Road trip to Outamba Kilimi National Park....getting there

A couple of weekends ago I joined 4 others for a trip to the North of Sierra Leone to visit Outamba Kilimi National Park with the expectation of seeing hippos.

The park is located nearly 300km north of Freetown.  The first section of the journey is to Makeni which should take 3 - 4 hours on good roads.  However,we left on a Friday afternoon and had a small breakdown on the way so actually it took 5.5 hours.  We had booked into a local convent and Sister Perpetua was glad to see us arrive safely. There's a lovely statue in the grounds.

On Saturday morning we set of on the 86km to Kamakwei on a terrible road - another 5 hours.

 The final push is to the park itself  involves crossing the Mongo River on the grandly names Kabba Ferry - actually more of a raft.  This should take an hour but not if you turn up the one day they are delivering food aid.  So we stood for and hour, being bitten by river flies, watching rice and palm oil being unloaded from lorry to ferry taken across and unloaded to pick ups on the other side!

So eventually we reached the park. Unfortunately though they were not expecting us and had to break the bad news that their canoes were out of action.  They were awaiting glue to fix them and it was in its way!  Undeterred we settled into our huts (basic but bed, pillows and mossie net provided)  to see what the morning would bring.

How many houses...

can one person stay in in 21 months?  Well I'm going for six - yes, I have moved again.  This has been a recurring motif in this blog so here are pictures of my latest new residence.  It is still around Congo Cross - the area of Freetown I have enjoyed living in most- but does not have the joys of an ocean view.  However, there is a generator and internet which is a step up from my last abode, lovely as it was.

Another big bed

Romantic view through mossie net

I'm ready to entertain with this table

No balcony but a lovely terrace with a bouncing chair

The power is in your hands

October 15th was Global Handwashing Day.  This is a fact that may have passed you by in the developed world but here in Sierra Leone this was a big day.  To learn more about it click here.

I have a number of friends who work in WASH.  This is the acronym for  Water, Sanitation and Hygiene. From these friends I have learnt more about toilets and santation systems than I could ever wish.  To find out more about their work here in West Africa look at this link.

Diarrhea, the second most common cause of death in the under fives globally,  kills 1.8 million children per year.  This could be dramatically reduced by handwashing.  Something we take for granted but this is not the case in many countries where poverty is rife. In Sierra Leone half of the deaths of children under five could be prevented by good handwashing.

The WASH Consortium in Sierra Leone came up with a novel way to publicise Handwashing - a Flash Mob Dance around a song telling the benefits of handwashing.  I was out of town and missed it but here is the video that has been produced which shows the joy and exuberance of all who took part.  I've not been able to load video but here's the link:

Sierra Leone's First FLASHMOB

Here are a couple of pics to show the mood!

Congratulations to all who took part in such an amazing event.

Financial Process Review anyone?

In April I embarked on a new journey as a self-employed financial consultant.  I have found this challenging as pushing myself forward for new business is not one of my strengths.  That said I have managed to secure three contracts in that time and have enjoyed the work immensely - I love reviewing processes and developing more efficient systems to record accounting data.

Here is the brochure I have created to sell myself to new clients.  What do you think?  It is meant to be a tri-fold but bear with it! Sorry it's so small but if you click on imagees you can open them in a window where you can read the words!

In my current contract I am working at the client's offices where I have encountered a new work colleague.  Meet Seydu

Working on spreadsheets is fun with a cat on your lap!

Thinking Pink

As many of you may, or may not, know October 2013 is the International Breast Cancer Awareness Month.  All over the world events are taking place to highlight the prevalence of breast cancer in society and raise funds to further the work of the many breast cancer charities around the world.

In Sierra Leone work is going on to advocate for the rights of breast cancer victims to access quality healthcare services.  Currently treatment for breast cancer is virtually non-existent.  The result of this is that women have to leave the country for treatment.

The leading organisation in this area is the Thinking Pink Breast Cancer Foundation.  This organisation is determined to appeal, through education and advocacy, about the need of women to be breast cancer aware.  Go here to find out more about their work in Sierra Leone.

Why mention this?  Well on 5 October the Thinking Pink Breast Cancer Foundation, Bernie Forster Prostate Cancer Foundation and the Freetown Hash House Harriers came together to organise the Freetown Mini Marathon 2013.  This was a 13.5km run from downtown Freetown to the beach in Aberdeen.  So at 8.30 that morning runners gathered at the Cotton Tree to set out on the challenge.

There was a great feeling of camaraderie at the start as we wondered how it would all go.  It was amazing!  The organisation was top notch with traffic stopped (not all the time so there was some dodging of taxis) and water was provided at 3 points on the course.  It took Heather (my half marathon partner) and I around 90 minutes which we were very happy with.  Here we are with some fellow finishers.

Me, Kat, Michelle and Heather

Walking is never dull...

when there is so much artwork on the walls you pass to admire.

In the last two weeks I've enjoyed settling back into Freetown life.  The weather is lovely at this time of year - the rains at night cool things down and the temperatures aren't so intense that you can't walk around easily.

So when walking anywhere there is lots of advertising to appreciate.

I watched this one being painted 

 And the walls of schools aren't immune from some decoration

Noticing

Back in April I returned to Sierra Leone with a very vague plan of what next.  I know that despite leaving my job with Concern I did not want to leave Sierra Leone.  I had a strong feeling that there was more for me to do here, so without any job I came back to the unknown.

I was supported through this phase by my Life Coach, Charly (click here to learn lots more about her), who during our sessions helped me realise what my core values were and to seek a future role that met those.  As I embarked on my consultancy business she was with me every step of the way, bolstering my confidence and reminding me not to under sell myself when it came to rate negotiations.
 
One aspect of the coaching I found really helpful was the focus on noticing.  By this I mean noticing how you feel in certain situations so that you live in that moment.  For me it meant taking time to notice how my body reacted when I was contemplating some part of my future plan.  Your body can tell you so much but we often forget to listen.  In truth, this is something I was very in tune with during my naturopathic training but in the fraught moments in Freetown I simply forgot.

So thank you Charly for helping me to reconnect with noticing.

Why this post today?  Well I noticed that I feel ridiculously happy this morning.  Where does this come from?  Completing a challenging hilly run through streets of Freetown at 7am, settling down to work on my new project which involves spreadsheets and learning about something new.  In addition I have my i-Tunes on  shuffle and am happily singing along with songs I had forgotten I even owned.

Oh and I'm also contemplating a Christmas trip to New York to see this.  An amazing cast!

Daniel Craig, Rachel Weisz, Rafe Spall