Poo moy! Poo moy!

Well after all the action in Freetown coming back to the mines seemed a bit of an anticlimax, a bit like going back to work after a holiday. Nonetheless, Sierra Leone is always full of surprises so it’s never boring. Every time I think I’m getting used to this place, something surprises me. The other day I woke up late, jumped out of bed, quickly got dressed and rushed out the door. As I looked down to lock the door, there was a gecko on my chest looking up at me! I think we both were as surprised at each other (though it was probably more surprised as I batted it across the road). In fact there are tiny geckos everywhere here and you often see them scuttling up the walls. This one must have decided to have a sleep in my work-shirt.

Yesterday I went for a stroll around Moriba town, a local village, and found myself as usual being harassed by throngs of fascinated children shouting “Poo moy! Poo moy!” (“White man! White man!”) though this time I had prepared my response in advance and shouted back “Mende moy! Mende moy!” (“Black man! Black man!”) and they were all in hysterics. Further up the road I sat down for some palm wine with a friend of mine from work and as I took a seat, the little girl opposite me burst in to tears and ran away. She came straight back, still in tears, dragging a toddler by the arm whilst shouting at screaming at me in Mende and pushing him towards me. I had no idea what was going on until her parents explained that she had never seen a white man before and was absolutely terrified of me. The toddler was her little brother and she was shouting “Take him! Take him!! Don’t take me, take him!! Please don’t take me!!”. She thought I was some kind of monster that was going to take her away and eat her or something!

At the mines for the last 2 weeks I have been working on Dredge 1, Payne Dredge, Sierra Rutile’s tireless workhorse, and probably the most exciting part of rutile mining. It is a huge machine that almost seems alive, endlessly feeding off the earth and digesting it in order to extract the rutile within. The whole thing is split into 2 parts, the dredge itself which digs up the ground with an enormous bucket ladder (a bit like a giant bicycle chain with spades attached) and then extracts large unwanted material like stones, and the wet plant which takes out a lot of the smaller unwanted particles like sand. All of this floats on a man-made reservoir and the two parts are joined by a connecting pipe. The wet plant generally stays still whist the dredge slowly lumbers back and forth across the cutting face, dragged by winches anchored to the ground either side. It really is brute mechanical engineering; everything is very big, very heavy and very loud.

At the end of the first week on the dredge, Marco (who also has a very good blog (even better if you can read German)) who I met in Freetown came to visit and I gave him the guided tour of the mines, including the dredge and the plant site. I even surprised myself with how much information I’d picked up during the last 8 weeks.

On Thursday I will be heading back to Freetown for the remainder of my stay. I couldn’t resist going back after the last time; it really is an amazing city. I will try and let you know how it goes.

5 days in Freetown – The 3rd and final installment

On Sunday we drove to Bumbuna in the north of Sierra Leone to see the hydraulic dam that is being built there. The driver told me the journey there would take 2 and a half hours which I thought was fine, we’d get a good look around the dam and be back in plenty of time for tea. The only thing was, he forgot to convert his estimate to the local time, BMT (Black Man Time), and it actually took well over 5 hours, after which we turned up at the front gate only to be told that the security protocol had changed meaning that we would need a letter of authorization to get in. No problem, we thought, slipped the guard a quick Le5000 and the barrier was lifted. Spirits were high… until we got to the second barrier, where the security officer informed us that he was on the edge of losing his job so he wouldn’t accept a bribe today. He told us that there were no staff on site and without a letter there was no way we could see the dam unless… we had consent from the Paramount Chief of Bumbuna.

So 20 minutes BMT later me, MJ (my host in Freetown) and John (a Scottish IAESTE student) are sat on a porch in front of this immense regal looking chap sat on a throne in his pyjamas and a sweet tweed hat begging for his permission to get in to see this dam, even for just 15 minutes, whilst dozens of children slowly gathered round the rest of our party waiting by the car. So the chief phoned the site manager whilst another worker phoned John who had spoken to the manager who spoke to John and John pleaded with him, so we spoke to chief again and then he phoned the manager again… and basically there was no way we were getting in to see this dam so we’d have to go home. “Just one more question”, says I to the chief, “where can we get some decent poyo?”. Poyo…  Krio for palm wine.

