|
|
Wednesday, July 27, 1977, 10:00 pm, Day 547
The work has been coming along fine these past few days. Monday, I spent by myself walking down and around the hill, looking for the best route for the pipeline. There were a few large rocks and cotton trees on line, which necessitated my changing the route quite a few times, but by the end of the day I was satisfied that I had settled on the best, most direct route. There would be only two bends required in the pipeline also, one near the beginning and one near the end.
Tuesday we had ten communal labor, all eager to work. I took my cutlass along and headed them down the pipeline route, and we were done with the 1600 feet in just 2.5 hours. I thought that it would take them all day, but being that it was now only 10:30 AM, I led them along the footpath route, locating grade-line pegs and bush clearing along the way. By 2:30 we had finished 1000 feet and so I called it a day.
Today, wednesday, we only had four communal labor, but I also worked, so we did ok. We finished bush clearing the last 1000 feet of footpath, and were back in Kamiendor by 2:00 PM. I wasn't tired yet, but was itching to get out there and do some work on the footpath. I took my cutlass and a pick and a shovel and headed back down the hill. It was 7:00 PM when I finally called it a day. By then I had finished about 40 feet of footpath, four foot wide. I was working undr a heavy downpour for alot of the time, but I didn't really mind the rain. I ended up very very muddy but the work wasn't really bogged down by the rain too much because I was doing side-hill cuts, so that I was moving freshly uncovered dirt most of the time, and the water didn't have much chance to enter until I had already finished with it.
On the way back from the wellsite today, after the bush clearing was finished, I walked up the freshly bush cleared (but unleveled) footpath, while the other people took the shorter but steeper pipe line route. Without even trying, I was able to walk back up the hill quicker than they were. The footpath is at a 20% grade all of the way, and it seems to me that that is probably about the steepest grade that a person can walk up without getting overly tired and having to stop for a rest. Therefore, when this footpath is finally completed it should really be fine.
The route that I finally picked out started at the main road just outside of town, and goes down the hill. At the halfway point is the present water source. I thought of making the footpath include this point on Monday evening, and it seems to be a very good idea. The present path to the water source is very very steep, and I always have to go very slowly, checking my footing at every step to keep from sleeping. Putting in this footpath will help here alot, because then the people will have an easy time of bringing water and they won't be taking their life in their hands every time, like they do now.
The present water source was where I worked on the footpath today. There is a switchback there, and so I wanted to make sure that it was made right.
Thursday, July 28, 1977, 8:00 pm, Day 548
I just arrived in Kenema an hour or two ago. I came all of the way from Kamiendor today. The Kamiendor road was as bad as usual but was still passable. The Tongo Road however, was unpassable at one point. The Tongo Road connects Sefadu up with Kenema, and is a dirt road, but is a high-class dirt road in many places. The road wasn't too bad today, except at one spot. This place had about 3 trucks and 10 lorries either stuck or held up because the others were stuck. The place was a low spot with the road being a steep grade coming out on either side. The road surface was pretty mucky in places, and the harder packed places weren't any better because they were covered with a thin layer of slippery mud. If your tires start spinning, then they just go into a slide, and there isn't much you can do except to wait until you stop and then try to go again.
Going through the mud, I kept my feet down and then went slowly. Even so, at one point my back tire started slipping, and I didn't stop until I was sideways with the road, with my front tire in the ditch.
Near Tongo Field I stopped to check my chain, and when I wanted to start again, it just wouldn't go. I wanted to check the contact points, so I got out my screwdriver and tried to loosen the screws. Before, I could always get them off ok, but today for some reason, they were really tight. After stripping them with the screwdriver, I tried to knock them loose like I have done before, by using the screwdriver like a chisel and putting a notch in the side of the screw head, and then hitting it to try to make the screw turn. It always worked before but today I tried in about three places, but each time I did nothing but rip the screw up.
