Above: I did forget the name of it, but we passed this beautiful river on our last part of the journey - somewhere between Bo and Freetown. It is peak of dry season right now and the water is very low. It is fascinating to see how much human life and activities is in and around the river. People do their laundry, swim, fish and chat. The river seems to be an integral part of their life and livelihood. However, this may change a lot when the river fills up with water again and rather turns into a risk as many people cannot swim. I am very curious to see how it will look like.
This huge truck managed to drive on the incredible bumpy road all the way to Monrovia, ensuring trade between both countries. But you can imagine, it is quite a nightmare. Transport of goods is a serious challenge and certainly present constraints for intensification of trade activities.
To the right: This is my friend I.. As I said, this trip was a bit about coming home. As many know, I met Isata in 2008/2009 when I was doing my Master research in Freetown. Since then, we have never lost contact and such as three years ago I enjoyed spending time with her and the kids a lot. And as usual, we cooked - this time we prepared greens, the most expensive leaves you can find here, with rice and fish. I am just cleaning the rice of small stones, dirt and millions of ants (which actually bit my fingers annoyingly often).
Lunch time - I really missed eating from the bowl with my fingers. Food was delicious, I did not eat the fish though. But I made people happy by handing over my fish. And in return I got the best part of the rice, which you have to scrape of the pot and which is a little crunchy. To the right, there are Isata's daughters J. (with the jerry can) and S. (blowing the white balloon) as well as a neighbour kid.
My friend M. is missing here as he is taking the picture.
As it was planned, we actually managed to get in a taxi on Staurday and went to Waterloo (small, but busy town, next to Freetown) to see the land site which was purchased with my support and where a now a house shall be build on. So far, you can see preparations for the toilet (lesson learnt: This is what you always do first) and the first bunch of sandbricks which are made by Mr. M. himself. The foundation shall started in the next couple of days and the idea is to finish the first room before the rainy season starts. If they would leave the land like this, they run the risk that it might be sold a second time to someone else and then they have to fight for their rights and this needs to be avoided.
However, although it was great fun and we had a good time together, once again there were some issues which needed to be discussed. Without going into detail, I just realised once more, that I still understand so little of the dynamics, mechanims, the understanding of rationality and personal desires which exist in my friends' Lebenswelt (living environment). But by the end of the day, we managed to reach a mutual understanding in a way that provides the ground for ongoing friendship and learning from each other. And I think that might be the most you could ask for.
And while the men worked on the land, the girls had photo session. All of them like to snap and to be snapped, so we spent an hour with just taking pictures and playing around.
J. and S. were very happy and in a good mood and kept climbing on my back and competed who can sit on my lab.
Both of them are very smart girls and time and time again, I am impressed how self-responsible they act for being just 9 and 12 years old.
I. likes pictures too, so we let the girls snap us. And certainly, the guys like pictures too, so we took some in front of the sandbricks to have a nice thing to remember. The guy in the pink pants is a good friend of M. and currently stays in Waterloo to ensure that the land is safe. As said above, there is a risk that land is sold twice if you don't "occupy" properly. Freetown is about to burst and cannot take any more people, so everyone is looking for new places. Prices for land are skyrocketing and competition is huge. Waterloo is a good choice though as it is connected by paved road with the capital and also has a large market area itself. And it will grow a lot in the upcoming years.
On our way back to Free- town we certainly stopped at one the markets as Isata wanted to buy a chicken. In the picture, she is asking for advice, but I was not really helpful and recommended to better pick a brown one. Well, she went for white. So, just another passenger joined us and mingled around our feet in the car. Its future is crystal clear - to lay eggs as many as possible and then at one day to serve as proper dinner.
So far my trip to Freetown. Besides spending the weekend with my friends, I was certainly also working. It was an interesting workshop, I spare you the details though as it might be less interesting for you. Take good care, everyone near and far!
2 comments:
Well, I can relate to not understanding things a lot. And for my part, it feels like I understand mountaneous people even less than than the rest :)
I have found a new Marj though...hugs
Good morning how are you?
My name is Emilio, I am a Spanish boy and I live in a town near to Madrid. I am a very interested person in knowing things so different as the culture, the way of life of the inhabitants of our planet, the fauna, the flora, and the landscapes of all the countries of the world etc. in summary, I am a person that enjoys traveling, learning and respecting people's diversity from all over the world.
I would love to travel and meet in person all the aspects above mentioned, but unfortunately as this is very expensive and my purchasing power is quite small, so I devised a way to travel with the imagination in every corner of our planet. A few years ago I started a collection of used stamps because trough them, you can see pictures about fauna, flora, monuments, landscapes etc. from all the countries. As every day is more and more difficult to get stamps, some years ago I started a new collection in order to get traditional letters addressed to me in which my goal was to get at least 1 letter from each country in the world. This modest goal is feasible to reach in the most part of countries, but unfortunately it’s impossible to achieve in other various territories for several reasons, either because they are countries at war, either because they are countries with extreme poverty or because for whatever reason the postal system is not functioning properly.
For all this I would ask you one small favour:
Would you be so kind as to send me a letter by traditional mail from Liberia? I understand perfectly that you think that your blog is not the appropriate place to ask this, and even, is very probably that you ignore my letter, but I would call your attention to the difficulty involved in getting a letter from that country, and also I don’t know anyone neither where to write in Liberia in order to increase my collection. a letter for me is like a little souvenir, like if I have had visited that territory with my imagination and at same time, the arrival of the letters from a country is a sign of peace and normality and an original way to promote a country in the world. My postal address is the following one:
Emilio Fernandez Esteban
Calle Valencia, 39
28903 Getafe (Madrid)
Spain
If you wish, you can visit my blog www.cartasenmibuzon.blogspot.com where you can see the pictures of all the letters that I have received from whole World.
Finally I would like to thank the attention given to this letter, and whether you can help me or not, I send my best wishes for peace, health and happiness for you, your family and all your dear beings.
Yours Sincerely
Emilio Fernandez
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