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Sunday, September 18, 1977, 8:00 pm, Day 600
I traveled back from Bo today. In Bo we found out that the new nominations were to be held this Monday morning. Elections for the rest of the country were held last May, but they were postponed in the Bo District due to all of the violence there. Yesterday afternoon about 5 truckloads of ISU (special police) arrived in Bo. They made their presence known but so far Bo has remained peaceful. This morning no shops were open and very few people were on the streets. There were extra police checkpoints set up surrounding Bo.
Coming back to Sefadu I was asked to show my license once. I showed it to him. The license isn't really any good any more because it is missing my picture. The license is just thick paper, and it got wet and the picture stuck to the facing page. When I tried to pull them apart, the picture disintegrated. I tried to explain all of this to the policeman, but he still wanted to know where the picture was. After that he got to admiring my motorcycle. He tried the horn but it wouldn't work because my last fuse burnt out while I was in Bo. He looked at my speedometer and asked me if it worked. I said that it did, but then he said that he actually wanted to see it working to be sure. I told him that it only worked when the Honda was moving. He still wanted to see it, and suggested that either I let him drive my motorcycle or I carry him behind me. I refused to do either. I then suggested that he could note the mileage on the speedometer and then I could ride up a ways and then come back and he could then see the change in the mileage. He stopped trying then and let me go on my way.
I came by way of Kenema and Tongo Field on the way up to Sefadu. I've never seen the road that bad. In Kenema the road is "paved" but at the moment the pavement has turned into a series of potholes. There were so many potholes that there was almost no pavement remaining. On the dirt part going up to Tongo Field the road is very, very bad again. In a few places I was forced to put my feet down in ankle-deep mud, and once my motorcycle even got stuck. After I got it out and was going again, it started raining. The road was full of water now, sometimes a foot deep in places.
I managed okay though. I didn't mind the bad road or the rain because I knew the road was bad before I started out on it. I figured that the more hazards that I encountered, the better my experience would be, because I was out looking for a challenge. I think I found it. I enjoyed the ride emmensely.
Monday, September 19, 1977, 10:00 pm, Day 601
I came back up to Kamiendor today. While I was away I thought that the other roads that I was traveling on were really bad, and maybe Kamiendor's road wasn't really the worst in the country. Today's trip did a good job of convincing me just how really bad this road is. It must be worse than the others that I have been on. That first stretch from Koidu to jagbwema used to be considered a good road because it was done over by CARE Feeder Roads a few years ago. At the moment it has changed into a bog in about 5 different places along that part. Pulling into Jagbwema, after coming through all of those bad spots on what used to be the good part of the road, I looked at the motorcycle and at my shoes and legs and what I saw was probably the dirtiest feet and motorcycle that I had ever seen. The road was reminding me that it is doing its job of being the worst road in Sierra Leone. The part between Jagbwema and Kamiendor was as bad as ever and then a little worse, besides.
I managed to fall down twice with my motorcycle today. Both of them were while going downhill, and both were caused while trying to brake, using just the front brake, and end up having the front wheel stop faster than the rest of the motorcycle. After the second fall, I figured that I would have to do something about the brakes before I went anywhere. My trouble was with the back brake. It was so out of adjustment that it wasn't grabbing at all. I was able to fix that to give some braking power to the back brake, which made the motorcycle safe to ride again. Without that back brake, I would have ended up falling down every time that I would try to ride downhill. As a result of the two falls I bent all 4 turn signal supports and broke the lefthand rear view mirror, and bent the right hand mirror. I also got rained on half way here.
Tuesday, September 20, 1977, 8:00 pm, Day 602
Late this afternoon I saw a rainbow. It was just a normal looking rainbow, nothing special about it, except that it was, as far as I can remember, the first rainbow that I have seen here in Sierra Leone. Then later this evening I was witness to a pretty good sunset, one of the best that I have yet seen. The air was clear, so that with the already fantastic view of looking out over the valley to the mountains on the other side, the sun already down behind the mountains and shining on the clouds above, it was really something good to see. I watched it change from bright white clouds on a bright blue background to yellow clouds, to orange, and then finally almost to red before it was finally over.
Saturday, September 24, 1977, 9:00 pm, Day 606
Work on my water system project here in Kamiendor isn't going as quick as I would hope. We never get all of the communal labor that I request, and they don't work as long as I would like. Usual working time for them is 9:00 Am to 2:00 PM. Today they didn't come at all. I have a standing order for ten a day, 6 days a week, and I usually get about 6 or 7. During this last month or so, while I was in Freetown or Bo, or off my feet in Kamiendor, the work has almost stagnated. They collected stone for 5 days and then they got side-tracked and went and bush cleared a new route to build a road down to the well site.
Today, with no communal labor to help me out, I went down and worked on my well access footpath for the day. I try not to get upset at the communal labor's shortcomings. To help to give myself a little peace of mind, I can't let myself sit in my room and wait for them, but have to go out and do some work, even if they won't. If this project finishes on schedule, I'll be amazed. At the moment I am hoping that materials will arrive by the 1st of december and that it will take 6 months to build after that, finishing by the 1st of June. That 6 months construction time is figuring that all stone collection and breaking has already been completed beforehand, and at the rate we're going, I might have to throw my schedule out the window. Only half of the stone for the well site has been collected, and none at all for the tank site. They are supposed to be breaking the stone for the well site now. Yesterday was their first day at it. I figure that it will take 10 people each day, doing what i figure is a good day's work, for 20 days to break enough well site stone. At the rate they are going I'll have to at least double that.
Sunday, September 25, 1977, 8:00 pm, Day 607
Today, I finally got around to surveying down the road from Kamiendor to the bottom of the hill. It turned out to be 317 feet down and 2000 feet long, for an average grade of 15.8%. 15.8% is not too bad, but when you consider that is just an average, and that the road includes some really steep parts, and also some almost level parts, it becomes worse. One section came out to be 31.9% grade and another was 30.8%. Those are the ones that put your heart in your throat going either up or down, because you know that one false move and you're a gonner. I think that I could fix them up with a road that was an even 15% all the way. I'll be surveying the area some more these next few days to finalize the grade and location.
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