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Letter # 59 - Wednesday, September 20, 1978Folks,We arrived at the airport in Sierra Leone at 1:10 PM Sunday, right on schedule. We picked up Eddie Freshette at the airport in New York and so he accompanied us the rest of the way. Eddie is the volunteer that took my place when I left CARE Feeder Roads two years ago, and now he is extending. We left New York at about 5 PM and arrived in Monrovia at 6 AM. Our plane to Freetown wasn't supposed to leave until 12 noon, so we went over to the hotel to wait. It was raining hard when we landed at the airport in Sierra Leone. Eddie had mentioned that the airport was like a circus. It wasn't that way the last time we were there because the place was empty. This time though, Eddie was right. All of the passport checking and baggage claim areas were packed with people. Besides the passengers and officials, there were lots of people that wanted to carry luggage or assist the passengers in any other way, all in the hopes of getting a tip. We didn't do anything except visit with Diana's family while keeping an eye on our man. He took all 3 of our passports and got them checked through. Then he helped us round up our bags and managed to get them through Customs without them even being opened. We dashed him two leones. Sunday, September 24, 1978I couldn't seem to get this letter finished and mailed before we left for upcountry, so now you will have to wait until next Friday at least before this gets mailed. Diana and I are in Kamiendor now. The road is really bad. We had to take a lorry. The scariest parts seemed to be when the lorry leans sideways. It does that alot, as the roadway on one side is often 1 or 2 feet lower than the other. A few of the muddy spots have been dredged out by the lorry bottoms, to depths of about 3 feet.In Kamiendor I found that the work actually kept going while I was gone. We had poured the cover slab on the tank the day before we left and so I took off the formwork yesterday. While we were away, they built all of the public standpipes (taps) and also the pumphouse. All that remains low is the well, the pump, and the pipe lines. These will be done next dry season. Friday, September 29, 1978I hope to finally get this letter mailed this morning. We came back down to Freetown yesterday. Tomorrow we will be traveling up to Gbinti, near Port Loko, where we will be for the next 4 weeks. Gbinti is the site of the training program this time. The Water Supply Program has 4 new volunteers. They have been in the country for almost a week now, but so far I haven't met them yet. I might not see them until we get up to Gbinti.My assignment in this training program is that of Technical Coordinator and instructor. There aren't as many classes this year as there were last time. More free time has been scheduled so the training program should be better. Last year, everyone was getting tired because they never had a moment to themselves. Originally, Diana was to be the cook for the training program, but while we were in America they hired someone else. This other guy cooked for the education training program, and they say he knows how to cook alot of "western" food. Now, Diana is just going along for the ride. She tells me that she is not going to do anything there except help in the soccer match. We hope to use her in the left forward spot. I play left wing.
Sorry for the delay, |
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