|
|
Saturday, January 14, 1978, 6:00 pm, Day 718
I am back in Koidu now. I finished what must have been the world's quickest town survey. Yesterday we finished all of the surveying. Last night I went through some of the calculations. This morning, I went out and paced off all of the dimensions of the houses in the town, and then I sat down and drew up the town map. By 12 noon I was done. It all turned out pretty good. There is a nice convenient hillside upon which to put the tank, so it will be able to sit upon the ground. The water source turned out to be 4000 feet from the tank site and 100 feet higher, so it looks like it is a perfect gravity-feed source.
Staying in Yarya by myself for a couple of days was quite an experience. The people seem to speak Kono more there. Some of them don't even know Krio. The woman that brought my chop each day couldn't speak Krio, and I don't know Kono very well either. There was also this other lady in the town that called me over every time that I happened by. She said that she wanted me. She also couldn't speak Krio. These two ladies were good incentive for me to practice my Kono.
Monday, January 16, 1978, 11:00 pm, Day 720
I finished my first full day in Freetown this trip. This is supposed to be a business trip, basicly. Today, I went in and asked Mr.Dainkeh how things were going on the Kamiendor project. It looks like things are at the same stage as when I left more than a month ago. What's worse, I cannot foresee anything in the way of materials coming my way in the near and also distant future. I very much doubt that it will be this dry season. If that is so, then there is the chance that I will never see this project completed, because I can't stay here forever, just waiting. If things at least start progressing again, I'll be happy.
I met Diana today at the City Hotel. I haven't run into Fatu yet, though, and it is Fatu that I need to see. I'll be going out to Omar Kayam's a time or two during my stay here, but no more than that. I will have to look at how my financial situation is shapingup, to see how much money that I can afford to use. I have committed myself to not spending anymore this month than I make, and going out to OK's always tends to be a big money item, so it will have to be at least cut down on. I still have to give myself one night out, at least.
Tuesday, January 17, 1978, 7:00 pm, Day 721
This is the end of my second business day here in Freetown. I don't know if things are actually getting accomplished, but they are starting to get cleared up, at least. We are supposed to get 5000 leones worth of materials from our own ministry, the Ministry of Energy and Power. We should have had this a long time ago, but it has been held up for all of this time. Today I found out that we can get the stuff, but first they want a couple of things done. The things could have, and should have, been done a long time ago. Someone has been fouling up here somewhere.
We are also supposed to get 5000 leones from CUSO (the Canadian University Service Overseas). There were a few bugs left in the arrangement, though, so today I went in to see about them. I wanted to find out just exactly what needed to be done to get the money. They were glad to see me. It turns out that the man in charge, John Gander, is planning to take a visit up to Kamiendor. He plans to be there this Saturday to look the place over. After that, we can sit down together and get this thing all cleared up properly. Those were the big business items of today. I think that I handled myself pretty well in my dealings today.
Wednesday, January 18, 1978, 9:00 pm, Day 722
Last night was my big night out on the town. I had a good time. It was also a bit of a special occasion. Bob and I took Kurt out with us. Kurt is one of the new volunteers that came in this last time. He spent some time with us in Royema during our training program. He is a really good guy, but he has gotten a really bad deal from Peace Corps. Peace Corps has terminated him, and today he went back to America. He is only the second person that I know of that has been terminated by Peace Corps. The first was for drugs so it was understandable, but Kurt's termination just doesn't make sense. The supposed reasons for it are his "lack of common sense" and his "inability to supervise a work crew", which appear to be trumped up charges. Kurt is very friendly and I think fits in very well with the local people, as any good Peace Corps volunteer should. I don't know. Peace Corps decided that he was undesirable, and so sent him back to America. This brings us back to last night.
Being that it was to be Kurt's last night here in Sierra Leone, we took him out for some drinking and dancing. We got our fill of both. Kurt really enjoyed himself. Myself, I met Fatu at the beginning of the evening and so I was set. Fatu was pretty good last night. She felt like dancing and wasn't getting into any palavers. She kept in a good mood. My money came out just right. I brought 18 leones with me, and it lasted up to the end, with only having to regulate its flow a little.
We started out at the City Hotel. we decided to go there first, as the beers are cheaper there. That is where I found Fatu. There isn't any music at the City Hotel, so after a beer Fatu and I went on over to the After 8. This was at about 10 PM, and the place wasn't yet open for business. The door was locked, but Fatu knocked and they let us in. All of the chairs were sitting upside down on the tables and people were busy sweeping the place up. So, we were the first ones there and we helped greatly to get the After 8 livened up early. Usually, the place doesn't show any life until about 1:00 AM when Omar Kayam's closes down, but this night was different and that was because we were there.
We stayed all of the time, all of the way up until the place closed down again. This was the first time that I was ever still there when the place closed, so I figure that it must have been something like 4:00 AM or so.
This morning Fatu wanted me to give her money because she was to go to Bo today. I told her that I gave her money for transportlast time. She then told me that that money was for her transport to Kamiendor and that she was still planning on going. That was good to hear. We set up a tentative time for something like the two of usgoing up together, when I go back up after I come down to Freetown the next time, which will be in just another week or so.
Thursday, January 19, 1978, 9:00 pm, Day 723
I'll be going back upcountry tomorrow morning. I'll be hopefully meeting the Paramount chief, the District Officer, and the man from CUSO, all tomorrow. I am bringing with me a copy of the proposed contractual agreement, which states what each parties' responsibilities are in the Kamiendor water project. This I will show them, and hopefully they will all find it agreeable. Also, I have to check with them to see if this 2000 leones is actually there, and how they will act to the Ministry's proposal of putting all of that money in a fund here in Freetown. If they agree to that, then I can get cement delivered up to Kamiendor in just another two weeks or so.
Before I can get any other materials, though, we have to have a signing ceremony, where representatives from each of all of the agencies involved in this project will meet together in Kamiendorand officially agree to meet their committments by signing the contractual agreement. This should take place sometime in February. After that, the way will be clear for the release of the funds to purchase the first 5000 leones worth of materials. To keep things from coming to a complete halt up in Kamiendor, I am hoping for an advance delivery of 150 bags of cement. This cement would then be used to make 2100 concrete motor blocks. This work would take about one month to do, so I want to get it done and out of the way now, if I can.
During this next two weeks while we are waiting on this cement, and since all of the other work is already done, I would want to put the labor onto working on the Kamiendor Hill road. Half of it needs to be realigned and surveyed, and then all of it needs to be started off by putting in a 4 foot wide footpath, keeping exactly on the design grade elevation of the finished road. This wrok shouldn't take more than two weeks and, when it is completed, anyone should be able to plainly see how good the new road will be, and just how much earthmoving will be involved. Also, once the footpath is put at the right place, then the rest of the earthwork, the widening to regulation width, could mostly be done without my having to stand over the labor, telling them just where to dig.
Once the footpath is in to mark the finished grade, and the cut and fill pegs are put in, then the rest of the work is almost self-explanitary. The person just digs until he gets down to the footpath level, and he digs until he reaches the cut peg. They could do that on their own.
|
