The Most Wonderful Party in the World

We did indeed finish the ironing at around 1:30 in the morning! We had a wake-up knock at 6am. Hirut's parents stayed at the beach house with friends last night, setting up. Above is all of our ironing put to beautiful use. Although, apparently, it was all irreverently gathered up and dropped on the floor! Noooooo... :oO

There was yet more dainty work to be done on arrival: the folding of napkins. Then pinning them with ribbons. But, oooh, don't they look pretty? NO! Don't you DARE wipe your mouth on that!

This is Shenge beach, about two hours out of Freetown. Completely secluded.

Down where the marquee is, you turn right, go up some steps, and you're at the beach hut. Herbert's trying to turn it into the next holiday home venture. They've formed a committee, planning a hotel and more beach huts. If they can balance tourism and still maintain the seclusion, I think they're on to a winner. It's a truly outstanding area of natural beauty.

The dinner was extremely scrummy. Llyal's mum and dad (absolute top people) had brought back smoked salmon from the US, so we tucked into that, followed by a wonderful buffet including lobster, caught locally, and chocolate and rum cake for pudding. The wine flowed freely, as did the Baileys and Champagne.

Family also gave speeches to celebrate Herbert's birthday, and Hirut also gave one. After which, I made for a long walk up the beach and discovered the crabs! Little holes in the sand about the size of your fist, and when the tide comes in dozens of crabs appear and scuttle about on the sand, running into the waves and back out again - they're so cute :o}

The sunset was absolutely spectacular.

At night, when most of the guests had left, we sat outside with Hirut and Llyal's parents and picked at the remains of the lobster whilst drinking fresh tapped palm wine. The kid came to change the cans and I watched him walking up the trees attached by a hoop of bark like this guy on the SL Tourism Video.

I learned that different trees have a different taste, from sweet, medium, to strong. The cans are emptied in the morning and evening.

It was a wonderful day. If anybody is going to Sierra Leone and wants to rent a beach hut in a stunning area of undisturbed beach, this is a project to look out for. Sierra Leone should definitely be capitalising on this type of tourism, although it's hard outside of Freetown because the law says the land belongs to the various tribes, and anything on it. Which is bad for development because who wants to invest in a building that could just be repossessed at any moment? This project is still just within Freetown though, so it's freehold. Interesting legal quirk.

Today we've just been recovering in front of the TV. Watched a couple of movies: Girl Interrupted, which I remember wanting to see when it came out but never got around to. Not bad, marginally entertaining, Angelina Jolie at her angry-sassiest, bit Sylvia Plath. The second was absolutely fantastic: Mr. Brooks. I'd never heard of it before, but it was like Dexter in film form. Extremely well done - there has to be a sequel.

We also went to the first tailor and picked up our clothes: red sequined skirt, matching tie-dye skirt and halter-neck. Very pleased with them. Will take some photos at some point.

Boxing Day Party Train

Freetown

Oooooh. Wow.

Well, it wasn't exactly a party. It was three 8*S

First, we went to a friend of Hirut's parents' who has a house across town. She'd hired a really cool brass band and there was a mass of fantastic food - hot and spicy, naturally.

The only odd thing was that the yard she held the event in was at an almost vertical slope to the front door! We all had to perch rather precariously on our seats for fear of falling over sideways. It was quite a balancing act, and gods forbid you should slip with your plate of food :oO

Now, they definitely need a landscape gardener. We'll lend them one once me and Hirut are through with ours ;)

We stayed for food there, then went on to another gathering of her parents' friends as it got dark. I recognised most of them from previous parties. Lots of familiar faces, but also an older crowd. Very laid-back, and more food. It was impolite not to have any, but I'd just eaten a massive meal. I had a very tokenry helping and then helped myself to the rum. So much free booze and food, it was like an entire year of deprivation had just been made up for in the space of a week.

I love Africa, though. Parties in the UK amongst the more mature crowd are usually pretty static, but boy can OAPs dance in Africa! Talking grandparents and great grandparents. Hair as white as the clouds, but my goodness can they still move it and shake it. Reggae from pre-Bob Marley through to West African classics of the modern day. Women who can barely climb the steps to the dance floor are shaking it for Zion. Most impressive. I hope to still have the stamina when I'm that age. Hell, who am I kidding? I wish I had the stamina now lol

After that, we peeled ourselves out of our chairs and headed to the final party: a house warming. The music was really good and nobody forced us to eat anything. We rolled up towards the end, so there wasn't much dancing time left. Nice house, though.

