Blog 6. Work

As soon as we arrived in Makeni, the real work started. The Kiln Sierra Leone Marathon will be Sierra Leone’s first EVER marathon and will hopefully raise a lot of money for the Street Child of Sierra Leone charity.

As it is the first ever event of its kind, a lot of planning has gone into the KSLM. First of all designing the course route, which after driving around it I must say it is a challenge, but a spectacular one at that.

I am part of the events team, so my main role is to be the eyes and ears on the ground in Makeni, as I am the only one based here full-time. Therefore it is extremely important to build up good relationships with different contacts in order to:

a)    Make sure everyone co-operates efficiently

b)   Ensure good communication between different authorities

c)    Help me find my way around this maze!

One of the real benefits to this project is that I get to explore all around Makeni and meet some incredible people. From Chief Administrator of Makeni City Council Mr Daramy to Benjamin Kamara, our homestays organiser/guide, village chiefs including a relative who’s name was quite simply T-Man to the big scary bloke in the army barracks Lieutenant Colonel AS Koroma (though I referred to him as Corona like the drink!)

Other tasks include helping to organise the pasta party, finding good musicians to play along the route, sorting through volunteers and officials, instructing the police, finding sponsors and getting as many SaLonean runners as possible.

Whilst I have not had much involvement with the Craig Bellamy Foundation as of yet, I have attended a number of football games to show my support for the league, helping out with some coaching tips and even refereeing a game.

So as you can guess it’s busy busy busy and no rest for the wicked!!!!!

Blog 5. Independence Day

Friday 27^th April 2012 marked Sierra Leone’s 51^st year of independence from colonial rule (us Brits), so what better reason to celebrate.

Following a brief storm through the night, lots of rain, booming thunder and brilliant flashes of lightning it was quite a slow start to the day. The main reason being Friday is a Holy day for Muslims, so the party would not start til after prayer.

When it finally did start you knew straight away what it was. All of the volunteers were in the ClubHouse when we heard a lot of noise outside and heading down the street were hundreds, maybe thousands of people all singing and dancing along to the music being played out of one of the vans.

At the very front of the crowd was one of the SaLone ‘devils’, a strangely dressed man who was being chased away by everyone. I am told this idea stems from the ‘secret societies’ that have existed here for many years.

The majority of people were dressed in red because that is the political colour of the current Government, though a few chose a more traditional African dress sense to party in, so long robes with lots of colours and jewellery. Some cheeky buggars even wore top hats or British safari helmets as a joke. Good job us Brits have a sense of humour.

Everywhere we went in the city the streets were blocked by parades, music blasting out so that everyone could dance along and have some fun.

One thing SaLoneans learned under our rule was how to party, drink in hand, which was usually their own form of ‘Moonshine’ or a can Carlsberg, the locals were enjoying themselves. Some more than others as a few were a bit rowdy, but celebrating none the less.

Especially so, when a famous SL rapper (who’s name I have forgotten) tried to drive past and the crowd swallowed the car up just to see or touch him.

One negative about the day was the very lousy thief. The wannabe crook put his hand in my pocket when we were in the middle of a big crowd and although my iPhone was there to be had, he grabbed my notepad instead. Silly boy.

He soon ran off when I grabbed a hold of him, but please don’t let this paint a bad picture of the people over here. So many of them are extremely kind and helpful (like my new best friend/security guard/ taxi driver Manga,), this lad was just an idiot.

To finish off we took our new friends Ed and Heather, a couple from London who were on holiday in SaLone to our house to share some chop (food) and reflect back on what had been a cracking Independence Day.

Blog 4. Food

I have tried so many different types of food (or as the locals call it “chop”), already on my short stay in Sierra Leone it is hard to judge what has been my favourite so far.

At first I struggled with some of the African dishes such as Cassava Leaf with rice, Ponkey Ponkey with rice, Groundnut Stew with rice and spicy chicken with can you guess………. Plantain.

But with feeling so hungry at the end of the day I have made sure to keep eating regularly and along with 4 packets of water I have been able to enjoy the food.

When we stayed at TribeWanted we had fresh fish every day, caught by the local fishermen and that was beautiful, along with oisters, chips and a variety of sauces, there were so many delicious new tastes to enjoy.

At the house we have a cook named Fatmata who lives next door to us, she cooks for us 6 days and week, usually with all of her extended family helping her. I have never known anyone who can make so many different types of rice!

Breakfast is lovely. Fresh bread brought to the house every morning, we tend to fill it with ‘laughing cow’ cheese (main source of calcium here) and rinse it down with a cup of tea and sometimes a selection of local fruit like mango’s, pineapple or banana’s.

As a special treat Fatmata sometimes makes us omelettes, which are delicious!

