Thursday 16 February 2012

Rhythm 18 - The World’s Biggest Toilet

(Disclaimer – this one talks about bodily functions.)

It should come as no surprise to hear that hygiene and sanitation is a challenge in Sierra Leone, and more specifically Freetown. 

Whether it’s a lack of basic toilet facilities, or waste management in general, this place is decades behind the UK. For example, Freetown has just 10 rubbish trucks for 800 tonnes of waste produced per day, whereas Hull has 30 trucks for 200 tonnes.

As such, there simply isn’t the infrastructure to support the sheer number of human beings doing their daily business on a daily basis.

This means that many men and children routinely relieve themselves in the street. But unlike Wayne Rooney and thousands of university students, they aren’t boozed up and minutes away from a working toilet. They often don’t have a choice – there isn’t a quality toilet for them to use in their vicinity.

After 14 months of Freetown living here and 10 in our gaffe in Congo Town (or Banana Water, or even White Man’s Bay – there is conjecture), I’m still not quite used to it. Very regularly I can’t help saying “come on, mate” under my breath when passing someone decorating a wall or gutter. 

Where we live we have what you might call an interesting view – at just ten feet from the sea this can vary from (a) a glorious vista out to the Atlantic Ocean, (b) rubbish wading around in the sea, (c) random dogs fighting and...yes, everyone’s favourite – (d) men wazzing into the sea at all times of day. Lovely.

As you might expect, it isn’t exactly joyful watching chap after chap (of all ages) go over to the waterfront and do what they’ve got to do. It’s frequently met with a similar sigh and rueful chuckle, such as when you see someone pissing next to a ‘nor piss naya’ (or ‘don’t piss here’) sign on a main road.

This might be being a tad uncouth here, but I count myself amongst the army of people who see little bother in going for a number one in the sea when swimming. It’s simply not taboo.

Which makes me wonder whether it’s simply being a bit wet (see what I did there) to tut at people weeing into the sea from the mainland. It’s all the same sea and everything ends up there eventually – so why does it matter if it’s done in eye shot of the offender’s community?

Then I come to my senses. And go back to my tried and trusted tutting and slightly condescending rendition of "come on, mate."

Monday 30 January 2012

Rhythm 17 - Craig Bellamy

As footballer’s reputations go, there are few worse than that of Craig Bellamy. Numerous teams and signing bonuses, fights in night clubs, fallings out with teammates including golf club weaponry...you name it, Craig has allegedly done it.

You would think of potentially hundreds of current players who are overtly ‘nicer’ than Bellamy on the pitch, and would consider a similar amount more likely to give away hundreds of thousands of pounds to start a football academy in a developing country like Sierra Leone – the seventh poorest in the entire world.

You know where I’m going with this by now. And as it goes, we happened to visit the Craig Bellamy Football Academy at the tail end of last year. It was quite the experience.

The basic premise of the academy is to recruit the best young players in Sierra Leone, put them through a rigorous training scheme and high quality schooling, with the end goal being that some of them are able to gain scholarships to overseas universities in which the next generation of ‘leaders’ – read into that what you will – that will drive the development of the country on their return.

On the day we visited, the academy team were playing another local team on the best pitch in the entire country. That isn’t hard, of course – the national stadium pitch is effectively weeds – but the surface was good enough for the football to be a high standard.

One player stood out, in more ways than one. Taller than the rest by about a foot, the young striker bagged a hat trick like it was routine. It turns he was one of three players to train with Cardiff City over the summer, in which he more than impressed. Watch this space.

What is truly great about the initiative is the national youth league that Bellamy has set up with the hard work of the organisation that supports the academy. There was simply no such thing in existence when the academy started, but now it is really taking shape.

The wonderfully quirky and forward thinking aspect of the league is that academic achievement and endeavour are taken into account. As such, if a player hasn’t been to school, or has misbehaved in some way, he simply can’t play in the game at the weekend.

As ludicrous coincidence would have it, a documentary entitled ‘Craig Bellamy’s African Dream’ is on ITV4 this week. I would heartily encourage you to watch it. See below for a preview clip:

 

So there you have it, Craig Bellamy is a nice guy after all. And given the way he’s playing right now, his win bonuses will keep the academy and foundation going for a good while yet. Long may it continue.