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Wednesday, February 1, 1978, 9:00 am, Day 736
Things couldn't be better with me than now. This morning I woke up feeling as good as I did last night. I still found it easy for me to say what I wanted to say. I went over to Kabba and Kundi's house this morning to settle this whole thing. When I got there Kabba was out at the latrine and Sia Kundi was still in bed. I told Sia Kundi that I was going this morning, and I gave her 2.00 leones for her to use while I am away. Then I sat down and waited for Kabba to return. I was great. I wasn't hardly nervous at all, but was really calm, cool, and collected, and I had something to say and I felt that I could say it. Kabba was also in a calm cool and collected state of mind.
Together we discussed my situation and where I fit in with them. I came equipped with a detailed listing of everything that I bought for them and the food this last month. For this January it came to 54 leones, and I was only here 21 days. Kabba found it hard to believe but the figures were all there so he had to accept it.
When I got there I think that Kabba had been considering telling me to find someone else to cook for me. He told me that yesterday he told Sia Kundi not to do anything for me. That was why she was acting so strangly to me yesterday.
We discussed everything over and over again for at least a half hour. I told him that I wanted him to make a decision now, as I had to go to Freetown. If I had to find someone else to cook for me, I needed to know now so that I could arrange it before I left. I also told him that I preferred to leave the arrangement the same as before, with Sia Kundi cooking for me. It means more money out of my pocket for me, but I don't mind paying because I like Sia Kundi and I like to eat at her house.
Kabba finally gave me the answer that I wanted to hear. He told me that Sia Kundi will cook for me when I get back from Freetown. That was all I was waiting for, so with that I left and came back to pack my things.
A while later Sia Kundi came over to my house. Kabba had already left for work by this time. She didn't say much, but just sat there and watched me pack. Sia Konde was there also, and she told me that Sia Kundi was shamed for me. I guess it might be true. Sia Kundi was ashamed of the way that she treated me yesterday. That was great to see. Just yesterday, I was shamed for Sia Kundi. When I went to her house and couldn't talk, it was because I was ashamed that I had done nothing to help her when Kabba was beating her. Her actions today were the same as mine yesterday, so it is probably true.
I can't hold anything against her though. She treated me so because Kabba had told her not to do anything for me, and she was afraid of Kabba.
Wednesday, February 1, 1978, 3:00 pm, Day 736
On my way out this morning I stopped off in Densembadu to say goodbye to the chief. While I was there, Kabba came in. He had the objective of begging the chief to lessen his fine. I have both felt and seen shame recently, and I noticed it again today. Kabba, who is usually very talkative, was very quiet at the chief's house, not saying anything. He reminded me of a dog with its tail tucked between its legs, going back to beg its master's foregiveness after doing bad. That seems to be the same way that Sia Kundi acted with me this morning, and also how I acted with Sia Kundi yesterday.
Wednesday, February 1, 1978, 4:00 pm, Day 736
Enough said about this Kabba Kundi thing. I just read back through the last two weeks worth of this book. I see that I need to write some more about the Kamiendor project. I noted under my list of setbacks that the block-making machine had some complications. This is hopefully settled now. The paramount chief has told me that he has one here in Sefadu complete with 200 good boards, and he has agreed to send it up to Kamiendor with his Land Rover.
I do have another setback to report about, though. It was quite a while since I went down to look at the well site, so yesterday I went down to measure the depth of the water, and I didn't find any. This upset me greatly. The well was 42 inches deep and no water was in it.
I went back up into town to get a shovel. Back at the well site again, I dug down until I hit water. The water level is now at 46 inches below ground level. The setback, though, is that my most recent well design, the one that I just finished, uses a maximum depth to water of just 3 feet. Therefore, I now need to go back and make my well design at least another foot deeper, and probably two. This will mean more cement.
My redesign of the Kamiendor system is coming along. All of the plans and designs are done. I've been able to do pretty well at making the new designs match the materials that are already ordered. This is necessary, as I want to use what we will have on hand, and not have to order too much extra.
My new designs are not finalized, though. I am in the process of re-copying them nice and neat, so that I can put them all together in a clearcut, organized Kamiendor design packet. In doing this I've found mistakes that I have made. In correcting these mistakes I then have had to go back and change the drawings and recalculate the materials. It is coming along though, because now the designs and drawings are complete and organized, so it is easy for me to go back through and make revisions. I just hope that in re-copying the designs, I am able to find all of my mistakes, so that the drawings won't have to be changed again after they go into print.