Got back at a not-too-disrespectful hour but, if I had parents like hers, I wouldn't be alive. Sierra Leoneans just don't stop partying! Her mum assures me it's just the season and that things quiet down until summer but, my goodness, it's madness :op

Now, having boasted of all the parties we've been to over the past few days, you'll never believe what I'm up to now.

It's five to midnight.

And we're ironing.

That's right.

Ironing.

We've been at it solidly for about the past eight hours.

Hirut's mum is throwing a big party tomorrow night for Herbert's 60th birthday. He's already 60, but he celebrated it elsewhere and now wants to have a big family do at their brand new beach house out of town.

We're ironing around 200 white gossamer chair covers, and the same in cream satin table runners, and other such. Everything to be steamed by tomorrow morning. We're armed with music videos and a bottle of Baileys, but it's hard going and I reckon we've still got about an hour-and-a-half's worth still to go. We've got two ironing boards set up facing each other, high chairs, and a bottle of water for the hand-helds. We're ironing machines!

All this high society life is grand, but so much work. Before this, I packed 60 party bags and then wrapped each one lovingly in two strips of ribbon and a silver sticky stamp. I burnt myself twice on the glue gun in the name of 'party'!

Hardcore :o}

Something New

Happy Birthday Sula & Ishuheri!

A year ago today my kittehs were bornded :op 

Two outa three ain't bad... :o/

And a year ago today I was lounging by the pool at Nyarutarama with Pip.

Today has been equally as lazy. Hirut and I just slobbed on the couch watching movies. She introduced me to an absolutely stunning chick flick - the best I think I have ever watched. It was directed by a woman, so was exactly what women want lol It's called Something New, about a black career woman who ends up on a blind date with a white guy - which is just not acceptable - and about how she overcomes her prejudices and they fall madly in love and all is good. But it is just an excellent film. The lead guy is played by Simon Baker. Arm muscles like it, you have never seen! Hirut and I are both determined to hire landscape gardeners when we get a house big enough.

So, yes, ladies, if you're in a feet-up, chocolate-at-the-ready, slob-out mood, it's highly recommended.

We're just gearing up to go out. There's a party happening.

Christmas Day in Freetown

Forgot to mention: Tuesday morning, before I went to meet up with the VSO lot, Hirut and I went down to Lumley Beach again - she for a jog, and me for a swim. Alhaji insisted on accompanying her with the bottle of water, we can't stop laughing - he's a very sweet guy but horribly overprotective!

Yesterday was Christmas Eve. We spent it at Big Market in town, a place where you can find all sorts of curiosities, like these spirit bottles:

They're Mende and their original owner had given them up because he said they caused him too much trouble. They were his distant relatives and had been in the family for many generations, but he felt they brought misfortune.

Hirut was considering buying them, and I told her she'd best ask what's in them first as it might cause problems for customs. Luckily, Elizabeth the cook is Mende and when she showed her the picture she said there would be nothing in them. I remain unconvinced ;)

The neck rings on them (I think it mentions this in the Wiki article too) are because Mende see rings on your neck as a sign of beauty:

Mende people consider a beautiful neck to be one with rings: they are a sign of beauty because they suggest wealth, high status, and are sexually attractive. The rings indicate prosperity and wholesome living, and are given by God to show his affection for a fortunate few. As well, the rings indicate a relationship with the divine: the Sowo itself is a deity from the waters, and the neck rings represent the concentric waves that are formed on still water by Sowo's head breaking through the surface. The spirit comes from the water, and what the human eye sees on the necks of women "is human in form, but divine in essence", as portrayed in the mask. - Wiki

So, I guess these two are women.

You thought being put in a home was bad, but just think, your great grandchildren could sell you on to a flea market for an arranged price :op

There were loads of masks from SL, Mali and West Africa upstairs. Lots of cloth as well. I bought a beautiful necklace, and one for Hirut for Christmas.

Downstairs we found the herb sellers:

Everything from curing insomnia to growing your man a bigger mojo! 'You take my medicine, id work,' she'm say.

The long black pods, on the right, you burn like incense sticks to keep away the mosquitoes.

If that doesn’t work, the light wood in the sacks is stewed down into a tea to cure malaria.

At the front, under the white bags, you can just make out little bags of pebbles. They’re grey not white, and these are the famed ‘edible stones’ some women get addicted to eating when pregnant. I bought one to try it, but haven’t yet. You can either eat it or rub it on your skin as powder, to take out the oil (natural powder puff), or grind it up with water as a face mask against heat rash. It’s supposed to suck all of the impurities out of you.

