Una Kushe! I finally got to go up to Mamaka Village and see the Mamaka Primary school! Boy did we disrupt class. It was pretty much mayhem, especially since the doors are the last things that will be put on the school. So all the kids ran out as soon as they saw the 4WD drive up. And I now hear "porto" (Krio and Temne, which is Mamaka's tribal language, for white person, it comes from the word Portuguese, who were the first white people here) in my sleep, and very possibly wave and smile back as a natural response. Eventually, I came to know what it must feel like to be Brittany Spears. I didn't shave my head or anything, but to have that many little kids watching your every move. It's a lot of pressure. In total I've made 3 children cry with terror (yes, it was an accident).
The drive to Mamaka from Freetown is only partially paved and takes about 2 hours. It would likely take 1/3 that if the road were paved. Albert's (SLVP's President) son came with us for the visit to see his Aunts and Uncle. He's been in Freetown these past weeks to get engaged. Congratulations to the proud father! Anyways, Hassan, was telling me that the roads were last paved around 25 years ago. So, they might be in need of a touch up. When you think about it by our standards, they've held up remarkably well. Imagine if a US highway didn't get any maintenance for 25 years. It would probably be undrivable. But we drove this. And slowly, Hassan called it "slow motion" the government of Salone (Krio for Sierra Leone) is paving it again.
We had a traditional lunch of rice (staple crop, served at pretty much every meal I've had) groundnut (peanut) stew and "creatures." Creatures, is what I'm told Albert called the chicken and fish that were added to the mix for protein. After living with a host family in Japan, I think I'm traumatized about eating rituals. Luckily, I'd already been heavily prepped by my Uncle on how this would go. As guests, we would eat first, with the man of the house. Usually with your hands though, we are given spoons because our village knows we don't know what we are doing. When we're full, the plate goes to the women. When they're full the plate goes to the kids. Then, animals. Oh, and one of my favorite things, which fascinated me to no end and I am sure added to my weirdness was that there were chickens with chicks! Kittens, dogs, goats, even the occasional pig (though they were supposed to stay in their pen) running around. And to answer the big question...yes chickens are bloodthirsty cannibals…I have a photo of Hassan proving this.I am going to write more about the school and the village and village life in my next update. But for this update, I want to do a 180 and talk about Freetown nightlife. My Uncle who is here on a Fulbright scholarship dealing with education is friends with the two other Fulbright scholars. One is an academic in his 50s we think, and the other went to a high school in my hometown (Eastlake class of ‘96) so we've become friends. She took me out with the younger expats to see what the "bar scene" was like on a Friday night here. (Otherwise, I would be in bed at 9).
The first bar we went to was like the foreigner holding tank, 100% ex-pats. I found it kind of odd. But apparently, that was not the usual, so we quickly had a drink there and went to "The Office" which is now the "it" bar in Salone. And it is. It was packed. They had a $7 US cover, which is a lot. It's a lot to even have a cover. Inside was wall to wall people and it was 50% local 50% ex-pat. I should mention here that the subject of Nicole's doctoral thesis is wars that were not necessarily genocidal in motivation during which a high incidence of rape occurred, why, and were there pre-existing conditions and/or red flags that could seen ahead of time to prevent this. She picked Salone and, therefore, as part of her research, highly enjoys chatting up prostitutes. Who, are quite nice actually. And, at what is a very expensive Friday night hotspot, one is bound to find quite a few. In fact, I think most of the ones that we spoke to had no interest in chatting up the guys we came with (most expats here are men, shocking) they wanted to talk to Nicole, because she talks to them, like they are real normal women which they are. It's understandable how under conditions which are Freetown, it might drive someone to do this to feed her baby. Victoria, tried to teach me to dance, but I explained to her what an uphill battle she was facing and she realized that my moving my left hip was dancing, and smiled and politely gave up.
So next up I get to go back to Mamaka village by myself for my first overnight in a village. I am very excited.
And a few administrative things, I think I am having some problems getting through corporate firewalls. If you notice that you aren't getting one of the updates, just let me know. I am not subtracting from the mailing list. Feel free to forward if someone asks or to send me your personal email if you think you are getting blocked.
Gung Hay Fat Choy! (We have a Chinatown complete with Fireworks here too:)
Maureen
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