Peace Corps Journal

Sunday, February 22, 1976, 10:00 pm - Day 26

Peace Corps had a party at Makeni yesterday. They probably chose there because it is just about at the center of Sierra Leone. There were about 80 people out of the 200 total Peace Corps in the country. Many were busy so they couldn't make it. A 1 year old pig was the main course of the dinner and everyone said it was fantastic. For many of them it was the first meat that they had seen in a year and a half that had any fat on it. Besides the pork, we also had potato salad and noodles, both of which are a luxury over here. At the party were also some Italian, canadian, and British volunteers. English accents are really neat and also I probably heard every British bar song ever written by the time the party was over.

I would like to refer you back to what I wrote on February 6, 1976, about my idea of the Peace Corps image and what the volunteers were doing wrong. First, I have gotten to know the six volunteers mentioned there, and I find them alot more acceptable now that I know them a little more. Shooting bottle caps seems to be done by all of the Peace Corps people here and I am trying to learn their technique. I still think that shooting bottle caps inside the bar is unacceptable but there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with shooting them outside. I was once worried about the littering aspect of it but now I have seen a few of the shop keepers walking into the street and throwing out their bottle caps, so that now I figure that if they do it, then there isn't anything wrong with my doing it too. Second, about the style of dress of the Peace Corps, dressing comfortably seems to be the rule, but I think they should try to keep the clothes clean and in good shape and not to dress like a slob. Peace Corps volunteers really do work, although sometimes it doesn't seem that way.

Tuesday, February 24, 1976, 9:00 am - Day 28

Yesterday we went with Bob, who is on the mobile unit of the Feeder Roads project. He has two roads going just a few miles from Bo. One has a D4 tractor and the other a D6. These do the clearing and also rough cut and fill. In another week or so he is supposed to get a grader to put in the drainage ditches and to finish the road surface. We stopped off to see the D4 operate and to see how it ran. Bob hopped on and ran the machine for about 10 minutes while the operator and the rest of us sat back and watched. I then accused him of wasting all of our time by doing what the operator was bing paid to do. Bob later said that he almost "punched my lights out". Bob had a good reason for riding the machine. He says he rides each machine a little every day to see how they are running and if anything seems to be wrong with them.

I also had my first Honda accident yesterday. We were using the Hondas to go see the roads and I got into a stretch of loose gravel on the road in a curve. I was going too fast and when I went to brake, I must have used the front brake more than the back. I think I went right over the top and landed on the grass at the side of the road, and scratched my right arm and my left cheek. I don't have a black eye but I do have a bump there. I was going about 40 kilometers (30 miles) per hour at the time. For the rest of the day I was extra cautious and I don't think I will ever use my front brake again on the dirt.

From 9:00 pm last night until 2:30 am this morning, we went to a party that a village was having in honor of the road that was being built. For the trip there and back we went in a tipper. We had 4 in the front and probably over 100 people squeezed into the back, all going over about 12 miles of bumpy dirt road.

At the party I had my first beer. I could only drink about 2 inches of it and I don't see how people can drink the stuff, because I didn't like the taste of it at all. We also had a huge platter of rice which we all ate out of at the same time, and they were getting after me for eating so slow but I made up for it by eating for about 15 minutes more after the rest were full. We also had many native songs and dances presented for us. One in particular had a fore-singer (who was just a girl of about 14) who would sing a line and then the rest would sometimes repeat it but other times would respond with something like "ya!". There were only about 4 or 5 different lines to the song, but they would continue over and over in a cycle so that the songs sometimes went on for 15 to 20 minutes. For musical accompianment they had a small log hollowed out with slits cut in the side which they would tap with sticks and aslo a dried gourd with pebbles inside which was probably the loudest instrument I have ever heard. Even so, the singing could be heard clearly above the music. While this was going on they would be dancing a slow shuffle in a circle while being packed as closely together as they could be. Sometimes it seemed they would be singing to a particular individual and then that individual would give them some coins.

Wednesday, February 25, 1976, 8:30 am - Day 29

Yesterday we traveled to Rotifunk where we will stay until Thursday. Fred, another volunteer on the mobile Feeder Roads unit, is finishing up a road here with a grader. The grader is digging the ditches along each side and also putting the right amount of camber (or crown) on the road. he says he should be done here by Friday, after which he will move up to the roads that Bob is working on around Bo.

Last night we traveled to Moyamba for dinner. There are a few volunteers there and they had made spagetti, french garlic bread, and pumpkin pie for us. All of it tasted really fine. I also had 4 beers at the dinner. They seemed to taste better, but I still can't say that I like the taste. i don't think that I was drunk in the sense that I might do something that I wouldn't normally do, but I seemed to be a little slower with my movements and keeping my balance was something that I had to concentrate on. I wouldn't want to try to drive after I had been drinking, and I don't think that I will drink if I know that I will have to do some driving. Other times, I don't think that I will have too many. Some of the people here can put down 10 to 20 beers a day sometimes, but I won't even try to come close. One reason I started was that in Sierra Leone you can buy beer or soft drinks only. There is no safe milk and no fruit juices. I have had so many soft drinks since I have come here that I think they would start affecting my teeth if I continued consuming them at the same rate. Beer, on the other hand, is not carbonated, so it won't hurt your teeth, but it does have the side affect of making you drunk, which I don't like to see in people.

Wednesday, February 25, 1976, 8:00 pm - Day 29

Today we went out and watched the grader work. We will always have Sierra Leoneon operators for the equipment and they do good work. The grader operator showed us what all of the knobs and pedals and levers were for, and we even got to try to run it. I could get it moving okay, but getting it to grade where it should was a different story. While you steer you have to continuously adjust the position of the blade and also keep an eye on where you are going and on the position and depth of the grade. The grader is used for digging the ditches and for all the finishing touches on the sides of cuts and putting the right slope on the road surface.

Friday, February 27, 1976, 10:00 pm - Day 31

Well, today was our last day of training. We had 2 tests today. The first was on the Honda. The third question on the written section was most appropiate. It said, "What is the proper braking procedure while going down a hill on a gravelly road?" I learned the answer to this the hard way. You should use your back brake only and your front not at all. If you do use your front you are likely to do like I did. The riding part wasn't too hard. They had us come down a straightaway as slow as we could, then do a couple of figure 8's as tight as we could, then ride over a few small hills, and finally make a panic stop without losing control of the bike or killing the engine.

The second test we had was our language test. It was the same test that we took a few weeks ago but this time we were supposed to answer the questions more fully.

We had dinner in Tikonko tonight at one of the volunteer's houses. It was so that we could try out his cook, whom they were trying to find another place for. he made us pizza and chocolate cake and I think I ate too much, but it was so good! we decided to hire him and we will be paying him Le48.00 (Le12.00 each) per month to do the cooking, sweeping and washing. He is also supposed to be very honest.

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