Freetown and area tourist review

On our travels, Chris and I spent 3 nights in Freetown and 3 nights at River No. 2, a gorgeous beach just outside the city. We were complete tourists during this time, so I wanted to write up a little review of our experiences for other potential visitors to Sierra Leone.

Food
In Freetown we ate at 4 restaurants (breakfast was at the guesthouse every morning), Balmaya’s, Mamba Point, Chez Nous, and The Rooster. They were all good. The Rooster is right downtown and more of a lunch spot – lots of shwarmas, burgers, and that kind of thing. Very reasonably priced. Balmaya’s and Mamba Point are both more expat type of spots. The food is very good, but the prices are comparable to a decent restaurant at home (i.e. $50 - $60 for dinner for two). We even had burgers at Balmaya’s one night – yummy! Chez Nous is on the Lumley beach strip and it’s nice to be right near the ocean. The food was good – lots of fresh seafood and a yummy fried rice.

Getting around
Getting around Freetown can be somewhat challenging until you figure out how the system works. Taxis generally run on pre-determined routes and are Le 1,000 a person for a one-way ride. We did this a few times, but our main challenge is that we didn’t know the routes. We got in one taxi that actually was supposed to turn in the opposite direction we wanted to go. When we realised this, the driver made the other passengers get out and took us onwards. Motorbikes also offer taxi rides and can make for a faster journey as they zip through traffic. They’re not good if you have much to carry though.

If you have a few people, you can either negotiate a one-way rate with a taxi driver, or you can charter a taxi for yourself for Le 15,000/hour. We chartered a car to take us to Charlotte Falls and Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary, and to River No. 2. My only advice on chartering a vehicle to take you out of town is to inspect the car first. The roads outside of Freetown can be 4x4 territory (i.e. bad!) and the more reliable the vehicle, the better. Also, make sure you know where you are going and have an idea how to get there. Although your driver may say he knows where you are going, there is still a high possibility that he doesn’t :-)

Downtown Freetown

On Saturday we spent the day wandering around Freetown’s frenetic downtown. You really get a much better feel for a city from walking around in it. First of all, for those that have any concerns about safety, I want to point out that it is perfectly safe to wander around (although watch out for traffic!). We definitely got a few stares as you don’t see many white people walking around, but over all we didn’t attract that much attention.

We stopped in Victoria Park, a small green space in the centre of town, to sit in the shade for a while. We discovered that hundreds of bats make their homes in the trees in the park. I have never seen so many bats in the daytime before. It was quite incredible.

We decided to make our way to Fourah Bay College to see the botanical gardens (mentioned in the Bradt Sierra Leone guidebook). The college is at the top of a very big hill and the views of the city from the top are incredible and worth the trip up in and of themselves (we took motorbikes up but walked down). Less so the botanical gardens. On arriving at the campus and I suppose looking lost, a man approached us and asked what we wanted. We mentioned the gardens and he offered to point us in the right direction. He took us to a treed area behind a building. It looked like it could once have been a garden, but it certainly did not appear to have been maintained in any way. Our guide then proceeded to show us around the college campus, something we weren’t really looking for but got anyways. We did see some small alligators (or crocodiles?) in a cage near the biology building, but that was about it. There didn't seem to be anything remaining of the botanical gardens that was worth seeing.

As I said, it’s worth the trip up for the views, but there’s not too much else to see there. Fourah Bay was actually the first university in sub-Saharan Africa (founded in the early 19th century) and used to have an excellent reputation. People used to come to Sierra Leone for university from all over the continent.

After our Fourah Bay adventure and some lunch, we visited Big Market to pick up a few souvenirs. This was quite an experience. The guidebook recommends going in with a firm idea of what you want and what you are willing to pay, and I would heartily second this advice. Upstairs in the market there are some very nice things – wood carvings, batik, country cloth, gara cloth and other printed fabrics. However, the problem is that there are about 40 stalls each selling almost the same items. Once people know you are spending money, each seller eagerly tries to get you to look at the merchandise in their stall. Chris had a bit of a hard time with the persistence of the sellers, but I think the trick is really just to be firm rather than too friendly, and to get an idea of what you want before you start to buy. For example, we knew we wanted a hippo carving. Once I said this, the sellers kept bringing me different hippo carvings until I found one I liked. Now that’s service! We managed to escape without spending too much money, but I may go back for one or two more things next time I'm in Freetown :-)

