In Which We're Going On A Scare Hunt...
on Zoe Page (Sierra Leone), 07/Nov/2010 20:12, 34 days ago
We’re off on a hike. After breakfast we pull on walking shoes, load up on Deet, and set out. Just behind our house there are some paths that look like they lead to the hills, so we decide to explore. Two and a half hours later, we’re back. Some highlights:• Finding random mixes of flora and fauna and animals that really give new meaning to the words wildflowers and wildlife. Wondering if, in Krio or Mende, there is also a word for wildchildren.• Heading along a very overgrown path happily chatting, hearing drumming and stopping dead. Then briskly walking in the other way lest we stumble across a gathering of a secret society. Not scared, per se, I'd just rather not have my lady bits attacked with a machete.• Walking through various people’s land, smiling, saying hello and, hilariously (to us at least) sending a tiny Pickin into fits of tears with our frightening Pumwi faces. His mother / sisters / aunts just looked on and grinned. I guess here different is scary. At least this one hasn't been trained (yet) to approach Pumwis and beg for money like so many seem to have been.• Playing the fun new game of ‘Dead or Alive?’ with the dogs here. Yesterday there was a definitely dead one in the middle of the road, but some by the sides lie so still too, and look so unkempt, it’s hard to tell.• Stumbling along, meeting Junior, letting him direct us to a new path and, a few minutes later, coming across a stream. Streams aren’t just for looking at here. They’re for washing your clothes in or, today, yourself too. There is a butt ass naked man lathering up as his (male) friends do laundry around him. As we approach he stands stock still, deer in the headlights, perhaps hoping we won’t notice him, or that if he closes his eyes he can’t see us so we can’t see him. We duck our heads and clamber over the rocks to the other side, trying not to howl with laughter.• Ending up a bit down Hangha Road, doing a lap and then heading back on a Big Banana Hunt. They are supremely hard to track down today. No one has them balanced on their head, though there are eggs and bread and onions aplenty. Eventually finding some: 9 for 14p. Bargain.• Stopping at the ice cream place, having to make do with a vanilla/chocolate blend since that’s all they have, and being surprised that the soft serve has already been dispensed and frozen in cups, ready to take away.• Going into Leader Price and seeing the Hash House Harriers arrive for their run (at 10.15am when it’s warm and we’re glad to be heading home). Marvelling at all the white faces bussed in from Freetown.It's sunny so I play host and show Vasile the best sunbathing spots in our yard, as determined through 7 weeks of tanning time. The power is off but, perhaps as it's approaching dry season, seems to be deliberate: they appear to be turning it off during the day so we can have it at night, which is ok.We are green girlies who dislike waste, so we wash the veg from yesterday's eye-watering stew, pick out the peppers, and mix some of the remnants with tomatoes to make a pasta sauce. It still has a real kick (and would probably get a 4 chilli rating on a menu) but is pretty good. Who says you can't get 5 a day up here?