other variants (which can be added into this cycle) is the education of children- you want to educate them so that they have a better chance in the future; but if they don’t have enough food then they can’t concentrate in school, so they don’t do well and not only do they not go up the economic ladder, but people feel it’s a waste to send children to school. Or, due to the need to earn more money for the family to survive now, children are taken out of education so that they don’t have opportunities to learn/improve in the future. It’s a difficult cycle and very hard to break out of, but it is possible, with the right resources in the right places at the right time.
This is already turning out to be pretty long, but I’ll quickly mention about fuel prices. All fuel prices are set by the government at the same level; the cost has gone up about 80 pence per gallon (4500 Leones) since I’ve been in SL and although the fuel prices are much, much lower than in Europe, this is a pretty big increase for everyone here to try and manage. It’s an inconvenience for those who can afford it but a real problem for those who can’t. Small shops that rely on small (and highly inefficient generators) in order to run their businesses when there’s no national power (NPA) are struggling even more than they used to and people who have generators in their homes may now find it difficult to have light at nights when there’s no NPA. This doesn’t so much impact the very poor but does mean those who thought they’d slowly worked their way out of desperate poverty are being pushed back into it. The other area where the fuel prices impact people are the costs of the taxi’s and podapodas (minibuses); these run on (semi-)set routes for a fixed cost, you can go further in the podapodas but you can usually get the taxi’s to deviate from their routes to drop you at a specific point. Lots of people in Freetown use both taxis and podapodas to get to and from work each day, but the cost in fuel means the set cost of a journey in a taxi or podapoda has now increased (there’s no meters and if you’re going in a taxi off a set route you need to discuss vigorously about the price). When I arrived it was 800 Leones per journey, it is now 1000Leones per journey, which again isn’t that much from a Western perspective, but is a huge increase for people who rely on this cheap transport to get them around, since there’s no public transport system here so an increase in the cost of travel of 25% in less than 2 years is pretty huge.
Labels: beach, chimps, food, fuel, power, roads, taxis, tourism, traffic
All quiet on the Western Seaboard
Sierra Leone is a net importer of rice and other food stuffs, it is also among the poorest and least developed nations in the world (it was last in the UN’s 2007 Human Development Index). Sierra Leone is split into 4 regions; North, South, East and West. Geographically, the Western area is the smallest; it is also the area in which Freetown is based. It's on the top end of the Western Area on the map below.
After a sustained effort under the previous government the country is getting closer to food self-sufficiency. In fact, according to one report I heard last year, all regions except the Western area were food self-sufficient. This is mainly because there is a very high concentration of the population in the Western Area. One of the problems is getting food from the regions to the city, which always makes prices here much higher than they are up country. The previous government- under the SLPP focused on food security, one of its main pledges in the 2002 was that no Sierra Leonean would go to bed hungry and as such the government subsidised the price of rice. Now, I’m not sure if this worked and given how tough life is here for the majority of the population, it’s possible that no Sierra Leonean ever went to bed hungry but I take leave to doubt that. When the APC administration came into power in September, they announced a change in their focus; they would try to improve the situation regarding power and electricity, as well as other infrastructural issues and so they got rid of the rice subsidy.
The international situation is causing these prices to go even higher, but there’s (as yet and as far as I’m aware) no likelihood or threat of rioting or protests about the higher food prices. I was confused, since the prices have increased dramatically for basic food stuffs and spoke to some friends about this and the reason for the lack of discontent is politics. The ‘Youth’ in Freetown (anyone aged 18-35) who are the majority of the unemployed and therefore/also those most likely to riot, voted in overwhelming numbers for the APC in the elections last year and therefore are much less likely to riot under this government than they were under the previous government due to the issues of political allegiances and loyalties and the need for the party that ‘they’ put into power not to lose face by having to deal with rioting youth. They may make their concerns known when the local elections occur in July/August this year, but since the President does seem to have delivered on his promise to bring power to Freetown (even if the method used does not consider the long term fiscal impacts that this will have), so the people are more likely to consider him as a man to keep his promises and that he will be doing all he can to sort out the current problem with the food prices.