Freetown photos: http://picasaweb.google.ca/clarepoulev/FreetownTrip#

Charlotte Falls

Charlotte Falls is a beautiful alternative to the beaches and is just outside Freetown, about a 30 minute drive along the Mountain Road from Congo Cross depending on the traffic and the reliability of your vehicle. The falls are beautiful and the water flows fast enough to make swimming safe. The water was so refreshing, especially after the walk in to the falls in the heat. We only had about 1.5 hours there, but it was definitely worth the trip and if I was in Freetown I would definitely go again.

FYI: do not drive down the road to Charlotte without some good quality breaks. The taxi we hired to take us out there was probably one of the worst cars I’ve seen here. The road is fairly steep with lots of loose rock, and the brakes definitely weren’t working as they should. After a slightly scary moment of sliding down the road while the driver pumped the brakes, we decided to walk the rest of the way to the falls :-)

Charlotte Falls photos: http://picasaweb.google.ca/clarepoulev/CharlotteFalls#

Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary

The Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary was a great experience, and they really do great work there (for more info, see http://www.tacugama.com/). There used to be quite a big population of chimpanzees in Sierra Leone (about 20,000 in the 1970s), but there are now only about 1,500 – 2,000 left in the whole country. They are threatened by two major factors: deforestation and hunting. Deforestation in the country due to mining and agricultural activities has been significant, and this destroys the habitat for chimps (and many other wildlife!). Chimps are also hunted for meat (a large chimp will fetch about Le 60,000 – 80,000 for the meat), and unfortunately to be sold as pets. When a hunter kills an adult chimp with a baby, the adult can be sold for meat, and the baby can be sold for about $100 - $200 US as a pet. Keeping chimps as pets in Sierra Leone is illegal, but it is apparently still a big problem. When the chimps are little, they are cute and manageable. However, as soon as they start to get bigger, people have problems (an adult chimp weighs an average 110 lbs and is 5 times as strong as a human), and the chimps are often either mistreated or killed.

Tacugama primarily rescues chimps that have been kept by people as pets. They started with only 8 chimps, but now have over 80 at the sanctuary. There are two bigger enclosures where the older adult chimps live, and two smaller areas for a group of adolescents, and for the youngest chimps. The idea is to eventually release them into the wild; however, without a safe and protected area in which to release them, which doesn’t exist right now in the country, releasing them would only further endanger them.

The coolest part was watching the young chimps swing around and play. We could have stayed there watching them for hours really. They’re amazing to watch, and so human-like! Apparently 98.6% of our DNA is the same as a chimp’s DNA.

Tacugama photos: http://picasaweb.google.ca/clarepoulev/Tacugama#

River No. 2 Beach

We spent 3 nights at River No. 2 Beach, about an hour’s drive down the coast from Freetown. River No. 2 is absolutely beautiful. I think it’s one of the top beaches in the world actually. White sand, warm blue water, and the best part – we only shared it with about 8 other people! Take a look at the photos to see what I mean: http://picasaweb.google.ca/clarepoulev/RiverNo2#

The whole set up at No. 2 is run by the community and could really serve as a model for tourism in other communities in Sierra Leone. The community members take turns working at the guesthouse. They don’t get regular salaries, just a small incentive for their work. Whatever the guesthouse brings in is used to help improve the whole community. For example, the generator used for the guesthouse for electricity in the evenings is also available to community members for electricity. The guesthouse also provides income for local fishermen and guides with their excursions and restaurant.

The accommodations are basic but comfortable. The food is delicious, freshly caught seafood for supper every night (we tried the barracuda, the lobster, the crab and the shrimp, and all were SO good!). We ate right on the beach, looking out over the water. Breakfast is included with the room rate.

We did one of the little excursions they offer as well – a trip up the river by boat, and then a hike up one of the hills (the Guma Valley nature trail). It took about an hour and a half. We didn’t see any animals (a couple of other guests saw monkeys), but the boat ride was interesting, and the view from the top of the hill was amazing.

