12/8/12 – a day to remember

“Inspire a Generation” is the tag line for the London 2012 and I must say after my day at the Olympic Park I was inspired.  But of course the sight of 52 men in tiny speedo trunks can inspire most young (or middle aged) ladies.

Italian stretching pre match

In the last post I mentioned I was off to see Handball so where did speedos make their entrance?  Well, I arrived at the Olympic Park on Sunday morning to find a great number of people seeking the ticket in my possession.  With no affiliation to a team or any knowledge of Handball it was an easy decision to swap my ticket for one to the afternoon’s Men’s Water Polo medal matches.  Luckily this allowed me lots of time to wander the park taking pictures of the venues

Stadium



Basketball Arena



Roof of Velodrome

before  plonking myself in front of a big screen in the midday sun to watch the Marathon and eat an ice cream. 



Park Live!



The appointed time arrived and off I went to the Water Polo Arena – perhaps the world’s only sports venue made from recycled PVC cushions with its distinctive sloping roof. First up was the bronze medal match between Serbia and Montenegro with interesting rivalry displayed given the political history of these two nations who were once part of Yugoslavia.  This was my first ever water polo match and what a corker it was.  The lead swapped throughout the match with Serbia scoring 4 goals in the last quarter to win 12-11 despite both the coach and assistant coach being red carded.

The Gold and Silver medal match between Italy and Croatia had less goals but the action was no less tense as I watched in horror at times as players disappeared under the water – all part of this fast moving and energetic sport which has a new fan.  The winners were Croatia who celebrated in fine style.  Here are some images to enjoy.



Water Polo Arena





Croatians celebrate their Gold Medal

No reason for this just great memory

So a great final day of the London 2012 Olympics which have been heralded a great success by all.  And for my part I must admit I was fair chuffed to have been a miniscule part of the whole event. 

Indeed, a day to be remembered.  

London 2012

Day 14 of the Olympics and day 9 of my trip home.  Wow it has been amazing to be in London in August 2012.  The city has gone Olympic mad and all the people with it!  I have lost count of the number of times I have heard “I’m not that into sports but I’m off to see basketball, Judo, Badminton etc…

Myself?  Well I’m off to the Handball Men’s Bronze medal match on Sunday morning.  It is an opportunity to good to miss when a friend offered me her ticket so I could experience the buzz of the Olympic Park. Here is the proof. 

 I am staying in Wapping so the other morning walked up the river to Lambeth Bridge.  The South Bank is alive with people from so many countries sporting their team colours (Adidas has done very well with their Team GB merchandise as it is everywhere).  This walk also let me finally see the glorious site of Tower Bridge with the Olympic rings displayed so proudly.  Here are a couple of the many photos I took on my walk.

So how is it being back?  Strange.  It was very disconcerting to arrive at Heathrow without a set of house keys and a base.  Luckily though I have bagged my friends flat for the duration and with views like these it’s not all bad.

Looking West

Looking East in the day

and at night

So far I have been to the theatre twice:

Timon of Athens – an awful play which appears to have been staged as a vehicle for Simon Russell Beale  as no-one else really had anything else to do though Hilton McRae did stand out.

The Last of the Hausmanns – what can I say? with Rory Kinnear, Helen McCrory, Julie Walters and Matthew Marsh in the cast it was always going to be a joy.  The writing is not the best by the performances and direction were wonderful.  Rory Kinnear has been one of my favourite actors since I first saw him at the RSC in 2004 and he did not disappoint.  His dad would have been proud.

So what next?  Taming of the Shrew at the Globe and Philadelphia Here I Come at the Donmar but I’m sure something else may sneak in!

Next report will be from Scotland – white pudding supper for me please!

Four months in and some further insights

I’ve decided to mark each second month with a list of new experiences and insights that I’ve made as my time progresses.

1.       You realise when you feel you have learnt lots that there is so much more you don’t know – the Johari Window effect that Donald Rumsfeld described very confusingly once.

2.       Drains only act as way to create rivers and huge lakes that cars speed through so if you happen to be in the wrong place and the wrong time you are soaked from head to toe – I was one day – UGH!!!

3.       My street may have washed away by the time I return at the end of August.

4.       Aubergine and cabbage are more versatile than you would think but enough already!

5.       While walking around Freetown (which I do often) bumping into, being beeped at by, waved at by, shouted after by or chased down the street by, someone you know is a lovely feeling.

6.       You never know what the girls in the office will have done to their hair over the weekend as of course you can have a completely new hairstyle every week.

7.       Religious tolerance abounds here – God Bless Islam as the slogan on the poda poda says

This morning on Main Motor Road

8.       My new found skill of opening plastic water packets with my teeth and sitting them on the work surface without them falling over

9.       If you go to Makeni you have to buy pots – lots of pots and strange creatures

My collection, so far ....

10.   Krio takes patience and practice – I need more practice – small small

Finally, I don’t have a pair of ruby slippers – I’m depending on the BMI flight to take me home tonight

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.

Planning......

Not sure what happened but this appears to have been unposted - I'll try again.

All of you know that I love a good plan and that I am never happier than when making schedules and lists.  You can, therefore, imagine that with two weeks to go to my trip home I am like a pig in the proverbial.  I have a word document which has a number of pages: 1. for my whereabouts morning, afternoon, evening and sleeping, 2. my packing list for going to UK , 3. my shopping list for coming back to Salone (it is growing as items pop up all the time – just added risotto rice).  At the moment I am contemplating a new list of places/ restaurants I want to go to and food I must have – broccoli is very high up that list!

