A-Z of Salone

A-Aubergine, Aberdeen Women’s Centre, Africana, Anti-malarials, Airtel

B-Beaches, Beans, Banana Island, BHC, Bureh

C-Cassava, Chickens, Congo Cross, Congo Market, Craft Club, Cha Cha,

D-Dogs, Dongle

E-Elections

F-Friends, Fabric, Food flask, Freetown Direct

G-Groundnut Soup

H-Heiniken, Hamilton

I-Internet, IMATT

J-Jollof Rice

K-Krio,

L-Leones, Laughing Cow, Lakka

M-Makeni Marathon, Ministry of Health and Sanitation, Malama Thomas Street, Magburaka,

N-NPA, NGOs,

O-Okada,

P-Poda Poda Pub Crawl, Plantain, Photohunt, Pool Party

Q-Q Bar

R-Red Wine, Rogbonko Village Retreat, Running, Rain

S-Sweating, Saika Stevens Street, Savannah, Sierratel, Sunshine, Sand

T-Tacugama, Tailors, Turtle Islands, Taxis, Tokeh

U-Unlimited internet access for Le 104,000 a month

V-VSO

W-Water, Walking, White Wine

X-Xtraordinary year!

Y -Youyi Building

Z-Zainab Bangura - the ex Minister of Health and Sanitation

Home Sweet Magburaka

My new job with Concern has meant a relocation of my main abode to Magburaka.  It was with trepidation that I packed up my belongings at my VSO house as I knew I had accumulated quite a bit (understatement if ever there was one) in the year.

Here it is all ready to go (well the case isn't packed here but they were full of clothes)

Luckily my new room is a good size.  Here are the changing room pictures

Before

After with country cloth and my Ministry present

Before

My cane furniture and the fairy lights

Before

A lappa makes a difference to a room!

One Year na Salone

So 12 months today I arrived in Freetown.  So what skills have I acquired and what do I appreciate more than before?

I can open packet water with my teeth

I can drink from a packet water without soaking myself

I can stand a packet water up on its end without it falling over

I can bucket shower with the minimal use of water

I donated my first pint of blood

I rode on an okada wearing my big rucksack without falling off

I realised I prefer having running water to having power

Krio has been much harder to master that I thought it would be

The pleasure of having a shower at 5pm when the water has heated in the tank all day – the bliss of a hot shower!

Walking down streets that resemble dried up river beds in high heels without falling over

Happily having powdered milk in my tea

There are many more that I am sure I have missed but these are those that come to mind.

Second Annual Freetown Photohunt

In life you have to make your own fun or if you are really lucky someone else organises the fun for you.  This is what happened a couple of Saturdays ago when a bunch of lovely people expended a great amount of effort to organise a Scavenger Hunt.  This included creating a web page for the event. Click here to have a look.

They had drawn up a list of items to photograph with points being awarded for the level of difficulty involved in capturing the shot in the 3 hours allowed.  This included painted images of the president, particular slogans on poda podas, specific pieces of graffiti, statues, sitting on cannons, buying strange carved items, the list went on and on.

My team mates for the event were Jess, Vafa and Ed.  Here we are on the Freedom Steps.

We had great fun driving across Freetown ticking items off the list.  You had to keep your eyes peeled at all times and be ready to snap.  I failed at this a few times for example when the taxi with the WhiteBoy slogan in the back sped past.

The organising committee had a quiet 3 hours as the 14 teams scoured the city but boy they worked hard when everyone returned with memory cards in hand.  The photos were transferred onto computers and then each team had to sit with a judge as photos were allowed or disallowed – much fun and games at that point as people became rather passionate about their entries.  This process took a few hours but the teams didn’t mind as there was a pool, kegs of beer, a sound system and bbq.  A perfect combination.

Eventually the results were announced and the winners crowned – not us I must say as we came 13^th – but hey it the taking part that counts!  The organisers pulled out all the stops as a white sheet was hung between a couple of trees to allow the projection of the best photos.  Much laughing and exclamations of surprise at people’s ingenuity.

Here’s a selection of our entries. Enjoy!

Straddling a cannon

Pulling in a fishing net

Presidential fabric

Laughing with the Laughing Cow

Bible verse in Krio

Ups and Downs

When I was packing my room up I removed this poster from my wall.

This was given to me in my VSO Preparing to Volunteer training.  It illustrates the feelings that you will experience at some point in your placement.  Not in any particular order but you will have these moments we were told.

They were so right but what they failed to mention was that you can have them all within the same day, even the same morning or afternoon or on extreme days within one hour.  I never fail to be amazed at how quickly I can move between these states.