Finally, after the screw head was completely mutilated, I was so frustrated that I just sort of sat there in a daze. Then I left the frustration and tried to look at the situation with a clear and open mind. I then took a look at what I had been doing, and found to my amazement, that for all of that time I had been trying to turn the screws the wrong way. Stupid me! I then tried the other way and they came off easy. I cleaned the contact points off and after a few tries the motorcycle finally started. My whole problem was because I didn't take the time first off to realize that I was turning the screws the wrong way.
Monday, August 1, 1977, 9:00 pm, Day 552
The reason that I came to Kenema was to go to some villages in the area to see if their water handpumps were still working. For the last three days I have been going around checking up on them. Out of the 17 names on my list, none of them still had a handpump, and some of them never did have a handpump. So much for that! However, I did see one working handpump in a village in the area. This I added to my list.
I also added two more villages, both of whom I found had complete town water systems, although neither of them were still working. I guess that the government was unaware of these, since they were not on my list. One of these looked like it would be well worth fixing. The well looks okay, as well as the tank. The pump has been sitting there since 1965, and I don't think it has ever been used so it might still be good. The pipeline, however, needs going over because alot of it is sticking out of the ground but it shouldn't be, and some of the pipe has never been installed at all.
I have seen alot more of the country these past few days. This one system is in a village which might possibly be even more remote than Kamiendor. It is 64 miles off the new highway, but the road is better so that it takes about the same time to cover as Kamiendor's 43 miles.
Tuesday, August 2, 1977, 11:00 pm, Day 553
I am in Yengema now. Chris and her sister are leaving for Freetown the first thing tomorrow morning, and then are leaving Saturday for America. It has been almost a month since I last saw her and so I was glad that I was able to finish up early in Kenema and come up. Kathy and her friend from the States is also here and they will also be going to Freetown tomorrow. Also, there were a few more people so that there were ten for dinner.
Dinner was excellent and I ate my fill. In fact, my ability to consume food is really big at the moment. At about 4:00 o'clock I bought some bread and a can of sardines and made myself some sandwiches. That alone was more than the normal person would want to try to handle. Then at 6:00 we went out to visit a lady who had just born twins a month ago. While there, she fed us rice with beans and beef. It was really good and we all ate our fill. There was alot left when the others had finished, so I finished it up, I was then filled up at the moment. Then at about 8:00 o'clock we finally sat down to dinner. We had avocados to start off with, and then corn on the cob, baked potatos, baked fish stuffed with dressing, bread, cucumbers, salad, and then wine for our drink. I was the only one who went back for seconds. I am filled but not over-stuffed.
Thursday, August 4, 1977, 8:00 am, Day 555
Yesterday, while on the way up here to Kamiendor, I met up with one of the lorries. I ended up having to travel behind it for a couple of miles because there wasn't any safe place to pass. I wasn't in any real hurry to pass, though, because I was a bit fasinated and worried about the lorry. This lorry seemed to be on the verge of tipping over many times as I watched from behind. The reason was a combination of things. First, this lorry was extremely top-heavy because it had all of the luggage strapped to the top, and then also it had 8 people sitting up there because there wasn't room for them inside. Secondly, the Kamiendor Road being what it is, often times the tires on one side of the vehicle might be a foot or more lower than the tires on the other side. I would swear that I often saw one of the back tires get to the point of where there was no load on it, where it would just be a slight bit more, the tire would lift completely off the ground, and the lorry and all of its people would tip over.
When I arrived in Kamiendor I expected to find Moiba, my co-worker, busy working the third day of footpath construction with ten communal labor. Instead, I found that Moiba never did come up to Kamiendor and Mr. Lansana, my village headman, hasn't returned either, so that there is no communal labor and no work has been done since I left last Thursday. I was a little perturbed by it, and they had better have a good excuse, but I didn't let it get me down. instead, I took my pick and shovel and went out to do some work. That is also what I will be doing later this morning.
|
