Last Post

The sunsets on 2013

for 2013 but there are a few more posts to come as I reflect on my time in Sierra Leone.

2014 is a whole new adventure as I move back to London, take repossession of my flat and empty the storage unit.  The last part is not something I am looking forward to but it will be lovely to have all my possessions around me to settle back into Surbiton from February.

So 2013 has been a year of change.  I started the year in my VSO flat while working at the Ministry, there was that wee blip with my short time at Concern and finally my foray into self employed consultancy. Challenging is definitely the word to describe it all.  I surprised myself with my resilience through the year as there were many moments when I thought about throwing in the towel and slinking back home.  I stuck it out to my own amazement and am proud of what I have achieved.

2013 was a time of many rooms.  I moved about this year so the stability of living in one place will be something to relish in the next year, that said I am thinking about a one bedroom place in East London. Priorities though, I have to find a job first so job hunting followed by flat hunting.

Time to sign off for 2013 and pull out my CV to make those final revisions.

Happy Hogmany and all the best for 2014 wherever you are reading this.

You know you're in the South .......

I love these.

1. when you have biscuits and gravy for breakfast at The Loveless.  With old friends the one hour wait doesn't seem that long.

a fine Nashville tradition

with Kim and Gay

2. a deer gun is the perfect Santa gift

Logan and his new deer gun

3. you head out to Franklin on a Friday night to see a bands called Grits and Soul and Cotten at Kimbros Pickin' Parlor.  First though dinner at Grays on Main.

loving the rooster

Saying goodbye

I spent my last week with Ed in the house I think of as my second home in Freetown.  I have had many happy times there and one of the most special was Thursday 12 December.  Why?  Well Ed had a Christmas do and I managed to use this as an opportunity to invite those people who have been integral to my time here, unfortunately not all as some folk are already off on their Christmas holiday.

Here are the pictures and from the smiles you can tell how happy I am to know these people.  You are all so special and will be part of my life for years to come.

Ed

Michelle, Heather and Jude

Alex

Jamelia

Tom

Heather and Tom

Matt

Alex feeling strong!

My tailor

I'm sure that once I leave my tailor Allieu shall see a drop in revenue.  I have been a loyal customer and do not want to add up how may thousands of Leones I have spent on tailoring.  He has made me some great outfits with only the occasional disaster.  These outfits have featured throughout this blog but never a picture of the man himself.

I can now remedy that with this one taken last Thursday wearing my latest pair of shorts.  Not sure how much wear I'll get from them in London in January but I'm ready for the summer.

with Allieu

On Thursday he also delivered a lovely new wrap skirt which had the added excitement of a label! One of his other customers had had these made.

Great marketing

I have moved on from clothes to bags. Allieu has been very busy making these which I think will make lovely Christmas gifts.  What do you think?

Quite a selection

So if you're lucky you never know what will be in your Christmas Stocking.

Final Days

I have had a very laid back couple of weeks as I wind down to leaving.  This came to a peak with three days at Tokeh Sands.

Love the logo's use of flag

View of the resort from the sea

This is my favourite beach in Sierra Leone.  I have spent many an afternoon lazing there but the added bonus is that you can go walking along to either No.1 River or No.2 River.

Walking from No.2 River is the way I reached Tokeh as it is faster to take a taxi to No.2 and walk as the road between No,2 and Tokeh is terrible. Crossing the river is part of that but luckily there is a row boat that covers the short distance.

Starting point at No.2

The boat!

So I arrived on Monday about 11am and left at 3pm on Wednesday.  In that time I contemplated leaving and what next.  I have made some decisions and these will be put into action in January.  Reading has been a big part of life these last three months and these three days were no exception as I ploughed through the Hunger Games triology.

I have come back so much more relaxed and at ease with myself.  A revelation was how happy I was to have such minimal contact with other people.  "Me time" is so key to me now as it allows be to reinvigorate myself.  Here's a selection of images from this time.

Beautiful!

Sunset

My spot!

Final Sunset

Bye Bye Tokeh - I shall be back.

It's Christmas Time...

though in these 38 degree temperatures it's hard to tell. It's strange living somewhere where the only variations in the weather are the dry and the wet.  Days pass by and once the rains eased in October it has felt like on long summer and the thought of dark days and Christmas lights are very far away.

However, you can't escape Christmas here either as the shops adorn themselves with Santa who all appear to be the musical variety with a special talent for the saxaphone.  Here are my examples

Monoprix

Salvone Bakery

The shop that took my breath away was Nassim's Supermarket.  This photo doesn't do it justice as at night it is lit up like a Christmas Tree.

On Friday night the security were dressed in Santa suits and dancing!  Magic!!!

Fish on a Friday

I grew up in a fishing town where my next door neighbour was a fisherman so I was very used to having fresh fish on a Friday when he returned from sea on a Thursday night.  In fact, my first career aspiration was to be a fish filleter in the local fish shed.  I was mesmerised watching them when I went down with my dad on a Saturday morning. Macduff was a bit stormy yesterday:

Macduff harbour by Andrew Taylor

Anyway where is this going?  Well it's Friday and that's the day they serve my favourite Salone meal at the Youyi canteen - fish, beans, plantain and sweet potato.  I have struggled with some of the plassas (general name for local dishes) such as cassava leaf and potato leaf but beans are definitely my favourite. I don't mind groundnut soup and jollof rice but beans, beans, beans will always win out.

