In Which Home Sweet Home Is A Friggin’ Big House
on Zoe Page (Sierra Leone), 01/Oct/2010 03:00, 34 days ago
Though we don’t know why, Theresa has told Maria I am to be ready by 8.30am, but I am awake way before, and at 7am crawl out from under my net, tie back the curtains and wander in to see Maria. We have a leisurely breakfast of bread and water and then Theresa flies up on an Ocada, without a helmet (I, on the other hand, have signed an agreement to say I will never travel without mine). We head off to the hospital which is just up the road (we walk, we actually walk) but lots of people we need to see aren’t there because they were on call until 1am...apparently. But, I meet a few people and see the masses of mums and babies here for the clinic – clearly free healthcare is being well utilised. I love the way they carry the babies here, strapped to their backs with one leg on either side. No clicky hips for this lot.We come back to Maria’s and then when the driver shows up (having been sent off early by Theresa for showing up with a filthy car) we drive to my new house which is just behind Capitol (whoop!) and the supermarket (double whoop!) It is massive – one of the largest on the road, and seemingly bigger than the one directly across which, it transpires, is where the big boss at the hospital lives. There are 4 bedrooms (2 en suite), another bathroom, a living/dining room and kitchen upstairs, and 3 more bedrooms and a bathroom downstairs. There are metal barred balconies on two sides, and there’s a flat area at theback where I see myself sunbathing. The whole house has water and electricity. It’s nice, but absolutely empty – the furniture, it seems, is still being made. They show me the kitchen, but since it’s just a room with a sink, I’m not sure how they know that’s what it is, especially as there’s a sink in the dining room too...Theresa goes off to buy curtains, leaving me with the guys on site who are painting. One of them just stands and watches me read, then starts talking. He won’t get the hint, so in the end I give up and get him to teach me Krio and Mende, but either my teaching skills have really gone AWOL, or he’s a thicko, because it’s hard work getting him to understand what I want him to do. Mende, in particular, sounds very fast, and phrases tend to be long, so I ask him to say it slowly, but he just tries to teach me the word for ‘slow’. This happens repeatedly until I give up and wander off, with him following behind like a puppy dog.Theresa comes back though the carpenter is nowhere to be seen. She shows us the curtains, leaves him with instructions about wire mesh on the windows (to keep the mossies out) and then we go back to the hospital for another meet and greet. I am dropped off at Maria’s, and she and Theresa go to a meeting, so I play with her internet dongle and read, though it’s not easy without much light (it’s gloomy, but not generator time yet). After we reconvene, Theresa goes to visit some long lost relation in the hospital, and Maria and I go to Choitram’s, the local Indian run supermarket. It’s a bit of a random shop on my part – soap, Tupperware, chickpeas, humus, loo paper. They have freezers and fridges, so I get an ice cold Diet Coke for the walk home – somehow I think this is the only time I’ll be having it here. We are supposed to be picked upby the driver, but he is ‘helping’ the carpenters, so we walk back to Maria’s, she goes off to church, and I eat a fine supper of olives and chocolate biscuits (not together), washed down with juice.Theresa shows up to tell us I won’t be moving my stuff tonight, but will be picked up, instead, at 6.30am in the morning, then after she bitches and moans a little about the whole mess (this house should have been sorted weeks ago) and the incompetency of everyone from the VSO staff to the driver to the landlord to the carpenters, she finally leaves for the night, taking her phone with her. She has the craziest ring tone I’ve ever heard: it’s basically some pastor or other in a church screaming out, “In the name of Jesus...” at the top of his voice.