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
Deep fried ants and other animals
One evening last week (since the day I wrote this was the day when the net decided to die so I can’t now use the easier phraseology of ‘yesterday evening’) I decided to cook a very basic tomato sauce for supper. I picked up the frying pan from the pile of (probably) clean utensils and placed it on the hob. After having prepared the sauce in a bowl, I got read to light the hob- not helped by the fact that our gas cylinder seems to have issues in letting too much gas escape into the air, to the extent that a hand, foot (or more usefully the full 5 gallon water butt which hadn’t been opened yet , since all limbs are then free to move around the kitchen doing other activities, unfortunately this took me a couple of mins to work out/organise during which period immobility was becoming increasingly annoying) had to remain on the valve at all times to ensure that the only gas that left the cylinder went to the hob rather than into the air. I’d placed a dribble of oil in the bottom of the pan (not strictly necessary but helps things not to stick) and as I lit the hob, noticed several ants running round the edge of the pan, since at this point in time I hadn’t realised the usefulness of the water butt and was holding the valve in place using my foot, trying to get rid of the unwelcome spectators was unsuccessful. Anyway, the assumption was that the ants would try to get away from the heat in the middle of the pan, unfortunately the heat obviously wasn’t to their liking and instead of taking a running leap onto the hob, they ran round in circles all over the frying pan. Eventually, the oil was hot and very liquid and made and light fizzle-pop sound as it encounter the extra protein that had sacrificed itself in the frying pan. Once having removed the ants from the oil, used the water butt to prevent problems with the gas supply, and cooked supper I very much enjoyed it, but it was a bit of a hassle. However, I know that several people (a few ex pats but many, many locals), would love the option of cooking on a stove in doors, since currently all their cooking must be down outside, so I do remember that a few ants really aren’t that much of a problem and that I do have a very high standard of life compared to so many people here in SL.
Those of you of a squeamish disposition should avoid reading the next paragraph…
When I first arrived here I was encourage to read the book Aminata Forna’s ‘The Devil that Danced on the Water’, which is about her childhood in SL, growing up during Siaka Steven’s era. One of the more familial touches in the book describes how all clothes had to be carefully ironed to get rid of the eggs that flies might have laid upon them and even then, each weekend, their mother would carefully examine all the children to check for spots which might show where the eggs/larvae had hatched and burrowed into the children’s skin. This was then treated using liberal doses of vaseline over the spots, since this would deprive the larvae of oxygen and force them to exit the body, any recalcitrant larvae would then be squeezed out of the body (along with the liquid surrounding them). Unfortunately I (as well as several of my friends here), have now had first hand experience of this and although it’s pretty gross, it’s not as painful as I was first lead to believe it would be.
Anyway, back to other news, we have recently had a sudden downpour of rain. For those not conversant with a dry-season, wet-season lifestyle, this type of thing is pretty rare in the middle of the dry season (where SL is now at). The good side is that it refreshed the air a lot the morning after; it cleaned the streets a bit (ahead of the Saturday clean up- when all citizens of SL are expected to spend the morning cleaning the streets and putting the rubbish in large piles for collection, tho’ often mostly burn it instead) and hopefully add an extra level of water to the reservoirs that supply Freetown with water (much needed since the last rainy season was fairly short-apparently- and F’town’s water supply infrastructure was built to supply a much smaller population than currently lives here now). I know that in May-June 2006, there was rationing of water in Freetown, which made life pretty difficult for everyone for a few weeks and everyone’s hoping that the same thing doesn’t happen again this year; last year the rains arrived in time, but they are becoming gradually more unpredictable as time passes, I hope they do not tarry too much. The possibly negative point about the rains last night is their suddenness and ferocity (when it rains here it really rains- no mist or drizzle, but ‘real’ rain), which (I’m told) caused the deaths of several people in the slum areas when they hit F’town in a previous freak burst about a month ago. The slums/shanty towns are often built round the streams/water runways down to the sea/sewers for Freetown and so when the water rushes down from the hills towards the sea, due to the huge build-up of rubbish in these open sewers, it can mean flooding of these homes (with water, sewage and rubbish), as well as possibly sweeping people away with it, which is heart-breaking. Hopefully people living in areas at risk from these rains will have seen the warning signs in the early evening and were able to prevent this from happening.
