In Which It All Beggars Belief
on Zoe Page (Sierra Leone), 17/Oct/2010 18:35, 34 days ago
Last night I left one of my sheets soaking as I went to sleep, which means when I wake up at 2am freezing, I don’t have anything to pull over me. My only other choice is to turn off the fan (I know! Unheard of at normal times of day). I’m on one side of the mossie net. The fan is on the other. I can’t really be bothered to get out of bed (which would require a lot of untucking and a bit of limbo anyway)so instead I wiggle my hand under one corner and, in a feat made possible only by a lifetime’s gymnastics, stretch out to grapple with the off button. Then I fall back fast asleep until 6.30am which is a first for this country.Hand washing sheets is fun...not. Especially when you’re doing them in a bucket. My only saving grace is that I don’t also have a quilt cover to struggle with. We were given two similar but clashing sheets each, so I’ve been using one on the mattress, and one loose, to pull over in the middle of the night. Since I can’t guarantee they’ll dryin time, I can only wash one at once, lest I be forced to sleep on my uncovered, garish ‘Good Luck’ mattress. Seriously, you don’t need lucky pulling pants when you have one of these. So I get up and rinse the one sheet, and then discover it trails on the floor when I stick it on the hastilyassembled washing line. I could fold it over, but then it wouldn’t dry as fast, and the longer I leave it out the more at risk I am of a tumbu fly infestation. So instead, I increase the exposed surface area by pinning it to the window handle, the balcony grille, anything that will keep it up offthe ground and as spread out as possible. Luckily my drying balcony is at the back, so I don’t have to deal with what the neighbours would think. Because y’know, they wouldn’t hesitate to tell me.There’s another upside to said balcony. It gets the sun first, so I can sit out there from about 7am, should I want to. Today by 8am it’s roasting, and I’m out in a flash, looking everso the part of the conscientious NGO worker, with my sunglasses on and a copy of ‘Dead Aid’ in my hand. At theback, no annoying children walk by demanding I give them things. They’re not begging, just downright demanding.Give me 1000.No.Yes, gimme.NoWhy?When questioning a negative answer, you should be using the negative too, i.e.Why not?But the answer is still no. Now skedaddle.Give me a biscuitI don’t have any.(Clearly a lie, as regular followers will know)Give me anything you have. I am very hungry.No, now go away. And anyway, you have far too much energy for someone who is truly starving. Plus your decent English smacks of someone who is lucky enough to be going to school, implying a certain kind of parents, who invariably will have enough cash to feed you. And you can buy a whole loaf of bread for a mere 500, so stop being so greedy. Biscuits aren’t even good for you.They do have beggars here, but they are mainly older, blind men (never women) being guided around by young children. At least they pretend to be blind, but they manage to spot my Pumwi skintone a mile off. The security guard at Choitram's always asks me for money too. He has a job. It may not pay much, but he’s there every day, in his uniform, and it’s not like he even offers a service. I have to open the door myself, and my bags are packed by the cashier, not him. It bothers me more here than it would at home. In Manchester, there are equal opportunity annoyers. They pick on anyone. Here is seems they pick and choose who to pounce on. Most passers by get to pass by unnoticed, or at least unmolested. They lie in wait for me, instead, but it doesn’t pay off. I ‘earn’ less in a day here than I did in 20 minutes back home, and until Fidel reduces the price of Dairy Milk they’re not getting a penny.Also in the news today, I discover I am far from the only volunteer from my cohort not yet in post. Vasilie who is supposed to be based vaguely near here, and Lenny, who is supposed to be in actual Kenema proper, are both still in Freetown and being messed around by their organisation. They’re in the Secure Livelihoods stream. As for the Health lot, Shona’s blog tells me she is yet to receive her medical registration, so can’t do any doctoring yet, but has been moonlighting as a lecturer in the meantime. Conversely an email from Cheryl informs me she is working flat out, and hasbeen in the office yesterday and today. Cheryl does the same as me but in Makeni. Clearly she was the much longed for child, while I was the drunken accident never really wanted or planned in the first place.The rest of the day is spent getting into a tizzy at the successful downloading of 3 episodes of HIMYM (this is what my life has become) and debating with Fidel the relative merits of mixing things up with Galaxy or Milka and not sticking just to Dairy Milk. It’s delivery day at Leader Price and the shelves are stocked up with all sorts of weird and wonderful things, though none of it new chocolate and most of it unsuitable for my kitchen, requiring such extravagant things as fridges, ovens or microwaves. There is a disproportionate amount of Jello, Cool Whip and cake mixes. I wonder who the people are who buy these. I’ve seen a couple of Germans and some Lebanese floating around, but no Americans or Brits, and most of the time when I’m in the shop I’m the only customer.