MY SATURDAY IN FREETOWN

October 13, 2012  Last weekend was spent in and around my apartment, but this weekend I decide to venture out for a walk. The weather takes some getting used to as Sierra Leone is close enough to the equator to make the climate warm (read hot) and humid. 

The office of Fambul Tok is not air conditioned.  Most of my apartment is not as well. The only way to completely acclimatize is to go without the A/C in my bedroom as much as possible. At first I had the A/C on all night every night.  Now I use it to cool down the room when I return from the office and before I go to sleep.

Pademba Road

There is a welcome breeze this morning as I set out to walk to the Cotton Tree.  The National Museum is there as is the “Freedom Plaza”.  Both of which I visited last year, but wanted to spend more time. I walk down Pademba Road, one of the main roads in Freetown and one of the few with a street sign and a sunken sidewalk along one side.

The road is lined with little shops, an occasional church, businesses, and societies.  Every now and then I pass a sidewalk stand selling fruit or water or soda.  I can see the Cotton Tree in the distance.  The road ends at a circle or roundabout going around the tree where four roads converge.

I pass an entrance to the museum and go up the stairs entering the museum.  It is dark inside and appears to be closed, but the door is open.  As I begin to wander around the first floor a young man approaches informing me the museum is closed on weekends. Strange that the gates and door are open and no sign to indicate opening hours. I apologize and leave. 

Sierra Leone means Lion Mountain

Across the street and up the hill is the plaza that spoke volumes to me last year.  As I enter it another young man approaches me to let me know there is an entrance fee of 10,000 LE (about $2.40).  I gladly pay it and he ushers me into the plaza.

He asks if I have ever been here before and I reply that I was there briefly last year with a group, but didn’t get to spend much time.  He announces he is a tour guide and proceeds to take me all around the plaza explaining the history and what each exhibit represents.  

Looking up at the Cotton Tree I wonder where the fruit bats have gone.  There is not a bat in sight where last year there were hundreds. He explains they disappear to caves during the rainy season and will be coming back to the tree in the next month!

Reconciliation Wall Plaques

We spent a pleasant and informative hour together. He sang me the National Anthem and a school song about the importance of education. When he was explaining the mural on the reconciliation wall showing people with amputated limbs and a young man in supplication before them asking forgiveness, I asked him why he thought the war turned into such a violent one. 

He said it was largely due to prejudice.  Some groups of people used the war as an excuse to gain land they had been wanting, to kill and maim others who they did not like.  He also stated that the soldiers were all kept on drugs.  This I knew from a book called A Long Way Gone written by Ishmael Beah.  It is his story about his experience as a young boy during the war where he ended up forced by the government army to be a soldier at age 11.

Importance of Education

My guide told me the story of his own mother.  She was uneducated and could not read.  One day she was tying a scarf someone had given her around her waist that had Nigeria written on it.  She was shot to death because of this. Nigeria was one of the countries who sent in soldiers during the war and the opposition, thinking she was supporting Nigeria because of her scarf, shot her. 

He told me he knows the man who killed his mother, but he has to forgive him because he knows they were all made to take drugs and were not in their right minds when they did these things. He said that all the people of Sierra Leone realize they need to be known as Sierra Leoneians first and then as someone from this tribe or that tribe or this religion or that religion.  The good of all must come before the good of groups or individuals.  The war taught them this.

His sentiments are echoed in a conversation I had on Friday with Val from the Fambul Tok organization.  Val said that the two major religions, Islam and Christianity are very welcoming of each other.  It is not unusual for Muslims and Christians to intermarry.  He is Christian with many Muslim friends and they go to Mosque and Church together once in a while.  They celebrate their holidays together respecting each others beliefs.

Even the remaining animists (the indigenous religion of old) are allowed to follow their practices in peace.  What a lesson for all of us.  Instead of fearing each others differences, they learn about them and respect them.  Why can’t we do this as a nation?  How can we say we are a free nation when so many of us are lead by prejudice and fear?

Scene Depicting Solider Helping ALL Peoples
In the background a man beating a gun into a farming tool

The last place we visit in the plaza is a small enclosed room commemorating some of the war casualties from all wars including World War II.  He points out the name of his father who died in this past war.  He was orphaned during the war, but put himself through college and is now a part of the reemerging tourism industry.

After this extremely rewarding encounter, I begin walking up another road to the Super Market.  This road, too is lined with stores, but the stores here are more modern and new. However, the street vendors are still all a part of the scene selling shoes, sunglasses, cigarettes and many other items.

