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Thursday, September 2, 1976, 5:00 pm - Day 220
That incident I had with the D4 is growing bigger all of the time. Dale Humphrey, the #3 man in CARE Sierra Leone, is taking les Galagher's place while Les is away on vacation. That makes him Henry Lisk's boss for the moment. Dale Humphrey wanted to see me today, and when I went in I found out that he wanted to go over with me this report that he was writing to Richard Pagent, the #2 man, concerning my operating and breaking the D4 bulldozer. Richard Pagent is supposed to go over this report and then write one up himself, which he will give to Howard Grey, the #1 man in Peace Corps Sierra Leone. After that, who knows what will happen. With this report that Dale Humphrey is writing, he will include reports from me, Henry Lisk, and Bernard Kuhn the head mechanic. I must have spent about 3 hours with him. He agreed to make a few changes in the report, so that some of the statements were either toned down or eliminated. I'm afraid that there are still enough statements and incinuations left in the report, though, that shine a bad light on me.
We went over to the workshop, and along with Bernard we looked at the D4 and I told them how it could stand up like it did. Bernard said that it is impossible for the machine to do what I said it did without my using the lever that raises and lowers the blade. Just think! - I did the impossible!
I didn't think of it then but later I thought about what would make the blade push down without using the lever. The arm pistons which move the blade must have gotten a sudden rush of fluid, which extended the pistens, causing the blade to push against the tree and raising the front of the D4 high off the ground. This rush of fluid must have been accompanied by a pressure, and now I think that this pressure wasn't totally relieved by the time that the pistons were fully extended. This excess pressure, I think, was what must have burst the hydraulic hoses and not just the weight of the machine, as I have thought before. The blade holding up the front end is an ordinary task of the D4 and the pressure shouldn't increase by raising the front end up higher.
Now the question is "What would cause this sudden increase or surge of pressure to the pistons?" I think that tomorrow I will go in and present this new theory to Dale Humphrey.
Friday, September 3, 1976, 8:00 pm - Day 221
I never got around to telling him about my theory. I figure that I won't bother bringing up the subject, in hopes that it will sooner die down and go away. No one mentioned it today, and even Bernard the mechanic acted like all was well.
Today was the graduation ceremony at the CARE training school. Certificates were handed to each student individually when his name was called out and he walked to the front and took his diploma, shaking hands with his other hand. I think that the rating system and classification system could have been better. Only two ratings were given; either good or satisfactory. I think that excellent and poor should also have been used, especially since some of us teachers took the trouble to rate them with more than a plus or minus grade. Using only good and satisfactory, therefore, takes most of the significance out of the grade.
The other part that I and alot of the students were not happy about was the classification stated on the certificates. For the classes there were four groups: 1) masons and carpenters, 2) machine operators, 3) structures supervisors, and 4) earthwork supervisors. On the certificates only two classifications were used: 1) culvert works or 2) road works. The supervisors had more classes than did the other workers, but the certificates make no distinction between them. This is a bad deal for the supervisors because they deserved to get more recognition than the rest. If the classification for them was changed from "Culvert Works" to "Culvert Works Supervision", and the same done for "Road Works", so that the supervisors wouldn't be thrown in with the rest, then things would have been fine. Henry Lisk made up the certificates and it seems to me that he blew it.
I will tell you a bit about Henry Lisk at this point, since I have mentioned him alot lately, but haven't really told you that much about him. First off, he is a Sierra Leoneon, a Krio, so he is not one of the native tribes. He is a civil engineer and got his education in Russia, where he also got married to a Russian girl. He is probably in his early 30's and has spent a few years working for Abu, the biggest road building company in Sierra Leone. He has only been working for CARE for the past 4 or 5 months, so I have been here longer than he has. He is in charge of all of us site engineers. and is just under Les Galagher in the line of command. That means that he is the #2 man in the CARE Feeder Roads project. He seems confident with his job and appears to know his stuff. I was greatly impressed with him at first, but I am becoming less so all of the time. He is really a smooth talker. He can let you know that he is displeased with what you have done without getting mad at you, so you are able to keep from getting mad in return.
