Tuesday, May 17, 1977, 9:00 pm, Day 476

The elections in the Bo District are scheduled for this Friday. Hopefully they will be held, so that things can start to return to normal again. I am planning to take the bus up to Daru on Monday, which will mean my going through Bo. Therefore, I very, very much hope that things return to normal quickly.

During my stay here in Freetown I've been checking in with the doctor. The reason is the last remaining sore from my collection that I had a few months ago. This one is on the outside part of my left foot. I got this sore when I fell down while bush clearing for the survey in Saiama. That was on the 25th of February, so that means that this sore has been with me for 11.5 weeks so far. It's gotten infected off and on, been healing off and on, gotten bumped and re-opened a few times, and just basicly has been a pain and a bother for all of this time. I've finally shown it to the Doc because it had a relapse recently, and so wasn't any closer to healing than the day I got it. The Doc gave me a tetenus shot, gave me some antibody pills to take for a few days, and a bunch of supplies to keep it bandaged up. I now put a new bandage on in the morning and again in the evening and soak it in warm soapy water beforehand. I've been doing this for 5 days now and it is healing nicely, but I will have to continue for quite a while more though, because it was a deep wound, probably going completely through my skin, or at least it seemed that way.

I think I have finally gotten the "crabs" licked. They were little mites or ticks, or something, the villagers call them louse. I discovered them on me a few months ago. They are mostly just a big bother. You don't ever feel them, but if you just let them be they will overpopulate on you and sometimes some seem to get under your skin, making a small spot, almost like a freckle. I have a few of these "freckles", but there is no way to get the bug back out, but the spots are very small and don't seem to have the possibility of being infected.

Previously to this final cure that I found, my method to control the situation was to take a pair of tweezers and then pick them off one by one, stopping long enough between times to pop the little bugger by squishing it between my two thumb nails. It was very slow and tedious work, and sometimes painful too, because the tweezers often ended up pulling hairs also. With the tweezers, it was impossible to eradicate them. I had to settle for just keeping the colony's population under control.

My final solution turned out to be a very easy, very painless, very fast one. One that I should have tried long before. The cure was to take a can of Shell-Tox insect spray, and just spray a little on the areas concerned. Then just wait a few minutes before washing it off again. I was amazed. Once the varmits were dead they easily fell off my body. Just as quick as could be, there I was with every one of them now dead and gone. I hesitated on trying this solution before, although I had long ago heard something about it, because I wasn't quite sure what the Shell Tox would do to my skin. One of the warnings on the can is "keep off skin". This made me hesitate for all of that time before.

But then recently I have been experiencing a population explosion of the little critters. I couldn't seem to be able to keep up with the situation any longer by just using my tweezers. I sprayed a bit of Shell Tox on my skin. I didn't feel a thing so I went ahead and sprayed all over. I left the Shell Tox on for awhile while I took my bath, washing the other parts of my body first. When I finally got around to scrubbing at the Shell Tox areas, the dead mites were falling everywhere. I also scratched off a layer of old skin. This layer might have dissolved because of the Shell Tox, but it was worth it to get rid of the crabs.

Wednesday, May 18, 1977, 8:00 am, Day 477

I would like to point out the other side as a rebuttal to a few of the things mentioned in this newsclipping. 1) This part is concerning the shooting of Dr.Banya, the APC candidate for Kailahun South Constituency. This happened at the CARE house in Mobai because of the things that happened in Biawala. There are a few more details which I forgot to put in my other account of this episode. When the APC thugs first came into Biawala and started causing trouble, SLPP did not fight back. Instead they sent a messenger for help. He went to Mobai, was sent to Pendembu, and then finally up to Kailahun, the district capital. He contacted the ISU (Internal Security Unit) to get them to clear up the trouble that was going on down in Biawala. The ISU said they couldn't come because "We have our own troubles up here."

The messenger went back to Mobai, informing the people that the ISU would not come to help, and that they would therefore have to take matters into their own hands. This was when they set up the road blocks, setting the scene for the shooting and violence that occured later that evening. It was in revenge for the actions of the APC in Biawala, the same kind of things that the APC thugs have been doing up in the Kono District and elsewhere.

This brings me to my second point 2) concerning the bias of this newspaper article. It admits that there was violence in the Kono area. It doesn't say who was causing this violence, but it implies that it was the SLPP, although I know for a fact that they were all APC thugs. Many of them even wore T-shirts saying "APC, Live Forever" on them.

Next, while still implying that they were SLPP thugs, says that the voters were not intimidated by the violence, because they were used to the rough life, being a diamond-mining area. This lack of intimidation, the news clipping said, was proved by the election results: APC 159,000, SLPP 8,600. This could not be more wrong! These election results show that the people were very, very much intimidated by all of the APC thugs, who implied "Vote APC, or else!". I feel that the SLPP might have won some, if not all, of the Kono District if there could have been a free fair election.

Peace Corps Volunteers are supposed to remain nuetral concerning the politics of our host country. Before the election day I was, in fact, nuetral. I was very ignorant of the political situation, and didn't know the difference between the APC and the SLPP. It wasn't until after the elections that I began to listen to and to see everything that was going on, and I am shocked and disgusted of the APC. Because of all the bad things that the APC did to win the elections, and now even more so by their covering up and failing to admit that they had done anything bad at all - these things have made me anti-APC.

I would have to say that I am pro-SLPP because I see them as being the underdog. I cannot blame the SLPP for all of the violence in Bo and Biawala and other places because I see it as them standing up against APC, not letting APC use the same methods that they used in winning the other elections. Therefore, in these areas of big violence, it is just the APC thugs meeting some resistance (from SLPP thugs) and so they cancel each other out, getting a fairer election. As a result, alot of the SLPP candidates won, but there were still alot of APC votes 3) which proves that SLPP was not railroading everyone. I rest my case!

Wednesday, May 18, 1977, 10:00 am, Day 477