 

So we spent about 30 BMT minutes later we found ourselves cruising through Bumbuna chewing on some locally bought ‘kebabs’ (of an unknown meat) searching for some decent palm wine, only to be told there was none left anywhere (yeah right) except for 4 litres in one guys house at the edge of the village. In the end we got our 4 bottles, gave one to the driver for his efforts, and set off home. In fact the palm wine we got was pretty good stuff; you can tell it’s good when it tastes sweet and not sour, and every time you open the bottle for a sip, the bottle-top nearly takes your eye out. In Krio they call this kind of holy palm wine “From God to Man”. And the driver clearly agreed because 5 minutes (normal time) into our return journey he threw his empty bottle out the window and lit himself a joint! When we got back to the main road we all found ourselves gritting our teeth, holding hands and praying in the back of the jeep as Driver pointed out, “Eh bo, dis poyo make mah vehicle flaaah!”. I also noted that the speedo permanently said 30mph (maybe there is Black Man Speed too?) and to put down his window he had to connect the two loose wires hanging out of his door.

The highlight of the whole journey was when, somewhere between 70 and 100 mph, we all saw this wall of smoke masking the view of the road directly ahead in the darkness. Driver, however, did not see this and probably didn’t care anyway. We hurtled through the smoke to discover a police checkpoint directly on the other side, which to our horror the driver promptly ignored and tore straight through. Looking through the back window we all sat frozen and aghast as the police all raised their guns and took aim at our car… Fortunately somehow after a slightly delayed response something twigged in Driver’s head and he skidded to a halt and the next thing we know we are surrounded by police, weilding AK47s and pointing them at us .  By this point Driver was in hysterics, we all had our hands in the air, and the coppers were thinking we were Colombian drug barons.  Luckily MJ and Driver explained that we were students, he was very sorry, he was driving too fast, he was very very sorry, he couldn’t see for the smoke, no that isn’t palm wine, yes that is just tobacco and that he was oh so very sorry (Driver was laughing through all of this!) and eventually the guards let us go on our way and about 3 or 4 maybe 5 hours later after a few toilet stops and a quick pause to help someone change their tyre we finally got back to Freetown unscathed and very tired. Phew!

The next day we went to see the chimpanzees at Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary just outside Freetown, and altogether more chilled out affair. There’s not much else I can say about that except that a few years ago, so we are told, the alpha male escaped, beating a few people up and hasn’t been seen since… Yeah, so they have a lot of amazing chimps there that they rescue from all sorts of nasty places, they get them to quit smoking and lay off the booze and then hopefully rehabilitate them back into the wild when they are ready. There will be some photos on here when I get the time to put them up.

5 days in Freetown – Part 2

Ok so I was up to Saturday.

On Saturday we borrowed a boat from the Sierra Leonian Navy so that we could take a trip to Bunce Island off the coast of Freetown. Bunce Island was one of the 40 major European commercial forts built along the West African coast during the slave trade era. At the time it was about as far as most ships could get from Europe and became a meeting place for European traders and African merchants. British companies operated there from about 1670 onwards, companies including the Royal African Company and the London firms of Grant, Oswald and Sargent and John & Alexender Anderson. Traders would go there to purchase slaves, gold and ivory amongst other things. From about 1756 there were large numbers of slaves being shipped via Bunce Island to Georgia and South Carolina where American rice planters would pay good money for slaves from West Africa. During its history it has been attacked twice by pirates (1719 & 1720) and four times by the French (1695, 1704, 1779 & 1794). The present fort is the last of six that was rebuilt after the last French attack. When the British parliament abolished the slave trade in 1807 it was used as a saw mill and trading post and was finally abandoned around 1835. In 1948 it was declared a Sierra Leonian national monument under the Monuments and Relics Commission.

