Thursday, May 6, 1976, 11:00 pm - Day 100

I have two basic problems to deal with. The first is to try and get some good constructive work out of people that seem to have a strong desire to do as little as possible. Yhey always skimp on the work and have to be both watched and nudged constantly. The other type is almost as bad but at least there is hope with this one. It is working with people that are willing to work and like to work but don't know what they are doing or, what seems worse, those that think they know the right way but have it be the wrong way as far as I am concerned. This last one often comes up in dealing with my supervisors, both of whom have been building culverts for many years. My often thought but never said comment is "you'd think that they would've learned to do it right by now, then!"

In going out and looking at some of the culverts that were already "done", I have seen that we have plenty, plenty work left to do because none of the culverts have actually been totally finished and the area cleaned and trimmed like it needs to be.

Friday, May 7, 1976, 8:00 pm - Day 101

When I got out to the Biawala Road I noticed that the first few culverts are actually completed totally and look good. One of Mr.Bangura's masons was doing the stone pitching and he couldn't have done it better even if I was standing over him showing him just where it should go and how it should slope, etc. Besides the good job of stone pitching, all of the ditches were finished and the roadside groomed and everything. It was good to see that someone knows what they are doing because I wasn't quite sure there for awhile.

Work at the 4 ft culvert wasn't doing too bad either. They seemed to have the situation well in hand. It rained yesterday afternoon and they had to deal with a 6 inch deep puddle surrounding the culvert but they got it taken care of and I then set stakes to mark the place for the headwall foundations. They should have been poured today and so tomorrow we should be ready to setup our new headwall box and cast a headwall.

My problems started at the meeting. Today we had our first Engineers' meeting, which we shall be having once a week. My word for this meeting is "controversial". Henry Lisk, our engineering advisor and supposed immediate boss, chaired the meeting. He started by presenting the format for our monthly report. It seems that he wants information collected on a daily basis and to use his forms and nothing but his forms on which to put this information. This way a monthly report would consist of turning in these forms. My position here is that my form which I am using now gives me all of the required information and I don't want to change to something that will be more hassle. Also he says that he wants a daily record and not just a monthly summary in monthly reports. This part also bothers me because I don't see why they would be interested in all of the particulars. I would think that all they wanted to see would be just the total so that they could work out averages and that all of the other information would just tend to bog them down.

The last problem of the day was concerning the high fill that Mr.Bangura is working on. This fill section has been a thorn in my side the whole time I've had it. It all started about a month and a half ago when Dave Woverton took me out to show me the problems that they were having with it and what I could do about it. The fill is about 18 feet high and kind of steep, with the road width at the top not having much room to spare. Ruts were forming on the sides and dirt was washing into the culvert at the bottom. Dave suggested putting a curb along the top on each side and running stone-pitched drains down the sides. I agreed and added that tie rods should be used to keep the curbs from sliding down the hill. He wanted it done right away and I kept hinting to Mr.Sesay that we should start on it, but it kept getting put off.

I designed the curb and reinforcing and tie rod spacing, and went so far as to bring the steel from Segbwema. Then Edward Booth (another VSO engineer) came along and asked what I had planned for that fill section and so I told him about the curb and the tie rod idea, and he wasn't too sure about the tie rod part and also pretty much insisted that I include a gutter along the curb. He then wanted me to draw up neat detailed plans to show Les Galagher to see what he thought. I was a bit hesitant at that because I thought that since I was the engineer, then it was up to me to pick the design and that I didn't have to get it okayed by anyone. He then explained that just because we were building bush roads didn't mean that we should be bush in our thinking out things and said that it was a sign of mental laziness for me to expect to work from scribblings on the back of an envelope (I had my plan roughed out in my notebook and it was meant only to figure quantities). I then agreed to draw up the plan in a more orderly manner and so I used a ruler this time, and put it in my notebook so it was the same thing, just neater without the figuring done over the drawing like before.

The matter stopped there for a bit until Mr.Bangura's crew started work two weeks ago. They began work on the fill without a clear idea of what they were doing. This was because Mr.Bangura had his idea, I had mine, and Dave, Edmund, and Henry all came around giving their ideas. Mr.Bangura came up with the idea of adding a few pipe sections on each side and making new headwalls, which Henry agreed to and it looked good to me. Therefore Mr.Bangura's crew was able to excavate around the culvert and then lay the pipe without any conflict. After that it has been conflict and confusion all of the way, and I've been stuck in the middle of it.

Henry seemed to want to put a reinforced concrete retaining wall in for a headwall and extend it out about 20 feet on either side. Mr.Bangura also had that in mind but when Henry was back in Bo I said no to that and had him put in normal headwalls. He did that okay but when he got around to stone pitching he managed to extend it out to about 20 feet on either side of the headwalls before I knew what he was doing, so I guess he got his way anyway. We next started adding fill on the side and it was going along fine because I spent the day helping and working on it to see that it was done right. This brings us up to the meeting time.

At the meeting Henry Lisk told me that he and Les Galagher discussed the high fill situation and that it would be best to put a concrete curb on the top and a single slope on the sides. They vetoed my idea of leaving off the curb and cutting the slope into two sections by putting a ditch 2/3 of the way up. Henry said that my solution could be too expensive and wouldn't work anyway, both of which I don't agree with, and those are the same two thoughts that I had for their solution. He put me in a "Do-it-his-way-or-else" position so I guess I will have to make one slope and put a concrete curb on the top. But I won't take any of the responsibility for it when it washes away.

Wednesday, May 12, 1976, - Day 106

The court and the net performed beautifully. We didn't have any problems with either, and also it was easy to judge whether a ball landed inside or outside of the court because the bottle spacing is close enough to be able to see both the ball and the bottles near where the ball lands. The only problem we had was with the volleyball. I bought it from a street vender in Freetown for Le3.00 and it was a cheapy. By the end of the day I counted 5 holes in it and we were having to pump it up at the start of every game. We had 6 people on a side and the games were long and good. The court is smaller than regulation, but it held 6 people per side very nicely without them feeling overcrowded.

Also Sunday we borrowed an oven which fits over a burner on the stove which we are going to bring to the blacksmith to get a copy made. Last night was the first time we used it and Ali made pizza for us.

My birthday was Monday and I am now 24 years old. Nothing special on that day except that one of my housemates bought a canned fruit cake which he called my birthday cake.