-Charles Dudley Wamer-
Ugh. I didn’t
sleep too well last night mainly due to my fresh mozzies bites giving me grief,
which I think I got while we were at our last bush camp. They really are itchy and I have tried my own
saliva (which I don’t have enough for all of them) and last night I tried
Ducky’s trick using the soap and not even that helped as I tried not to
scratch, then I just use my foot and then I just have to use my nails and
scratch the hell out of those bites.
Even though I had the mozzie net around the bed, I thought I could feel
mozzies landing on me, I would switch on my head torch that I keep with me,
couldn’t see anything buzzing and then I would attempt to go back to
sleep. I think I may be getting a small
paranoia of the little, no good, what are they here for, insects. I even had bites on the side of my feet and
one on my pinky toe, really! My pinky
toe.
After a cooked breakfast of eggs and a roll we were on
the road at 8.30am for the customary stop in the town for fresh bread and
tomatoes if we could find them and any other lunch items that maybe floating
around. Ian went with Sam this morning
and as usual we stuck out like a sore thumb in this sleepy little town of
Kabala. There were no large buildings,
the roads were a little wonky and it just had a relaxed pace about it all. BUT we did draw quite a large crowd of men,
there would have been over 30 of them all on one side of the truck and they
were being a little fecious with us and they didn’t have an air of super
friendliness about them, but you are going to get towns like that and it was
not going to ruin the great first impression I had of the country so far.
As we drove out of the town of Kabala you could see all
the aid agency signs that were dotted along the road. There are a lot of people here helping to get
the country back on its feet and Ellie raised a good question, do they like the
help? I had to hope that the people of
Sierra Leone would appreciate any form of help, albeit foreign aid, if it was
going to improve their quality of life and build a future for their children
and for future generations. Wouldn’t
they? I have always been a firm believer
that whatever help/aid is given to any country that it must be sustainable,
especially long after the charity moves on-however long they stay to aid a
project. That was the good thing about
Taylor’s NGO company. They buy the
cattle for the farmers and when those cattle have babies, then the goodwill is
paid forward and the babies have to be given to a family member or a friend
(which is done in a small ceremony) and then the cycle continues and I think
that is a MARVELLOUS idea. I’m still
learning the ropes about NGO’s, aid work and charities but I hope to eventually
get involved in one in Nairobi, or help get further into The Nest and try and
do some good work there, which I LOVE and plan to stay on as long as they will
have me, or my bank account dries up and I have to get an actual paying
job. But that is all for another day,
right now I am LOVING my life, my purpose, the trip and looking forward to the
next 3 months of continent hopping and spending some overdue time back in
Australia next month.
I also noticed during the morning drive that a lot of the
villagers were asking for food rather than for money, which was what was asked
for yesterday. Rich thinks that is an
indication when they ask for money that it is aid work gone wrong as they
associate money with white people (what else is new) but when they are asking
for food, they literally want food to feed their families. It is a shame when we are just sharing some
love with waves and smiles and they reply back with a hand to mouth action,
what can we reply back to with that? Lunch
was fast approaching as was the town of Makeni, and there were thoughts
floating back and forth on what our plan of attack was going to be for the
night’s accommodation and also for lunch.
Rich had just showed me the ‘where to eat’ section in the Bradt guide
and there was an expat run restaurant that served ‘western’ food and some of
the proceeds goes to a local charity called Street Child-what a great idea and that
was floated around the truck and we decided that we would have a truck lunch to
use the food that had been bought so it wouldn’t go to waste and then we would
eat at the expat restaurant for dinner and we would stay the night in Makeni,
assuming we could find some accommodation.
After reading about the town, it sounds like a breath of fresh air, being
a larger city rather than the bush camps and small villages that we have been
seeing and staying in the last few weeks.
I am hoping there maybe, just maybe, a small microscopic chance that we
will get some Wi-Fi as well after 11 days of no connection. But we are not going to get our hopes built
up, but we are hopeful.
Makeni is
the fourth largest city in Sierra Leone (after Freetown, Bo and Kenema) and the
largest city and economic center of the Northern Province. The city lies approximately 137 kilometers
east of Freetown.
Makeni is a major commercial, educational, tranportational and economic center.
The city had a population of 80,840 in the 2004 census and a current estimate
of 112,489. The city is home to the University of Makeni, the largest private university in Sierra Leone and is home to the St. Francis Secondary School,
one of the most prominent secondary schools in Sierra Leone and is widely known
for producing some of Sierra Leone's most gifted students. The population of Makeni is ethnically
diverse, though the Temne people make up the majority of the
population. The Krio language is used as the primary language of
communication among the different ethnic groups in the city, though the Temne
language is also
widely understood in the city. Makeni is
the hometown of Sierra Leone's president Ernest Bai
Koroma, as he was born and raised in the city.