I also bought 'black soap', which is made from banana-leaf charcoal and rolled into small balls. It's also good for heat rash and skin cleansing - amazing smell to it. They also had tiny little bottles of crystallised mint for smelling salts, and others of ground mica: natural mascara. Cosmetics as well as medicines.

This woman had cures for things you didn’t even know you could get! Vaginal douche anyone? :oO

So, we had a lot of fun poking around the market and looking at all the curiosities. Then we swung by Lumley Beach for ice-cream and a drink, and returned home for some quality TV watching: Spiderman 3, 13th Floor and the fantastic US series Dexter, about a serial killer who kills serial killers, who's investigating himself as a forensic scientist! It's excellent and Jaime Murray from Hustle was in it, too! Think I'll have to buy it at some stage.

We really veged out. Then we decided to go to Paddy's, which is one of the main nightclubs in Freetown. It's a big bar and dance floor under thatching, open on all sides, but still really warm that night. We got there around 11pm, which was still really early, so we perched at the bar and had drinks until it livened up, then had a bit of a boogie. I wasn't really feeling the vibe: lots of chairs but a very small dance area, so felt a bit cramped. They had a brass band playing carols when we first got there, then it gave way to the regular top 10. Was fun, but I wasn't 100% in the mood, so we headed home quite early, around 2-ish. I was finding the continuous stream of social events a bit of a shock to the system.

Today (Merry Christmas everybody!) we got up really late and had breakfast, then Hirut's Aunt Mamoona came to visit. Really nice lady who's lived in Ethiopia for years with her husband. They've just retired back to Sierra Leone, so she's getting used to the change. We had a wonderful Christmas dinner on the balcony of yams, cassava, meat soup - then a buffet of plantain, jollof rice (a major national dish), meats, salad and all sorts. It was scrummy, and followed by chocolate cake, iced jelly and ice-cream.

We exchanged gifts late in the day, under the tree. I'd bought a necklace for Hirut and she'd bought one for me. Her parents gave me perfume, and I had one 'mystery gift' which arrived in the post about a month ago. I'd saved it and taken it with me. I had no idea who it was from, and it was wrapped in red monster paper. Inside was a beautiful bag in my favourite style, made from funky fabric. I realised it was my friend Vikki who had made it for me. I'd asked if she could replicate one from an old bag I had that was falling apart - she's great at sewing - and she had! Was really sweet of her. :)

Mum and Dad both phoned, but I didn't talk long. The line with Dad was really bad - huge delay between turns, and it's hard to talk in a public area, so I said I'd catch up with them when I get back.

Was a lovely day :)

VSO Sierra Leone

Lumley Beach

 

Fascinatingly, the VSO SL Programme Office is just down the hill from our house. Never seem to get far from them. Even in Kampala we were in a guesthouse just up the road from it!

Before coming out, I was in touch with a volunteer called Ashling through Sonya, the volunteer looking after my house whilst I'm away - both Irish. So, when I got here, I arranged to meet up with them and that's where I've been today.

It was slightly embarrassing though, as I turned up an hour early at the café because I hadn't set my clock right. I thought we were GMT +1, but we were GMT. I guess my lie-ins haven't been quite so outrageous then. Always nice to know which time zone you're in. Kigali's GMT +2 during daylight saving and +1 summertime. I forgot to mention I have a working Zain SIM card. As luck would have it, they were giving them out free at the airport. You just had to buy less than £1 of top-up, which would see me my whole trip :)

So, I waited at Montanas, a café on Wilkinson Road. Hirut lent me Alhaji and the car. Aisling turned up and we waited for another VSO who she shares a house with. Really friendly people. Loving their placements, though Aisling's struggling with the heat a bit. I'd certainly find it very hard without aircon.

We had ice-cream then went to a bar up the road, where I tried the local brew: Star. Very distinct, almost sour taste, but not bad. A lot cheaper than Rwanda, too. It was a bit strange rolling up to VSOs in a chauffer driven car and explaining where I was staying! Two different worlds. It was nice to hang out though, and hear about their experiences. SL seems like a great place to be if you can stand the climate. Very friendly people, tough a lot of corruption, which you don't get in Rwanda.

