|
|
Tuesday, February 7, 1978, 11:00 am, Day 742
The contract signing was held this morning. It was held at the District Officer's office. The Paramount chief was there, as well as Mr.Davis to represent MEP. Also in attendance were Mr.Senesie the chiefdom clerk, and Mr.Musa the district clerk. Everyone agreed to everything, and so everyone signed. John Gander from CUSO wasn't there. He did come up yesterday though, so we were able to discuss the things that we had to. He said that he had to be off somewhere early today, so he didn't come to the meeting.
I want to finish up the Sagbawa bridge design today. It was finished up a few weeks ago, but while I was down in Freetown I saw that it needed redoing. When this is done, I will present it to Mr.Musa the district clerk. Then, at the same time, I will arrange for getting the 2000 leones so that I can bring it down to Freetown.
Then, with that money, we will buy the cement and transport it up here to Koidu. With the cement up here, I will then hire a tipper to bring the cement on up to Kamiendor, and then transport all of the sand from the river into town.
I have to tighten up on my finances some. In just these first 6 days of February, I have managed to spend half of a month's pay. That could be easier said than done. I have to go back down to Freetown, and then I think that the chances are good that I will have to make even another trip to Freetown before the month is over. I can't save money in Freetown.
Tuesday, February 7, 1978, 10:00 pm, Day 742
I met Finda here in Koidu today. This is the same Finda that I took to the Christmas dance, the one that is the 17 year old school girl. I arranged for us to go to the movie together, but things didn't work out. When we got to the theater, she told me that she wanted the balcony section (2.50 leones), and said that she wouldn't go in the orchestra section (1.00 leone). I refused, saying that I could only afford the lower priced seats. Which is true, because I can't see paying 5.00 leones when we could pay only 2.00 leones. Also, in seeing what the movies were that night, I sure won't go into debt over them.First feature was an Indian film and the second was a kung fu movie.
I guess Finda must be used to the higher priced crowd, but I can't go along with that. She was acting worse than the girls at OKs. So we ended up not going to the movie, and so I just took her back to her house again.
I finished the Sagbawa bridge design today. The new cost estimate is 3,600 leones. This is 1,100 leones higher than the old estimate. Part of this is because there is a bit more cement and steel needed, but also alot of the difference comes from the fact that I am using higher unit prices, due to the fact that the materials will probably be bought here in Koidu, and Koidu's prices are higher than Freetown's prices, which I was using before.
Wednesday, February 8, 1978, 12:00 noon, Day 743
Well, the chiefdom came through for me okay. I am sitting here now with a check for 2000 leones in my pocket. I went over there the first thing this morning, to see about getting the money, and they actually gave it to me. There wasn't any red tape to go through. All it took was getting everyone together at the same place at the same time. This is what took all of the time.
First, I went to see the District clerk. He sent me back to tell the Paramount chief to come. When we got back, the District clerk was out. He went with the assistant District officer, and it was quite a wait before they got back. Then , the District clerk sent both me and the Paramount chief out to go to the senior District officer, who was at his house. While we were in transit, we passed him coming back to his office, so we returned there. So the 3 of us were together. The senior District officer called for the District clerk, but he was out again. He was located quickly though. Then he wanted the project file, and that took some time to round up. After this, it was just a matter of the District clerk writing out the check, the senior District officer signing it, then he gave it to the Paramount chief, who in turn gave it to me. Then I folded it up and put it in my wallet.
I'm jumping those hurdles one by one. Yesterday we completed the signing of the contract agreement, and today we got the chiefdom's 2000 leone contribution.
I will travel down to Freetown tomorrow, and the money will be in the bank the next morning. Then we will have to see just how fast we can buy the cement and get it transported up here to Sefadu. When that is arranged, I will then get money to pay transport from here to Kamiendor, as well as hauling sand when it gets there.
Wednesday, February 8, 1978, 9:00 pm, Day 743
I've been working on the Kamiendor design all afternoon and evening today. I am really getting around to tying up all of the loose ends now, and so it is really looking good. Today, I worked out a new work schedule. With it I also came up with how many man-days are required to do each part, both skilled and unskilled labor. Then, I went through and made up a complete material list, and then broke this down into 3 sections. They are 1) the materials that have already been ordered, 2) the materials that need to be ordered, and 3) the materials that will be gotten at different times or methods. The Ministry of Energy and Power is to pay for the first batch, CUSO is to pay for the second, and the third will be coming out of the petty cash fund (2000 leones).