On a lighter side, here’s a picture of one of the potholes in one of the roads up country, I found this photo in the archives of the Standard Times Press one of Sierra Leone’s papers. I think we definitely need more investment in decent infrastructure here!
Labels: clean up, rain, roads
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
Liquid toothpaste, a Muslim wedding and other adventures in no. 177
Even a warm UK house doesn’t have the same effect on toothpaste as the constant warmth and humidity of Sweet Salone. While back in the UK for a short break, I’d become used to a semi-solid state for my toothpaste- ie it doesn’t seep through the bristles as soon as you put it onto the brush, however, it was a slight surprise to come back to SL, put toothpaste on my brush, spend a very few seconds putting the lid back on the tube and putting it down and by this time my toothpaste had disappeared from view due to its more than usually liquid state-ah well, just one of those little things to get used to again ;-)
I went to a Muslim wedding yesterday- I know, a Thursday, but that was their choice of day. I’d never been to a Muslim wedding before, but from what I’d heard, many parts of it were fairly typical. It took place at a local mosque, with the men sitting in their area and the women in theirs- tho’ since there’s a wall between them and only one doorway (where the bride was sitting), you couldn’t see much. In effect, neither the bride nor the groom didn’t need to be there as the focus was on the joining of the two families. The actual marriage itself was the groom (or the representative of the family) asking the bride’s father if he could marry her 3 times and then the father said yes. This (very short) ceremony was preceded by lots of men giving the new couple good advice on what makes a good marriage and was followed by men telling the bride that the husband was in charge and she should not speak more than him and should not ask him where he has been when he comes back etc- I paraphrase slightly because the PA system wasn’t great and my Krio is even worse. Unlike the Christian weddings that I’m much more used to, there was no singing, there were no flowers, and no group photos; most of the photographs seemed to be fairly informal- people sitting round the mosque during and before the wedding. And of course, it all happened in very Sierra Leonean style- at BMT, with the wedding beginning 1.5hrs after it was meant to. However, that’s nothing compared to the evening event; the invitation asked people to turn up at 6pm, when I asked a colleague, he said that it was 6pm BMT and therefore 8pm GMT, I followed his advice and arrived at 8pm, although then had to wait around another 40mins before anything happened :-P
Since it was a Muslim wedding, there was no alcohol, although a good amount of soft drinks were available (Vimto, Fanta, Sprite, Coke and Sparkling Apple juice- the latter confused a lot of people because it looked as tho’ it was in a champagne bottle- even including the metal and cork top, which I have to admit, I did find it slightly amusing that people weren’t quite certain how to open and led to a couple of ingenious methods). The bridal procession then arrived- the bride had changed out of her white, Western, wedding dress into something that I assume is more Islamic- cream with maroon and gold embroidery (matching the groom’s outfit), although it was still fitted and had a small train. What was very sweet was the mini-bride- a small girl, my guess would be about 5yrs old, but I’m not too good at guessing that sort of thing, who was dressed identically to the bride- both in the white, wedding dress and the Islamic evening dress (inc v. mini train)- she looked v sweet, even if she did spend most of her time at the mosque playing with her veil. Then there were the speeches- first the chairman was introduced, then he said a few words, then about 5 speeches/toast proposals, plus a response from a person representing those who had been toasted and at the very end, there was a vote of thanks (by the bride). In the middle of all the speeches, the bride and groom had a dance, the bridal entourage had a dance and the bride and her father had a dance. Then there was the presentation of the gifts-anyone who had brought a present had to go and stand in line to give it to the bride and groom. Finally, two guys doing stand up comedy then did their piece- tho’ the Krio was a bit fast for me to understand everything. After this food was served, there was some dancing and people drifted away home. I didn’t stay until the end (working the next day), but it was certainly a somewhat different experience to weddings at home.
Well, I guess one other adventure I can quickly mention is that perennial (I haven’t found a specific word for ‘every time you arrive in SL’) trip on the helicopter from the airport to Aberdeen (Western part of Freetown), which is quick and noisy and prayerworthy, but allowed me to arrive safely at the helipad and get back to my house before midnight on the day I arrived. It’s one of the more annoying things about travelling to Sierra Leone; it’s more stressful arriving and working out what you do next than it is actually getting to Sierra Leone’s airport in the first place.