We went to their house, which was really interesting to see. It's a very big house. Too big for them they say, but the neighbourhood is really friendly and all the kids there come running out to greet them. Their neighbour cooks for them sometimes and teaches them Krio - really pleasant atmosphere. It does make quite a difference that everyone speaks English. The standard VSO beds they get are huge, too. King size, and then some. Wouldn't mind one of those back home.

Then we all got in the car and headed to Lumley Beach for more drinks at Village Bar, and to meet up with another VSO from a rural area who was having a tough time as she kept getting mugged. It's happened to VSOs in Rwanda too, but it's a higher crime rate in SL and she's been particularly unlucky. She was also working for a community bank co-operative where the head honchos had just run off with all the money *rolls eyes*

It was a really nice evening and we grabbed chicken and chips. Lots of bars along the beach and quite British food!

I had let Alhaji go home as it was getting late. They helped me get home with one of their SL friends who had a car. He drove me back for free, which was extremely kind of him as there aren't really any motos in Freetown. I got in around 11pm, a most excellent time had.

Off to bed now. Can't believe it's Christmas Eve tomorrow. I find it totally impossible to believe in the time of year when it's so swelteringly hot.

Partied Out!

Hirut & I at the wedding reception.

Argh, help, mercy! Too much partying going on here - I can't cope.

Saturday, after breakfast, we headed to a tailor nearby and gave him our designs and cloth. I'm getting a long straight skirt made from the sequined red material, a long round skirt and matching halter-neck top from the yellow and red tie-dye, then we'll take the other material (the purple one) to another tailor who does dresses well. The standard tie-dye cloth cost me 30,000 Leones (about £6) and the skirt and top cost about the same again to make, so a whole designer outfit for £12. The purple was more expensive because it was hand finished, but still less than £10. Cheaper than Rwanda, where cloth costs around £6 and a dress around £8.

He took our measurements and said it'd be ready in a few days. We went home via the supermarket for Vimto, which is highly addictive in hot weather, then we visited Mama Harolda, Hirut's great grandmother (I think) who is a lovely lady. She lives on Liverpool Street, running a tie-dye and catering business from downstairs which feeds local medical students. Enterprising. Hirut had to translate from Krio for me. Her name is apparently Old Norse. Names in SL are funny, as so many have Scottish or Irish names because of history. Often, people took their pastor's name when confirmed, but sometimes it's through marriage. Lots of places in SL sound familiar too, like Waterloo :op

When we got back, I got to try palm wine. Herbert had some in a jerrycan. It was extremely sweet as it had just been tapped. Literally, you bore a hole at the top of a palm tree and it starts gushing liquid like a birch tree. You collect that in a jerrycan and it's already fermenting, it already has yeast in it - literally an alcohol tree. The longer you leave it, the more potent it becomes. It starts out cloudy, then clears as the alcohol takes over, also becoming more bitter. This was fresh from the tree and was cloudy white, sweet, and slightly fizzy.

Then, on Saturday night it was another party: Llyal's uncle got married and they held the reception at the guesthouse we'd dropped Hirut's mum at before. It was all decked out with marquees and a huge buffet, but unlike any mélange in Rwanda. Everything so well cooked and so full of spices and flavours. Heaven.

I'd only taken one formal dress with me, so Salina (Hirut's mum) lent me one of hers. Very pretty dress. We got all decked up and had a lovely time. Loads more West African music from all over: Senegal, Liberia, Ghana, Guinea, Nigeria and SL. Had a really good time dancing, but I'm still trying to come to terms with the heat and humidity - it's truly tropical. Luckily, the house is fully air conditioned, as are the cars.

Mama Harolda had given us many jerrycans of traditional Sierra Leonean ginger beer for the wedding. It was extremely refreshing.

Then, yesterday, we got up late again (a wonderful habit) and breakfasted on cassava and curry before falling into the car and going to Lumley Beach, the main public beach in Freetown. Miles of bright golden sand. We found a café to sit outside of, under a big umbrella, drinking Vimto whilst watching the tide turn, and listening to a surreal blend of lively Christmas carols from a loud speaker over the road next to a giant inflatable Santa. People in SL certainly do celebrate Christmas, thankfully.

I eventually plucked up the energy to throw myself in the sea, and was delighted to discover it was bath warm. Like the Indian Ocean on the West Coast of Australia, it was like easing into a hot tub. Not the Atlantic of my youth...

Dusting off the sand, we headed back to the house to get changed for the Freetown Dinner Club, an exclusive dining circle of 70 people sworn in as members on their intellectual merits and career success. They were swearing in two new members. Herbert was giving a speech on the occasion, so we were rather distinguished guests to be sitting next to him.