Sunday, February 5, 1978, 7:00 am, Day 740
I am still here in Freetown. Things about my project seem to be pretty well mixed up. I found out when I got down here, that there is to be a contract-signing ceremony this next Tuesday. That means that I have to leave here Monday, thereby cutting my visit to Freetown short. This signing ceremony is not going to be all that it was supposed to be. No "Big Man" from either Peace Corps or the Ministry of Energy and Power will be there. Instead, I will be signing for Peace Corps and Mr.Davis, the MEP area engineer, will sign for MEP. I was told that John Gander from CUSO, was going up to it, but yesterday they said that he already left to go there. That is a few days too early, and so I don't know if I will find him still hanging around there when I come.
Nothing has been done here in Freetown since I left. Concerning this 2000 leones, Mr.Dainkeh wants me to pick that up in Sefadu and bring it all down to Freetown. This will probably be in cash (two leone bills), and so would make quite a bundle. I don't want to carry that much cash around.
Monday, February 6, 1978, 10:00 am, Day 741
I am just waiting around now until it is time to go to the bus station. I am going back up country today. Tomorrow is supposed to be the signing ceremony, but we'll just have to wait to see how it comes off. There is a chance that it won't even be held in Kamiendor. If it isn't, then I probably won't even make it back to Kamiendor this trip.
I need to spend some time in Koidu to find a tipper driver willing to go to Kamiendor to haul sand. I also want to get prices on buying cement and lumber. When I have these things, I will come back down to Freetown to get them approved. When that is done, then I will be able to return to Koidu, buy the lumber and cement, and hire the tipper and driver. When this is all done, the actual construction will be able to start, hopefully.
I told the Peace Corps unofficially this morning that I am planning to extend for another year, to do another village water system. Along with this, I figured that the best time for my leave would be the month of August and a bit of September, adding up to 6 weeks altogether. That seems like it would work out pretty good. If I left Peace Corps, then I would just have to go home and find a job. This way, I put that off for awhile more. Also, it will probably take all of that time to get everything done that I still have to get done over here. I have all of the villages that I surveyed, which still need designs done for them. Also, I want to write up something of a village water system design manual.
I was with Fatu last night. She came back from Kenema about three days ago. She says that she was sick, but seems better now. She still keeps talking about how much she wants to come up to Kamiendor. I told her all about Sia Kundi. I told Fatu how Sia Kundi was my cook, and was almost like a wife to me. I told her that if Sia Kundi wasn't married, then I would marry her. I even told Fatu that Sia Kundi was better looking. Fatu wasn't too upset at all of this. I thought that I could see a bit of jealousy in her. Fatu says that she will do the cooking when she comes. I told Fatu that it was her that I wanted, because I couldn't have Sia Kundi. Maybe next time we can arrange her visit up to see me.
Monday, February 6, 1978, 7:00 pm, Day 741
I just got off the bus awhile ago. Getting tickets for the bus was really a hassle. Usually, the people are pretty good about it, but today, quite a few of them seemed to have reverted to their old uncivilized selves. I took my place at the end of the line. There were only about 20 people in front of me, but lots of people were hanging around at the edges, either trying to cut in, or at least trying to get someone to buy a ticket for them. The line was very, very slow moving. This was because of all of these cheats and free-loaders. By the time that I got my ticket, there were already about 100 tickets sold. That is how bad it was. Only 20 of these went to people actually standing in line. The other 80 went to a bunch of "shit holes", all of those leeches that felt that it was okay to cut in front of me. I wouldn't complain if they were all taken out and shot. As it was, I was #54 out of 54 available seats on the Kono bus. If I had been #55, then you might have seen my temper fly.
As it was, though, now that I had my ticket in hand, all of my problems were over. Getting on the bus was no problem. Being that I was #54, my seat was the front one of the fold-down middle seats. Every time someone wanted in or out, I would have to get up and fold my seat up out of the way. Knowing this, I didn't even bother to try sitting down until the bus was ready to go. I just hung around, either standing at the front of the bus, or down on the ground outside the door. I had a good time visiting with the people.
The trip itself wasn't bad, but it was tiring. We left at 12:45 PM and arrived in Koidu at about 7:00 PM. I was completely exhausted there for awhile. Besides being tired, I was also very, very thirsty, and so I consumed about two quarts of water or so. I just couldn't seem to get un-thirsty.
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