And in case you’re not readers of the UN Human Development Index, Sierra Leone slipped back from second to last, to last in the Human Development Index 2007, so it is now 177 again. Some countries, where data can’t be gathered, are not included in this index- such as Iraq and Afghanistan, which is why there’s more countries that are in the UN (193 plus the Vatican city) than are in this index.
A final piece of good news- we’ve had National Power every night since I arrived back in Freetown, which is really quite exciting and will be even more useful when our wiring is fixed so we don’t have permanent ‘mood lighting’ in the house, which means it’s not particularly easy to read in the evenings, ah well- can’t have everything!
Mood swings
I originally sat writing this in the middle of a rain storm, on a computer that had the potential to lose power any second, with no internet connection, with the possibility that rain would again start pouring through the ceiling (slight exaggeration), while smelling the sickly sweet smoke that drifted overhead in several very artistic rings as one of the strip lights decided that it no longer wanted to provide us with light. However, by the time you read this (and now as I am editing to put it online), the sun is shining, work is suitably busy, the generator is working and the internet too, the lights have been fixed and I’m looking forward to heading away for Christmas in the hear future.
An update from my (fairly) recent trip up country is probably in order- we returned in the pouring (unseasonal) rain, although the rest of the trip was warm, dry (except for high humidity) and sunny. I was even privileged to stay in a room that had air conditioning and power from dawn to dusk. There was a lot of travelling around, but otherwise the supervising role we had for the meetings was pretty routine-oh, except for the money issues- as the civil servant in the Incredibles would say, while shaking his head sadly, it’s ‘money, money, money, money, money, always the money.’ Which in a country as poor as Salone is very true and it does overshadow everyone and everything, particularly when it is lacking (or just not as much as people expected they would receive). SL has now slipped back down to 177th out of 177 in the human development index (Afghanistan and Iraq aren’t included due to a lack of indicators)- probably partially due to the fact that- despite the calm quiet of the elections- the country basically stopped operating for the five (optimistic assessment) months leading up to the elections. Things still happened, but no one invested, the government went quiet, very little money was entering the country and everyone held their breath until it was seen that the new administration was calmly elected with a peaceful handover of power. The newspapers still scream wonderful headlines everyday- either of a witch hunt going on through the civil service, or a power struggle in the opposition leadership, or (as ever) at the donors (for various things they have or haven’t done).
Life here is a totally set of contrasts, particularly as an ex pat; everything can seem to be going to pieces one moment and then suddenly you find yourself mixing with people and going to events that would seem as distant as the stars when at home- all somewhat confusing. A friend of mine had a particularly stark experience as she spent the afternoon working with children on the floor of a mud hut and ending up with maggots in her hair and then drinking cooled white wine and G&T’s with high flying members of the diplomatic set in the evening- definite extremes.
Labels: elections, electricity, money, rain, travel
No desserts
Sierra Leoneans make fantastic food- particularly in my opinion when they don’t throw in hundreds of very small ‘pepe’ (read chillies in English). My main experience of Sierra Leonean food has been when I’ve eaten out at African restaurants; this has been fine, but due to the huge numbers of chillies that are thrown liberally into the dishes, I wasn’t a particular fan. This was until I went up-line (up country) most recently; we stopped in Moyamba for a night and a couple of meals and we went to one of my companion’s friends houses. The first meal-cassava or potato leaf stew was ok, but very fiery. We’d had plenty of discussions about food as we travelled and about how Sierra Leoneans like their food very hot (and I don’t) and so, I was very pleasantly surprised to find that the second meal was groundnut soup (with no chillies!!!) and was delicious- lots of flavours and tastes to enjoy, without burning my mouth in the process, so as a result, I’ve decided that Sierra Leonean food is really nice, so long as they leave out the chillies.
Back to the title of this article; very rarely does anyone eat dessert in Sierra Leone. It just isn’t the done thing, even at more Western style restaurants, desserts are seen as something to tag on the menu, even if they are rarely actually ‘in stock’. However, on very rare occasions, such as a dinner party there might well be dessert available, this was the case last week when people of all nationalities were invited to celebrate American thanksgiving (there was even a turkey) and were asked to bring side dishes and desserts. There was a totally amazing chocolate cake with gorgeously gooey icing-mmm- not just dessert, but delicious ones too. Admittedly in the heat, few people feel like making dessert and some of the ingredients can be difficult to get hold of, but it’s certainly brilliant to have as something a bit different every now and again.
