In Which Zoë's Free(town) At Last
on Zoe Page (Sierra Leone), 13/Nov/2010 07:55, 34 days ago
After precisely 50 days in Kenema, I am finally escaping, for a weekend in Freetown. Alex offered me lift back with her, and since that is so much more palatable than braving the government bus, I happily accepted.Packing for a weekend away here is like nowhere else. First in the bag goes a spare mosquito net. Then comes a sheet (luckily it’s too hot to require a full set of bedding). I’m staying at Barracks Road where they don’t have running water, so toiletries are chosen against careful criteria of those which require no / less water. A few nights in the city could include any manner of outings or events, so in go some smartclothes and in goes the beachwear. Such things might require money, so in goes a wodge of cash. In goes the single book borrowed from the VSO library (read and to be swapped for as many as I can feasibly carry back). In the absence of any tourist office, in go the two guide books with maps of the capital. In bag number two go all the things I might need during the journey or on arrival: copious amounts of snacks and water, a torch, some cash, my keys.We are picked up at 9.30am and spend the rest of the day driving as the route is far from direct. We go to collect questionnaires Alex dropped off on her over here. We make random stops at the whim of the driver and Alex’s colleague, dropping off keys, collecting charcoal. We go to Bo and beyond, and stop for ages at a truckstop-come-market-place where merchants tout their wares from stalls or, more simply, from trays on the top of their heads. We stay put in the car while the men shop, though perhaps we should have been more specific with them about what we wanted, as they come back with bags overflowing with fruit, enough to feed an army. The prices are much better here than in Freetown, but there’s only so much you can eat in the short window before it goes bad.We get to Waterloo for a visit, but there’s no appointment and they’ve no time for us, so we’re quickly on the road again. Just as Alex is finally ending my 9 year quest for an explanation of the difference between ‘erlebnis’ and ‘erfahrung, my phone goes, and it’s Theresa checking where I am. I tell her I’ll come into theoffice on Monday, and she says good, as the UK office have been on the phone asking about me. Which is intriguing and ominous in equal measure.As we approach the capital, things start to look familiar. We drive past Victoria Park and Big Market, and up and down roads that are now the building site described in Shona’s blog, to reach Barracks Road, where I’m staying this weekend. It is a VSO house with fabulous views of the bay, and has two big floors with 5 bedrooms in total. There are currently 4 people living in it. Almost primitive: even with Vasile in the Kenema house, we’re still at 3 bedrooms eachplus one spare for visitors... We settle in and have a late lunch (it’s now past 4pm) of pretzels and biccies, then go in search of the water boy. With nothing running through the pipes, they have to get a local guy to haul it up the hill in multi-gallon containers, and in Alex’s absence supplies have run a little dry.We need water to make ourselves vaguely respectable, as tonight it’s party night at Frazer Davis Drive (home to Carole, Shona and Cat). It sounds like rarely a weekend goes by without a little VSO gathering, so I’m glad to be here for one of them. We stop at a supermarket briefly, though I could linger all night looking at the exotic items, and this isn’t even one of the bigger places.As I’m beginning to realise is the norm for VSO places, their flat is super spacious with a kitchen that really puts ours to shame. We spend most of the night out on the long balcony in the cool air, and everyone I know is there, plus some new faces. The food is great, ditto the company, but there aresome perturbing tales of placements little better than mine, with virtually no one being remotely busy and lots of people having positively nothing to do. I’m not sure whether this is reassuring (it’s not just me...) or concerning (is any new placement offer going to be any better...?)