The two sworn in were both women. One was the head of a school, the other of a bank, and both had to give long introductory speeches which were really good. The first, the teacher, spoke on the topic of 'humour' and kept telling very funny jokes. The second spoke on the ability to 'walk and talk': to be successful in business through self-discipline. Good stuff, and the meal consisted of salmon starter, roast dinner, Christmas pudding, and cheese and biscuits with plenty of wine. Certainly interesting to see how the other half live. I was already feeling rather privileged to be staying in such an amazing house with air conditioned 4x4s at our disposal.

Whilst milling afterwards, we bumped into one of Hirut's distant cousins. "Where are you working now?" she asked. "Kigali." "Kigali! Really? I heard people never last more than a year there."

Comes to something when random strangers are apologising to you for where you work lol Such is Rwanda's reputation as a tough place to live and work in the development world. But I mustn't get too jaded.

So, today is a day of rest. I'm making the most of it and doing absolutely nothing but lying on the couch watching TV and finishing my current read: The Ingenious Edgar Jones. It's quite a unique one.

Tie-Dye Heaven

Photo from Flickr

Yesterday began with a wonderfully lazy lie-in and breakfast on the balcony of fried eggs, sausage and plantain, which is like ibitoke banana but smaller, extremely sweet, and caramelised when fried in butter. Very yummy.

Then Alhaji, one of the drivers, drove us into town to find a hairdresser as Hirut wanted to get hers braided. We dropped her mum off at her friend's guesthouse for lunch on the way, and I got to see where Hirut spent time playing when she was a kid.

Whilst she was getting her hair done, I asked Alhaji to show me around. We went and got a cold drink (it was swelteringly hot and humid - I'm suffering heat rash on my neck), then we took a walk up the street and back. There was a large street market, lots of tinsel and people, and things for sale. Vibrant. Many more cars than Kigali too - and dogs. The UN shot all the dogs in Rwanda when they cleared up after the genocide, so there aren't many there, but in SL there's tons of them wandering about. Hirut said the bond between man and dog had been broken since the war, though. Now they don't even bother to get out the way for cars, they just lie there sunning themselves and blocking the road ;)

Alhaji also helped me to change my $s into Leones with the street vendors. £s go a long way in SL, too. Around 5,000 Leones to the £. Alhaji was extremely protective of me, holding my hand with traffic and making sure I carried my bag in front of me. It was honestly like having a bodyguard! A little over-protective with grown women, but he certainly had the arm muscles to ward off danger. In fact, you don't see bods like that in Rwanda! Men in SL are rather fit.

After that, Hirut took me up to the cloth market. The choice of cloth was extremely varied. Far more like Kampala than Kigali. We bought lots of pretty things, and Sierra Leonean tie-dye, which they're famed for making traditionally from herbal dyes, but now more commonly from synthetics. 

I bought two tie-dye: one yellow and red stripped, the other purple, and some red sequined cloth. We went back to the house for food (fish curry and rice again) and to start designing our clothes. It's a lot of fun to have material and decide what you want to turn it into.

That evening, there was a party at a bar down the road that Hirut's mum and dad were going to with lots of their friends, so we went too. We were fed a lovely Christmas meal and drinks, the music was excellent - a blend of general West African and really old-school reggae from the days before Bob Marley!

I met Llyal, one of Hirut's friends she grew up with, who is now living in America but has come back for the holidays to be with her fiancé who was also there. Many Sierra Leoneans live in America and Britain, they left during the war but still come back regularly to see family.

There was a stand-up comedian too, but I found it really hard to understand him as he was speaking Krio, which is a form of English that's evolved in SL over the centuries. Although everyone speaks English, they also speak Krio day-to-day. Although it sounds extremely familiar, because so much of it is English, it's still very hard to understand to begin with. Examples from Wiki:

Kushe - Hello
Kushe-o - Hello
Wetin na yu nem? - What is your name?
Mi nem Jemz - My name is James
Usai yu kɔmɔt? - Where do you come from?
A kɔmɔt Estinz - I come from Hastings.
Us wok yu de du - What work do you do?
Mi na ticha - I am a teacher
Na us skul yu de tich? - At what school do you teach?
I de tich na Prins ɔv Welz - I teach at Prince of Wales
Mi gladi fɔ mit yu - I am happy to meet you
Misɛf gladi fɔ mit yu - I myself am happy to meet you
OK, a de go naw - OK, I am going now
Ɔrayt, wi go tok bak - Alright, we will talk again

Krio is also the label given to people who descend from returned slaves. SL was a colony founded by freed slaves and Krio distinguishes that tribe of people from the natives such as the Mende. The Krio have always been well educated as Sierra Leone traditionally had a very good education system linked to Oxbridge and other leading institutes in the UK, which is why you find a lot of Krio in the UN and working overseas, but there are fears after the war that the education system is now in steep decline.