One of the things mentioned in the handover notes is that it in order to get all the foods that we want in order to make something (such as a cake, or to hold a dinner party), we’d need to go to several different supermarkets to get everything we need. This still holds true and for some things it’s just impossible to get ingredients- blueberry muffins for example require milk (hmmm- uht or powdered??) and blueberries- well, there might be some in a tin somewhere, but you’re not going to get fresh ones here and frozen ones are pretty far off the radar as well. However, something like banana cake- well, bananas are in plentiful supply and the basic ingredients of flour, sugar, eggs and margarine aren’t hard either. I was speaking to someone who used to live here in the 70’s- her father worked out here then and she was saying how some things have got better- i.e. there are supermarkets here that stock a variety of foods and other goods, whereas before the choice was rice & fish, or rice & plantain, or rice & cassava leaf stew, which isn’t much if you’re here for sometime. In some ways, things have got a lot worse- mainly the infrastructure; the roads (I won’t go on about this too much, but…), for example the road which used to got to where her family lived was once tarmac, but now (despite being a main thoroughfare) is earth, also power- some villages up country have power lines and poles, but definitely no actual power running through them today- well, currently there’s a plan to get Freetown sorted with power, but the rest of the country is going to be waiting quite a lot longer- except Bo, where the district and town councils have managed to get a decent infrastructure system together such that most people in the town have grid power each evening.
Anyway, that’s a long was from desserts, but just to close by saying that however unhealthy desserts are (and most that aren’t fruit probably aren’t particularly healthy for you) when you haven’t had them for ages, are a delicious way to round off a meal.
Labels: food, power, roads
Traffic, roads and speed-bumps
Well, life has been a bit busier recently, but that’s not what I’m going to write about today (well, not much at any rate).
Infrastructure is big on the agenda at the moment- and it really needs to be. First of all, power- I know I’ve griped about this before, but it remains an issue. What is brilliant is actually having light in my bathroom (but only on the generator because usually the NPA current as we now get it is too weak to turn on a fluorescent strip light). The generator at work seems to be having issues as well, so no air con on in the office, which makes it really uncomfortable to work in as we don’t have fans to keep the air moving, so it’s somewhat stifling.
The roads- these are getting continually busier and there’s probably several reasons for this- firstly, the roads and many cars remain in a bad state of repair- most of the repairs done to our (few) tarmac roads involve filling in the holes with stones and earth- a good temporary solution, but not good over the longer term. One of the major arteries from the West to the centre of the city- Spur Road- has 5 sets of double speed bumps, 4 single speed bumps and 1 dip (helps drainage across the road in the rainy seasons); now this certainly helps slow the traffic down, it also seems to have managed to cripple 3 vehicles in 3 weeks, one of which was left half way over one of the double sets of speed bumps for about 4 days. All of them had broken an axle and (as far as can be said for cars), looked extremely ‘uncomfortable’. Spur Road is busy enough daily anyway, particularly since the VP and President are currently not living at their official residences- I’ve heard it’s due to the redecoration that’s being undertaken- this means they drive in convey with a police escort up this hill/road every morning. Now most people can understand that the VP or President, as representatives of the people of SL, should have priority over the traffic, however, there’s a great deal of annoyance over the taxi drivers and other cars that ‘join’ the convoy in order to jump up the and past most of the other traffic- I’ve seen it lead to several near misses and given that the health system isn’t wonderful and you need to send money for fuel for the ambulance before an ambulance can come to pick you up, it’s best to avoid travelling up Spur Road when a cavalcade is likely to sweep past.
Right, second reason is that a lot of people have come back after the elections- now everything’s happened quietly and calmly and there’s been a transfer of power, those who were able to afford to leave the country over the election period are now back and driving again. Related to this is the third point, that now there has been a successful election with no real problems, people are slightly happier about investing in new vehicles, or bringing more/newer vehicles into the country, so there’s more cars about that be can and therefore are, being driven.