Wall of My Complex

Steel Door To My Complex

The A/C feels really good after my three hour excursion through Freetown.  I am so very glad I ventured out.

Much Love To You All,

Mom/Grandma/Sara

ADDENDUM TO ELECTIONS

Just as I was posting my previous blog a SMALL group of Red Party celebrators passed by the office.

Red Party Parade

IT’S ELECTION TIME

October 11, 2012  

Today is the nomination day for the Red Party here in Sierra Leone.  Red is the chosen color of the party, the symbol is the sun. It is the party in office now.  Monday was the Green Party day whose symbol is the Palm Tree, and tomorrow is the Yellow (I think) Party day.  The Red and Green Parties are the two biggest. 

The people have already voted in a primary for the candidates in all the parties.  The nomination days are when the electoral committee announces the candidates running for all the offices in the election taking place next month on November 17.  Each party has a nomination day.  

In case of a tie in the November election there will be a runoff election in December. Here the popular vote chooses the winner; how democratic!!!!  

That being said there can be and often is corruption during the elections.  For instance the voter ID cards can be sold on the black market and many poor people do just that.  Another tactic is for the old people to be transported to the polls on the condition they will vote for the party providing the transportation.

Women who are running for office are often harassed, threatened, and even physically assaulted.  Fambul Tok has a 5 month project funded by the United Nations and overseen by the US State Department to educate women how they can be a peaceful influence on the elections in their areas.  When I DO go up country this is the project in which I will be involved.

Yesterday I was told that there would be thousands of people in the streets and a big celebration taking place for the Red Party nomination day. I did not know what to expect on my walk to Fambul Tok this morning, but am armed with a map so I can walk away from any crowds I happen upon.

I open the steel door in the wall surrounding the guest house containing my apartment.  The narrow street which is usually bustling with traffic and pedestrians and lined with vendors is almost empty.  The schools are silent.  They are closed from today until December after the elections are over.

The children of the politicians of the two largest parties have been sent to either London or America!!!  I am told that the American and English Embassies both have a “safe” place to bring their citizens who are in the country in the case of wide spread violence.

That being said, many, many organizations are campaigning for a peaceful election.  I see a young man with a T-Shirt that reads “Say NO to a Violent Election”.  I wish it said “Say YES to a Peaceful Election”. My belief is it is better to emphasize the word that brings about the desired outcome rather that of what you are against. 

As I walk down the street waving and saying hello to all I see, I don’t see many, most of the few I do see are wearing bright red.  They are blowing whistles and horns. Approaching the main street at the end of my side street I am surprised at the lack of traffic and, again, pedestrians.

There is a young woman walking along the main road all dressed in red including red and gold metallic socks!  She is selling paraphernalia for the Red party; hats, whistles, buttons.  She holds out a button for me to buy.  I raise my two hands palms up and shrug my shoulders to indicate I am unfamiliar with the goings on.  She smiles and moves on.

When I get to the main, main road that I cross each day the usual police person directing traffic is missing! Usually it would be impossible to cross the road safely without him/her there to stop traffic.  Today the traffic is so light it is easy to cross.

On my way down the next street I see a gathering of many red shirts off to the left.  One of the red shirted men is scuffling with another in a white shirt. People have gathered on the other side of the road to watch. Hugging the right side of the road, walking quickly by and away from the action I make my way to the office.

The rest of the walk is uneventful and I wonder where are the thousands of people who are supposed to be in the streets?  They are to the side and down from where I am walking closer to the center of the city.  I can hear them off in the background. 

What is amazing to me is that the Green party nomination day on Tuesday was a nonevent.  I didn’t even realize it was happening! Today is the only day with this much activity, I am told.

I had hoped I would know by now when I will be going up country, but still no word.  I have had one report to write since I have been here.  I am working on being patient, truly I am!!!! Sigh!

Much Love To You All,
Mom/Grandma/Sara

SHOPPING EXPERIENCE

Street Side Store Through Taxi Window

October 8, 2012.  This morning Alpha and I will take a trip to the Super Market.  It is to open at 8:00AM and we agree to leave in a taxi then.  I tease Alpha and say it is 8AM American time not African time.  He laughs.  We leave a little before 8 and arrive at 7:55. There is little traffic at this time of the morning.  In just a few minutes after we arrive the streets are packed.  He asks a worker sitting outside and is assured the store will open at 8AM

It is cooler today.  Alpha tells me that this time of year is the start of the drier and cooler season.  Cooler is all relative.  He thinks it is cold, I am thinking it feels wonderful, but could be even cooler.

Two nights in a row we have had huge rain and wind storms.  I love the fact it is at night only.  A bit like Camelot.