Friday goodness

Fish isn't only for Fridays it is also for the beach. The pleasure surrounding a beach trip includes the thought of barracuda kebabs and  chips.  There are days when I choose the healthier couscous but usually it's lovely crispy chips.

Another fish staple is snapper and rice with pepper sauce.  This has the added challenge of eating a whole fish with a fork and spoon.  I struggle with the bones but get there eventually though not in the most elegant fashion.

In London it'll be back to salmon and haddock but I'll enjoy lots of baracudda in the meantime - yes I'm off to the beach for my last week.  I'll be back next Wednesday!  Look out for a few more pictures of blue skies and sand.

Decision made and time to reflect

It is two years around now since I made the decision to come to Sierra Leone as a VSO volunteer.  I'd been on the assessment day and selected in March 2011. Nine months on, in November 2011, I was beginning to give up hope of ever being offered a placement matching my skills.  There had been a couple which loosely fitted but nothing where I felt I could be put to best use.

I was, therefore, very excited to receive the placement specification for the position within the Directorate of Finance at the Ministry of Sanitation.  It was easy to see that my CV and the role matched but the bigger question was would I fit with Sierra Leone.

The joy of VSO is that you can contact current and former volunteers who can answer questions and give honest feedback.  Carole, Shona and Beth all shared their thoughts with me and from that the decision was made.  A great one it turns out.

Two years on and it's decision time again.  What to do in 2014?  I have a flight booked home for my Christmas trip to the US (leaving 15 December) and two choices have emerged: to come back in January to find more work and potentially renew my visa in March or to call it quits and leave Sierra Leone for my life back in London.

It's a hard one but I have decided.  December will herald the end of this adventure.  In 2014 I feel my adventures are to be had in London.  As I sit here I have no solid plan of what next.  Instead I am going to enjoy my final two weeks spending time at the beach to reflect on the changes that have occurred within me in these last 21 months.  From that reflection I hope to gain insights into what next.  I have so many options open to me and it will be a luxury to have the time to explore them.

I find looking at views like this helps me to find peace and take the time to ponder the future.

Sunset at Tokeh

Bureh

Dusk at Cockle Point

Thoughts of home - my childhood home

Before I came to Sierra Leone I had always poo pooed the use of social networking sites such as Facebook.  It must be said that that has changed in the last 18 months as I have rejoined Facebook and have used it to keep up with people from home and those I have met here that have moved on.

Through various "likes" of friends I have joined the "Macduff and it's community group" (all grammatical pedants (I include myself here) the apostrophe in the name is what the group is called not my lack of knowledge of how to use an apostrophe).  So grammar forgiven I have enjoyed looking at pictures of the place I spent my childhood.  It's amazing how nostalgic you can become when you move away.

Here are some of my favourite images of Banff and Macduff.  All Canadian readers (there may be some) - this is the original Banff.

The anchor in Macduff near Shand Street,  taken by Francis Masson 

The bridge connecting Macduff and Banff, taken by Jimmy Thompson

Weather I remember well,  taken by Mac Duffer

Macduff Harbour with Doune Church

And here is Banff Links where I spent sunny Scottish days.  You know what? It could match a Salone beach for beauty but not the temperatures - note the obligatory wind breaker.

Banff Links

Not often these are the views from your desk

I have spent the last couple of days volunteering at the Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary to help with their accounting spreadsheets. Click here to read an earlier post about Tacugama.

Sitting at your desk watching and listening to chimps has been quite a different experience and one I have been so fortunate to have.  Who could have known where my spreadsheet skills would take me?

Here are some of the images from today.

Morlai loves sitting on Posseh's back

Reassurance in numbers

Chica

I am such a lucky girl to have such special days.  Another great day in Freetown.

Congo Cross Mystery Solved

So the statue has been revealed and I had an inkling it would be this man:

President Ernest Bai Koroma

This new bust has been erected by the Federation of Young People of Sierra Leone.  Here is the inscription

So mystery solved.   Here is the statue in its full setting with traffic going around.

The Congo Cross Mystery

Congo Cross is the area of Freetown which I call home.  In my time here I have always lived somewhere in the five minute radius of Congo Cross Roundabout or Turntable as it is called here.  It's a great area of town to live as it is easy to go downtown or West to the beaches.

 This weekend marks one year since the elections which re-elected Ernest Bai Koroma as President of Sierra Leone.  In that year the election poster of the opposition candidate, Julius Maada Bio,  has remained on the Congo Cross Roundabout and I felt certain it may remain there until the 2017 elections.  Here are photos I took last weekend where the poster takes pride of place.

So you can imagine my surprise on Friday when the poster disappeared.  Even more intriguingly it has been replaced by a statue wrapped in plastic.  Not only this, the roundabout has also been painted and potted plants added.

So the mystery?  Who will be revealed when the plastic is removed and when will this happen?  I'll let you know when it all becomes clear.  In the meantime here are a couple of pics from today.

The plastic wrapped statue

All spruced up in Salone national colours