Basically it’s a real jungly deserted island except for one crazy old man who has lived there since 1980. I didn’t catch his name but he seemed pretty desperate for a bit of social contact so I had a good chat with him, or more he did the chatting because he was waffling on in Krio and I couldn’t understand a thing. I also kept hella vigilant for spiders because they were absolutely everywhere and all seemed to have webs at face-height.  

What else can I say? I’ve never seen a place like it before. Oh yeah, and my arse is still sore from the journey back to Freetown because it was a tad rough and I think our Navy boat drivers were in a bit of a hurry so they razzed it full speed over all the waves sending everyone flailing up and down like rag-dolls for about an hour. Then just to top it, it started raining. I somehow managed to keep my camera dry which is a miracle seen as we were getting soaked from all directions. Nonetheless I reckon it was the most fun I’ve ever had in a boat and it was priceless seeing Mohammed the Iranian student trying to wrap a sheet round his head to protect him from the waves whilst screaming for his mummy! I can’t wait to see you again in Freetown Mohammed!

5 days in Freetown – Part 1

Hey everyone, I’m back! No not back in England yet, just back at the mines. I’ve just been spending a few days in Freetown to meet the other IAESTE students and generally do a bit of sightseeing; hence things have been a little quiet on the blog.

It takes about 5 hours to get to Freetown from the mines, even though it’s only about 70 miles away. It’s a rough journey along dirt tracks and decrepit roads, except for a stretch of smooth tarmac for about 10 – 20 miles where some Italian company is building a road to link Freetown with Bo (10 – 20 miles of absolute heaven after bouncing around in the back of a 4×4 for a few hours). This is the first time I’ve had a chance to see Freetown since I got here and after spending a few weeks in an isolated mine camp it was a hell of a shock. The moment we got near the city centre it was clear that this is a city on a hectic vibe! The roads are lined with shacks and stalls and street vendors selling pretty much everything you can imagine. If you’re hungry you can buy bananas, guavas, groundnuts, biscuits, plums, coconuts, everything all from you’re car window from kids with plates-full on their heads. A bunch of bananas costs 500 Leones (less than 10p)!

There are a few things that take some getting used to in Freetown if you’re a European. Firstly, the electricity, of which there was none for about half the time I was there. Then the running water, of which there was none, which meant my showers were taken from a bucket of rainwater which, unless there is electricity to put the kettle on, is generally cold. Then there’s the rain, which was fairly constant whilst I was there with it being rainy season, and the poor drainage in the city means some of the roads are constant fjords. There’s also the apparent absence of a highway code, a green cross code, an M.O.T. or any general common sense which makes every car ride a dance with death, and a very claustrophobic death if you’re crammed into the back of a poda-poda (A poda-poda is one of these small minivans that are all over Sierra Leone and serve as privately run buses. There is no maximum capacity for these things they just pick up as many people as can physically be squeezed in the back, sat on the roof, or hung off the side.). In fact everything about Freetown is about as far as you can get from a normal, safe, civilised European city, it’s mad and it’s hectic and it’s great!

On Friday morning we went to see the university before heading to the beach. We first had a stroll along Lakka beach before heading to No. 2 (apparently named after the No. 2 regiment of some army or something) for a swim in the warm Atlantic Ocean which was just amazing. I’ve never been to beaches like these before they were just awesome; white sands, palm trees and warm water, not a sun-bather in sight, just us and the local beach boys. I think the photos describe it better than I can. In the evening we had drink in Paddy’s, a local nightclub, which was good laugh. It’s pretty much the same idea as Menk’s, the local bar at the mines, but on a grander scale, i.e. cheap beer (about 50p for a bottle of Star), African music, and hundreds of prostitutes, except the ones in Freetown are a bit slyer than those in Mogbwemo and they cost more (apparently)! I have to admit there was a slight sense of boyish satisfaction when, less than 10 seconds after me and Mohammed had bashfully boogie-shuffled (fingers forward, subtle hip-shaking) across the empty dance floor, we looked around to see 20 women boogying after us!