The weather wasn’t the greatest while we were there (it rained 3 out of 4 days if you can believe that!), but the ocean was still nice and warm so we got in lots of swimming. Less lying on the beach in the sun than we hoped for, but to be honest, the sun is so hot that the clouds were a nice relief at times! We also had beach bonfires two nights we were there. We didn't need the heat from the flames, but it was really nice to sit around the fire on the beach and chat.

River No. 2 is definitely one of the nicest beaches I’ve been on, and is highly recommended!

Another trip through Freetown

I’m back in Mapaki now after my second trip to Freetown in a week. I’m almost getting used to the city now :-) Chris arrived safely late Sunday night (2 am on Monday really). Meeting him at the airport at that time was interesting. At around midnight both the cafes in the airport closed. It was very quiet and most people who were around were lying on whatever surface was available sleeping. MO (Chief’s driver) and I just sat around waiting. I read a lot! Luckily the flight came in on time and by 2:30 am we were headed back to our Guesthouse in Lungi. It’s not a bad place and I’ve stayed there before, but this time there were quite a few mosquitoes in our room and we also got temporarily locked in the room due to a broken lock, so I think next time I might look for somewhere else to stay.

I actually like taking the ferry from Freetown to Lungi. Although it’s long (you have to arrive about an hour before to get on with a vehicle, then the crossing takes about an hour), I find the people watching very interesting. Watching people and vehicles disembark from the ferry is also quite a sight. Everyone crowds the gangway, and generally people start jumping off the end of the boat and onto the landing area even before the ferry is properly docked. When people get off, they usually run off in order to get a place in a taxi or on a bus. Watching the cars try to come off is also pretty funny. There is only one gate on the ferry, so all the cars that drive on have to turn around in order to drive off forwards again (it’s very difficult to back off because your wheels have to be properly placed, otherwise your vehicle goes into the water). Usually every car is trying to turn around first without waiting for the other cars to get out of the way. Often there are 4 or 5 men “helping” the cars turn around but without watching what any of the others are doing. Even when told to wait for someone else, cars will just start trying to turn around. It’s incredibly chaotic. Chris got a good video of it I think. I doubt we’ll be able to post it while here because it will take too long to upload, but I’ll be sure to put a few videos online when we get home.

In the harbour where the ferry docks in Freetown, there are several old metal wrecks of ships (comforting, isn’t it?). I had noticed people in the water swimming out to these wrecks but wasn’t sure why they were out there. On the ferry trip from Freetown to Lungi someone told me that they swim out to break off metal parts of the ship. They do this by hand, with hammers or some other hand tools. Then they swim the pieces of metal back to shore to sell as scrap. Pretty incredible.

I also had an interesting experience at the immigration office in Freetown on Monday. I had to go there to renew my entry stamp. I have a visa for 6 months which allows me to enter and leave the country, but when you come in to the country you only get a one month visit permit (this is what allows you to stay in the country). I had no idea this date would be different than the six month visa I already had. Various other people I talked to here also had this same problem. Anyways, by the time someone told me about this and I actually looked at my stamp, it was already expired. Luckily, Chief has a nephew who works in the immigration office. His nephew advised Chief to write a letter explaining that I was staying here as his guest and requesting that the permit to stay be extended, and he also talked to his boss in Freetown (head of the foreign nationals section) to tell him I was coming to get this issue resolved.

So on Monday morning, I took this letter and my passport to the immigration office when we arrived in Freetown. We went there around 10:30 am, after breakfast at Crown Bakery (delicious!). When we got upstairs to the office, there were about 10 staff there. Most of them were sitting around, appearing to do nothing. One person was sleeping. The TV was on and a few were watching football. I spoke to one of the immigration officers, explained the issue and showed him the letter. He told me I’d have to come back tomorrow since the boss who needed to approve the extension was away at a meeting. I explained that I couldn’t come back tomorrow since we were headed back to Mapaki, so he advised me to try later in the afternoon.