Through the day I tend not to eat as much or if I do, I eat at the ClubHouse (Street Child’s restaurant) where they do a selection of Western dishes like a Full English brekkie or we go to a place called Global, summed up as cheap and cheerful.

If I am really daring I visit some of the local stalls selling ‘meat? Shawarma’ (I use a question mark as I am unsure of what kind of meat) chicken skewers, bread, fruit or their version of sweets/ cakes. All very good but I am missing two of my best friends, Ben and Jerry’s!

Blog 3. Makeni Life

Makeni-bound, the city where I will be based for the next few months and where the first ever Sierra Leone marathon will take place.

Nick, the Race Director from Street Child of SL kindly offered me and Josh a lift to Makeni, it was a two and a half hour long journey from TW so we set off fairly early to avoid the traffic.

It’s incredible as you go from one area, which looks incredible with fairly civilised homes and vibrant communities to other areas of real neglect and where poverty occurs in the worst sense with beggars and shanty houses.

The city itself is a massive culture shock, in no real terms is it like a city back in the UK, fair enough it is developing and has many of the same buildings such as councils, hotels, shops and restaurants. But most of these are the definition of the word basic.

The heat is the most notable aspect of life here; it is like standing in an oven, which does not switch off, so dry and humid with little if any breeze and as of writing this, no rain.

The best thing so far is certainly the people, unbelievably friendly. Strangers will stop you in the street just to say hello and wish you well, everyone wants to be your friend and get to know you.

Whilst the kids all shout “Apotto” meaning white man, sometimes they even sing it together like a chorusand they just want to give you a high five or run along with you. (This is not just a one off, but every day) It makes you feel like a celebrity and that they appreciate you are here.

The lifestyle is very difficult here, no running water, little electricity and constant heat. Though the positives outweigh the negatives and make it such an experience!

Blog 2. TribeWanted

I could get used to this, waking up every morning, climbing out of your tent and you are on the beach (and I’m not talking about South Shields), I mean a real beach, one of the most beautiful settings I have ever seen.

TribeWanted is an incredible place; the people there are so friendly and will help you with anything. The food was delicious, fresh fruit, fresh fish, plantain and salad (though some of the African dishes are quite spicy for me).

Amongst our adventures on John Obey beach we met all the locals from the village, played Spin Ball and canoed across the Crocodile Lagoon (seriously told there were crocodiles in there) walked along the beach and played on the strapline with MoMo and what seemed like a million of his friends.

The climb up ‘Picket Point’ was canny gruelling yet good fun. It was a 6-hour walk up and down the highest point on the peninsular, through the jungle where Jemma saw a snake (5 foot long and dark blue) and on to boiling hot rock at top where we enjoyed our lunch (apart from Greg who was a bit worse for wear). The heat made it such a tough challenge and even though our guide CoCo kept saying “just one minute away”, it always took us another hour to get to the next point.

We actually did some work at TribeWanted, preparing for the projects we were each getting involved in, but in such a spectacular classroom, this wasn’t so bad. Plus we learnt a bit of Krio, the language mainly used over here, so Tenki (thank you) for reading this blog.

At TribeWanted we met some fascinating characters, from Big Momma (Latino American woman who is mother to Rosario Dawson the film star) to the Australian couple Ray and Avril who looked after us and shared a bit of Ozzy banter.

P.S on my birthday I was lying in a hammock on the beach with a STAR beer, reading FourFourTwo football magazine and surrounded by great company, not bad eh?

Blog 1. Travel

From one extreme to another, Heathrow to Lungi (Freetown) airport, the same manic feeling but with very different standards.

Lungi airport was basically an old building with a long stretch of road outside used as the runway, it was cramped, dirty and quite daunting, until you see the sign “Welcome to Sierra Leone, where everyone smiles”, then you remember why you are here!

Charlie (founder of The Collective) rescued us at the airport and we were soon off along the highway heading for the ferry across to Freetown.

Although pitch black outside, we passed hundreds of people just sitting on the side of the road, either trying to sell something or just because they had nothing better to do. It wasn’t as if they could turn the TV on and watch whatever they liked, this was their routine 7 days a week.

Before boarding the ferry we were awarded a small treat, a bottle of STAR beer, Sierra Leone’s finest lager (supposedly it has over a million bubbles in it for great taste). Charlie explained that not every STAR tastes the same; he didn’t have to tell me twice as I quickly got another, so far so good.

After jumping over the water onto the ferry we set sail. We had first class tickets but first class in SaLone is not quite the same as first class back home. Instead we opted to stand on the top deck where we met some Americans and a guy with a pet turtle (weird combination I know).

Packed back into the car we were off again, the DVLA would have a nightmare over here, with all the Akado’s (motorbikes) flying past, cars pulling out left right and centre all with full beams on, its more of a rally than a motorway.

Safe to say we arrived at our destination… TribeWanted.