Nothing like a nice romp through a swamp to get one’s blood flowing. Especially when you are sinking into the mud up to your knees and each step gets you stuck yet again. Add in 90% humidity and 90+ temps and voila, fun times! I feel like I’m getting some stuff done today which is nice. The sky is dark all around like it’s going to storm any minute and it is so so so so hot. We had a long meeting today about different things. I made ‘official’ contracts for every worker (trap diggers, trap monitors, and cooks) so that now they know exactly what their job entails and if they sign, then I shouldn’t have as much grief firing people.
I don’t think I ever told you the tarantula story. I was walking through the swamp (or heaving through the swamp? Not sure it counts as walking when every step you take means you have to pull your heavy boot out of thick mud…) behind Kenewa when I ran smack dab into a spider web (was looking at the ground, not ahead). I felt something big on my head but I just thought it was a regular spider so I tried to brush it off. My hand got stuck on the web and whatever was on the other end was stuck too. It went from my head to my shoulder and I kept shaking my hand to try to disengage the web. The guy behind me took it and started to throw it when he got bit. It was a nice ol’ hairy tarantula. Poor guy was in quite a bit of pain for the rest of the day and I felt a little guilty about being so relieved that it wasn’t my faec that got bit by a tarantula. See? Great story!
Today I got to hold a dead Gaboon viper. This is the second one this one farmer has caught in his field with a cable snare. Makes me a little nervous to go to his farm, but when a report came that hippos were eating rice (so far unheard of) I had to go check it out. Don’t worry, I haven’t seen a live one yet!
The past week was very interesting. On the way to Freetown to take Anna to the airport, we did a very roundabout trip. First was a meeting in Bo with EFA people and Transboundary Peace Park people to see how we could go about collaborating on environmental education activities. The next day I gave a presentation in Kenema to students, Gola Forest Programme people, Transboundary people. There were probably 20 or so people and they asked great questions and it was nice chatting with people about hippos.
Anna and I tried to get from Kenema to Makeni the same day so we could get to Kabala after that but it did not work out (all the podapodas had gone). So we got up early the next morning and got a podapoda fairly quickly. Unfortunately the darn thing broke down (no oil on the gears or something like that) and we were stuck on the side of the road for a couple hours. We realized we would never make it to Kabala in time for it to be worth our time so we started making plans to go to the beach instead. We got down in Masiaka (although the driver had given us the oh-so-tempting offer of going to Makeni and spending the night in bed with him! Haha!) to get a podapoda going in the direction of the beach. However there was a nice white NGO landrover just sitting there at the junction so we thought maybe we could hitch a ride. Turns out they were going to Kabala! So we switched out plans yet again and got in a very nice air conditioned car. The only problem with the ride was that they decided that 80mph+ was a great speed to go zipping through villages. A wee bit scary. We made a trip that should have taken 5-6 hours in less than 3.
They dropped us at a guesthouse outside of town. It looked like we were the only guests there and the place was sooo quiet and pretty. We were pretty excited so we set out to see the town. Immediately we were hounded by the people of the village. “White white white!!” they scream. The children come and grab us. It was a little bit overwhelming. I mean everywhere they yell at me but it wasn’t quite like it was in this village. So then we go try to find food. The guidebook raved about this one place so we went there – no food. They directed us to a place that looked extremely shady. So we immediately turned around and had some street food instead. When we were finished we went back to the guesthouse, and were dismayed to find that the compound was full of people drinking and shouting. They had turned on the generator, which was conveniently located right next to our window, so we had to close the window because of the fumes. So the night was spent miserably hot and with loud putputput of the generator next to our ears (the other rooms had filled up with the drinking people so no chance to change). We caught the first bus outta there the next morning, never looking back.
Then it was on to Lakka where we spent a wonderful day playing in the waves, walking down the beach, eating seafood, and just relaxing to the gentle whoosh of the ocean. Something I desperately needed after being a bit stressed out over the past month. The day after that was shopping downtown for cloth and groceries. Then I had to see Anna off at the water taxi – a very sad moment! I might have sniffled a little on the lonely walk back to my hotel room.
The next day was spent mostly at the Embassy applying for a driver’s license and meeting the new Public Affairs Officer who I can work with a bit. Also did some email fun.
Yesterday was spent getting back to Tiwai – I hate that it takes me 12 hours to go like 200 miles. Our bus broke down outside of Waterloo (a town) and they had to send another from Freetown. Then I arrived in Bo 2 hours late so I missed lunch with my MSF friend. I had to get off the bus early and catch a motorcycle taxi to try to get to the Potoru podapodas in time (they all leave by 2pm usually). I got to the park and look around and all the Potoru cars are gone. So I call one of them (The one I told to wait for me) and they were in a different part of the town. I call another motorcycle taxi and we speed off to catch the podapoda. Halfway there my taxi gets a flat. We offload everything, catch another taxi, and continue on our way. Got to Potoru without too many hassles (the podapoda made a detour to a funeral so got to see a lot of people wailing and had a moment’s panic that the corpse might be IN the podapoda).
When I got to Potoru, I was met by my awesome guys – Kenewa, Bockary and Minah. We loaded up and I was shocked to see that my motorcycle gas tank was empty. I had left it over half full. So we all went back to go to the office to see what happened. Everybody claimed ignorance so I threatened “police action” if they didn’t produce a gallon and a half by today. Minah has gone to Potoru to get it so we will see….I guess I won’t be leaving my motorcycle in the EFA office again….
Well other than that everything is pretty normal. Oh, there was an attempted coup of the Barri Chiefdom Paramount Chief. It was stopped in time and nobody got hurt, though some people are getting arrested now. Apparently some of the local chiefs and rich people had hired mercenaries in Freetown to come and overthrow the chief but they were detained and arrested in Bo. Whew! Yup, that’s my life over the past week. Fun eh???
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