That’s enough to read for now because I’ve got to go but I will carry on Freetown stories tomorrow and put some more pictures up!

Oh and here are some pictures of the garage. I’ll think you’ll like these Ron!

Getting myself into trouble

Firstly, apologies to all the managers, shareholders, disgusted mothers, etc. that I may have offended with pictures and stories of events that may or may not have happened in my last post which may or may not have existed. I guess there are more people within earshot of this blog than I thought. I just, like, totally didn’t realise that the web was so world-wide nowadays! I will try my hardest in future not to mention anything that could upset people without their explicit consent. However, if I do slip up just send me an angry, threatening email and I will remove the offending material within the next few months.

That aside, I’m still in Sierra Leone and it’s still as wild as ever, and I’m still working my ass off (look, there are pictures to prove it) though the rainy season seems to have had enough and given up at the moment to my bitter disappointment (I’m still recovering from sunburn).  I’m still working in the garage under the supervision of an absolutely magnificent boss, a visionary of garage workshop management, a go-getter, la crème-de-la-crème (beers please). I’ve devoted all week to this Perkins engine which has now decided not to work which is fairly distressing and I feel like it has robbed me of a week of my life. It’s not all bad though because I enjoy working with the local guys, they seem to be in constant high spirits, and I can’t understand anything they say anymore because they seem to think I now speak fluent Mende so they keep blurting out all these words at me that I can’t possibly understand.

I got a big culture shock after work last weekend when my friend Walter took me to ‘Black and White’, the market opposite the main entrance to the Sierra Rutile plant site. A lot of the guys from work go there to grab a bite to eat during the lunch break. It’s a small shanty town with houses built from mud and people selling all sorts of things from umbrellas to dodgy DVDs, monkey nuts to Saddam Hussain cigarette lighters. It’s supposedly called Black and White because when mining first started here back in the day there were a lot more white people than there are now who would intermingle with the locals in the market. Anyway, Walter took me to meet his brother who lives there and it really hit home how hard life can be in Sierra Leone. No electricity, no running water, no A/C just the bear basics. I got a lot of curious looks whilst I was walking around. I get the impression white people don’t set foot in there very often. There was a great atmosphere down there, a lot of people chilling out, socializing, music blaring from guetto-blasters (I’ve heard Paul Simon’s You Can Call Me Al too many times now), a real sense of African spirit. Walter led me into his brother’s house, suggesting I should get inside because people aren’t used to seeing a white man and “people talk” and as I walked in I could just make out the shadowy faces of his brother and sister-in-law (who’s names I’ve sadly forgotten) in the darkness and I was offered a can of what turned out to be a fine stout. I didn’t stay too long, just sat down and had a bit of a chat before Walter suggested we go and led me out fairly hastily (by the hand of course). I got the vague impression that there were people about who didn’t entirely appreciate me being there though I never found out the details and Walter assured me that there were no problems. In any case I’m very grateful for his brother’s hospitality. When I got back to Mobimbi that night I had a very real sense of the contrast between the two worlds here, the very rich and the very poor living side by side and the security barriers that separate the two.

Someone gave me a cassava to eat the other day which I’m hopefully going to try and cook this afternoon with a little help from Walter for that authentic Sierra Leonian touch. Cassava seems to be one of the staple foods of this part of Sierra Leone as well as rice. The guys at work said I can eat it raw, it will make me strong and will either send me to sleep or keep me up all night depending on who you ask. But Wikipedia says that raw cassava contains poisonous toxins so I think I’ll cook it just to be on the safe side. Is a cassava the same as a sweet potato?

Thanks for the comments everyone I really appreciate it! Blimey, 2400 hits ain’t bad either!