This gave us a couple of hours to kill in Freetown. While it was a pain to have to hang around, we decided to go to the beach (Lumley beach), so at least we enjoyed ourselves! The beach was beautiful and almost deserted. We put our feet in the water and sat in the shade on the sand for a while. Then we walked down the beach and met a guy who asked us to bring some gold dust back to Canada with us to sell for him. Interesting. We decided to stay on the safe side and politely declined :-)

Finally we were able to pick up my passport around 2:30 with the extension granted and headed back to Freetown. It was around 6:30 by the time we got back to Mapaki. Chris is getting adjusted to life here and settling in. We hope to do a couple of small side trips over the next week or so, but will be staying based in Mapaki so I can continue to work.

Road trip to Lungi

I'm back from Lungi, arrived in Mapaki yesterday evening just as it was getting dark (around 6:30). We had a pretty uneventful journey. Our Canadian visitors, Jane Gloor and Nancy and Vaughn Wellington all arrived safe and sound on Tuesday night. We stayed in Lungi that night and took the 8 am ferry over to Freetown the next day. I enjoyed taking the ferry in the daytime (when I took it before when I arrived it was night) - great views of Freetown from the water. I'll post a few pictures. Had breakfast in Freetown (mmmm, Bliss cafe!) and picked up some groceries (among the treats I got are jam, raisins and some chocolate! No nutella though, which I was disappointed about), then met with cdpeace Board Chairman Peter Koroma and headed out of town.

I haven't been in Freetown since I arrived. It's so crowded and the traffic is so terrible. Makeni seems very pleasant and quiet by comparison :-) I did find that Freetown seemed much more manageable to me this time around than the first time I was there though, which I think is a sign that I'm adjusting well to life here. Looking forward to spending some more time in the big city with Chris when he's here.

I have heard from other ex-pats about having trouble at checkpoints on the road to and from Freetown, but we were waved through every time, probably because we were driving in the cdpeace vehicle rather than taking public transport. The journey was a little crowded with 6 passengers and the driver and 6 suitcases (some full of medical supplies to be donated to clinics here) and a few bags all packed into the truck, but we survived just fine :-)

Yesterday we stopped in Mayagba to meet the community there before coming to Mapaki. There was a death in the village just the day before, so rather than doing a big community welcome, TMT asked us to come and "greet the burial" - paying our respects to the community who were gathered because of the burial. It was a neat experience to participate in that. You give your greetings and show support by giving a small amount of money (we gave Le 20,000) or if they didn't have money, many people would bring food items. The villagers were very surprised that we white people came and participated in their custom, but I think they appreciated it.

After visiting Mayagba we made our way to Mapaki. In Mapaki the new guests settled in and had some supper. Then there was a big community welcome for them, with dancing and drumming of course. Today they are just resting and exploring Mapaki.

It's been neat to receive people who are visiting for the first time, to be the one who knows the country (at least a little bit by now) and can explain things and help them settle in. I remember what it was like for me when I arrived, how overwhelming everything seemed the first couple of days, so I hope that I helped smooth the way a little bit for them. It was also a good practice run of picking someone up at the airport since I'm heading back there to get Chris on Sunday night. Yay!!

This afternoon I am participating in a skype videoconference presentation to Carleton university. This is part of the public engagement activities that I need to do as part of the CIDA grant that funds my internship. I'm a bit worried about the quality of the internet connection, but I'm crossing my fingers that it all goes well.

Tomorrow we are heading to Gbonkolenken chiefdom to visit the school in Mathombo and the clinic in Makonkorie. I also have various other things to do there (meet with the women, visit the other schools, meet with the teachers receiving scholarships for teacher training and do a teacher workshop!). We may stay over night and come back on Saturday, but I'm not sure about that yet.

The work has begun

As I mentioned in my last post, this last week has been busier than my first few weeks in Sierra Leone. Things feel like they are finally picking up steam. Just like with any new job, it has taken time for me to settle in, figure out what my priorities should be, get to know the people involved, and really get started on the work. Add in adjusting to a new community and culture, and it makes for a somewhat slow start. I very much appreciate the time I took at the beginning to visit various schools and communities, do language training, and more or less get adjusted, but it's great that more concrete things are now happening on the work front.

