|
|
Tuesday, June 21, 1977, 12:00 noon, Day 511
Today I just finished listening in on a meeting held here in Kamiendor. I didn't know what it was going to be about before I went, but i do now. The District Officer was there along with a couple of other "big men". The meeting turned out to be a political rally for the APC, and nothing else. I guess the purpose was to settle any questions about the violence, etc, during the elections last month. Everybody at the meeting seemed to be 100% all for APC, as there were no disputes.
One of the points made was that all of the thugs that were around at election time were SLPP people. It was pointed out that the reason that the thugs pretended to be APC was to give APC a bad name. That they did! No one is going to be able to convince me that an SLPP person would intimidate people to vote APC and take marbles from an SLPP box and put them into an APC box, just to give APC a bad name.
It was also pointed out that a one-party state was the best. They said that the other countries would be more willing to give money and aid to a one-party state than they would to a two-party state, because a two-party state only meant violence, with each party trying to discredit the other.
They ended the meeting by proposing a resolution to make Sierra Leone a one-party state. It seemed to be unanimously agreed upon, and the people wanted to get in there and put their thumbprint under it.
Tuesday, June 21, 1977, 9:00 pm, Day 511
Word seems to have gotten out that I have a can of Shelltox (bug spray) here in my room. Quite a few people have come over, wanting me to spray their heads for them. I'm always glad to do it. Even though the can says to keep off the skin, it doesn't seem to cause it much trouble. I've used the Shelltox twice myself. The first time, when I washed afterwards, it seemed that I might have lost a whole layer of skin. It scratched off like old skin does on my feet sometimes. It seemed to just disolve. I don't know if it was the Shelltox, but it might have been. The second timethat I used it, it seemed to be completely harmless to my skin. So, maybe something else was going on the first time, and so the Shelltox wasn't at fault. Anyway, the Shelltox does work wonders at getting rid of the bugs in your hair, and so is worth possibly losing a little skin in the process.
I haven't felt hassled for quite a while now, about people asking me for everything. That day that I brought the balloons back to hand out, I think was the last time. Lately, I have been giving out quite a bit and am pleased with the situation. Alot of people still ask me for things, and lately I have been giving almost all of them what they ask for. Their requests haven't been out of line, and they have all had good reasons for what they are asking for, and they are all people that i would call my friends. Before, I used to always say No to their requests. The No was pretty well automatic, and it resulted in the people having to keep asking and begging me for it, and my having to keep repeating my No until finally either I would give in or they would give up. This automatic No of mine has caused me alot of mental anguish and strain, because it would require my trying to make up good reasons why I shouldn't give them what they want.
Now, I am working on an almost automatic Yes, which seems to be working out pretty good. If it is not abused, then I don't mind keeping it. It keeps all of my friends happy, and it makes me come out better in their eyes.
Like lately, when I bake something in my room or make some hot chocolate, I have been making double. That way I have the one for me and then one extra one to pass around. This morning it was coffee cake. I cut up one in small pieces and passed it out and it worked out fine. The crowd did not get out of control. Yesterday morning it was bananas. I bought alot, ate a little, and passed the rest out.
I don't know why, but my appetite just hasn't been the same for quite awhile now. I think that part of it might be that I seem to have lost my desire for rice. Lately I have only had rice chop just once a day, that one being the one that I have arranged with Sia Kundi. I have ended up having to work at being able to eat all of this one rice chop and have felt very full when I have finished. I have had to turn down rice that my other ladies have cooked for me. I can't understand it. I used to average about 3 rice chop meals a day and now I can only manage to eat one. One possible explanation for this might have to do with my loss of taste for rice. I have cooked a few times in the mornings lately, whereas before I went through a long stretch where I did not cook at all. I have also been down to the shop at least once each day lately to buy a cocacola or two. These other things that I have been eating might therefore, be killing my appetite for rice, or might be filling me up so that I don't have room for it.
Another possible reason might be that my stomach has shrunk. there were those two days where I went without eating, and then just a few days ago I worked hard all day in the hot sun, not having had anything at all that day except one cup of palm wine that morning. That day emptied me out completely, and I was very skinny by the end of the day. I think my stomach shrunk down also, so I can't eat enough as I did. I am a bit concerned, because I don't want to start losing alot of weight again. Otherwise, I feel healthy. My shits are regular and in good shape, so that there doesn't seem to be anything wrong there. The only thing wrong is that I seem to have a loss of appetite for some reason or other. Hopefully, I could force myself to eat as much as I should.
Sunday, June 26, 1977, 10:00 am, Day 516
We are into the morning after now. Sitting here in Harry's house in Segbwema. Yesterday afternoon and evening we had a Peace Corps party. There were probably about 40 or so people there, and we had a pretty good time.
I left Kamiendor Friday afternoon and headed down to Yengema. Kathy, Chris, and Nancy were there, and also Ross from Jaiama Sewafe, Bruce from Makali, and John the VSO in Yengema. We had a pretty good time there also. Its been good to see people again. Friday evening, Kathy and us 4 males decided to go out and we proceeded to hit all of the hot spots of Yengema and Koidu. Chris and Nancy had already gone off to bed, so that we were unable to talk them into coming with us. It would have been alot nicer if they had come. As it was, we still got in quite a bit of dancing, 4 males with 1 female. I had a good time. I took it to be a practice session to prepare me for the party yesterday. I had my first beer since I had left Freetown 5 or 6 weeks ago.
I rode my motorcycle down here to Segbwema. Bruce came with me on his own motorcycle. Ross and John came down in a vehicle. Nancy, Chris, and Kathy were possibly, maybe going to come, but they would have been late if they did. They weren't really too enthusiastic about coming down to this party because, for all this past week or so, they have had company at their house and so they weren't in any hurry to go out and seek out even more people.
I'll be going back up today, stopping off for the night in either Yengema or Tumbudu, whichever one the girls are occupying at the time. That way I will be in Koidu tomorrow with a chance to check on my mail and pick up a few groceries.
Sunday, June 26, 1977, 11:00 pm, Day 516
Back in Yengema now. I just got finished playing a game of Scrabble with Chris. I was first, and got off to a very quick start by spelling "limated", thereby using all of my letters and getting a total of 72 points. That was the first time that I ever saw anyone actually use all of their letters. I think it was Kathy that I saw once use 6 of her letters to get 87 points, After that, I wasn't scoring very highly, with my next highest score being 18 points. Chris, on the other hand, was very consistently scoring reasonably good scores each time. She passed me up and was leading by 42 points before I was able to make my next breakaway move. I had an opportunity to score very, very high if I could only just get 2 more "E"s. For 5 turns I was saving most of my letters, just playing the ones that I wanted to get rid of, even passing one time. It finally paid off.
I was able to make "equalize" with a few tie-in words and with the "Z" on a double letter square and another on a double word square. Anyway, I used all 7 of my letters again, but this time it was to the tune of 134 points. Well worth waiting for, I should say. Chris kept plugging along though, with her consistency, and by the end of the game she was only 40 points behind. The final scores were me 366, Chris 326, total 692, in 16 turns each. This was the highest scoring game of Scrabble that I remember seeing.
|