According to my new work schedule, the work won't be done until the end of August. I don't plan to have to stick around during August, so we'll have to see what we can do. We could possibly hold off on the work, with the rainy season for an excuse. That should work. Or, I could always just leave Moiba up here to keep things going while I am gone. Only pipe laying is scheduled for then, so that the plumber will be handling most of the work anyway.
Saturday, February 11, 1978, 8:00 am, Day 746
My financial situation is again on shaky ground. In just these first 10 days of this month, I have managed to spend 144 leones. At only 28 days in this month, this still works out to a rate of over 400 leones per month, which is about 200 leones higher than it should be. After writing in here, I plan to sit down and go through all that I spent these last 10 days, and see just how much money went to each of several categories. When I do that, I then should be better able to see just what I need to cut down on, and how much I need to cut down.
Saturday, February 11, 1978, 3:00 pm, Day 746
I came down to the City Hotel a few hours ago, and have been sitting here on the balcony ever since. I took the bus downtown (only 5 cents), and in all of this time I have only bought one soft drink. I have splurged by buying 5 packs of cookies, though.
There is no way that I can get through this month by spending less than I make. I can try, though, to at least keep track of everything, to keep things from getting further out of hand. I do plan to get reimbursed for my travel expenses for this trip, since it was all for business. Already this month, I have spent more on transport than I spent all of last month. Also, I have also spent more on beer and women this month than I did all of last month. Therefore, I figure that I already have my quota for these, and so plan to cut them down to practically nothing for the remainder of the month.
I went out to Omar Kayam's last night. I wasn't really planning on it, but that was just how it worked out. It started out that Fridays were Abdul's day off, so that he wouldn't be cooking dinner that evening. That meant that there wasn't any reason for me to get back to the house quickly. Therefore, I just stayed downtown for awhile. I went to the City Hotel at about 4 o'clock, and there were a few other Peace Corps there, so I just stayed around.
Around 8 o'clock Tom Shmit came down. Tom is a fellow volunteer and an old friend of mine. We have a mutual friend in Fatu. We got to talking and we decided that we would go over to Omar Kayham's together, just to see how Fatu would react to the situation. She was sitting at the bar when we came in, and we sat down at the table right behind her. She did her best to try to ignore us. I guess she didn't want to play up to one, because then the other would see her. Supposedly both Tom and I a re Fatu's #1 man. That works fine, as long as she can keep us separate, but here we were, together.
Alice was there also. She broke out laughing when she saw Tom and I come and sit down behind Fatu. She just kept laughing as she got up and went to Fatu, and then came and sat down with us. Still, Fatu tried to ignore us. Finally, we were able to get her to come sit with us. She still wouldn't say anything. I danced the first dance with Alice. The next one was with Fatu. Then the next, Fatu asked Tom to dance.
After a beer together, Tom went and started to make his move on another girl sitting up at the bar. Fatu was sitting with me, and I guess she wasn't willing to try to stop Tom from finding another woman, because I was there watching her. She wouldn't agree to go home with me, though. When Tom finally left with his new found girl, I was able to keep Fatu around for another beer or two. She still wouldn't agree to go home with me. She said that she was sick, and wanted to go home to her house and sleep. I gave her one leone taxi money. I doubt very much if she was telling the truth. Since she knows where Tom's house is, I figure that her first move was to go out there and try to find him.
Tom said that the girl was taking him to her house, though, so Fatu would just be wasting a trip by going to Tom's house. I haven't seen either Tom or Fatu yet today, so I don't know what actually happened. Fatu said that she would meet me here at the City Hotel this afternoon, at 2 o'clock sharp, but she hasn't shown up yet. It is probably close to 4 o'clock now, and I probably won't hang around too much longer.
Usually on Saturday afternoons, the City Hotel is really hopping, but so far it has remained quiet. Alot of the girls have stopped by, but they all left again when they saw that nothing was happening here. Modu, Baby Joe, Kariatu, they were all here for awhile.
|
