Enjoy.
If you go down to the beach today...
On the peninsular around Freetown, there are numerous beaches with varying opinions on which is the best. The accepted logic is that the beach called River Number 2 (RN2) is probably the best allrounder, and I must admit I concur (so far). Having been to Laka beach the first weekend I arrived, we have now been the RN2 twice in the last seven days. I could regale how beautiful the sand is, how inviting the waves are, how soothing it is to have a cold Sprite when you need refreshment from bat and ball, and even how I’ve managed to avoid sunburn (using Factor 50 warpaint) – but that would be boring.
When we were arriving at the beach last weekend, we happened upon a rather interesting sight outside one of the houses on the road leading to it – a seemingly ritual hanging of 9 teddy bears! With my allergies, I’m all for keeping ones material bedfellow clean and house dust free, but this seemed like cruelty on a massive scale. When leaving RN2 in the evening, we just couldn’t help but take a picture, which you should be able to see on my Facebook profile – http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150107503502110&set=a.457041382109.244465.611592109 – and I would imagine you’d agree how it wasn’t an opportunity to miss!
Aces high
So it was Laura’s birthday on the 9th, and rest assured we celebrated in style the following Saturday. This included grilled barracuda (for me, at least), Star beer (the local tipple, and actually very palatable), Laura being sung happy birthday by the band at the bar we we’re in, and ending with the phenomenon that is...Aces nightclub.
The biggest nightclub I’ve been in for some time – perhaps since the days of Tokyo Joe’s in Preston in 1999 – Aces is something to behold. And you’d better hold onto your pocket, or you won’t see what’s in it any time soon – my empty wallet was stolen without me knowing a smidgen about it. My old ‘take the rest of your money out of your wallet and put it in your back pocket so it’s easy to access when inebriated’ trick worked a treat.
The music here is a sort of reggae and r’n’b composite, with lots of excellent Krio (the local dialect) phrases within the lyrics, and you can’t help but move to it. Rihanna and Sean Paul also feature a lot, which make me move less. However, whatever you’re dancing to (or not, as it goes) at Aces, you are also producing so much perspiration that you’d better embrace it or you’d better go home. For anyone who understands the phrase “concert legs” you’ll know exactly what I mean!
Dress for success
Pleasingly, I’m already enjoying my work here immensely. Yes, it’s only been office-based so far, but I’m learning so much already that I’m itching to get to work every day. It’s an odd feeling, as I’m sure many can imagine.
The funny side of my work is what I’m wearing. My standard issue attire is linen trousers (like wearing pyjamas to work – amazing), Birkenstock sandals (I used to hate them but I’m a believer now) and a different check shirt (no, I’m not a cowboy) for each day of the week. Snazzy, I would say – but two things come to mind regularly. Firstly, how much I’m probably and rightly ridiculed by national and international staff for wearing the same combination every day, and secondly, how hilarious it is when I look down at my legs and feet. I’ve seamlessly gone from skinny jeans and Converse to baggy linen trousers and sandals in two weeks. Joy.
The WAGs that are worth worrying about
The organisation I work for is doing some amazing work with our Children and Youth, Protection and Development (CYPD), Gender-based Violence (GBV) and Health programmes. Throughout my series of blogs, I would imagine I’ll elaborate about them a lot, especially when I go to the field.
However, I’ve already found one idiosyncrasy within one of the GBV projects – WAGs. Unsurprisingly, we’re not talking about the likes of Colleen Rooney, Danielle Lloyd or even Christine Bleakley, but Women’s Action Groups. These WAGs aren’t worrying about which velour tracksuit to wear to take the bin out, they are taking action to try and free themselves and their communities from sexual and domestic violence, which significant numbers of women still suffer from in Sierra Leone on a regular basis. A sobering thought, when you think about the UK media culture in which the real issues are supplanted by the trivialities of whether Cheryl Cole’s (now a former WAG, of course) outfit suited her this week on Karaoke Factor.
Watch your neck
On a less serious note, but also on the work front, I was issued with a new laptop on arrival at the office. Which was pleasing, but I’ve since come to realise that the pathway to hunchdom is getting shorter and shorter. Laptops are the way forward, yes, but I do feel like by 2030 (if not earlier) the evolutionary process back towards apes will be almost complete. We’ll all have repetitive strain injuries – and thus have hands like claws – and we will be so hunched that we’ll be looking up at laptop screens instead of down.
I am, of course, looking down on the screen I’m writing this on right now. Mark my words, we’ll all be of Notre Dame before too long.
Santa rides his sleigh (well, his trolley actually)
Given that Sierra Leone is around 60% Muslim, you’d expect there to be very little in the way of the same symbols that the UK would ordinarily mark Christmas with. You’d be wrong, however, as it seems to be quite the opposite.
The best ones so far have been a plastic Christmas tree that has foam balls popping out of the top of it to replicate snowfall – amazing, I so want one – and a Santa model in our local supermarket, with a trolley-full of presents. Very, very odd, but suitably in-keeping (see what I did there?) with the randomness of life in Freetown. I love it here.
This blog’s random sport shirt
I’ve been looking around since my last blog for one that meets my very high standards, and only yesterday I found the one:
Norwich City’s green away shirt, circa 2005!
The great thing about this one is that Lotus was then their shirt sponsor, very niche. This has special relevance for two reasons – one, in that I wondered straight away whether Delia would approve, and secondly that I actually know a Norwich fan. Kate, this one’s for you!
Other interesting sport factoids are that there are apparently some Wolves fans here (according to some Sierra Leonean chaps called Dennis and Mohamed I met in the sea, who also commented on how good Laura and I were at swimming – he thought we had flippers on), and that we saw a minibus carrying people to the beach that had been donated by Manchester City Supporters Club. I’ve now found some online evidence of why it’s here – http://www.mcfcfans.co.uk/blog/$blog/2010/08/23/manchester_city_take_the_bus_to_sierra_leone – which all sounds grand. Keep it up, crazy rich Abu Dhabi owners.
Signing off (not driving home) for Christmas
I’ll be taking note of all the intriguing goings-on over the break here in Sierra Leone, so make sure you check Facebook for the link to the next one. In the meantime, as it’s a suitably snowy festive period back in Blighty, what better comparison than our e-Christmas card/picture type thing:
Have a grand one, and make sure you’re all keeping in contact with yours truly.
Ciao, D.
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