mentioned that) has a friend who he has kept in close contact with over the years, Sheku (pronounced Shake-ooh, and yes, he is cool enough to carry a name that cool).
Sheku recently got into the agricultural business, specifically, chicken. In what must have been an unfathomably hilarious to watch, but not to actually partake in kind of journey, Jim, Farah and Sheku drove the 6 hours from Freetown to Kenema with 400 chicks in the backseat of Farah's taxi. We were now headed back to Kenema to see the grown chicken (roosters to be specific), and for Jim to finally meet Sheku's mother, who is likely in her 70s and living in Matru Jong (I'd say an hour outside of Kenema, depending on both the road and the car).We first arrived in Kenema, covered even worse than last time in red dust. Which as it turns out is actually iron rust (I had a magnet in my bag, the magnet liked the dust). I think that Sheku's mother thinks my natural skin color is orange. I know we have photos of it, but picture a coal miner who takes off his goggles, now instead of being covered in coal, I was covered in orange, save for where my sunglasses had been, creating a look that just reeked of awesomeness.
We did get real running water though, so I was overjoyed and took an hour and a half cold shower (which I didn't even realize was cold until thinking about it now, that's how happy I was that it was a real shower). We were staying at the "Pastoral Something or Other" which I
gathered was a massive piece of property owned by the Catholics, that also had a guesthouse, bar and restaurant, however, there was no missionary business to be found. All of the other guests were with either NGOs or there to go visit the nearby Gola Rainforest and capture sound recordings of a super endangered owl that is supposed to live only in that forest. Hats off to them. They "get" to live in the forest for 4 weeks. I am not sure how familiar they are with
bats, but they did look a little high to me.
The next day we went to Matru Jong to visit Sheku's mother. She had mentioned to Sheku that she didn't plan on dressing for the visit. Hey, she's 70, no one is expecting her to rumble out with her Sunday best on. I was a little startled when she greeted us in a traditional wrap around skirt and a tank top...with her left boob showing. So, she meant that literally, ok. After showing us through the house to the backyard (backyards are always where all the action is taking place) she introduced all the other family members and eventually did some re-tucking.
Then we asked if we could take a photo. She disappeared into the house and reemerged about 5 minutes later in her Sunday best. Matching skirt, shirt and head wrap in a deep aqua and white gara (sort of looks like tie-dye but with more elaborate patterns and colors) and a beaded
necklace with a dolphin on it. She looked stunning. We took several photos. Then we drank palm wine out of...a World Food Program plastic gallon container.
Every single bottle and container is reused, multiple times. You cannot buy a cold coke, Fanta or Star Beer in a bottle to go. You MUST give the bottle back then and there. I tried negotiating this, I was asked if I had another bottle to exchange, unfortunately I was not packing empty bottles with me. One of my most favorite cases of reuse was when a father pulled up with two twins in a self made wagon that had been fashioned out of the 5 gallon plastic canisters used to tote water/palm oil/other liquids and fixed with wheels and a rope. I have multiple photos of this as it was adorable and impressive in its ingenuity.Anyway, after a bit of palm wine (a nice early morning vintage) we had some rice and groundnut (peanut) stew with chicken, very tasty. Mom refused or wasn't allowed (this was very unclear) to eat with us, and didn't eat after us, so maybe she just wasn't hungry? Then we were taken on a tour down to the river that eventually flows out to the sea and the island of Bonthe.
The river was awesome. For starters, I saw a (thank god) dead millipede. Yes, milli. Like the kind I've only ever seen in movies and entomology exhibits. It was half curled up and a little smushed but I'd say stretched out it would be about 10 inches long and an inch thick. Heck yes we took photos (adding to perceived weirdness). We saw hand carved canoes being launched with 2 people, one of whom was wearing mask/fins/snorkel and had spear fishing gear to catch
grouper (we asked, I guess there is a fresh water variety, I've eaten some in Freetown, I think that was the saltwater variety, was very tasty).
Then we went to where the ferry leaves daily for Bonthe island. We were followed through the market, the town actually, by kids, alerting us to our own resence "Pumwe" (I am totally spelling that phonetically, aka, wrong) which would be Mende for foreigner. Which is awesome, because I too, love that band.
Then we went to Sheku's chicken farm. Not much to report there, lots of chickens. Then dinner, a 3 hour shower, 3 star beers, and sleep. That night it rained. It is the only time it has rained since I’ve been here, but it's really helped keep the red dust to a minimum. For that I was very thankful indeed.
Next update: Gofor, the site of a future school and some of my favorite uses of machetes.
Cheers,
Mari
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