I am being reminded of this now as I start my new job  - the rollercoaster is beginning again.  I stupidly forgot that moving jobs is stressful and combined with moving house has been even more so.  This new job is so different from my VSO placement and is giving rise to challenges that I never experienced with that which has surprised me.

Oh well early days and I must stick at it.  On the plus side home in two weeks when I can try to gain some perspective and contemplate the future.  All helped by two nights at this wonderful hotel

Turtle Islands – the desert island adventure

On our second day we asked our captain to take us to another island called Nyangei to see friends Bex and Tom who are living there for two months.  This involved a slight detour with Adama, a wee girl who was pretty poorly and needed to go the local PHU (Primary Health Unit).  This caused additional fun and games as the tide was out and we were had to skirt around sand banks to avoid being stuck – at times we were more successful than others.

Adama finds a soft place to lay her head

Ishmael - our junior captain

Alhadji - our cook

Nyangei is stunning! We were met by many children shouting the usual greeting “Opoto” (term for white person).  There was a scramble to carry everything we had brought to Tom and Bex’s hut.  We were also met by Mr Caulker who appeared to be a big man on the island and it is very important to greet the important people when you visit.  We had hoped to meet the chief but as it was Friday and the island is predominantly Muslim he was praying.

Nyangei from the boat

Nyangei is one of the most populated islands.  It is hard to work out why as it is all sand with no fertile soil to grow any food.  The men catch fish which plays a major part of the diet but other food and good are bought from traders from the mainland.  That said the ladies do make the most amazing bread.  I know this as we had some for lunch as we sat in the shade of our umbrella while Mr Caulker read Vogue – some moments in life can never be predicted.

Mr Caulker enjoys Vogue

View of Nyangei

Paradise

After 5 weeks on Nyangei Tom and Bex were happy to come back to Bakie with us for some cold beers from the cool box.  We had another delicious meal prepared by Alhadji which followed the most amzing carpaccio of yellow fin tuna prepared by Harry.

Saturday was spent of Bakie where we had a walk around the village, read, ate and finally did some exercise with a swim across to the sand bar which separated us from the Atlantic. A scramble up and we were being buffeted by the waves – wonderful.

We said goodbye ot Bex and tom at 5pm when they were transported back to their island paradise.  We then had a very quiet evening ready for the early start to take us back to Freetown.

Must be said some of the best days I’ve spent in Sierra Leone so far!  I am blessed to be here.

Turtle Islands – some history, getting there and where we stayed

Two weeks off between jobs so the perfect time for a wee adventure to the Turtle Islands.  My fellow travellers on this journey were Thea, Nargis and Clare.  A big thank you straight away to Thea who did all the organising.

The Bradt guide describes the islands as “the stuff castaway movies are made of”.  They are an undeveloped archipelago in the Atlantic off the western shores of Sherbro Island (part of Bonthe District).  We took a trip organised by Dalton’s Banana Guesthouse.  We were picked up by our boat from Kent on the peninsula and it was then a 4.5 hour journey across the sea to Bakie seeing dolphins on our way. The boat had shade and with everything packed in we had the opportunity to lie back and have a wee sleep.

Clare relaxes as we head towards our destination

Our boat

One of the sandy islands in the distance  

Back in the day Bakie had a limited tourist infrastructure when a guesthouse was built that had flushing toilets, showers and electricity.  There were four rooms but they fell into disrepair.  Recently they have been refurbished so no electricity or running water but you can flush the toilet with sea water and water is provided for a bucket shower.  Perfect!

The guesthouse

We didn’t sleep in the rooms rather opting for the family tent Harry (from Dalton’s) had brought.  It was lovely as much airier and three of us fitted nicely onto one mattress while Nargis had a sleeping mat.  The cooking was done by Alhadji so we were very well looked after.  The food was delicious with freshly caught fish for dinner in the evenings with a variety of sauces. It was early to bed most evenings and we slept so well in the peace of the islands with no barking dogs to disturb our slumber.

Dinner

The islands don’t get too many visitors so there were often villagers sitting around the guesthouse watching us.  It was a little unnerving at first as they sat and stared but over the days we adjusted to it and at times forgot they were even there. The many children were very curious and adorable, though they were showing signs of malnutrition with swollen bellies and a ginger tinge to their hair and there were lots of runny noses.  Coastal communities often seem to be forgotten about as they are so remote but I hope these children will have access to the Free Health Care initiative which exists in Sierra Leone.

Those were the first impression more details of another island will follow…