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Sunday, March 7, 1976, 12:00 noon - Day 40
Yesterday we all went out to help survey for a bridge. I found that I knew what was going about how to work the instrument and on what was needed to be done. I could probably be very content just working a transit for the rest of my life. The first thing we did was the 2-peg test, which is to see if the level needs adjusting. After that we set up on the road centerline and found perpendiculars to it, to locate the bridge foundation points. Lastly we set up at a distance and found the relative elevations of all the points. That is all of the information they need to locate a bridge once they know the bridge design.
Friday night we had a party at the other volunteers' house in Daru, and last night we went to Bunabu Junction for another party. We seem to average about 2 a week and it's good because we get to know alot of the other volunteers.
I have staked out a soccer field next to the house and during my spare time I will try to get out to clear the weeds and level out the ground. It measures about 20 feet wide and 35 feet long, so it should be just the right size for teams of 2 to 4 each.
Monday, March 8, 1976, 8:00 pm - Day 41
I think my soccer field will turn into a combination soccer field / volleyball court. We have enough volunteers here in Daru to get a good game going. I have cleared about 2 feet on all sides of the area and I think I might just burn out the inside area.
Field burning is an interesting point here in Sierra Leone. There are no fire departments around and they have a completely different outlook on forest fires than we do in California. The first point is that in Sierra Leone the fires are started on purpose. Small fires to clear the brush along the roadsides and larger fires to clear the land for farming. No one tries to put out a fire which is burning, but amazingly they seem to go out by themselves after awhile. Probably because things are still green, even at the end of the rainy season. This is the time of the year that most of the burning is done, and lately I've been seeing about 5 to 10 big fires a day, each with its own giant column of smoke rising up a few thousand feet and able to be seen for miles around.
I got introduced to my first assignment today. I will be in charge of culvert installation on the Biawala-Bemura Road. I have one foreman under me who has a million years of experience (11) so that he will be teaching me quite a bit in the next few days. There are also supposed to be 50 villagers helping out with the work.
Wednesday, March 10, 1976, 8:00 pm - Day 43
Both yesterday and today I have been finding out how culverts are installed. I have done it by picking up a shovel and working with the communal labor. It is hard work, but we did get things accomplished. To install a culvert, a diversion road must be first built. The heavy machinery can usually be got to do that. The next part is excavation to make room for the pipe. The bottom of the excavation should be of suitable material and should be compacted and have a small slope in the right direction. The culvert sections are then fitted into place and mortared together. The next part is constructing the forms for the headwalls and then pouring them. The excavation is then backfilled and compacted to a height of 2 feet higher than the top of the pipe. The road diversion is now removed and the ground around either end of the culvert is cleaned up and brought to a level even with the bottom of the pipe. The last two days I have left the house at 6:45 am and did not come home until 6:30 pm. The days are long and the sun is hot, but I think that I am starting to get used to it because today I think I did about as much work as the Sierra Leoneons although I still sweat alot more.
Thursday, March 11, 1976, 8:00 pm - Day 44
I am finding out more and more about what I am expected to do as an engineer. I have the final say on culvert location and design and it is up to me to see that materials, tools, and men are all in the right place at the right time, and also I think I have to locate places where sand and stone can be obtained.
Friday, March 12, 1976, 12:00 midnight - Day 45
I am sick. I have diaharea today and riding home on my Honda was really a pain because I had pains in my stomach which were aggrivated by my Honda bouncing up and down. I started getting a fever early this evening and it kept growing on me as the evening progressed. At 11:30, I finally took my temperature and it was 103.2F. I took two asprin then and I think I will now at least make it through the night. I was dreaming of trying all kinds of different solutions to my problem of getting myself to the hospital. Everything I would try wouldn't work because each remedy would help one part of me but would be counter-acting another part. These two asprins that I took seem to be working now. My fever still gives me a headache but it is alot more bearable now than it was.
According to my medical kit literature I think I have amoebas, which are one-celled organisms which are gotten by drinking unclean, unboiled water. The symtoms are diaharea, stomach pains, and fever. they eat into your liver if they are allowed to exist long enough. They are gotten rid of by taking about 9 tablets a day for 5 or 6 days and these tablets need to be prescribed by a doctor. there is a hospital about 10 miles away which I will have to try to get to tomorrow. The work that I was planning to do tomorrow and probably all of next week will just have to wait. With the fever, this is the sickest that I have been in this country, and before I took those asprin I thought that I was close to the verge of kicking the bucket. I thought that at any moment I might have gone into uncontrollable fits of either throwing up, shitting my pants, urinating my pants, or blacking out, because I felt that I was on the verge of doing any of these things and I thought that with one false move I would.
I am writing this now because I feel I have to get it all down and also because I feel that I won't be able to get any sleep anyway, even though I feel that I am completely exhausted.
Saturday, March 13, 1976, 7:00 am - Day 46
My temperature is down to 100.3F this morning and I feel alot better than I did last night, but I still feel sick. I was able to sleep for a few hours early this morning.
My mind is still in a bit of a fog and it is hard for me to think straight at the moment. I got a letter from home which I found sitting in my room this morning, and I find it very hard for me to make any sense out of it. I will have to sit down and read it over later when I am more normal.
Saturday, March 13, 1976, 10:00 pm - Day 46
I didn't get out to see a doctor, but I think I will have to before too much longer. My fever has cooled down for today, but I still have the runs. I was on my way out to the latrine about an hour ago, but I didn't make it in time. It came out runny with nothing solid to it at all, and soaked my jeans clear down to the tops of my shoes. I had to then make a trip down to the river where I washed me and my clothes.
I spent all of the day just sitting around the house and used up some of the time by carving myself a shuttle so that I could use it to make my volleyball net. I was also able to remember how to make the net after about an hour of trial and error knot tying, until I found the method that made it come out looking nice. I was also able to remember how to add rows and how to drop rows. Also, I set fire to all of the weeds on the volleyball court. Now it just needs the ground leveled out.
Sunday, March 14, 1976, 10:00 pm - Day 47
I felt really good this morning. I took my temperature and it was 97.1F. I have 2 thermometers and I checked it with both and they both came out to be 97.1F. I took my temperature just now and it is 97.5F and I feel fine, so maybe that is normal for me even though it is over one degree lower than what is considered normal. if that is so, then that would make last Friday's fever all the more high. It would put it about 6F higher than normal and I could feel it. my diaharea has dried up and I am now in my dry spell. This has been going on for about 2 to 3 weeks now, and they have been taking turns, each lasting about 2 to 3 days. I felt decent all today and felt fine when I rode my Honda out to work and back.
This afternoon I finished clearing and burning my volleyball court, but it will probably have to wait until next Sunday before we can level it. It needs to be lowered about a foot in one corner and raised about a foot in the opposite corner, so there is quite a lot of digging involved and I will have to borrow a pick because the ground is too hard for a shovel. in a couple of weeks we should possess the only volleyball court within 10 miles of Daru. we also need to buy a volleyball, but the rubber soccer balls they sell will probably work fine.
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