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Tuesday, August 30, 1977, 4:00 pm, Day 581
I arrived in Freetown without any hassle. First thing I did was go up and show the Doc my foot. He gave me alot of pills, bandages, etc and told me to soak them 2 or 3 times a day and then see him next week. That wasn't quite as much as I expected. the last time I came in with a foot infection, Pat Kelly, the person who fills in while Dr. Jim is out, took care of me. She soaked my feet and cleaned and bandaged my wounds right there in the office each day for 2 or 3 days, just to make sure that I was healing okay. I had hoped that this time Dr. Jim would at least soak my feet up and clean and bandage my sores at least once, but he seemed to have no inclination of doing so. I didn't ask him, though, but I don't think I should have needed to ask.
Wednesday, August 31, 1977, 12:00 midnight, Day 582
I spent all of today hanging around the house here in Freetown, mostly sitting down with my feet propped up. I am soaking my feet and changing my bandages twice a day. There are 4 sores that I am treating. There is one just below my knee which is almost healed, but I keep a bandage on it just to be sure. The other 3 are the one on my shin and the two on my ankles. I have been using big bandages on these, as they have been oozing quite a bit. They are pretty well cleaned out now, but are still far from being healed. My one foot is still swollen but not quite as much as it was. I plan to remain here in Freetown until my feet are all back together again.
Since my feet started bothering me this time, I have been occupying my time by working on that peg game solution booklet that I had started before. The Peg game is an IQ test where you have 14 pegs in 15 holes, leaving one hole empty. The idea is to jump the pegs one by one, taking out the ones that are jumped and trying to end up with just one peg remaining.
Last October / November I started work on it to systematically figure out all of the solutions, but I haven't worked on it since then, until just this week. I am working the game backwards, first finding all of the different combinations of one peg left (4) and then working from there. I then found the different combinations of two pegs (5) which would lead to one peg left. From there I then found the combinations of 3 pegs (14), 4 pegs (49), 5 pegs (134), and 6 pegs (279). At present I am working on finding all of the combinations of 7 pegs that lead to one peg remaining. I figure there should be about 400 of these. It is time-consuming work but I find it enjoyable.
I shaved my mustache off this morning. It has been there since my bicycle trip two years ago, and I wanted to see what I looked like without it. I was surprised at the difference (but not really pleased). People could tell there was a difference but alot couldn't tell just why I looked different.
Friday, September 2, 1977, 7:00 pm, Day 584
Today and yesterday we've had one big meeting here in Freetown, for the water program. During these two days, I've often noticed that I'm not functioning like I should be. I would be listening to the discussion, supposedly hearing every word, but then I would find that I was unable to recall much of what was said. Like when asked a question, I would need for them to repeat parts of what was just said before I could answer. Things just seem to pass in one ear and right back out the other. The trouble is that I am workingg hard at paying attention, but still find that all of the names, places, amounts, etc that are heard are then quickly forgotten just as fast.
The amount of stuff that I have now found out that still needs to be done is enormous. Much of it should have been done months ago. Much of it needs to be done before I go back upcountry, so I will be in Freetown for awhile. I am hoping that if I can sit down undisturbed at the house (with my feet up) then I will be able to concentrate for long enough to be able to whip all of these things out.
I need to take a good look at what materials I want, and when I want them, and where I will but them, and how I will get the money, and how they will get transported.
I keep getting asked all of these questions that I am at a loss to answer, and it has started to bug me. It is a shock to my self-confidence, and so to pull myself back together, I have to sit down and try to come up with the answers,
Saturday, September 3, 1977, 6:00 pm, Day 585
I think that I have now recovered a bit of my self-confidence again. I've just finished doing this tank stand design, that I've been fiddling with the past couple of days. It was for John Burke's system. He is not a civil engineer and so I was asked to check his design and to change it as needed. I've now finished it. Using his design, the tank stand would have cost 1,100 Leones for materials. I was able to bring that cost down to 400 Leones, by fixing up the design.
Monday, September 5, 1977, 9:00 pm, Day 587
I'm still here in Freetown. It looks like it will be at least two or three days before I can finally pull myself out of here. My feet are better, but they are not healed yet. I am still soaking them and changing the bandages (3 places) twice a day.
To keep busy, i have more than enough things to do. I've found out we need to try to get some project funding from this one organization, so I am working on writing up the project proposal for Kamiendor Water Supply. I've also had to go back over my material list and try to figure out what times I would be needing the different items. I also threw out my old well design and made up a new one. The big difference is that the new one is hexoginal while the old one was circular.
I am starting to get tired of hanging around here in Freetown. The last 2 days I haven't even left the house. I've been trying to keep off of my feet, and I've been trying to complete some of this paperwork. I haven't been to the bank yet or done any shopping. There are alot of things that I need to do yet. My motorcycle is still broken down up in that village, and the Peace Corps office is out of spark plugs, so I will have to hunt around and see if I can buy one here in Freetown. There are alot of motorcycle parts that I need to buy in Bo, but that could probably wait another week or so, at the time I have to be at a meeting in Bo. My feet still aren't looking forward to all of the running around.
Thursday, September 8, 1977, 8:00 am, Day 590
I think that I will plan on leaving Freetown tomorrow. I have a tight schedule ahead of me, though. It looks like I will only be able to spend two nights in Kamiendor before I have to leave again. The Ministry wants me to visit this town of Yarya, a few miles north of Kayima. The Ministry has been getting pressured by other government high-ups to put a water system there, and so I am supposed to go out and count the houses and look for water sources. I could then give a preliminary report on the population and type of water source needed. That would give them a rough idea of the size of the project and how much it might cost.
After looking at Yarya, I will be leaving directly for Bo, where there will be a four-day long training staff meeting. After that, it looks like I will be able to return to Kamiendor to spend a few weeks. By then it will be time for training, which should take about the next three weeks of my time.
The sores on my feet are healing, but they are not done yet. Yesterday was my first day out of the house since last Friday. My feet didn't appreciate all the walking around too much. I give them a few more days and then they should be pretty much back to normal.
I'm mailing this journal home today, so I want to finish up by the bottom of the next page. That would be 684 pages in 590 days. I've been averaging about 1 2/3 pages per day since March of this year. Before that, my daily average was about 3/4 of a page.
I've been working alot lately on my systematic solution to the peg game. The peg board is triangular in shape with 15 holes. You start with 14 pegs, leaving any one of the holes empty. Then, one at a time, you leaf-frog jump the pegs into any of the growing number of holes, removing the peg over which you jumped, as you go along.
The object is to end up with as few pegs as possible. Leaving only one peg means you're a genius. Leaving 2 pegs - above average, 3 pegs - average, 4 pegs - below average, and leaving 5 or more pegs means that you are as smart as a rock. I'm working it backwards, writing down all of the combinations of 1 peg left, all of the combinations of 2 pegs where it is possible to jump to get one peg, all of the combinations of 3 pegs, 4, 5, and 6 pegs. I am working on 7 pegs now and I estimate that there are about 420 combinations.
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