Settling in

Well, I’ve been in Sierra Leone for over 3 weeks now and I’ve not written much since I got here so maybe I should update things a little. The wet season just seems to be kicking in now and the real storms are starting; good, hard, driving rain and fierce lightning. I got caught off guard by the sun on Sunday though when we had a barbecue by one of the lakes cut out by the rutile dredge. I swear I only took my top off for a few minutes to let my pasty white chest see at least the light of day, and I’m still red and sore now, 3 days later. For future reference: African sun is not to be messed with. I don’t think it helps that the Malaria tablets I’ve been taking make you photosensitive.

Up until this week I have been working in the main plant at Sierra Rutile Ltd. With a maintenance team maintaining and repairing the various machines that operate in the plant, namely pumps, engines, gearboxes, elevators, conveyors, etc. It’s been good fun, I’ve been working hard and I’ve learnt a lot, though there is definitely a different way of doing things here in Africa. I’ve quickly learnt the art of improvisation since most of the time there are no spare parts or correct tools for the job. Also here there always seems to be at least 10 people present for every 2 people required to do a job, many just watching and doing nothing! On Monday I started work in the garage where they maintain all the vehicles and already it’s good fun. This week I’ve been overhauling a Perkins 4 cylinder engine and a nice big Caterpillar 6 cylinder engine, great stuff!

All the people I’ve met so far have been amazing. I’d say the big highlight of Sierra Leone for me so far has been the welcoming atmosphere of the people and their outlook on life. I’ve had no hint of hostility from anyone since I got here, quite the opposite. If you say hi to someone they will instantly smile, say hi and ask you how you are. There’s also the added novelty of being the only white guy. A huge mammoth of a man called Donald walked past me in the second week grinning and shouting “Heeeeey! White boy!!!” who seemed like he was taking the mickey at first but he turned out to be dead friendly guy. One thing I haven’t quite got used to though is the tendency for men to hold each others hands when walking to places. Nearly every time I ask the whereabouts of something or other I get led there holding hands with some guy, interlocking fingers and all! I can’t help blushing everytime. I have also learnt a lot of the local language, Mende, too. Whenever I wing out a bit of Mende with my colleagues they can’t believe their ears, for most of them it is the first time they have ever heard a white man try and speak their native tongue. Check out my beginner’s guide for some useful phrases!

Another thing I’ve had to get used to is how people blatantly ask you to give them things, or money. I’ve had people request my watch, my camera, by boots, my clothes, money to pay the drinks bill from their child’s graduation, the list goes on. I know they ask just on the off-chance but I still find it hard to say no; I start to feel kind of guilty for having these things that some of these guys will never be able to afford to have.

Well that’s a fair bit to read for now so I’ll add some more stories in a few days. I’ve added to the photos and the Mende so check them out. All the links are at the top right of this page.

 And thanks for the comments, it’s good to hear from you guys!!

Photos!

I’ve finally managed to get a bit of time on the internet so here are a few photos of Mobimbi and the village nearby and also some of the mine where I am working.

There aren’t that many because the internet is dead slow and I’m falling asleep here so I will put more up ASAP.

Thanks for the comments!

First Impressions

First Night

Where to start…   I’ve been here just 2 days and this place is so different to anything I could have imagined, I already have too many things to say!

I’ll start with the flight into Lungi airport at Freetown, which was incredible, my first flight into Africa. The terrain of Sierra Leone is like nothing I’ve seen before, a thick carpet of jungle and forest, broken up by murky meandering rivers and the occasional dirt track lined with shacks and shanties. Visible from the air were the village folk going about their daily business, carrying their affairs on their heads, trundling up and down on bicycles, occasionally peering up at the incoming visitors. As we flew in to land we passed the empty hulk of an abandoned aircraft on the runway, slightly disconcerting, until everyone board cheered as we came to rest on the cracked tarmac.

The airport itself was utterly organised chaos: hot, humid and rowdy; I had no idea where to go or what to do, but somehow made it out the other end in one piece. Spotting my name printed on cardboard, I said hello to my chaperone Unis who quickly led me away, warning me, “Don’t let anyone take your bag”. Sound advice because I immediately found my suitcase being coaxed away by anonymous hands, which I firmly batted off. I later found out that these people only want to help you take your bags in exchange for money, and being white I was a popular target. In the truck parked up nearby I met Abu a silent mysterious type of guy who I would get to know the next day.

