Travelling Tales 1. Sierra Leone. Chapter 3.
Making Makeni Home
Makeni, Sierra Leone 2004 by Anne McClure
23rd October 2004 - Email
Came back to Freetown last night. The journey from Makeni was mad with six people and driver in a family sized car/shared taxi. There’s no tarmac roads outside Freetown so it takes 3 ½ hours to drive 85 miles on horrendous roads. Got flat tyre at outskirts of Freetown so Babah and I caught a bus then walked then taxi then more walking with me trotting to keep up with his long strides, and it was so hot! I was shattered when we got to office. Definitely not brave enough to do that journey by myself yet.
Good to see people here but Freetown is such a messy sprawling city that I don't think I'd ever feel comfortable here and I’m sure I’m based in the right place.
Makeni is delightful. Let me try and give you a picture.
No-one knows how many people are in Makeni. I'd say 3000ish. It’s a dusty spread out town with wide red dirt roads with huge pits in them. You can't drive over 2nd gear anywhere. One storey detached houses set back from the road, clay and brick then painted often in wonderfully garish pinks and greens. Town centre with a busy market and various shops, few bars and a nightclub.
The charity’s house is a bungalow in a small compound. It has walls about eight foot high with razor wire, a big metal gate and three security guards, which isn’t as awful as it sounds. Think of the bungalow split in two with the office (i.e. hall with desk and computer and two rooms each with a desk and two chairs, that's it) at the front and the house to the back. It has a central hall, kitchen to right and bathroom to left then three bedrooms on right. The kitchen has a counter, a two ring kerosene gas stove and a couple of shelves. The bathroom has a bath with a shower. I was there a week before I realised that there are no taps on the bath so it's a tad redundant except as a shower stall. My bedroom is painted a deep aqua and I have a double bed with mozzie net, a large table and on the wall is a neat wooden contraption with a set of knobs and a shelf above, so that's my wardrobe. All I need really.
There are no sofas or armchairs anywhere in Makeni or Freetown, just padded dining room chairs or plastic ones so you get used to that. You don't want to spend much time sitting on the floor for sure or you'll end up with visitors other than the cat and dog climbing all over you. Yes there is a rangy yellow dog and a ginger and white cat who seem to belong to the house and who have decided I belong to them.
The town is friendly and very safe feeling. I haven’t seen any other white folk which is lovely as I feel immersed in local life but it’s weird to stand out so much. The landlord who lives next door is Mr Turay so I talk with him from time to time and find out how his knee is recovering from his operation. Children shout “Oporto e madi” as I pass. It means “White man I want to eat you” but is from a song and the children sing it for fun. The next bit of the song is "What?" so I shout “what?" every time I hear it and the kids think that hysterical so as I go up the road there’s a ripple of children giggling in my wake.
Makeni Market, Sierra Leone 2004 by Anne McClure
Food. I’ve found sweet potatoes and Irish potatoes as our type are called, chillies but not red or green peppers, yams, cassava root and leaf, potato leaf, pumpkins, onions, tomatoes, beef (I reckon you know it's fresh when the cow head and skin is in the wheel barrow outside the shed where you're buying the meat), fish like red mullet and perch but very bony and can't find chicken anywhere. There’s wonderful street food at night. Kebabs of meat grilled over coals. When we’re out for two beers – which strangely is never only two - someone goes off and buys a newspaper sheet full of meat that gets put in the middle of the table for everyone to share. Very well-seasoned and gorgeous. Got a bit of a surprise the other day when I realised I was chomping liver not beef (it’s pitch dark in bars) so that got discreetly removed!
SL has lots of NGOs and charities so I have not escaped modern business and counselling speak. We have workshops by the gallon, we empower people at the drop of a hat and welfare service friends will shudder when I say that I heard the word modality used four times today!
Some of the programme with the girls is delivering what it should – counselling/ literacy/ numeracy - and some not. I'm talking with Ministry of Health people to ask them to do some sessions. I think a lot of my job is plugging gaps in making things happen that other people don't have time to. But as much as possible I'm supporting local workers in them doing the planning, having the meetings etc. There's no point me doing things cos I'm not here for long.
The current group of girls finished on Friday. I haven't heard many of their stories and I don't feel it’s my place to know. As a privileged white woman who’s here for a short time, I’ll never understand the level of sexual violence that occurred during the civil war and what life is like for these girls now. Most are between 13 and 18, many with babies, or babes and toddlers. Some have family support, some have absolutely nothing. I asked some of them what they thought was good about the project and what was bad. Bad was that it doesn't lead to skills training or something practical. So I’ve asked Babah to try and link with another charity that does this work. What is good is that they get fed at lunch with rice and cassava as all many of them have to eat is just cassava. And they don't feel so alone. They know there are people who are concerned, who don't blame them for what has happened to them and who respect them. And they said it is good to meet other girls who have been through this and to make friends.
Sunset Makeni, Sierra Leone 2004 by Anne McClure
Sometimes when everyone has gone home I feel quite lonely. I can hear Mr
Turay and his family but I'm on my own. Sometimes that’s pleasant. The mad dog and tom cat here keep me company and I sit on the verandah and watch the dusk fall. It's not equatorial so you don't get sunset like a door shutting. Instead the sky's colours change gradually. As the generator is off after office hours there’s no electricity so the moon and stars are really clear.
Sometimes Steven calls and we go out for beers. On his birthday I went out with him and his sister for two beers. We ended up with lots of beers and going dancing and coming home at 3am! The dance place is great fun and I don't look like too much of a frog in a blender here as my dance style seems to fit with some of the tribal moves. Except I can't shake my ass properly. The girls are promising to teach me! The car battery was flat so we got stuck half way home having bump started it from dance place. So arrived home on back of motorcycle which is the way to get around town.
Till next time…
24th October 2004 - Journal
Haven’t really done much with the weekend. Tamba is unwell, poor soul, so not up to going out anywhere. I thought of finding my way out to Lumley Beach but chickened out of going alone. Annoyed with myself.
Brilliant to read everyone’s emails yesterday. Everyone is being so kind and encouraging. If Makeni had internet it would be perfect. Even here, internet down this afternoon. I ended up in tears as won’t have time to get back to café before going back to Makeni and no idea when I’ll be here again. I’ll be very glad to be home with my chums at end January.
The charity’s team that are based in Lunsar (which is about half way between Freetown and Makeni) arrived in town for the training tomorrow. Can’t wait to spend hours on Financial Cooperative Management!