A Trip Up Line

Forward planning – not something that Sierra Leone is known for in my experience thus far.  Of course, that could be a result of coming out of a ten year civil war where there was no place for planning – surviving from one day to the next was focus enough.  In addition an average life expectancy of 49 doesn’t lend itself to planning for an old age.

So I should not have been surprised when I was told one Thursday afternoon that I would be going on a field trip up country to the provinces on Saturday.  Saturday?  Oh yes weekends don’t seem to mean much here either when it comes to work.    As I had been rumbling on about wanting to visit the provinces there was no way to say no to this trip Up Line (this is local parlance for going to the provinces)

So I was up at 6.00am on Saturday waiting for Mr Bangura to call as we were to leave at 7am.  Supposed to – the call when it came was at 7.30am and we eventually left at 8am.  Destination?  First stop Makeni to visit the hospital to look at logistics related to new construction and to meet the finance officer. 

Makeni Hospital

That done we went over to Magburaka in the afternoon to inspect the on-going construction work there.  The hospital has been closed for over a year but hopefully it will reopen in August.

Back to Makeni where we were to spend the night.  Luckily this offered an ideal opportunity for me to catch up with my fellow runners from the marathon weekend.  It was lovely to catch up with Deborah and Aoife as we watched some on the European championship which in this football mad nation was a must do.

Wusom Field with the backdrop of Wusom Hill in Makeni

The next day we went on a beautiful, but long, and bumpy ride to Kabala to visit the hospital there.

View on road from Makeni to Kabala

 As we entered the town we ran into a Thanksgiving Parade which offered the ideal opportunity to look at the Sunday outfits.  

Lovely outfits complete with headties

 There was consternation in the car when we spotted this lady on a motorbike as this was truly a rare sight and my colleagues commented on that at length - "a si uman de drive okada"!

Hospital visited it was the start of a very long journey back as we went to Makeni  had some food and then eventually (at 4pm) started the drive to Freetown.   One highlight of a trip to Makeni is the pot shop. So after grumbling that we had kept stopping to buy random items I made the driver reverse back up the highway so that I could have a burst of retail therapy.  Therapy indeed as it greatly improved my mood. The pots survived the bumpy roads of east Freetown but unfortunately when we opened the back door to get my bag a pot fell out and smashed.  I knew they were delicate but it truly disintegrated.

On the journey back I had great plans to watch the England quarter final but reaching home at 7.30pm I was exhausted so headed straight to bed, admiring the one pot which had survived.