In Which The Best Diet Tip Involves The Bumpiest Of Roads In The Hottest Of Climates
on Zoe Page (Sierra Leone), 29/Sep/2010 17:14, 34 days ago
After a reasonable night’s sleep all things considered (all things, in this case, being torrential rain, an unfamiliar room with scary shadows, and a multi-tonal wake up call of the neighbourhood Roosters and the ‘call to prayer’ chimes) I get up in the dark, re-pack and am picked up at 6.40am, only 10 minutes late.It’s a good start, but it doesn’t last: first we have hassle trying to get petrol as everywhere is out, then they decide to take the local road, not the highway, as it will be ‘quicker’ and therefore ‘better’. That is wrong on so many levels, and for the next 3 and a bit hours I jackhammer up and down in my seat (despite being hemmed in by a seatbelt, two stoves and numerous bags). It is the bumpiest road in the world, and we keep swerving from side to side to avoid puddles of indeterminable depth. Luckily, we don’t get stuck per se, just delayed by a van in front which is literally stuck in the mud. Along the way the path is pretty straight, and goes for ages with nothing but lush green fields on either side before coming out into random camps and villages, where Theresa and the driver stop for food and phone top ups. It’s a good thing I only had a banana before leavinghome, as anything else and I’d literally have lost my breakfast by this point. I don’t even dare drink water for fear of spewing all over. I try to distract myself by looking out of the window, and listening to the two in the front. There’s nothing like 3 hours of Passenger 1 yelling at Driverin Krio to improve Passenger 2’s grasp of the language...Eventually we arrive in Bo and go to the college only to find Mark and Margaret are missing. I am escorted to the big boss’ office as apparently I am ill with a headache and need to rest. Um, no, I am fine now we have stopped the bumpiness. I drink all my water now it’s safe to do so, but regret it when I see the state of the loos. After some time, we head into Bo for lunch and shopping. Theresa and the driver wantme to give them a list of things I need/want for the house I have yet to see but the cynic in me is reluctant to give them a free reign on my wallet seeing as how they’ve operated so far this trip. I feel bad, though, when we go for lunch and Theresa won’t let me pay. Though, having seen theirexpenses sheet for this trip (it was carelessly lying around a desk in the office on Monday) I don’t feel too bad. As we eat (rice for me, rice and stuff for them) Theresa buys underwear from a man who has wandered into the restaurant, though she tuts a lot, and makes him show her numerous briefsand boxers.We go to the supermarket to get me a pillow, which costs over£10 – I would object, but VSO are paying. Then Theresa decides I can go shopping with her, so we ditch the car and walk round some market stalls. It is just SO hard here – the slightest glimpse of you and the Opoto surcharge they add on can double, triple, quadruple the starting price. Yesterday Tash and Alex had bought plates etc, only to find cheaper ones in the supermarket later, and even then prices are rubbish - £1.50 for a glass you could get a 4-pack of for under a quid in Asda. With Theresa, though, it is better. She argues and frowns and tuts, and within about 10 minutes I am the proud owner of one plate/bowl, a knife, two spoons and two forks, a glass and, the piece de resistance, a red and green tie-dyed bucked with elephants on. I have spent 25000 Leones (£4) in total, and that includes rounding up a little for T.We get back on the road and drive to Kenema, passing a Police Checkpoint along the way. It’s a piece of string from one side of the road to the other, and as we approach they lower it without even bothering to exit their huts to have a good look at us. Kenema looks...well, like Bo or Makeni, though having memorised the pages in my guidebook, it seems a little more familiar. We get lostas the driver pretends he knows where he’s going (see...they should have just asked me for directions) but eventually pull up, not at my house, but at the Eastern Polytechnic, where I am rather unceremoniously dumped with Maria, the VSO here, before Theresa and the driver (whose name, I’ll admit, I should have learnt) scoot off.Maria is unbelievably welcoming. She too has been told I have a headache and has made up a bed/net in a dark room for me. When she realises that I’m actually fine, we sit and chat instead. It’s lovely to meet her after emailing for a couple of months, and I’m just sad she’s off back to Perth next week. Her house here is lovely and we sit with Felix, her cat, in the living room and natter about everything from where to buy cheese in town (it IS possible!) to where to go swimming, how much to pay for things and so on. With no sign of Theresa, I decide to unpack slightly, and have a shower (cold, but who cares?). The generator is on 10 – 12 and 4 – 6 each day, so we get two hours with the ceiling fans on, though knowing it willbe pretty dark by 7pm, and no hope of a light.We go out to Capitol (the Kenema equivalent of Paddy’s) for dinner, and I get my first taste of Ocada transport (motorbike taxis, not the local Waitrose delivery service). They are...interesting. Actually, they’re a lot of fun, and my driver decides he wants to be my ‘friend’, so I utter a non-committal chuckle through my full-head motorbikehelmet. At Capitol we see the aforementioned pool, which may not look like much but which is, I reckon, gonna become a favourite hang-out of mine. Then we go upstairs to dine, and their pizza is much nicer than the Paddy’s one, all thin and crispy and topped with masses of veg (therefore making this pizza the contributor of the remaining 3 of my 5 a day after my 2 bananas. And the Freetown lot reckon it’s hard to eat vegetables here). We hail some more bikes, head to Leader Price (the local Lebanese supermarket – the other in town is Indian run) where Maria introduces me to the lovely owner and his wife, and we buy chocolate before hopping back on the bikes which have waited for us. We get back in one piece, and 3 rides in I think I’m getting the hang of holding on at the back, and trying to keep at least a few millimetres between me and the driver, lest he get the wrong idea. It’s pitch black, so we eat Dairy Milk by candle light (there’s a first) before bed.Part 1 of Things The VSO Allowance Will BuyWe officially get£7 / 44,000 Leones per day. So far this equates to:• 44 bunches of bananas• 44 loaves of bread (or 88 rolls)• 22 bottles of Sprite in a cafe• 8 packets of Oreos• A couple of pizzas and drinks at Paddy’s, or one pizza and a drink up country (tsk)• 4 jars of Olives• 10 bars of Cadbury’s (Wispa, Twirl, Dairy Milk etc)• 49 shared taxi or minibus rides• 3 bottles of shampoo• Approximately 3/5 of a pillowMix and match, and you’ll soon have an idea of what my lifestyle will be like here