Another interesting fact I learned today was that, like Hotel Rwanda was filmed in South Africa, Blood Diamond was also largely filmed in South Africa. They just sent the actors to SL for a month to 'get a feel for the place'.

Walking around town you do see quite a few amputees and people in wheelchairs, reminded me of Rwanda before they all suddenly disappeared (think a law was passed about begging or something).

This morning's breakfast was totally wonderful: oyster curry on bread. Delicious, really spicy. We're off to visit the tailor today to get our designs made up :)

[NB 2013: Regarding the SL education system, further research suggests it was linked to Durham University as an awarding body.]

Nairobi, Accra, Freetown

View from helicopter window coming into
Freetown from Lungi Island.

Made it!

I was panicking a bit yesterday, as I was still totally out of whack from the food poisoning and a big fall out with VSO over the housing situation. I hadn't totally finished packing, but decided that, as we had to be at the airport for 2am, it wasn't really worth going to bed. I got everything packed up just in time. I was worrying about the baggage limit, I didn't remember my suitcase being that heavy! Mostly it's the metal and plastic casing, I think - adds on top of the content.

At 2am I get a text from Hirut, who's picking me up outside Ndoli's, saying she thinks she just woke the taxi driver up. He was supposed to be at hers but he fell asleep! So, she was running late. They finally beeped me at about 3am and I ran over to meet them.

Kanombe airport was quiet. We walked straight through check-in feeling dazed and slightly confused at being up at such an ungodly hour. Thankfully, we didn't have too long to wait in departure as our flight was at 4am.

I passed out immediately and slept straight through to Nairobi, which takes just over an hour to reach.

Nairobi was actually far more pleasant than I remembered it. Hirut enlightened me that not all of the toilets there are squat holes. I hadn't noticed the sit-downs tucked away to the side. There were also vastly more shops and cafés than I found the first time around. We only had three hours to kill there, so we amused ourselves in the jewellery shop. I bought a pretty turquoise charm in the shape of Africa, with a little gem of glass about where Rwanda is. It's to go on a charm bracelets my mother started when I was born. Everywhere I go, I get something for it.

The next leg of the journey was Nairobi to Freetown, which is about five or six hours. The plane went via Accra in Ghana, where we sat on the tarmac for an hour whilst the flight crew changed and passengers got off and on.

Accra is a massive city with great big squares of water where I think they grow something. It was kind of cool to stop off there, even if we didn't get off the plane, and nice to be travelling in daylight to see it all.

Eventually, we got back in the air for our final hour-and-a-half to Freetown. The flight took us over Benin, which is somewhere else I've always been interested in. It was exciting to be so close to these places I'd only read about.

The first thing I noticed about Sierra Leone is its thick, green, dense jungle. Trees everywhere, and a huge winding river through it all. Very beautiful. Then we came down to land and this river just opened up into a massive tropical estuary of golden-white sand, tiny bark carved canoes, numerous palm trees, islands, and little beach-side settlements. A very impressive descent.

At immigration, a woman approached. Hirut's dad had said this lady would take care of the visa, so I filled out a form, paid my $95, and my passport was stamped.

The main airport is situated on Lungi. To get from the airport to the mainland, you need to take a helicopter!

Sweating in the sudden tropical heat, all the worse for just having stepped off an over-air-conditioned flight, we battled our way to the exchange bureau to change $s into Leones. We bought our tickets, then walked to the air hanger next door and awaited our final flight.

The helicopter was quite an experience. A huge, I guess, military-style contraption with all our luggage piled up down the aisle, making it feel pretty cramped. Passengers buckled in on benches either side, facing each other. I was next to some Ghanaians on their way to Freetown for a wedding. We all looked a little nervous and wondered if we'd have to parachute out when we got there.

A lot of fun, though, and a beautiful way to meet Freetown. The photo above is from the window as you come in to land - so many heavenly beaches.

