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Saturday, December 10, 1977, 9:00 pm, Day 683
I left Freetown Wednesday and came back. I was at Choithram's in Koidu, buying my supply of groceries, when two new Peace Corps pulled in at the gas station across the street. I went over and said hello, and then we all came back and had our fill of ice cream. They are two new agriculture volunteers. One is Martin from Gohndoren, which is on the road towards Segbwema. The other is Mr.Brown (I forgot his first name). He is my new closest neighbor, being stationed just 10 miles outside of Jagbwema on the way towards Saiama. His village is called Senehun. It has about 15 houses and is not on the map. I spent Wednesday night with him there, and I experienced the coldest night yet, here in Sierra Leone. My toes were numb the next morning.
I arrived in Densembadu early on Thursday, so I was just in time for Market Day. It was another good market, and I was able to get by with just giving all of my people 10 or 20 cents each.
Today I worked on my latrine. Three people were helping. They are making a fence around the place, inclosing the latrine and a washplace in two seperate rooms. I also knocked down most of the present latrine house. The old blocks and dirt from its walls I plan to make back again in building a permanent house for this new latrine.
Sunday, December 11, 1977, 9:00 am, Day 684
I've come up with a good way to start people off in learning to read and write. I give them a sheet of paper, upon which is written the alphabet and the numbers from 1 to 10. These are all in order. The person then practices reading this until he can get it right. If they don't know their alphabet yet, then this is where they learn. Next, when they master this first part, they turn to the other side of the paper. On this side, I have written the alphabet and numbers again, but this time they are all mixed up. The forces the person to memorize the shape of the letters themselves. When this second side is mastered, I test them with another sheet of mixed up letters and numbers.
After these two parts, the person is then ready for Part 3. In Part 1, he has learned to say the letters. In Part 2 he has learned to recognize the shape of the letters. Now in Part 3 the person will practice at writing the letters. After that, the next parts will be to start reading and writing words. This should all work out better. Before, with Sia Kundi, I tried to start her right out with writing, even though she couldn't as yet, recognize the shapes of the letters. These past few days, I have been teaching Small Bondu. She started out not being able to say the alphabet, but now today she can say all of the letters correctly and recognize about a third of them.
Monday, December 12, 1977, 10:00 pm, Day 685
Fatu is scheduled to come tomorrow. I hope she makes it. I've told everyone in Kamiendor that my wife is coming, and so they know all about her. Sia Kundi and Small Bondu are both getting their hair done special for this occasion. They might be a bit jealous and so don't want to be outdone by some stranger. Sia Kundi told me today that Fatu would sleep with her at her house. I didn't agree. Fatmata Lamin also said today that fatu could stay down with them, but I didn't agree to that either. I just don't know. They want to keep me all to themselves, but then they don't give themselves to me.
I've so far had two sets of communal labor working on fixing a fence around my latrine hole and wash area. Each has done a lousy job, and so tomorrow there will be another group on it, and hopefully they will do it right this time. I want it to be done now so that it will be ready for when Fatu comes. I don't want her to have to use the old latrine or the bath area that i used, which is about 3 houses down. Fatu is probably not used to the bush life, being that she lives in Freetown, and I think has spent her entire life living in the cities. This should be a new experience for her, but I don't want it to be unbearable.
Tuesday, December 13, 1977, 9:00 pm, Day 686
Well, Fatu failed to show up today. I am disappointed, but it wasn't a complete loss. My room is the cleanest that it has been in a very long time. The fence around my latrine is finally complete to my satisfaction. All of my clothes are washed and dried and folded and stacked neatly.
Early this afternoon I rode my motorcycle down to Densembadu to meet the lories. No Fatu. I did manage to meet Sia Kundi there, though. I managed to load her and her load onto the motorcycle for the trip back to Kamiendor. It was the first time that I've been able to talk Sia Kundi into riding on the motorcycle. I think she has been a bit shy or embarrased about it. Today, I loaded her on outside of town so there was no one there to watch. When we reached Kamiendor, she wanted to be let off just outside of town, but I wouldn't agree. Instead, we went riding through town directly to my house. She was like my substitute Fatu. Everyone knew that I had gone to pick up Fatu, and when they saw me coming with a girl at my back, they all stared to get a good look. Instead, they all got a good laugh when they saw that my woman was Sia Kundi.
I figured that the chances of Fatu's coming today weren't really that good. While in Freetown, Fatu told me that she wanted to come up and visit me for a few days, go back to Freetown, and then leave for Kenema to attend the Cocoa Show. I found out here in Kamiendor that the Cocoa Show starts today and only goes 3 days. That means that it was impossible for someone to be here in Kamiendor and go to the Cocoa Sow at the same time. The Cocoa Show seems to be big on Fatu's list of things to do, so I figure that when she found that there was a conflict in the schedule, I got pre-empted. I like to think that she didn't do it on purpose, and that there is a good chance that she will come up in another week or my money back. I don't think she wanted to just eat my money and never planned on coming up at all.
It is also possible that Fatu might get "cold feet" and start having second thoughts about her coming out this far into the unknown bush all by herself. it is possible that to get Fatu to come to Kamiendor, I might personally have to escort her from Freetown. I do believe that she really wants to come out to my village and see me sometime. That is what she has told me and that is also all she could talk about when she was with Tom, another volunteer that we both know. Tom says that Fatu is hung up on me. I believe that too. The only problem is that she is such a mixed up kid, that other things often get in the way.
Wednesday, December 14, 1977, 10:00 pm, Day 687
Today I basicly spent working on my latrine. First, I finished knocking down the old one. I looks like I have enough mud bricks salvaged from this old latrine to be able to complete the new one. I put together the door frame and layed out where the walls would be. I propped the door frame up in its proper position and laid down the bottom row of blocks. Hopefully, tomorrow I will find time to start mortaring them into place. The hardest part about that would be collecting all of the water that I would need. There seems to be a sufficient supply of kids around, though, to solve that problem of hauling water.
Once I start mortaring, though, everything should go quickly, being that all of the blocks are sitting there ready to go in , and all of the motor dirt is piled nicely, right next to a clear level spot for mixing. I figure that it shouldn't take more than 2 days to complete the wall , and then maybe a third day to complete the roof. It could, possibly, even all be done in one day, but it would be a long day. Tomorrow, I am going to Market Day so that only the afternoon will be available to me.
Friday, December 16, 1977, 6:00 am, Day 689
I am in luck for construction today. We got a good quick rain this last night. I filled my buckets, and the pile of dirt that i will be working with got a good soaking, so I won't have to add as much water now to get a good mud motor mix. The blocks also got a good soaking, but it wasn't a long enough rain to displve them, so they are okay. I didn't work on the laterine yesterday. I plan to spend all day today on it, with two kids hauling water for me full time. We'll see if I can finish it in one dayxor not. Besides motoring between the blocks, I also want to add a thin surface coating to the walls, both inside and outside. There might not be time today to do this also.
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