Note Little Traffic

While we are waiting I watch the activities on the street in front of me.  We are in the center of town now and there are some taller buildings.  Alpha points out the huge cottonwood tree that is visible to the left at the end of the street we are facing.

Tree Is Visible At The End of Street

Fruit Bats -Photo by Grey Sample 2011

I recognize that! It is where we watched the fruit bats last year, looked at Freedom Plaza and entered the museum.  I tell Alpha about how I loved the exhibit of the Mende 

women’s masks.  He tells me he is Mende.  We chat about many things while we wait and wait and wait.

General Merchandise Store

At 8:35 the doors open - African time!  Today I am armed with a list of items to get for my trip Up Country.  We are the first customers in the store. I am done in a jiffy my box of items loaded in the taxi and we are on the way back.

Earlier in the morning my electricity suddenly went out.  Evidently I have my own meter which is “loaded” with a certain number of somethings and they had run out!  They promise me they will “top it up” later in the day.

No meeting today with Michaela.  She is exhausted from her trip and needs to go home and rest.  I encourage her to find something I can help her with tomorrow.  I am feeling a bit useless at the moment, but I know the duties will come in their own time.

I just hope I don’t eat up all my “snacks” before we leave to go up country. :-)

Much Love To You All,

Mom/Grandma/Sara 

GOING UP COUNTRY

Friday, October 5.  My shower is working - hooray.  I hop in turn on the hot water and wait, and wait, and wait.......  Hey, it’s hot here so a cold shower will feel good.  The truth is counterintuitive. Take a hot shower when it is hot because then your skin is warmer than the air when you get out and you feel cool.  Conversely, take a cool shower when it is cold so your skin is cooler than the air when you get out to feel warm.  And, no the water never got hot :-)  The bright side is it is so hot here the cold water is kind of lukewarmish.  

Sign Outside of Freetown Office

Michaela arrives from doing work in the provinces this morning.  It is wonderful to finally meet her after all the emails back and forth to get me what I need to be here.  According to my conversation with John yesterday, I am to meet with her and him this morning.  John said 9, but this is Africa and it is already 10:00.

Action Across The Street - A Cafe

At 1:00PM John rushes in to say good-bye(he is off to America) and that he has met with Michaela who will fill me in on going to Kono District next week.  What? Wait!!!  HMMM-guess-they didn’t need me in the meeting.  No biggie I’ve spent the morning checking email, blogging, working to outfox Yahoo by opening another account and inputting my contacts. 

Michaela and a young man whose name is too difficult for me to attempt to spell come into the conference room where I am situated.  He is the program coordinator.  I will be going to Kono District next week where Michaela has just been training the women in the new project related to their role in achieving a peaceful election next month and again in December for the follow-up election.  The stay will last at least a week. 

In the past women who ran for office or even women who tried to vote have been intimidated, harassed, and even assaulted.  Through the newly established Peace Mother groups in 5 of the 12 districts, women are finding a voice and a strength that is changing their lives and their communities.  So far there are 150 such groups.  Fambul Tok is engaging these groups to take an active role in the upcoming elections as well as identify key women from areas where Peace Mothers groups are yet to be established. 

The first thing Michaela asks is if I can handle rough roads.  I explain the roads in Tanzania by throwing myself around in my chair.  She said yes like that. Inside I’m cringing, but outside I am saying “no problem”. 

The meeting is more about what I should bring in the way of mosquito protection, brand of water, snacks etc. than what I will be doing. I am told the days will be long starting at 5AM and getting back to wherever I am staying (TBD) at 7PM.  The way to the chiefdoms from the district office is long.  It is harvest time so we must get there very early to catch the people before they leave to go to the fields.  I will need the snacks since there will be no time for breakfast and we won’t really eat until dinner when returning to the place we are staying.

On Monday she will meet more extensively with me and go over the information John has already given me about the project.  I may or may not learn which day I leave and where I will be staying. That might happen on Tuesday.  It’s Africa and I love the mystery of it all. Whenever it happens I will be ready.

All I can say is I am VERY excited about serving the women in the villages, relating to them, learning from them.  Goose flesh is all over my body as we speak.  The details are not important because all will be as it should be.

Thought you might like to see pictures of my apartment.  Oh, I did confirm.  There isn’t supposed to be any hot water in the shower. Thus the bucket and electric kettle.  I can rinse my body with warm water by pouring warm water from the bucket over my head and body!!!

