Wednesday, November 3, 1976, 10:00 pm - Day 282

I fell down on my Honda today. Some areas of the road are compacted clay soil with moss growing on it. When this gets damp, it becomes very slippery. When riding on it, if you apply your brakes or change gears too suddenly, then your tires lose all traction and you go into a slide. This wasn't my problem when I fell down, but it was on the same type of soil. My problem was in going up this small hill, my tires lost traction and then I slid backward down the hill, and fell over at the bottom. I was able to keep the engine running, though, and since then I have been going up those type places on the grass at the side of the road.

I climbed a hill in Kabala a few days ago. The hill looked impressive, with alot of granite rock sticking out of it. Going up and down it was bad news, though, because there wasn't a trail, and so I had to walk through the grass. This grass was really something else, though. It's called "elephant grass". It was about 8 feet tall and I had to walk blindly most of the time, unable to see more than 4 feet in front of me, or even able to see myself below my knees. The worst part was that in places there were vines growing that were too strong to break, so that I had to keep stopping to push them down below my knees, where I could then step over them. The view was worth all of the trouble it took me to get there. It was the tallest mountain around, and it was a clear day.

Sunday, November 7, 1976, 8:00 am - Day 286

Monday, November 8, 1976, 8:00 am - Day 287

The next problem was the water. They should have brought everyone water without us having to ask, but they didn't. Some asked for water and got it. One person asked for water 3 different times but never did get it. They were inconsistent on their use of ice cubes also. The drinks should have had ice cubes but they didn't. Some of the water glasses were just loaded with ice cubes and some didn't have any. After the meal, waiting for the bill was the last big hassle. It took us fully 1.5 hours for us to get one bill and pay it. We asked for the bill as soon as we were finished eating, and then waited for a long time at our table, but it never came. We were considering just walking out.

Finally, we got up to go find the place and pay our bill. We went into the bar lounge and found a waiter, and told him that we wanted our bill. He left to get it. We had to wait a long time more, but finally he came back with the bills. It took a while longer still for the waiter to figure out our change and everything, and then finally bring it to us. There is a 10% service charge automatically added onto the amount. I could see why they would do that, because they would never get a tip otherwise. That whole evening was ruined for us. We go out for a nice high-class meal and evening, and we have it ruined by typical Sierra Leone incompetence. We could see that the waiters were trying, but they just didn't have it all together.

Monday, November 22, 1976, 9:00 pm - Day 301

There is a big drum that is a base, which they usually keep beating at a regular beat and rythem. Then, there are 2 or 3 smaller drums which they beat like bongos. these they are continually changing the rythm with, making it up as they go along. These they can beat very fast. It is always the men who beat the drums. The women chant along in one big bunch, leaving a large open circle in the middle, with the drums at one side of it. By ones or twos, anyone who feels like it goes to the center and does a very short dance along with the music. Each dance is maybe only 10 seconds long, during which the drums and the dancer are keeping the same beat, which gets faster and faster to a climax, where the dancer stops and the drums go back to beating normally.

Saturday, November 27, 1976, 7:00 pm - Day 306

Looking back over the last few entries, I see that I haven't covered much on the training program that I am currently in. There are 5 trainees in the water systems program, but only two of them are new to Sierra Leone. Besides Skep and myself, who have transferred from CARE feeder roads, there is Jesse Lee, who came over in August as an education volunteer, but found he didn't like teaching. He is 28 years old and knows alot about diesel pumps. I think he was a geography major in college.

The two new volunteers are Jim Olsen and John Burke. Jim is from Michigan and has a civil engineering degree, and I think he is straight from college. He had a Honda 450 street bike in the states, so he knows more about motorcycles than I do. It took him awhile to get used to the road conditions (palm-log bridges), but he is able to go faster than me on the roads now.

John is about 27 years old, and from Marin County in California. He is not a civil engineer, but has had some experience. I find him to be a hard person to figure out. He does things that I wouldn't dream of doing, but he is having trouble doing some things that other people find easy to do. When I think I have him classified, where I can predict his actions, he does something that contradicts them. I'll try to give some examples so you can see what I mean.

On the first evening in Alikalia, the people gave us a display of some of their native dances and music. A few of the villagers, just joking, tried to talk us into dancing along at the beginning of the evening. They were able to drag John up for a little while and he made a complete fool out of himself, as I had expected. That was my image of him, being a complete twebe. Later in the evening, the people were doing the one where just the one or two people go in at a time and do their short, fast, and furious dance. John was sitting next to me, and after awhile nudged me and said that he would go in to dance if I would. I told him no, I'm not that much of a fool. A little later, he got up and went in by himself. I and everyone else was completely and totally amazed. He danced as good as the rest (maybe even better) and the drums played with him like they do. Instead of the usual 5 seconds or so, John and the drums kept up this ever increasing tempo for a good 15 to 20 seconds, with the crowd reaching a higher and higher plateau of emotion every second. They loved it! It was unbelievable. He managed to do what everyone else only manages to do in their wildest fantasies. He managed to go out and beat the professionals at their own game on the first time out.

At Honda practice the first time, John started out like a normal person on trying to get the motorcycle going for the first few times. Then he got it going and I was surprised. He was racing around on this football field where we were practising, and he was leaning on the turns like a professional. I was thinking that this guy was in for trouble, because he had more confidence than he could handle. The next day he fell down twice, and then the day after he fell down two more times. At first I thought it was because of his over-confidence that he was falling down. I thought he was going faster on the roads than he was ready for. Now he is suffering from a severe case of under confidence. He goes overly slow on the roads, and his falling down has been because he would panic and grab the brakes at the wrong times and places. He was considering seriously on getting around by the local public transport, and it took a long time to make him see sense again.

If he goes through with what he is planning, John will be the first volunteer that I know of to change to a Muslim. I think he is crazy, but he has the idea that it will get him in better with the local people. He is taking this idea of religion far too lightly. He is under the impression that all he has to do to become a Muslim is to go into the mosque and say a few words. There is alot more to it than that. It is a whole other belief, and even a whole other way of life.

Enough about John. With us for the training is Frank Smicht. He is about 65 or 70 and was a Peace Corps volunteer here for two years one year ago. He is our technical advisor. He is a farmer from Oregon and has experience with hand pumps. His Krio is not very good, even after two years of being in Sierra Leone. He has his stock of stories of his experiences, and also of his off-color jokes. He reminds me alot of Ryan in Bo (working for CARE).