On a slightly lighter, but still traffic related note, the taxis…., well there’s a lot I could and won’t say about the taxi’s (and their drivers) here, although at only 800 leones (40cents, 18pence) per journey it’s a fairly cheap way of getting around. Normally, unlike in London, the cabs are recognisable by having red letters on their number plates (denoting it’s a commercial vehicle) and having a yellow stripe down the side of the vehicle, making it easy to distinguish it from private vehicles. Also (though this next method isn’t 100% accurate), if the vehicle approaching you is a car and is not a Mercedes or a 4x4 (BMW’s, small sports cars and Lexuses- or are they Lexi?- are extremely rare here, tho’ there are a few about, none of which of course are taxis), it’s 9 times of out 10 going to be a taxi. Admittedly there are a few diplomatic vehicles (thought very few) that are ‘normal’ cars, but these have special diplomatic number plates, so it’s fairly obvious that they aren’t taxis. Anyway, someone has been importing London taxi cabs and there are now 4 London cabs driving round Freetown and are being used as taxi’s here- was a strange sight to see one here- and in deference to the local law of the yellow stripe, none of them are fully black.
Labels: power, roads, taxis, traffic
One year on
Well, I’ve been here a year and have certainly slacked off in terms of updating my blog regularly. In some ways, this is because there’s lots going on but as yet no certainties yet and in some ways, it’s because it feels as tho’ there’s not actually much going on at all.
I had meant this to be fairly reflective, in a fair sort of way, but it looks as tho’ it’s going to be a grumble about the fact that so many things just don’t work here, or are inefficient/ineffective. Anyway, there’s a new broom at the top, who is currently nominating the new ministers for his government and (according to rumour and hearsay- the main method by which most Sierra Leoneans get their news) seems to be doing a good job so far in beginning to sort things out and refresh the face of politics- not penalising/ persecuting the previous government, but encouraging ministers and high ranking civil servants to stay on in order to ensure a smooth and effective handover.
- The roads are madness, I think this fairly common to most developing countries- you take your life in your hands by stepping out your front door. But at least you know when you’re going to be hit as the most essential part of a car (taxis especially) is generally kept in good working order- the horn. The condition of the roads has deteriorated somewhat since I arrived- this is generally put down to the degradations of the rainy season, but isn’t helped by the use of rocks and earth to patch up the roads, rather than something more permanent. This isn’t helped by the fact that during ‘rush hour’, various roads are closed at certain times during the morning in order to allow presidential motorcades to pass through (the offices/living quarters for the President etc have not yet been updated/refurnished so they continue to live just outside of town).
- Electricity- the problem of power, or rather the lack of it. NPA- the National Power Authority, has many problems, which I have noted here before, not least a decrepit system for transmitting electricity from the power station to offices/homes, the delays on the hydroelectric plant, the lack of effective management, the (apparent) constant pilfering of supplies, the fact that electricity costs so much to produce but the per unit tariffs do not cover the costs of production of a unit of electricity. Beyond this, the machines are old, often breakdown and getting spare parts is difficult. When NPA has been available, it manages to surge up to 350V and so blows most electrical equipment that is left plugged in. Under the new President, NPA is apparently going to be under control of the new VP and getting a good electricity system up and working is one of the main things the President is pushing for at the moment.
- Water- well, many houses have their own bowsers, since this is probably the most effective way to store enough water. Unfortunately, there are various stories of water being stolen out of the bowsers and sold on. The death of an official who complained that the another government dept/agency was selling water that had already been bought by another client is an example of this. The city of Freetown has grown tremendously compared to the infrastructure that was built for it- a recent visitor exclaimed at the small size of the main water pipe bringing water into the city for use in the town. Something along the lines of “that’s it- for the whole city!!!!”
- Politics- well, we’ve had elections, but unfortunately this has meant the entire civil service (except for the Ministry of Health), has frozen up for far too long (in my opinion) around the elections, which certainly won’t help us win any prizes for efficiency and effectiveness. Having worked in a developed country over an election, at a time when work never actually stopped- there was always so much to be done, even without a minister, I was surprised when the then ‘upcoming’ elections caused everything to stop and grind to a halt. However, there are positive signs for the future. The incoming government is looking at which departments and agencies ca be combined/ need to be created in order to make bureaucracy better.
