Sorry again for delay in writing my blog. October was a busy
month: discharging patients from our fistula wards, deliveries in maternity and
then a break for me as 2 good friends came out to visit (more on that later).
Now in November we have been preparing, along with the rest of Salone, for the
national general elections (more on that in another blog!).
Thanks to those of you who keep in touch on email and
Facebook. It is good to hear about the outside world, as my little world
becomes so all-consuming. Some of the small things here that are important to
me seem too minor to write about, while some of the big things are just too
major. Let me just say that the highs and lows are pretty extreme. Fortunately,
I have a good team around me who keep me sane.
("Data" meeting at AWC)
Back to my friends and their visit. C and C (they know who
they are) were also VSO volunteers in the past, and we met in Edinburgh through
VSO groups and other common interests.
Being well-travelled, highly adaptable people, they were ideal
candidates for making the “adventurous” (that is a euphemism) trip to Sierra
Leone. Fortunately for all of us, late October/ early November turns out to be
a good time to visit: weather not too hot and not too wet, some roads newly
improved for the election, 1-year volunteers getting to know the good and the
bad bits to seek out and avoid respectively!
I had a lovely birthday with small gathering of friends at
the beach and the unplanned bonus of presents and cards arriving from home with
my visitors. Thanks go especially to my mum for assisting in import of some
extra supplies for the hospital and pharmacy!
A trip with my friends was a great opportunity for me to
explore some of the thus-far untouched corners of the Sierra Leone map and have
a bit of a break from work. (Many thanks to Nad for covering solo while I was
away gallivanting).
I had heard that the roads up-country were “a bit bad” and
this was a serious understatement – much of them being closer in their
topography to a muddy riverbed than an actual byway for vehicles. Fortunately,
we had a good vehicle with 4x4 and a good driver in our friend Suleiman, so we
made it in 1 piece up to the north-west corner, near the Guinea border, and
Outamba-Kilimi National Park. The Park is officially a protected area for
wildlife, however unsurprisingly this is not a top priority for Sierra Leone at
the moment and visiting there is a DIY experience. We were very happy to find
reed huts by the river where we could sleep, and in the daytime a guide appeared
to take us on a canoe ride down the river to see the hippo family and a walk up
the nearby hill to see the elephant trails and jungle birds. Back at camp, the
monkeys came and played in the trees overhead. Far from the noise and chaos of
Freetown – there was not even any mobile phone coverage.
Late October is when the harvests start coming in for rice,
chilli, and many other crops that are grown during the rain. People are busy in
their fields and villages cutting and drying the crops. It is a time of plenty
when many ceremonies (all involving rice) will be held, and everyone can eat
well. After OK Park, we went to Rogbonko Village, which was the home village of
author Aminatta Forna’s father and where she has now been involved in starting
a small-scale community tourism project. We stayed in the village and watched
their daily work and night-time dancing, bought some of the raffia woven
products and played with the children.
For the final part of our adventure, we were back on the
Western Area (peninsula where Freetown lies). We visited the beautiful beach
and River Number 2 for a night in a beach bungalow and boat trip up the river.
Then up into the hills for a visit to Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary to see our
close relatives being well looked after in the protected area there. Happily joined by Sierra Leone VSO friends Lynne and Sunil (they have both written better blogs than me, which I refer you to for more information on SL).
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