Hirut's dad, Herbert, was waiting at the pad with a big air-conditioned 4x4 to pick us up with our luggage. My initial fears of him being part of an elite Sierra Leonean mob, for managing to make my visa issue 'disappear', were set aside pretty quick. He's a retired economist for UNDP :op

The drive through Freetown was really interesting. It reminded me a lot of Kampala because there were street vendors and food sellers everywhere. A country coming out of a 10-year, devastating war; a non-functioning state, and still there's this whole enterprising sub-economy going on: bright coloured clothes, fruit and sweets stacks on huge platters on people's heads, children playing and laughing. So vibrant and alive. The key feature Rwanda is missing, really. For all Kigali's clean streets and immaculate public grass, its African soul is a little flat. Like you walked into the box office administrative department of a street carnival.

Having said that, the poverty was more visible, and the effects of war and neglect upon the buildings were clearly seen.

From Flickr

Taken by Hirut

Eventually, we turned off the main road (Wilkinson) and up a long winding hill to a very big house at the top :op

It was beautifully decorated with Christmas wreaths and ornaments, extremely tasteful. The house was in four tiers: Hirut's parents' quarters at the very top; a huge communal living room in the middle, with a balcony for eating breakfast on and from whence you had a distant sea view; the ground floor was the kitchen, TV room, office and dining room; then, as the house is on a slope, there was another ground level to the left of the garage, which opened into a large guest annex with kitchen area, large white leather sofas for sprawling on, two bedrooms, and a bathroom. We were completely self contained with our own fridge and TV, venturing up only for breakfast and dinner, which was prepared by Elizabeth, their cook. Extremely spoiled. The shower also had warm water when there was electricity, and the bed was a king-sized sprung mattress. Heaven.

Soon after arriving, we were served food: traditional Sierra Leonean dishes of new rice (red with the husk) and curry made from greens and fish. People eat lots of fish as SL is right on the coast. Greens are a type of leaf vegetable, like spinach, which is finely chopped. It was a mouth-wateringly spicy dish after so long eating the bland, flavourless melange of Rwanda, where everything is just boiled with a pinch of salt. Food in West Africa is hot, flavoursome and down-right wonderful :op~

Cutting greens SL style from SL Tourism Board DVD

[NB 2013: When I say the taxi 'beeped' me, I don't mean he sounded his horn outside my gate at that time in the morning. The practice of 'beeping' in Rwanda means calling someone and hanging up. They can see who called on the screen and know that it is time to act on whatever arrangement you have made - i.e. to say they have arrived at a venue or that they are waiting for you. It can also just mean 'I'm thinking of you'. It's a good way of saving credit as you are not charged for the call unless someone picks up the phone. However, sometimes people beep as a way of asking you to call them back because they've run out of credit. It's tricky to know what the meaning of a beep is, but you get there with practice. Also, for those who are curious, I think the helicopter was an Mi-8.]

Giz a Job, eh?

Had a call from Amanda. Seems the landlady is repossessing the house in March. So. Having another talk about my job role in the New Year, but combining the financial and PO issues, I think it's unlikely I'll be staying on. If I'm going to be unhappy, might as well accrue a pension for it. Will give me enough time to re-home the cats, train up the single parents network, replace the Treasurer, and have a think about what to do next. You don't get the VSO return allowance unless you've completed 75% of your placement, so will probably need to start applying for jobs pretty fast. Not easy at the moment in the UK, I hear. But a lot can happen in that amount of time.

So Mum, probably will be home in time for your birthday :op (premonition?)

x

Vomit and Horrid Landladies

Clinging to the peaceful
Om of my porch post

 

I am completely and totally down in the dumps :(

Last night I managed to give myself severe food poisoning. Ironically, the lady at the shop warned me off the meat I was about to buy saying 'it's not good'. I didn't buy it and opted for fruit instead. I'm pretty certain it was the fruit that did it. I don't think I washed it properly. You get a bit complacent.

That evening, I thought I'd 'treat' myself. There's no food in the house, so I decided to go to La Planet for a salad and cheese sandwich. The food took forever. The guy lost my order, then lied to me about it, and when it did arrive it was all dry and doused in vinegar. It was less of a treat and more of an ordeal. I had one petit Primus and went home.

As soon as I got home, I started to feel really not alright.

Within about half an hour I was vomiting violently: water coming out both ends. It just wouldn't stop, and I was in a terrible state.

I managed to get myself to bed with a bucket, but my body temperature crashed. I ended up with a big hot water bottle (thanks Dad) and huge fluffy bed socks (thanks Mum) and still I was ice-cold. It was quite frightening.