The thing that I dislike about Henry Lisk is his habit of changing his story from day to day, depending on who he is talking to, and what other people have said or done in the meantime. Like with the question of overtime for the men. On the site he would tell us that it was okay to work overtime. Then Les Galagher would be displeased with us at the next monthly meeting because we worked so much overtime. Henry Lisk would then point out that he did not okay any overtime.
On the D4 incident, Henry Lisk said a few days before it happened that the D4 wasn't made for pushing down big trees. He was then asked about the palm tree. Henry replied that the D4 was okay for pushing down palm trees because they didn't have the big roots like other trees. After the D4 incident, henry asked me that didn't I hear him say that the D4 wasn't made for pushing down trees. In Henry's report to dale Humphrey, he wrote that he couldn't see why I would try to use the D4 to push over the tree after I heard what he had to say at a lecture about pushing down trees that he gave. He said I was at the lecture, but I wasn't.
I don't know how much of this Henry does on purpose, or how much is done in his subconsious mind, but he always seems to change his story to always be doing and saying the right things. I am thinking about getting all of what he says in writing and having him sign it so that he won't be able to get away with changing his story in the future.
Friday, september 3, 1976, 9:00 pm - Day 221
This got me thinking on the subject of "lying". Some people find it too easy to do. I myself never lie. When I do, it is in being facetious, and I take care to make sure that they know I was joking, and don't let them go away thinking that I was telling the truth when I wasn't. I am overly optimistic and trusting of other people. Anyone I meet, I assume him to be honest, and so wouldn't lie to me or steal from me. Most of the time I think I am correct in my assumption, which is good. But when I find out that a person has stolen from me or lied to me, then I lose all respect for him, and don't want to have anything more to do with him, ever! Unless he can convince me that he will mend his ways instantly. If a person seems to be honest with me, but I see him lying or stealing from someone else, then i have almost no respect for him, but will often times still be his friend, with the hope of trying to convince him that what he has been doing is wrong. I think that lying and stealing are really bad and that they have to be dealed with in the man's consious.
Violence to myself or other people, I would put in a different category altogether. Violence is usually a crime of passion, and can be committed by the biggest lier or thief, as well as by the most honest man. I feel that if everyone could be honest and deal fairly with everyone else, then people wouldn't feel that violence was their only solution.
I get really frustrated and upset when someone thinks that I am lying to them, and nothing that I can say or do can convince him that I am telling the truth. It is sort of like if you saw a flying saucer and when you told some people, they wouldn't believe you, no matter how much you tried. You can't really blame the other people too much, because what you have to say is so unbelievable, and if you hadn't actually seen it yourself, then you wouldn't believe what you are saying either.
This is the way I feel about the D4 incident. To the other people, it appears that I pushed the wrong lever accidentally because I was an inexperienced operator and this caused the machine to stand up, which then resulted in the damage. My position is that i was experienced enough to know what I was doing on the D4, and that it was just bad luck that while I was on it the machine did something that Bernard the mechanic says is impossible. That was for the machine to stand up by itself without my pushing the blade lever. This is the problem. I feel that I am innocent, but all of the evidence makes me look guilty. I feel like the person who has been in jail for 30 years who still claims that he is innocent but no one will believe him.
Monday, September 6, 1976, 12:00 noon - Day 224
Two of the new CARE volunteers came in yesterday and the rest should be getting back today. Tomorrow at 9:00 am, we are to have a meeting with Henry Lisk, and hopefully we will be able to find out where we will be working and when we will start, so that we could get housing set up.
The resthouse in Bo is really starting to get cleaned up now. Ryan, the 65 year old, new volunteer, will be staying in that house and so all of the stuff in the house is being gone through to find out what is who's, and what stuff belongs to nobody. Some of it belonged to people who had left 6 months ago. In a few days the place is going to be painted, so that in a week or two the house should be really nice and clean.
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