Kitchen - Sink Is Across From Frig

Much Love To You All,

Mom/Grandma/Sara

    

Living Room

Dining Nook

My Bedroom Looking From the Bath
Easy Chair is to the right

Guest Room

The smallest second bath is off the entry hall (not shown). The guest room is the largest room with the largest bed and closet.  My room is the smaller room with a smaller bed but has the larger bath en-suite. I chose it for that reason.

View Off My Verandah

Please note the ocean in the background above the trees. I have a partial ocean view!!!

SIERRA LEONE ACTIVITIES

Yesterday, October 4, I took my second bucket bath.  The plumber is due later so I should have running water by tonight.  Surprisingly I get a kick out of bucket bathing.  It’s a good way to save water, it forces exercise with the bending up and down, it takes much less time, and I know the water will be warm.

The office of Fambul Tok is located about a 20 minute walk from my apartment.  When we think of downtown we think of tall buildings, wide paved roads, street signs, stop lights, a Starbucks on every corner, and sidewalks.

In downtown Freetown there are no sidewalks, the roads are narrow, poorly paved and have a thin covering of dried mud, only small buildings and shacks line the streets, no street signs, stoplights-scarce and not working, Starbucks? NOT! That being said people greet me as I walk along, the sights are interesting and the people watching fun.  Children are off to school, adults to work; all walking.  The walk to and from, up and down hills on uneven surfaces are giving me a better workout than I get at home.  To be honest, I don’t walk like I should at home so this is a forced regime.  I’m liking this!

In the afternoon Alpha gets me a taxi to go to the Supermarket. Amazingly the driver finds a parking space directly across the street! I get out of the car, cross the street (I’m getting good at dodging the traffic) and enter the market.  

As I am walking down the aisle pushing my cart I sense someone walking right behind me.  It’s my driver.  He has come into the market to help me. The market is very different from any other in any other country I have seen.  There is very little food and what there is is canned, boxed, or frozen.  The frozen selection is extremely small (think ice cream freezer in 7/11) as are the refrigerated items (think soda cooler by our check out stands).  There are two plain yogurts so I snap those up.  I get a package of “minced meat” and, no, I’m not asking.  It looks like beef so that is what it is!

My purchases are the meat, yogurt, butter (from England), matches, dishwashing liquid, toilet paper,and Wheat A Bix cereal (also from England). 

All along the outside walls of the market are many stalls of fresh vegetables and fruit.  I choose some onions, garlic, an avocado and “lemons”.  The women selling the produce all want you to buy from them and will leave their stalls to come to you with sample of what they are offering.  The thing is they are all offering the same thing!  Here in Sierra Leone they eat what is in season as should we.  Much better for the body. 

All the garlic is sold in a net bag containing many heads. It took visiting several stalls and help from the taxi driver to find someone willing to sell me 2 heads.  All of the women wanted to sell me large quantities.  It was difficult to get them to understand I was cooking for just me.  Living alone is an anomaly to them.

Returning to my apartment I find the gas guy there hooking up my stove top.  I walk in just as he is searching for matches.  I pull out my purchase and hand him a box.  It works!  I offer him the match box and he is very pleased.

Then the plumber arrives and fixes the water issue.  Life is getting better and better.  Only one wrinkle.  The toilet is missing the bulb inside the tank to stop the flow of water when the tank is full. Foolishly I ask if he has a replacement bulb.  He looks at me like I have two heads.  The solution?  Turn on the water source to the toilet, fill the tank, turn it off when it is full, flush the toilet and repeat the process each time. I can do that.

In the middle of the night I am awakened by a loud thunder storm.  I love thunder and lightening so I get up and go out on my little veranda to see if the lightening is visible.  Sadly, it is on the other side of the house. It rains buckets continuing to flash and boom for quite a while.

It is the end of the rainy season. Evidently, November is the beginning of the dry season, so the rain is lessening day by day.  The sun has been out most of the time, but I still carry my umbrella.

I do wonder if it does rain when on my way to and from work if I’ll use the umbrella.  

1. No one else will be. 
2. It’s harder to see the cars and motorbikes whizzing around me.
3. So I get a little wet, big deal!  I’m already dripping from the heat and humidity anyway so what difference is a little rain?

Tomorrow morning I will meet with John Caulker the creator of Fambul Tok.  We met for the first time today and he told me of a project involving the women in the districts.  The project is about getting them involved with the effort for a peaceful election. The US Embassy is involved as is the United Nations. He wants me to be a part of this project.  How wonderful is THAT???? Stay tuned!!!

