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Sunday, November 28, 1976, 10:00 am - Day 307

Also with us is Fred Hoyt. He is in charge of this program and has served for two years with CARE feeder roads, and has now extended for a year to head up this water system project. Rounding out our little touring party is one Sierra Leoneon LCI (language cultural instructor) named Prince. He is along to teach Jim and John to speak Krio.

Traveling around has been with everything and everyone in one Land Rover, except for me and Skep who were on our Hondas. On the type of roads around Alikalia, the Hondas are able to go about twice as fast as the Land Rover because of all the bumps, holes, and ruts in the roads. On the smooth paved roads, though, the Land Rover is able to go faster than the motorcycles. we spent about two weeks in Alikalia. After that we came down to Makali, which is between Makeni and Sefadu. We spent two nights there, including Thanksgiving, and then went to Mototoka, between Makeni and Makali, for the next 3 nights. The first two days in Mototoka we spent on field trips. The first was to Gbinte, near Port Loko. This will be John's site. The next was to Kamabi, north of Makeni, which will be Skep's site.

Monday, November 29, 1976, 10:00 pm - Day 308

I am in Kamiendor now. This will be my project site. Kamiendor comes close to being the most "bush" of any place in Sierra Leone. It might even be more bush than Alikalia, which is sometimes reffered to as "the complete bush". Kamiendor is 42 miles east of Sefadu on a very rocky and very hilly road. I think it took me about 3 hours to cover this distance. Sefadu is 212 miles from Freetown, but it is on good road all of the way, so that this section only takes about 5 hours. Kamiendor is almost as far east as you can go, and still be in Sierra Leone. It is even farther east that Biawala. The river which marks the Sierra Leone - Guinea border is only about two miles away.

The thing that sets Kamiendor apart from the rest is the fact that the village is situated on the very top of a hill, and this hill slopes very steeply down on all sides, perhaps 500 feet or so, so that the town overlooks everything. It is a nice place for a view, but when it comes to bringing a water supply into this town, it's being on top of a hill makes it pretty tough.

Wednesday, December 1, 1976, 6:00 pm - Day 310

I went hiking all day today, looking for possible water sources. I think I might have found a few good ones. I couldn't go to the place that I wanted to go, which was a mountain taller than the one that Kamiendor sits on. They say it is in another chiefdom. We went to the highest other hill we could, but there weren't any good water sources. On the way back, we went across a high ridge and found a few good-sized streams that are alot higher than the valley but lower than Kamiendor. Hopefully, one of these will have enough water in the dry season to make use of a hydraulic ram to get water up the hill. If my calculations and measurements don't show this solution to be feasible, then the next possible source to consider would be using a diesel pump to bring water up the hill from either the stream or a well at the bottom of the hill.

The chiefdom tax collector and 3 of the paramount chief's brothers went with me to act as guides. We had to stop in each village along the way and meet the people, in hopes of getting some token of their gratitude. I got one chicken, a small pot of rice, about 10 oranges, and everyone had more than their fill of palm wine. I must have had about 4 or 5 cups full during the day. I feel its effects after just one cup, but was able to walk it off each time before I had another. I was even able to see one person climb a palm tree to fill his boulie. A boulie is a dried gourd which they hold their palm wine in, and usually holds about 6 to 8 cups. Palm wine is the sap of the palm tree. They cut into the tree at the top and suspend one boulie there to let the sap drip in. Once each day they can climb the tree to get the palm wine. It is a cloudy white liquid and is very sweet when it is fresh. It is also very strong, and it doesn't take much to get a person drunk. My companions were feeling the effects by the end of the day.

Wednesday, December 1, 1976, 8:00 pm - Day 310

The weather here in Kamiendor is unlike what I have seen elsewhere in Sierra Leone. The mornings and evenings here are down-right chilly. There is always a breeze blowing, also. Being on a mountain top probably has quite a bit to do with it. Also, in the two days that I have been here, it hasn't been clear. There seems to be a continual haze over the area. This lessens the view from Kamiendor by blocking out some of the farther mountains. If it clears up though, the view would be fantastic.

