In Which For Beat Ouman Nar Crime
on Zoe Page (Sierra Leone), 08/Nov/2010 18:12, 34 days ago
You know it’s not going to be that good a day when the power’s gone off by 8am and it’s super cloudy. My morning starts with a little light sweeping, some reading and the catching of Health Check on BBC World Service, something I normally download. Then I go out to Fidel’s where the power is also off,making me glad I don’t tend to buy frozen or refrigerated stuff from the shops here.On the way back I am walking up Hotel Road when a dubious man grabs my arm. I shake him off and yell that he shouldn’t be touching unknown women. He counters this with the fact he loves me so he can do what he likes. I tell him that is ludicrous and to apologise and he says that I am not God and he only answers to God. A crowd gathers. They’re delightful, standing and watching silently, not helping. As he continues to thrash out I scream that I will call the Police. He laughs and laughs as if this is the funniest thing he’s heard all day. So I pull out my phone and say I am calling my driver, and to which he responds scathingly, “What? So he can come and flog me?”“Yes!” I reply pointedly. This seems to be enough. The man gets on the Ocada he’s flagged down and punches me in the face and twists my wrist before taking off. I frickin’ hate Kenema. I’m glad he didn’t call my bluff, since I have no driver, and there is no number to call the Police here. But there are signs up telling the public it's a crime to beat women (as if you weren't sure)I get home slightly shaken, and text Vasile who calls, assesses my shaky voice and promptly comes straight home. I inform VSO too, as I want it logged in support of my why-I-don’t-feel-safe-in-Kenema argument. Daniel says I have to tell the Police so Vasile and I head out with her driver. This is one cultural experience I could really do without, but is mind boggling in its foreignness:We get to the Police station and go to the front desk. There are all sorts of people loitering about. They may be staff, criminals, victims or just passers through. There are 3 uniformed officers at the desk so we tell them we want to report an assault and they take down some minor details. While doing this one female officer interrupts to ask me for my number so she can be my friend, while a male officer tells Vasile he loves her and needs her number. In what way is this appropriate?!We are taken into another room and some words are said, but we are then lead straight out and round the back into another area. A nice man wearing aDr Whotie (...hey, it saysPoliceon the Tardis) asks if I can describe the man and I’m trying hard to think of a way to say that he was pretty, generically, unremarkably...black. But I can guess an age, and describe his general appearance and his accent and level of English. We are taken into a back room where I start to give a statement but when the man transcribes‘walking up Hotel Road’as‘working up Hangha Road’I ask if I can just write it myself. I do and they read it and tell me off for using an abbreviation (approx). Are they kidding me? At least what I wrote was in grammatically correct, correctly spelt English.I get berated for not being able to give a better description (um, who’s the victim here?) as they say they cannot do anything but since I have reported it to VSO, they will be on the phone every day asking where they are up to. I ask, with as much politeness as I can, if that means that anyone raped in the middle of the night mustn’t report it unless they got a good look at their attacker's face. I explain that I know they can do very little, but I have to follow our procedures anyway.They tell me I need a medical examination. This is protocol, since I am fine, but they will not budge so we go to the hospital once they have hand-written a form for me to take with me. They ask me the questions and I offer to complete it myself, but this won’t do, so the process takes forever.What is your name?ZoeNo, what is your name? Yourname?How old are you?28Again? 20?Twenty EIGHTReligion is next. Oh goodie. I write it on a scrap of paper for him. He reads it and shouts across the room,“Religion is atheist, a-t-h-e-i-s-t, huh? Is Christian?” His colleague shrugs.We drive to the hospital and since the Police couldn’t tell me who to go to see, I ask Dr S (the 2nd). He looks at the paper and sends me in to see Mr Saffa, who sends me to Dr Momo. I am just starting to tell my tale when a security guard appears and tells me the Matron needs to see me, so we go back and the Matron reads the paper and gives it to....Dr S (the 2nd) who this time agrees to sign off on it. We go to his office where he asks if my elbow is sore. It’s not. That is the only question in this medical exam, and for the next 10 mins Vasile and I sit there muttering to each other while he beavers away. Eventually he gives me the sheetback, which now has the following observations on it:13:20 hours seen. Suffered assault. 8/11/10 about 11.30 hours.On examination right elbow pain (subsided)wtf? How is‘I’m fine, it doesn’t hurt’ the same as there was pain but now it’s gone?Pain upper lip(um, no, lower)On examination conscious, oriented adult femalePsychologically traumatised. General condition at time of examination is stable, satisfactory.Hmpf. I can’t recall the last time I was ‘satisfactory’ at anything. I feel like I’ve failed somewhat.Diagnosis: assault, psychological traumaI also get a prescription. I have no idea what it’s for, but I keep it anyway. It may come in useful. I might take it to my friendly pharmacist and see if he can tell me what it’s for and if it's worth filling.We go to find a photocopy shop (the hospital has no working copiers) and pay 400 Le for two copies of the medical report, before going back to the Police. At Vasile’s nagging they have decided to go to the scene of the crime and ask to see if there were any witnesses. They don’t have a vehicle they can/want to use, so come with us. It is...bizarre. We hang around a bit but the people they ask say they saw nothing. This isn’t surprising. My main concern now is that if the message does get back that the Police have been making enquiries, it would only take 2 seconds to find out where the Pumwis live. We’re hardly inconspicuous, and this happened maybe 5 minutes from the house.With that, we come home, leaving the Police behind, though the driver will later deposit them back at the station. I make beans on toast for lunch. I’m a little shaken, but physically fine – I’ve had cheerleading injuries worse than this. I probably won’t have any bruises tomorrow, and my lip is already starting to go down. I can’t help feeling that the trip to the Police has made things worse, though, and I’m pretty sure if it had been a few weeks ago, and Vasile had not been here, I would have told neither VSO nor the Police.Vasile stays home for the afternoon, but pretty soon it's 5pm. We head out to buy tomatoes to go in the lentils for tea and she brandishes her umbrella like a weapon. Take that, horrible Salone men. The response from VSO has been good - prompt and caring - but nothing can really be done here, and tomorrow if I want anything to eat I will have to walk out alone again to get it. Oh well, at least tonight's supper smells yummy, and there's chocolate for after.