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Monday, January 24, 1977, 4:00 pm - Day 363
I tried to hunt down my packages today but didn't have much luck. I picked up my new raincoat, so now I know all of the duty-paying procedures. There was one package for me at the Peace Corps office. It was a granola bar from Ermal Herndon, which was sent airmail to my Peace Corps private mailbag address, which slipped in duty free because they mistook me for one of the new volunteers. I checked at the CARE office for any packages, and they claim that they never got any and that if they did or when they do, that they would send it over to the Peace Corps office. I was supposed to get alot of Christmas packages from the Church people, which were mailed last October to the CARE address. They all should have arrived by now, so I think that they have all got lost in the shuffle. I'll have to ask Skep if he has gotten anything.
I bought 3 balls today so that I could better practice my juggling. I have just been using oranges before, but they get pretty messy after awhile. I am not very good at it, but it is something to keep me occupied up in my village.
I bought two new pair of shoes today. Both my tennis shoes and my work boots are just about worn out. I bought a pair of high-class looking sneakers and also a pair of casual dress shoes. They are a light brown, and so will match my other clothes when I have to dress up.
I tried to find a gallon of paint to finish painting my room in Kamiendor but I haven't had any luck so far. I found four stores so far here in Freetown that sell that brand, but every one of them has been out of that color, including the place where I bought my first two gallons. I might have to end up changing the color of my walls if I am ever going to get my room finished. I will check some more stores first, though, before I give up.
Saturday, January 29, 1977, 10:00 am - Day 368
A few days ago I finally got my first "CARE" package. Since the one made it through, hopefully some of the others will also. I also received a few other packages recently, but they were addressed to my Peace Corps address.
Today will probably be the day that we celebrate our one-year anniversary here in Sierra Leone. Skep and Greg are both in town now, and quite a few other volunteers came in yesterday.
I just got my latest letter from home - the one with one of my pictures that didn't turn out. I'll have to dig out my list of pictures and see which ones I would want to redo. Also, I will have to take some extra precautions to keep my film and camera dry. That last roll of film was taken during the rainy season, and so it probably got wet because of the high moisture content of the air. It might not be a problem at this time of the year, because it is the dry season.
I have to hurry up and finish this page because the Post Office closes pretty soon and I want to get this mailed off. I will be going back up country tomorrow, so this is my last chance to get anything mailed out for awhile. Only 296 pages so far. I couldn't quite make it all of the way to 300 at this time.
Friday, February 11, 1977, 3:00 pm - Day 381
I am in Saiama now. It is only 12 miles from Kamiendor, but it is 56 miles away by road. I just arrived here today and will be staying about a week. Saiama is the next village on my list to get a water system. The actual surveying will start tomorrow. It has 65 houses and is on top of the hill like Kamiendor, but the hill isn't as high.
Most of the road out to here is a CARE feeder road from about two years ago. CARE pulled out before the road was finished, either because of communal labor difficulties or because the Kono Diamond Authority didn't want them here, or both. Anyway, there is alot of work left undone. There are three CARE-built bridges on the road, and already two of them have failed. I think they were both due to water washing out underneath the abutments, and then the abutments tipping over, breaking the deck at the same time.
Monday, February 14, 1977, 3:00 pm - Day 384
I went out this morning and looked at a stream to see if it could be used as a water source. Most of the time I spent walking along the stream bottom, because the area along the sides was usually just about impenetrable. I probably averaged about a half mile per hour. Twice the stream disappeared underground. The first time it took me quite a while to find it again, because there wasn't any sign of a stream bed, and there weren't any trails in the bush. I had my machette along so I got by. The second time the stream went under, it left behind its rainy season stream bed, which I followed until the stream finally surfaced again.
One more time the stream tried to disappear again, but this time it was doing "The Pinnacles" trick. It was taking alot of very big rocks and piling them up on top of itself to form a sort of cave. This cave never got completely dark like the Pinnacles one does, but it did have bats. It was a pretty neat place, nothing huge, but quite adequate. I managed to keep my shoes, my wallet, and my map dry throughout the treck, but everything else got completely soaked and soiled.
Monday, February 21, 1977, 8:00 pm - Day 391
Last Friday I went back to Kamiendor, and today I came back to Saiama. It is 11 miles in a straight line between the two villages, and 15 miles by trail and 56 miles by road. I wanted to try the trail because it was so much shorter that I thought it would be worth it. Last Friday I went from Saiama to the end of the road from that end, which was 7 miles towards Kamiendor, with my motorcycle. Today I went on the motorcycle from Kamiendor to the end of the road from that end, which was 5 miles towards Saiama. That only left 3 miles of un-road, which I wanted to see if I could get my motorcycle through. I couldn't. There is one vine bridge across a river, and numerous steep rocky sections, each of which would have been impossible with a motorcycle. Therefore, I left it in the last village on the Kamiendor side and proceeded to walk the 10 miles to Saiama. I already walked two miles while I was looking at the trail before I decided it was impassable. Therefore, I had to walk 12 miles for the day. I made it. No real problems. I have one blister on the back of my heal and my feet are generally tender, but they're not too bad.
The people that I met along the way were pretty nice. Walking, you get a chance to meet and greet them that you don't get on a motorcycle. I was glad I didn't try to force the motorcycle through on that trail because it gave me a chance to relate with the people.
Thursday, February 24, 1977, 8:00 pm - Day 394
It is raining now. It is the first real rain so far this dry season. It is coming down by the buckets now, but by noon tomorrow I would bet that you couldn't tell that it had just rained. There is a little thunder also. We haven't been getting the lightening storms that we had last year. Maybe it is still too early yet.
I went up to the top of a nearby mountain today. It is the tallest one around Saiama part, and is visible from Kamiendor on clear days. It was too hazy to see very far today, though. There must be something to that thought that dust comes in from the Sahara during the dry season. I couldn't see over 8 to 10 miles away before everything gets hazed out completely. Back home you can see 50 or more miles on most days, especially if you get up in the mountains over the smog layer.
Anyway, the mountain was okay, but it wasn't anything stupendous, even though it was a good 1000 ft higher than Saiama. The walk to and from was enjoyable, being about 8 miles round trip. One part was under the forest along a well-kept trail, and so I was half-expecting to come upon a few picnic tables, and a campground just around the next corner. I thought I was back in Big Basin or someplace. It was a nice feeling.
The town survey in Saiama is done. We finished it yesterday. From it I make a map, with each house drawn to scale and with contour lines every 5 feet. From this map I figure out where I want to put my water pipes and taps. I then get the lengths and elevations for them from the map. That is probably not the best way, because I lose accuracy in my pipe lengths and elevations because I didn't measure them directly. Instead, I should maybe go around the town and pick out places for my water taps and then just survey between those points. The exact position and elevation and size of each house is really just excess data , and I don't need it to design the water system. But I will continue to size and locate each house, complete with elevations anyway, though, because of my preoccupation with maps and what-not. I want to make a detailed map of each town I do, if only for my own pleasure and satisfaction.
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