I think that the dry season has finally begun. Water tables have peaked out and have started to go down again. It hasn't rained in a week, and it doesn't look like it is going to rain, either. All of October it really rained, though. Many places were reporting that it was the highest water levels that they had ever seen. Back in Daru, the Moa River rose up 4 feet over the little bridge to the CARE resthouse across the river. That was the first time that bridge has been under water. Out in Biawala, the river rose over that bridge also. Roads all over were getting covered with water where they weren't supposed to be. All of this is behind us now. The roads are dry and dusty again, and very bumpy now because they haven't yet been worked on since the rainy season.

Thursday, December 9, 1976, 9:00 am - Day 318

Last night was the official completion of the water systems training program. Jim and John were sworn in then as Peace Corps volunteers. There was a fancy reception for us all, and people were there from the Sierra Leone Ministry of Energy and Power, CRS (Catholic Relief Service), CUSO (Canadian volunteers), US Embassy, and Peace Corps. These all are groups where we hope to get support for our water system projects.

Friday, December 17, 1976, 7:00 pm - Day 324

I stopped in at the Daru area for two nights and a day, a few days ago. They closed the Daru house (my house) because everyone has moved out to their various villages, finally. The Mobai house, which would have been my new house, is fixed up and livable now. The chairs and table that my CARE carpenter were making came out first class. They fixed up a super-duper combination latrine-shower house, which is the talk of the town now, among the Peace Corps people. The roads are coming along. The places where the Biawala Road overflowed are all being raised up.

I came from Daru to Kamiendor yesterday. The trip wasn't too bad. I took it nice and easy and didn't rush it. The worst part about the trip was that the two one-gallon containers that I was bringing weren't very packable. I had one plastic one filled with gasoline and one metal one filled with oil. First, the handle popped out on the metal one and I had to stop and repack. Then they were jumping around alot and I had to stop and repack. Then they were still jumping around alot so I had to stop again. This time I dug some string out of the bottom of my pack (which I had to unpack) and I tied them up good.

At the first village before Kamiendor, I stopped because the people said that the Paramount Chief was there, so I was going to stop and meet him. Before I had the chance, though, I noticed that oil was leaking from my metal container. I had a hole. I decided that I couldn't wait to see the Paramount Chief, so I got back on my Honda and hurried up to Kamiendor so that I could unpack the can and stop the leak. When I pulled up in Kamiendor I found that the can had almost unpacked itself, and was only held on by a few strings hanging onto the handle, which was ready to fall off again. The can is really banged up now and it has two holes caused by the metal pinching. I plugged them up with a bit of bar-soap, but I will have to take care when I get oil.

I am moving into Kamiendor this time. It is a big hassle, trying to make someplace livable in a bush village. The people are supposed to make me a latrine and bath house, but at the moment I am having to make do with the one about 2 houses down. Also, finding someone to bring me water, wash my clothes, and cook for me is a bugger also. I have this one guy now, but he is getting to me because he wants to wait on me hand and foot, but I wish he would just disappear when I don't want him. Cooking is a problem also, because I don't know what I want and neither does he. I guess it should all get straightened out after awhile, after we both learn what it is that I want him to do and how I want him to do it. The rest of my things should hopefully be coming tomorrow, which would be good because I have been living out of my backpack for six weeks now, and so I want to hurry up and fix up some place which I can call "home". That is a nice place to have, and I lost mine when I left the Daru house.

Sunday< December 19, 1976, 7:00 pm - Day 326

Fred Hoyt came up last night with all of my stuff, and he brought two other volunteers with him for a visit. They were my first company here in Kamiendor. We set up three campbeds in my room, and everybody fit. They all went back this morning, and Fred had to be back in Freetown tonight with the Land Rover.

This day I spent painting the ceiling. It took two coats to cover it, but it is done now and looks nice. I have enough left over, I think, to give the walls one coat. Hopefully, that will be all it needs, because it would be quite a trip to bring some more paint of the right color up here.

Yesterday morning the carpenter brought over shelves that he had just finished. I also have a bed and two chairs so far. I am having the carpenter make some book shelves, and also two tables to fill out my furniture requirements. This morning he came over and fixed up my door. It had been scraping on the bottom so he cut some off. Also the door handles and lock had been upside down, so he took it out, turned it over, and put it back in. He also realigned the latch so that the door would close. The place is starting to be civilized now. Tomorrow I will probably do some more painting and also I hope to finally get started on some surveying for the Water System Project.


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