I gave my first teacher training workshop this past weekend, on Sunday. First of all, the date was originally planned for Saturday, but on Thursday afternoon we discovered that donors who built the two new schools in Maso and Makambray (from Plan) were coming to visit on Saturday. With half of the teachers attending the workshop coming from those two villages, we had to reschedule, so we moved the workshop to Sunday. Unfortunately, this conflicted with attending church services for some, so the turnout was a bit lower than it might otherwise have been. However, we still had 22 teachers attend, so I'm pleased with that.

Overall the workshop went well I think. Rather than focusing on training on learning methods (since I am not a teacher myself, I didn't feel comfortable offering that kind of training), the workshop focused on peace education and classroom management. It was really a follow up to a workshop held by PSI and cdpeace here in January. That day-long workshop focused on eliminating corporal punishment in schools (now illegal in Sierra Leone). The workshop I did yesterday offered a quick review of the key items learned at that workshop and then checked in with the teachers about how things are going in terms of the goal of eliminating corporal punishment. My role was as facilitator rather than expert, which was exactly what I wanted.

I'm generally very  impressed by the teachers here. Even though many of them do not earn salaries (our work here is primarily focused on the volunteer teachers), they are always eager to learn new skills. Some of the teachers who attended the workshop walked 5 miles on a Sunday afternoon just to be there. Teachers seem very dedicated to improving their teaching and creating a more peaceful classroom and community. At the end of our session we brainstormed about ideas for future workshops that cdpeace & PSI might offer. Among the subjects mentioned were child-centred learning techniques, using local materials as teaching tools, agricultural training, training in activities like games, sports and music, human rights training, and record-keeping and computer training. Classroom management is a major issue as well, especially with the huge class sizes here (for example, my neighbour in Mapaki, Fatmata, teaches nursery at the school in Maso and has 75 children in her class, ranging in age from 2 to 5 years old). There is obviously a great need for ongoing support for teachers here, and PSI and cdpeace are both working to meet that need in whatever way possible. It is also inspiring to hear the teachers talk about what they can do to help themselves without waiting for outside support (e.g. from government) that may never come.

Also on the work front, I have done my first few interviews for my research. I have started with interviews with my key informants - people in the community who are knowledgeable about women's health and are in a leadership role. Already some interesting findings and ideas have come up, and  I am really looking forward to starting the interviews with local women themselves, hopefully later this week. Lots of typing to transcribe interviews is ahead for me!

I will be out of touch for the next two days. Tomorrow morning I am heading to Lungi (where the airport is located) to pick up three visitors from Canada arriving late in the evening. The visitors are Jane Gloor and Nancy and Vaughn Wellington. Jane is a pediatrician and the parent of a student at Parkview school, one of the schools in Canada that is twinned with a school in Sierra Leone (Mathombo school). They will spend a week in Paki Masabong and Gbonkolenken chiefdoms visiting schools and clinics and then are planning a week of holidays.

On our way through Freetown to the airport I'm also planning to stop in to the grocery store. I'm inordinately excited about this, especially the prospect of getting my hands on some real cheese and maybe some nutella and/or some jam :) I'll report back on all my food goodies when I return to Mapaki on Wednesday.

Freetown – September 10

My second full day in Salone (term of endearment for Sierra Leone) was spent in Freetown. Freetown is a bit of a frenetic city. There are people and cars and noise everywhere, even at night. It actually took us most of the day just to get out of the city. We went for brunch at a café called Bliss and I ate the last pastry I’ll probably eat for a long while. We then had a few errands to run, but actually spent much of the day waiting.

By the time we arrived in Makeni, the capital city of the Northern Province (about a 2.5 hour drive on the only paved highway in the country) it was dark. It gets dark here around 7 or 7:15, and by 8 pm it is pitch black. The dark is a bit hard to get used to. For one thing, it’s kind of a weird feeling for it to be dark so early yet still warm. For another thing, when it is dark, it is REALLY dark, since there are no street lights and very few outdoor lights. Lanterns or candles are generally used in the evening and I have been making liberal use of my headlamp too (thanks Chris!).

