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Monday, April 18, 1977, 6:00 pm, Day 447
I think that basicly I am cured of my diahrea problems, but I am still having my little setbacks, so I can't be sure. My stomach hasn't been hurting for a few days now and my appetite is back with me pretty good. Therefore, I feel good and normal. It's what comes out the other end that keeps me wondering sometimes. Just yesterday, I was in Jagbwema, hanging around the houses, catching up on some reading. After awhile, I began to get this urge to answer natures call. I started to head for the latrine, picking up a roll of toilet paper on the way. Out the back door and heading for the shed. It was exciting! I guess that the excitement was too much for me, because I shit my pants. By the time that I was inside the latrine, with the door shut and my pants down, I was all done. I was able to get my jeans off before they got covered, but my underpants were just loaded. It was sort of the "chunky" stage. So thick you could eat it with a fork, but use a spoon so you can get every bite. that was thicker than it has been in the past, but for a complete cure, I was expecting something more solid, so I was very disapointed. It was a real mess cleaning up. I did my body first, and it took quite a bit of toilet paper. when it came to my underpants, I was really torn between what I should do and what I wanted to do. The thing I should do would be to scrape them off and then wash them out. The thing that I wanted to do was just drop them down the latrine and forget about them. In the process of seeing how I was going to scrape them off, I let my urge overpower me, and so my underpants are now deep inside the latrine.
I remember doing that once before in my life. When I was just a little kid (about 6 years old) I shit in my pants once and in the process of washing them out in the toilet, they slipped from my hands and fell inside. I was reluctant to reach in and pull them back out. I was even more reluctant to go tell my mom what had happened. In the end I ended up just flushing the toilet and then keeping my mouth shut about the whole thing. This is the first time that I have let the truth come out.
I found myself being very irritated yesterday afternoon. I didn't feel sick, so I can't blame it on that. I only felt irritated towards one person, and not without reason, so that I feel my irritation to have been justified. That person was my coworker, Foday Moiba. Yesterday, we two went on trek upon my motorcycle. The purpose of the trip was to see the chiefs about us starting work in our 4th village, Bagbwema. On the way we stopped in to see Moiba's family in Kayima. I knew we would probably be doing this, so I was willing to go along with it. I didn't get irritated until near the end of the trip, when we were passing through Yengema on the way back to Jagbwema. Moiba wanted to see his friend so we went down a few side streets and stopped at a house. His friend was there and we all said our hellos, and then in about 10 minutes we left to be on our way again. Moiba was directing me which way to go, and I figured he was taking us back to the main road.
It turns out he took us to his girlfriend's house so he could stop in and say hello, but she wasn't there I think that it was at this time that I became irritated, but I kept it to myself and didn't say anything. It sure showed in my actions, though. I drove very fast and recklessly down the road, which was full of bumps and potholes. I was even aiming straight for some of the bigger ones. I think my idea was to shake Moiba up a bit, since he was sitting on the back and had to take the bumps alot worse than I did. We finally got back on the main road and heading out of Yengema when Moiba tries to direct me down this side road so that he could see his aunt. I pulled the motorcycle to a quick stop so that I could then turn around and tell him just what I had to say. I then pointed out to him very strongly that "No, I was not going to see his aunt", and that on these motorcycle trips we were not to stop in to see all of his friends and relatives.
I think that this was the reason that I was perturbed at him on the last motorcycle trip that we took together. That one turned out to be for the sole purpose of Moiba's seeing a lady that owed him 36 Leones in rent from a house that his family owned. I think that Moiba can now be sure that he will not be getting any rides with me anymore except on something that is official water supply business.
I have been figuring out the pipeline route for the water supply into Jagbwema. I have this source picked out which is 3 miles away in a straight line, which is alot higher in elevation than Jagbwema. There are heaps and heaps of fresh water available, more than we could ever possibly use. Looking at where to put my pipeline on the map, I have finally picked a location where the length comes out to 19,700 ft (3.75 miles). that length makes the system more expensive, but I think that the funding agencies would go for it because it would be a gravity flow system. as an added attraction, I have found a village of 400 people which is located half way along the pipeline, and so could be included in Jagbwema's water system.
Just now, I am in Biawala, where I have been writing all of this. I left Jagbwema this morning, stopped in Sefadu for a few errands, and then headed south towards my old hunting grounds. I didn't see anyone in Daru so I just kept on going, reaching Biawala by about 1:00 PM. There I met Momoh Lansana, the communal labor foreman, and together we went out to where they were working on the road. I met Eddie there. Eddie took over my job when I left CARE. I hung around awhile.
I am now at Jesse Lee's house here in Biawala. Jesse is a volunteer working on the water systems program with me, and his assigned village is Biawala. I hope to help him out a little by taking a look at his chosen water source, and then help him design a dam for it. I also want to take a look at the water tower in Jojoima. I've seen it before, but haven't given it a good look yet. It is two stories high and made from concrete blocks. I do remember that it did look very impressive and would be well worth copying for construction in my villages.
It seems that tomorrow is a holiday and that there is a big party planned for all of the CARE workers. It would be good to go to it.
Friday, April 22, 1977, 10:00 pm, Day 451
I went to the party. I guess it was okay, but I never really felt a part of it, so it was just so-so for me.
Wednesday, I went out to Jojoima to see Sesay, my old culvert supervisor, and to see that big culvert that he is in the process of putting in. It is a steel culvert and consists of one 9 ft diameter pipe with a 6 ft diameter pipe on each side. These three pipes are all accomodated by one massive headwall on each end of the pipe. Sesay was almost done with the headwalls and the culvert still had to be backfilled. It looks impressive.
I spent Wednesday night in segbwema with Joe and Ernie. Ernie took me out to look at his road. They're moving right along. They've got about 12 miles done for the season so far, which is the most of any of the units up there.
On Thursday I stopped in at the bank in Segbwema and finally closed out my account. They charged me 2.00 Leones for closing costs but they added3.30 Leones in interest, so that I came out ahead on the deal. I walked out with 12 Leones altogether.
I headed back up to Koidu then. In Koidu, I stopped in at the supermarket but they still didn't have any. The last few times I stopped in they didn't have any ice cream, and it was ice cream that I wanted. I hate to pass through Koidu without getting my half-liter of ice cream, but I had to forbear lately.
I ended up here in Kamiendor thursday night. I will be leaving for Jagbwema Saturday morning to continue with the surveying.
This evening was an instructive one. I now have about 3 pages of Kono words with their meanings, more than I had before. I have a small notebook which I am planning to write down all of the Kono that I learn, so that I can go back and remember them again when I forget the words I heard. I call it my Kono dictionary, and I try to carry it around with me so that I will always be prepared. It really paid off tonight. I had the book with me, hoping for a chance to get some words, and then I went out visiting. I went to this one group of people, and before I knew what was happening, here they were trying to tell me the names of different objects.
I quickly whipped out my book and started writing. I was really doing good. I had a page done in no time at all. Then I found out that all of the words that they had been telling me had been Kissy. I didn't want Kissy, I wanted Kono. I then had to go back and get the Kono words for that whole page that I had just done. When we were done I think I had the name of just about every part of the body. I also have alot of other things. Having the words written down, I will now be able to study them until I have them all memorized. Trying to remember them without writing them down is hopeless, because the word is forgotten almost as quick as they teach it to me, so that I would never be able to make any progress. If I write the words down, though, I think that there is a good chance that I will sometime be able to remember them, and thereby learn a little Kono.
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