I managed to drift off but was woken by my water tank outside overflowing. Most nights I'd just go outside and turn it off, but I just didn't have the strength to reach it. I rolled over and kind of drifted. It was sort of pleasant, like a water feature, but I had a really fitful night's sleep.

Woke feeling absolutely shattered around 6:45. Went to the loo, then started heading back to the bedroom, where I promptly threw up again, not quite reaching the basin in time.

Flopped back into bed, and have spent the day just sleeping and trying to drink water to rehydrate myself. I was getting the dehydration shakes.

I think I'm on the mend, though. Haven't eaten anything today - just sipping water slowly. I'm not throwing up anymore. I've got some tummy pain, and I'm extremely tired, but think the worst is over - feel warm again at least.

The matter was compounded, however, by my oh-so-very-charming landlady calling at around 9am. I couldn't deal with it, my eyes were like lead. I just let it ring.

Then the Programme Office called. So I think: hmm, must be important, and answer.

A big row kicks off. I'd asked my landlady to fix the water tank in the garden to stop it overflowing. I hadn't heard anything for a week, then she sent a text yesterday afternoon saying 'I will come tomorrow to fix tank and then you can tell me when to come back' -? Come back for what? I didn't understand. As I wanted to spend today packing, I replied to say that I would ask Sonya (the volunteer sitting my house over Christmas) on Wednesday when would be a good day to fix the tank. They could agree a time/date whilst I am away.

But, no. 9:00 she's on the door complaining to the PO that I had agreed to be there. What confused the hell out of me is why she doesn't just let the workmen into the garden? She's done it on many other occasions, unannounced. It's an external tank and the water mains are out there too - why do they need access to the house? I texted her to tell her I was very ill and in bed, but she could let them in. No reply.

Instead, one of the women from the PO starts telling me how irritated the landlady is at me for never being around. As if we had agreed a time/date and as if, previously, I haven't had a job to go to.

Then the PO woman says something muffled to the effect of the landlady is taking back the house.

But, see, no surprise to me. She recently re-paved the drive and did a ton of ascetic work to the outer walls and gate. I knew the minute I saw it that it wasn't for my benefit. She's done this before, tried to get a higher paying tenant after the last VSO, but then she fell out with the tenant and went back to VSO. Now she's at it again, and the PO are giving me grief as if I'm annoying her. Like I don't get home to find random welders and my gate off the hinges, or strange men in my garden on a Saturday morning.

Well, she can shove the friggin' house up her arse for all I care.

I was completely knackered, covered in puke, and dehydrated. 'I have bad food poisoning' I said at the start of the conversation. 'Yes, yes, I understand - but the landlady is very annoyed.'

Not 'Do you need a doctor?', not 'Okay, we'll have this conversation when you're better.' So, to be fair, the PO can go right up there with the house.

I have come to the conclusion that, should she give me notice on the house, I think that might be a good time to draw a line under the whole VSO experience. You give up a lot comming here, and you get this kind of crap thrown at you by your own Programme Office.

Hmmm. The only thing I'd be sustainably developing would be a hernia.

So. I'm feeling a bit better now. Had a good sleep. Going to potter, tidy up a bit, and go away for three weeks to a beach to cogitate, or forget - either or. See how things look in the New Year.

Holiday Ahoy!

Photo courtesy of Flickr

In two days, all this shall be mine :op

Turned up for work today to be told we're all going on a disability march with FENAPH. Only, the march is to the German Embassy, to protest - yet again - about Rose Kabuye.

I made a swift call to Amanda who said 'nooo' - we're not allowed to associate with anything political. So, I stuck around for Augustin, and to help with some computer things. Then Augustin said I could go home and he'd see me in 2009. He gave me a couple of extra days off gratis to pack :) 

Really kind of him.

I'm home now. Second time this month I've scored time off due to political rallies.

I'm about to start the mass tidy of my house and begin packing for Sierra Leone. I'll be out of phone contact, but should check my e-mails a couple of times a week. B joked it's like the DRC and I'll be lucky to make it back, but he's just gone to visit his friend's besieged whisky factory in Goma *rolls eyes*. All bull, that was a long time ago - it's as safe as Rwanda now.

Not looking forward to the stopover in Nairobi, my least favourite airport ever. Squat holes ahoy, and back-breaking metal benches. But, only three hours stop on the way there.

Essentially, the holiday has begun. And I've just eaten ice-cream :op