We stopped for dinner in Makeni (meat on a stick from a street vendor, yummy!). then drove on to Mayagba, where the cdpeace main office is located, and where Heidi and I spent the night. Heidi was living in Mayagba, but has just moved to Makeni in order to be able to easily access the internet every day (if you want more of a background on Heidi, or anyone else I’m mentioning, see the “people” post, which I’ll update whenever I meet someone new – I will bookmark it in the links section). We arrived in Mayagba after 11 pm, so no one was around. People generally seem to go to bed early and get up quite early here, which suits me just fine! MKK (Mohammed K. Kamara), who runs the guesthouse for cdpeace, did get up to greet us and make sure we had everything we needed though.

Arrival in Sierra Leone – September 9

Leaving home is always hard. I will miss all my friends and family back home immensely, especially my husband. I know the time will go by quickly, and the experience will be well worth it, but it’s still hard to say good bye. In the days leading up to my departure, and even in London and on the flight to Freetown, I kept thinking to myself “wow, I can’t believe I’ll be in Africa on Tuesday night.” I found it kind of surreal and impossible to really understand until I arrived.

After an uneventful journey from Canada (which is what all good journeys should be!), I arrived in Sierra Leone at about 10 pm on Tuesday, September 8. Luckily for me, I was met at the airport by three people: Harold (Thomas’s cousin), Amadou (Saidu’s cousin), and Heidi, a cdpeace volunteer here in Sierra Leone. Both Amadou and Harold work at the airport and helped me get my bags and go through customs, which was nice. Then Heidi helped me change some money and took me to the guesthouse in Lungi where we stayed that night.

(An aside about the international airport in Freetown – it’s not actually in Freetown, it’s in Lungi. In order to get into Freetown proper from the airport you have several choices: take a helicopter or hovercraft (each takes about 20 minutes I think and costs around $60), drive around the bay (which takes about 5 hours) or take the ferry, which is what the locals do. We took the ferry in the next day – more on that later.)

Arriving in Sierra Leone was kind of overwhelming. Even though I feel that I did a lot of preparation before coming here in terms of finding out what to expect and reading about the country, actually experiencing it was totally different. You can only mentally prepare for something so much. Anyways, realising that I was actually in Sierra Leone and was going to be here for the next few months was initially somewhat of a shock. The first night was quite hard as I felt sad and homesick. It took me a day or two to get over that feeling of shock properly, and although I am still homesick at times, I feel much more adjusted and acclimatized at this point.

The first night in Lungi we stayed in a Guesthouse called the Gateway. It wasn’t bad – they had electricity and running water. Well, the water was kind of running when we arrived, and not at all the next day, but at least in theory they had running water. I “flushed” my first toilet by pouring water in from a bucket :-)

The following day, two of Heidi’s friends met us in Lungi (KK and Rabia, both ex-pats working for NGOs in Makeni). After dropping KK’s sister off at the airport, we headed for Freetown. We took the ferry over. It cost us 5,000 Leones (LE) for a first class ticket (equivalent to about $1.25 CDN). I certainly wouldn’t have done this by myself on my first day in Sierra Leone, but KK and Rabia speak excellent Krio and know their way around quite well, so I felt very well taken care of. As a first class passenger on the ferry (about a 40 minute ride), we got to sit on hard benches and were treated to a Sierra Leonean comedy routine. I’m afraid that most of it was lost on me as my Krio is so far pretty non-existent, but other people were laughing!

We arrived in Freetown around 10 pm and found a cab to take us to the guesthouse that Heidi had arranged for us. I can see already that it is always important to haggle on the price in Sierra Leone, and even more so if you are white. The cab driver started at 30,000 LE, but got talked down to 12,000.

The taxi ride itself was an adventure. Firstly there was both a driver and his assistant, as well as the 4 of us as passengers, so we were a little squished in. Then, the car stopped 4 times while we were in it, twice in the middle of the road. Apparently there was a problem with the fuel line (although I really doubt that is all that was wrong with the car). Finally we made it to the gas station where the taxi refuelled and managed to get to our destination without any more stops. When the cab stopped for the fourth time before hitting the station, the assistant who was sitting beside me and who was from Guinea so spoke French turned to me apologetically and said “African cars sont comme ca. L’Afrique, c’est difficile” (translation: African cars are like that. Africa is hard).