Much Love To You All,

Mom/Grandma/Sara

ARRIVAL SIERRA LEONE AND A BUCKET BATH

The first of 4 flights I am to take to get to Freetown, Sierra Leone leaves Cairo on October 1 at 11:25PM on time.  It stops in Khartoum, Sudan to off load and take on passengers. Ongoing passengers are required to stay on board for the 1 hour it takes.  Eight hours after leaving Cairo I arrive in Nairobi. After a 2+ hour layover the flight for Freetown leaves Nairobi.  After 7 hours it stops in Accra, Ghana for one hour while we sit on the plane.  Two hours later on October 2 at 3:25PM I arrive in Freetown. Long story short?  You can’t get there from here nonstop in Africa

 :-).

I am met at the airport by Ernest and Ahmed sent by Fambul Tok.  They arrange for a water taxi to take me to Freetown.  The airport, for whatever the reason, is on an island in the middle of the river!  

Water Taxi Note Airport Island In The Background

My luggage goes in one van and I in another. There are a whole group of us doing this, so I relax.  Once at the boat dock, they load the luggage then they load us, or at least the first 19 of us.  I am number 16 - hooray!  How they know what luggage goes where, I haven’t a clue.  But it works!  We are handed orange life jackets and off we go. Upon examination I find my zipper is broken and half the stings torn off, but Hey!it's a fashion statement!

As I walk up the wooden plank dragging one of my suitcases with my backpack on my back, a young man offers to bring up my bigger case.  Lovely!  At the top of the plank is a woman with my name on a sign.  She and a young man are there to take me to my apartment in a guest house.  Their names are Onita and Lamaine.

We wind our way through the streets of Freetown and they are just as I remembered; stock full of cars, motorbikes and people.  The address of my place is 47 Fort Street.  It looks like one.  Very high grey cement walls with curled barbed wire on top surround the establishment. Grill work on the windows. HMMMMM-guess I’ll be safe in there!

We knock on the steel door in the wall.  It is answered by a tall thin young man who invites us in to the reception area.  At first the young lady at the desk is quoting a price for a single room that is much more per month than I was quoted for an apartment. I explain that Michaela from Fambul Tok arranged for an apartment and I named the price.

Onita, the representative from Fambul Tok, says that Michaela is out of town.  Adama, the woman at the desk, calls someone and all is well.

I am escorted to the floor above with a two bedroom, two bath furnished apartment complete with small kitchen, large living room and dining nook.  The bedrooms have A/C.  Important for sleeping.

Alpha, the greeter, then appears with two buckets of water which he places in the shower.  He then comes back with a huge electric kettle full of water.

Even though the apartment looks newly refurbished with a new frig, microwave and two gas burners, there is no running water!

I am told it will be fixed in the morning but I can heat the water in the electric kettle and add it to the bucket for a bucket bath.  The other bucket of water is for flushing the toilet.  Hey!  I can manage anything!

Too tired to deal with all of that I unpack and fall into bed.

Buckets with Dipping Cup. Note Color Coordination!

This morning I began to contemplate how to take the bucket bath.  It’s plain I won’t fit in the bucket and I’ve used all the water in one bucket and some of the water in the other one to flush the toilet. Have I left myself enough water?

Electric Kettle

O.K. time to heat the water in the kettle and hope for the best.  Now, what do I wash first? This requires some planning and takes me back to when my mother had a washing machine with a thing called a “suds saver”.

A suds saver uses the same water over and over as you do the laundry.  Because of that Mom always washed the whites first.  Thinking it through I decide my hair is the white load, no pun intended. Uhhh, white hair, white load???

I step into the shower next to the bucket with just the right temperature water thanks to the kettle full of hot water.  One other provided handy item is a smaller measuring type cup to bail out the water.

It works out great!  Keeping my head over the bucket allows me to recreate the suds saver leaving me enough water to wash the rest of me.  Plus this method keeps my hair from getting rinsed with soapy body water. Last, I step into the bucket and wash my feet. Done! 

All of this adds to the adventure and gets the creative juices going to solve an issue with the best outcome!

Today has been spent at the office of Fambul Tok.  They were amazed I got here with no trouble.  None of the streets have street signs, but the map shows exactly how many streets there are between turns so I just counted the streets.  Thank goodness for Google Maps and Alpha who explained an even better way to walk.

Walking is not for the faint of heart.  There are no sidewalks on the narrow busy streets.  I watch the natives and do what they do which is basically close your eyes and hope for the best.  On the big main crossing a policeman stopped traffic so I could cross safely.

The whole day is spent getting my ballot for the November 6 Presidential election downloaded, printed, signed, scanned and attached to an email.

Much Love To You All,

Mom/Grandma/Sara