Week 5

“The magic of this place never failed him: here he kept his foothold on the very edge of a strange continent”

I have finally read Graham Greene's Heart of the Matter, the novel he wrote after visiting Sierra Leone, and which is set in Freetown. I have thoroughly enjoyed it (although it slows down at bit near the end) and have included a number of quotes I found relevant and pertinent. It it always interesting, when reading an historical account of a place (even if it is a fiction) to see the similarities that are still evident.

“What do the Syrians do?”

“Make money. They run the stores up country and most of the stores here. Run diamonds too.”

'The Syrians', is a descriptive mistake that existed during British rule, and indeed continues today, as the people in question are actually Lebanese. With around 6,000 Lebanese here, they make up the largest non-African ethnic group, and have been here for over a hundred years. They are still very much involved in the business and diamond industries, as Greene highlighted in 1948.

“In front of the old cotton tree, where the earliest settlers had garnered their first day on the unfriendly shore, stood the law courts and police station, a great stone building like the grandiloquent boast of weak men”

All three of these are still here – the tree is now the center of a large round-about, where the two major roads in the west of the city (including Saika Stevens road) converge into the classic 'heart' of the city. The law courts, looking very much out of place in the concrete drabness that now inhabits Freetown, sits next to the round-about, with its golden highlights standing out against the whitewashed walls. The police station is somewhat apart from this however, about a five minute walk closer to the sea.

“They had an infinite capacity for patience when patience was required – just as their impatience knew no bounds of propriety when they had anything to gain by it. They would sit quietly all day in a white man's backyard in order to beg for something he hasn't the power to grant, or they would shriek and fight and abuse to get serve in a store before their neighbour”

While the use of the impersonal pronoun to imply collective and universal ownership of a trait can lead to calls of cultural insensitivity, or even racism, it does help to highlight stereotypes. So while 'they' don't all act like this, even today it has been my experience that enough do to make this an accurate, if unflattering observation.

“He never listened when his wife talked. He worked steadily to the even current of sound, but if a note of distress were struck he was aware of it at once. Like a wireless operator with a novel open in front of him, he could disregard every signal except the ship's symbol and the SOS. He could even work better while she talked that when she was silent for so long as his ear-drum registered those tranquil sounds”

I don't think this one needs any explanation!

“The day was heavy with un-shed rain: already at 8.30 in the morning the body ran with sweat.”

And this one is certainly still true, even with the fans in the office, the sweating is amazing as soon as one leaves their reach. While the humidity is not (yet) as bad as Japan's, it is certainly close.

I have also finished a rather more scientific book this week, Richard Dawkins' The Greatest Show on Earth. This presents all of the evidence, and there is a lot of it, for proving how evolution has produced everything we can see today. It is a fascinating, and at times rather heavy (for a non-scientist) look at such evidence as tree-rings (proving the earth is at least 11,000 years old, enough to show the biblical based dates are wrong), up to the nature of the radioactivity of elements and dating rocks using their half-lives:

“If history-deniers who doubt the fact of evolution are ignorant of biology, those who think the world began less than ten thousand years ago are worse than ignorant, they are deluded to the point of perversity. They are denying not only the facts of biology but those of physics, geology, cosmology, archaeology, history and chemistry as well.”

Serious stuff, and I thought I would include a small quote from one of my favorite humorous fiction writers, who in his goal of lampooning just about everything, also covered this topic:

“The current state of knowledge can be summarised as thus: In the beginning, there was nothing, which exploded” Terry Pratchett Lords and Ladies.

Enough of literature, back to Sierra Leone. Last week was actually rather quiet, being office based the whole time, so there are less exiting stories (and photos) I am afraid. I did crack on Monday and buy a £1.90 tub of peanut butter. There is just something about the sweet nutty wonderfulness of the stuff that I can't refuse. It was probably my biggest weakness in Japan (where it was available in huge tubs at Costco), and at tourist shops in India, but denied me in rural Kazakhstan. So a small spoonful for desert, if there wasn't any fruit, feeds my sugar craving for a while.

There is a presidential request (order) in place here, for people to wear traditional clothes on Fridays. So colourful Africana tops and dresses make an abundant appearance ever Friday, and the volunteers have all joined in. While most bought pre-made clothing at the market, I opted for something more bespoke, and had one tailored. At £4 for the material (2 metres), and £3.50 for the labour, it was certainly more expensive than the shirts I had made in India (£9 for two), but is a bit more personal that just something from a shop, and helps spread the wealth.

Mum, any colours/patterns you are after?

I sent four postcards on Friday, so for those of you lucky enough to (hopefully) receive one, please let me know, so I can see how long it takes! The combined postage for cards was the same as the labour costs for the shirt, which I can't help thinking its rather crazy. The central post office is a huge empty Soviet-esque hulk of a building, which, given the fact no one seem to send or receive mail, makes it rather redundant. The the acute housing shortage in Freetown, Ii would be nice to see it turned into a more useful space soon.

There have been a group of American students staying at the YMCA this week, all from Acadia University on a Peace and Conflict programme. This has meant some interesting conversations, and more nights-out in Freetown that we normally manage, with all the associated logistical headaches for myself.

As many people have highlighted, there is indeed an Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone, with about eight deaths and fifty suspected cases. It goes without saying then that it has been massively, massively over-hyped in the UK press. With malaria deaths being over a hundred in the country, there are clearly larger and more consistent health problems here. Of course, any outbreak of a fatal and incurable virus is serious, and I have spent the week tightening hand-washing and health reporting procedures But still, the local response has been rather less alarmist, with people getting on with life, albeit with rather more Ebola awareness posters around. In the area of the outbreak, local tribal attitudes have, however, been anything other than helpful, with four of the initially infected people being removed from hospital by their families, who then threw rocks at medical staff. Apparently they wished to use traditional medicine to cure them, but their ignorant actions may well have signalled the death of many more people, as Ebola is mostly spread from recently deceased people to family members or medical staff.

 (Looking down onto Western Freetown)

(An unexpected sight)

On Saturday, I went to watch Sierra Leone play Swaziland as part of the qualifying for the African Cup. Both teams are truly terrible, but the audience was fully aware of this, and instead of vitriolic shouts from the crowd every time a player missed the ball, or fell over, or did both at the same time, there was general merriment. The whole experience was fun actually, with a 3/4full stadium providing plenty of noise and atmosphere. When the ambulance carrying a (slightly) injured player couldn't leave the pitch as it had been locked in, the jeering and head shaking from my neighbours suggested such an event was nothing to get angry about, but was rather an accurate example of every-day life here.

On Sunday, the sounds of street football outside the house replace the normal church bells at midday and signing from mid-morning, and the muted sounds offer a brief respite, before the dance songs start playing again in the evening.