Instead of flying to Freetown, it turned out that Sierra Rutile had hooked me up with a rather cushty hotel near the airport, so I could be driven to Moriba Town the next day with Abu. I had a good chat with Unis under the flicker of dim, generator-driven lights in the hotel before settling in for my first night in Africa. The next day I met Abu outside reception for the journey to Sierra Rutile Mines.

Drive to Moriba Town

Driving to Moriba Town I got my first chance to see Sierra Leone from ground level. The road from Lungi quickly deteriorated into a maze of potholes, which in turn dissolved into dirt, masterfully navigated by Abu. Eitherside of the road we passed a constant stream of palm trees and jungle, villages, boys carrying water by bike to and from their towns, women carrying all manners of things of all shapes and sizes on their heads, ridiculously top heavy cars overloaded with crowds of passengers, waving children…… There was so much to take in from all angles I didn’t know where to look!

After a couple of hours Abu told me we were “Stopping for a drink” and we pulled up into a small market. The truck was immediately surrounded by children waving plates of bananas, mangoes and other fruits at our windows, and poking out in the middle of them was a small hand holding a can of Coke and the little man sold us 2 for a few thousand Leones. And the great thing is that Coke takes just the same in the middle of Sierra Leone as it does anywhere else, and they were ice cold!

After some difficulty conversing with Abu due to the difference in our accents he began teaching me some of the local language. The main languages in Moriba Town are Krio (pigeon English) and Mende (the native language). I will put some phrases I learn on here as I learn them, a) so I can remember and b) so anyone else who’s interested can learn a bit too. So far every time I say hello in Mende to the locals they really love it and instantly respond with big grins and furious handshaking. I think they just really love the fact that someone has bothered to learn a bit of their language!

Mobimbi

I’m staying at a small place called Mobimbi close to Moriba Town where employees from the mines work and it’s a lot cushtier than Moriba Town itself. In fact it feels like I’m in a bit of bubble up here with electricity, good food and air conditioning, I ain’t complaining though!

3 days to go

Hey everyone! Hope you’re all ok!

There’s 3 days to go until I leave for Sierra Leone, and I guess I ought to write something on this blog that I’ve been telling everyone about! 61 hits already I’m proud, yet ashamed cos there’s nothing to read. Sorry guys!

So I say aurevoir to la francaise in 3 days, the end of my Erasmus year … it’ll be sad to leave, even though I’m looking forward to getting to Sierra Leone. It’s already been sad to see a lot of my pals disappear and I hope you guys stay in touch!

As for Thursday, I think I’m prepared; I had my 10th and final vaccination on Friday, my visa came on Saturday (phew), I have enough insecticide to wipe out the cast of Starship Troopers and more drugs than I can shake a stick at (I’m sure the French doctors have over-reacted with it all, or at least I hope they have!). I’ve even cut off my long, golden locks of hair in preparation for 3 months without a hairdresser in the tropical heat which I think looks ridiculous, but who cares!

At 6:45 I will fly from Toulouse to Gatwick, say hi to jolly olde England, then get a train from Gatwick to Heathrow, then kiss my beloved mother-land goodbye before flying from Heathrow to Lungi airport in Freetown, arriving at 18:40 local time. I should then be getting a helicopter (first time in a chopper!) from the airport to the city of Freetown. At least thats the plan, I just have to keep my fingers crossed that everything runs smoothly.

Ok enough waffling, heres a few pics. Nothin’ excitin’ yet sorry :-S

Personal pharmacy & mosquito death

Visa

No hair!

My sleeping buddy

Coming soon…

I will be flying to Sierra Leone on the 27th June so expect some posts n pics to start popping up after that. For now read the introduction for I little bit about me.