These (as well as the lack of opportunities for employment and the high price of rice) are probably the main areas that anyone in Sierra Leone would point out as needing reform. In fact, many people I’ve questioned will just speak about the first two as needing reform- “once we have good roads and power, we will develop quickly as a nation” is the common theme. Corruption/inefficiencies and the like are seen as unending trials that will never quite be done away with and must therefore be worked around. The fact that most public employees do not receive a liveable wage probably doesn’t help the situation at all.
But that’s enough on the negative, SL is an amazing country, with a huge amount of potential for the future- there are people who have a vision and a desire to see the country move forward. People are worried about being exploited (by anyone, whether Westerner, other Africans, or the elites within the country), but they are generally willing to work hard and do what they can for their country.
I spent the Saturday of my 1 year anniversary in the same way that I spent my first Saturday in SL- down at Bureh town beach (tho’ I still can spell the name), which remains beautiful and delightful: green hills as a backdrop to golden sands and blue sea, in some ways I’m glad that tourists haven’t discovered this yet- it makes it much more remote and relaxing, but I guess I can sacrifice a small amount of peace and quiet for the development of this country ;-)
It’s easy to slip into a routine here- as I’m sure some of my blog entries show, but when you stop and look around, there’s great beauty to be seen here and enjoyed- even if one of the bumpiest routes to the beach is plagued by mini road blocks as some of the children/youth seek to get money from passing cars (apparently they’re fixing the roads, but rarely actually seem to be doing any work- except moving earth from one hole to another, so the road never improves, but they always try to ‘look busy’). It’s a country with great potential, but lacking a way to tap into that potential. However, it can be done, but it might just take more time than is currently hoped by people, politicians, the international community and me.
Labels: beach, boure, electricity, power, roads, water
The opposition win
The APC have won the elections in SL- there were huge cheers in town as the results were announced- I had it in stereo as I could hear the cheers on the radio, as well as ‘live’. The APC supporters have been celebrating since then in the streets, tho’ a seasonal downpour has ensured the celebrations aren’t as lively as could’ve been possible.
In a recent interview with Reuters, Koroma stated he would focus on bringing development to Sierra Leone, particularly focusing on agriculture and tourism. The first of these I believe is absolutely essential to the economy, since SL’s environment means it should be able to really produce all that is needed for its population. The problem is then getting it to the people who need it at a price they can afford- it’s all very well for the north of the country to have excess production in rice, but when it’s those in the south that don’t have food, the infrastructure in the country needs a lot of improvement before such imbalances can benefit the whole of the country. On the tourism front, SL has a lot of beautiful scenery to offer- great for hiking or relaxing on a pristine beach, but not much else. If the development of tourist facilities means a focus on infrastructure in general- so that the people of SL have good power supply (instead of about 5% of the time), roads which are in a decent state of repair (currently not even the capitals of each of the districts have paved roads linking them), water that is suitable for people to drink and an education policy that encourages people not to just throw their rubbish away anywhere, but to be aware of their surroundings and the importance of SL being seen as a clean and beautiful country rather than as an overflowing rubbish tip, then there is a chance for tourism to be highly beneficial to the country. Unfortunately it would be competing with other countries further up the development ladder that already have resorts and infrastructure in place to look after visitors and that have entertainment other than natural surroundings to offer tourists, but there is no reason why SL shouldn’t at some point in the future be able to entice the numbers of people who came here before the war to enjoy the atmosphere here.
Koroma is a Christian, but comes from the mainly Muslim north of the country. In SL, people don’t vote on religious lines and from a human development perspective, the ability of Muslims and Christians to live peacefully side by side, voting for each other in elections, is something that Sierra Leoneans really are able to teach the rest of the world. There is a fair amount of nominalism here and it seems as tho’ lots of people are ‘Sunday-Christians’ or ‘Friday-Muslims’, but religion seems to be a uniting rather than dividing factor here and it’s only if you express an agnostic/atheistic viewpoint that you are looked upon askance.
Will update with more info on how things are going here and what’s happening to life here as soon as I can.
Labels: agriculture, APC, elections, power, religion, roads, tourism