However, in my four months here there has been a slight change in my thinking as my new planning horizon is much shorter – you may say non-existent.  Here I will often be sitting on a Wednesday morning with no plans for the weekend but by the end of the day be left with many choices.  This week was an example when no sooner had I arranged a trip to Bo for this weekend than I had an invitation to dinner on Saturday night and then an invitation to spend Saturday night at the beach.  Wow!

This also happens on a far more micro level as on Monday at 5pm I was walking home thinking of the quiet (much needed) night in ahead.  “Beep Beep” – text from Carole suggesting a walk at 6ish and then “Beep Beep” a text from Cathrin inviting me to the inaugural Craft Club meeting with dinner thrown in at 7.30pm.  Of course I managed to do both.  This would never have happened in London as my days were managed and planned to within an inch of their life! 

Despite railing against this in the beginning  I now feel oddly calm about life and less worried that I have nothing planned and may have empty days to fill.  Now I am totally unconcerned if no firm plans are in place hours before doing something  as I know it will all come out right in the end – it is what it is and what it is meant to be.

Who’d have thought it Lynne with an empty diary and happy about it!

An afterthought – that all said I’m planning to book tickets for the Michael Grandage Company show Peter and Alice (Dame Judi and Ben Wishaw) for next May.  Google it – it sounds awesome!

Same but Different (part four)

Shopping cont’d

Shoes and Clothes

In Freetown the place to shop for anything you might need is known as PZ.  At first I thought this was a big market place or hall but rather it is the collective term for a warren of streets at the bottom of the main street – Saika Stevens Street.   The first time I started wandering through them , hand firmly on handbag as this is a pickpocket hot spot, I was totally disorientated and not sure where I’d come out.

 If you go straight to the very bottom of Siaka Stevens Street and turn right you enter Malama Thomas Street – otherwise known as print alley.  This small street is lined with fabric shops and in front of those fabric stalls.  The colours are vibrant and the choice overwhelming.  If you want fun fabrics the stalls are the place to go but if you are after better quality longer lasting cloth the shops are the key.  

I have discovered a new shop this week and had to seriously curb my buying as there were so many beautiful fabrics.  The fabric is sold by the yard with prices ranging from Le 5,000 to Le 15,000.  So no picking up a new frock here rather you go about it two ways – have a style in mind and find a fabric or find a fabric and then work out what to make with it.  Not sure which is the best way yet as I’m trying them both

You can buy dresses here but for that you have to go to the junks.  Junks?  – no I’m not describing what there is to buy but rather the local name for the second hand market.  The clothes arrive in big bails from charities all over the world but there seems to be a preponderance of US and UK labels. 

Here’s a link so you can read more about it:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/may/07/europes-secondhand-clothes-africa

The traders all have large plastic bags full of clothes often with a theme: flowery dresses, children, white shirts, t-shirts, skirts.  These bags are laid out in the road so that you have to wander through this “bend over boutique” rummaging through bags to see if you can find that perfect item.  With no fitting rooms available and uncertainty on the sizing convention – is that a UK 12 or a US 12? - you pull things on over  clothes or hope for the best by holding up against you.  I had great success with the white blouse boy and found a lovely white shirt for Le9,000 (£1.50).

When I packed my bags to come here the one item I was sure I would not need was a pair of heels – wrong , oh so wrong.  But no problem junks also covers shoes.  Again these are laid out on tarpaulin ready for a hasty retreat if someone wants to park on the piece of road they are occupying.  I set off there one Saturday morning and, after so nifty bargaining with the help of Audrey, am now the proud owner of a pair of Per Una wedges from a few seasons back and a wee bit worn.  None of that mattered when I put them on and felt more feminine than I had in a while – if you check last week’s photos you’ll see them.

So shopping is very different and lots of fun but I am yearning for a good trawl through the summer sales when I come back in less than 3 weeks!

It’s Friday so time for Africana

 Today is Friday.  Last day of the week?  Yes.  A day to dream of when Monday comes?  Yes.  A day to watch Andy Murray in another Wimbledon semi? Yes. Casual Day – well kind of...

Here in Sierra Leone Friday is the day when the majority of people wear African Dress.  This means the office is a very colourful place as African fabrics could never be described as dull.  There are amazing takes on style as well with the use of contrasting fabrics, piping, pleating, frills and flounces.  In the main long but short seems to making some headway too.

During his presidency in Ghana, John Kufuor introduced national "Friday wear day" to encourage citizens to wear traditional clothes made using the jewel-coloured wax fabrics associated with African garments.  This was as a backlash against the second had clothes market that I’m going to discuss in my next post.  President Koroma introduced it here in Sierra Leone as a way for the country to show pride in its culture.

Never one to resist the chance to dress in a girly fashion I have had a couple to traditional outfits made.  These are two pieces with long skirt and top.   This first one uses a cotton that seems pretty traditional to me as is the style.  Not so sure about the whet geyl wearing it.

The next outfit was quite a hit at work as I posed with some colleagues who show men and women embrace the African Dress Day.

with Newman

with Aunty Bish

And just in case you were wondering this is where I spend my time Monday to Friday.

I have also used African fabric to copy a dress I bought in Debenhams as a last minute item.  It’s come out pretty well I think.

So shopping next time...