We arrived into the town of Makeni at 1.30pm and driving
in you could see the progress of the town and the boom that the iron ore mining
had given this once sleepy town. It was
the first time in 6 weeks that I have seen more than a handful of white people
in one spot, and okay they probably weren’t tourists, but hey, we will take
white people when we can get them. As
Sam and Zoe had to find some accommodation, we all decided it would be cool to
have a quick look around town and for me, I had read that it is famous for its
printed material, the same stuff I am currently addicted to, so we were dropped
in town and given 45 minutes for a looksee and we would met back at the
truck. The good thing with a small group
and us all getting along is that we are happy to stick together once off the
truck and so we all walked to the market that was busy, on the search for the
‘gara’ material and we took a right down one of the streets and it turned out
to be the wrong thing to do as we got swept up in the crazy market section of
the food, and there were people everywhere, stalls down each side of the road,
sellers then in the middle of the road with baskets and stools and then the
congestion of the other sellers with their goods on their heads. At some points it was a real squeeze to get
through and of course all of the baskets were thrust in our faces asking if we
wanted to buy chili’s or dried fish or other stuff which I didn’t even know
what it was. We made it through
unscathed and decided to just go around the block, so we didn’t have to walk
back through that chaos and we got back to the Makeni Clock Tower and decided
to skip the market and take a walk around one of the busy streets. This is where I found a material lady and
after seeing something I liked and we haggled from 75,000 leonies to 50,000 I
paid for it and now have a cloth from Sierra Leone. I managed to find another little table of
cloth on the opposite side of the street, and after Rich and Ellie shouting us
a cold drink, the material lady knocking it over and not saying sorry (after
the sale) I walked away with another piece of cloth for 40,000 which I was
definitely happy with even if I did lose 95% of the cool drink.
We made our way back to the truck and it had just pulled
back into the street when we arrived, talk about perfect timing and when we
climbed aboard, Sam and Zoe had found some accommodation. It was basic like last night, but it was
cheap, not far from town and it had running water!!! WHAT-running water? AWESOME.
We haven’t had running water since we left Korhogo 11 days ago, I will
be able to wash my hair tonight! You
little ripper. So we drove the 10
minutes to this little accommodation off one of the main roads that they found
in the Bradt guide and our hopes were boosted when we pulled up and the sign
painted on their brick wall claimed internet café and conference facilities,
even though it looked rather lucky to have both, but there is one thing I have
learnt in my travels and its not to judge a book by its cover. We walked into the small courtyard that had 3
rooms that came off that and we were allocated them and Sam and Zoe had a room
inside. When we asked about their
internet café, they said that it wasn’t working and Sam asked if there were any
of us wanting internet that he could take the truck to the internet café that
was a little way out of town. HELL YES
PLEASE. So we agreed to meet at 4pm to
get some ‘online’ time and while I was busy loading some blogs onto a USB
stick, Sam was talking to some people outside and they mentioned that they had
scouted all over the town and the whole town was down re: internet and to not
bother wasting our time on the drive.
BUGGER. It is the second time
that a whole town has been down when we tried to get onto the internet, the
other being in Benin. BUGGER. It would have been a nice surprise, as I had
in my mind that we wouldn’t get internet until Freetown in another week, but I
was hoping there would be a town that would surprise us and Makeni was that
town, it just happened it wasn’t working the day we were there. BUGGER.
So the remainder of the afternoon was spent with me on my
computer and the gang playing travel Scrabble.
Personally I have never played Scrabble, out of no-one to play with than
any other reason, but I did enjoy listening to the guys debating on whether the
words out down were legit and with Rich in his Kindle that had the Oxford
Dictionary, he was the last say guy on if a word was allowed or not. For the record Zoe won by 3 points!!! At 7pm, we headed to a restaurant that had
been recommended by a western traveler that was working in Makeni called
Global. It was just down the road from
us, so we set out on foot armed with torches and 10 minutes later we arrived
and there was already a western table there, and when you see other foreigners
around you know that you are at a good spot.
It was a little cramped under the awning that they had, so some tables
were set up outside (which was a lot cooler) and with Celine Dion blaring from
nightclub sized speaker, it was so loud that we could hardly hear ourselves
speak. So much so that the waitress came
out and after we had perused the menus we were asked to write our orders down,
which was no surprise as she wouldn’t have been able to hear what we said
otherwise.
For African timing, the meals didn’t take too long, and
my chicken stir-fry was AMAZING and it was refreshing to have chicken cooked
another way, and I selected chicken (again) as there was no beef left and the
other option was of course……fish. We
were about ¼ of the way through our meal when we noted that there was some
lightening flashing around the sky, which we made a comment on and we joked
that if the wind picked up, we would have to move fast, as this seems to be the
warning that the heavens are about to open.
Well we must have jinxed ourselves and the wind did indeed pick up and
Zoe interrupted Sam, as he was going over tomorrows plans, and then 2 minutes
later as we gathered our plates and then the rain came down in torrents. Talk about getting out in the nick of
time. Some of the group took cover under
the awning of the next door shop and the rest of us stood under the restaurant
awning waiting for the rain to stop.
Well it just kept on raining and after the staff brining in our tables
and chairs we were all distributed to other tables so we could finish eating
our meal. Even with the interruption, it
was a good meal and when the rain stopped enough for us to pay the bill and
walk back home, we made it before it started raining again, that turned pretty
much into an all-night storm.
At dinner, we also had to decide which way our tour would
be taking us tomorrow. So after another
discussion, the votes were collected and it was decided 3-2 that we would head
west tomorrow, and spend some time on the beaches of Sierra Leone rather than
take a risk with weather, road conditions and the risk of not seeing anything
if we travelled to the east. I would
also go as far as saying safety as a consideration as well, as we would be a stone’s
throw from the Liberian border, which we have been before but this area was
close to a border crossing and I would also think that maybe the people in the
east may not be as welcoming as the west, but that is just a pure guess and not
based on anything really. So we now have
a game plan for the remaining 6 nights of this section and I think that the
non-west voters will enjoy this part, even if they didn’t get what they were
hoping for.
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