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Thursday, March 9, 1978, 5:00 pm, Day 772
I just arrived here in Freetown an hour or so ago. This trip down from Koidu wasn't too bad, but it was different. I went to the bus parking in Koidu and only one bus was there. There was a rumor that there was only one bus that morning. After waiting around awhile, I let myself get talked into traveling with one of the "comfort" buses. Comfort is only the name given to all of the vehicles which are small-size buses. These are privately owned and have seats for 24 people plus the driver. In these seats (made for 4 across) they always pack them in 5 people across, and then this morning, to my complete amazement, we were all packed 6 people across. 4 is comfortable, 5 is manageable, but 6 is unbearable.
Not only didn't we have shoulder space, we didn't even have seat space. There physically wasn't room for 6 people side by side, pelvic bone to pelvic bone. Half of the people had to sit forward, and then when someone decided that he had to adjust his position, that meant that we all had to adjust our positions. It remained 6 people across for the first 100 miles, until we reached Makeni. There it thinned down to 5 people across for the next 50 miles. From there on it wasn't bad at all, because finally I had my seat all to myself.
This comfort bus got stopped at just about every checkpoint, but the stops usually weren't for too long. They have it all worked out, where they dash the policemen at each placea little money, so that the police will forget about checking the passengers to see if they have their tax papers or not. This whole setup is all a racket, and the police at the checkpoints aren't doing anything at all except collecting dashes. They don't accomplish what they are put there to accomplish.
We finally reached Freetown at about 4:30 or so, and the first place that I went to was the Big Boy restaurant for a banana split and a piece of cake. After that I walked on over to the balcony of the City Hotel for a Coca Cola. That is where I am sitting now. I was hoping that I would meet some people here, but no such luck. It looks to be about 7 o'clock now and still no one. No Peace Corps and also none of the ladies. I think that it is about time that I gave up and went and found a taxi to the house.
Monday, March 13, 1978, 11:00 am, Day 776
Now, to catch up on what's been happening. It seems that there are quite a few volunteers terminating. I found out on Thursday evening, when I arrived at the house, that Don Middleton, our new water systems volunteer, is packing it in. I guess what happened was that the Ministry told him that they would have to wait until next dry season to do any construction on the Royema system. Don M. couldn't see himself just sitting around for all of that time, so he called it quits. He is here in Freetown and will be leaving in another day or two. Also, I found out a few days ago that Charlie Kemp, another new volunteer, has already left. I think that the reason was that there were problems back home with his family. Charlie was one of three volunteers that came in last November for the new school construction program. A month or two ago, Peace Corps terminated Kirk Francette, who was also in that program. Now there is only John Hennessay left, so that program is being dropped and John is transferring to CARE feeder roads.
The water system program is also now a bit shakey. It was originally set up with one PCV coordinator (Fred Hoyt based in Freetown), and with 5 field volunteers (myself, Skep Nordmark, Jesse Lee, John Burke, and Jim Olsen), each with his own village system to design and construct. Quite a while ago, Biawala, Jesse Lee's village, got indefinately delayed (political reasons?) and so Jesse transferred out out of the program and is now doing latrines and small wells.
Then Skep's village, Kamabai, got dropped because of thiefing and lack of support from the villagers. Skep went to Kondembia to design that system, but now his two years are up, and so he will be leaving for America at the end of this month. Also, at the end of training this last November, John Burke informed the Ministry that he couldn't continue on in his village of Gbinti. He has since started in on a project to coordinate all small well construction in this country. Bob Stein, the other new volunteer, has taken John's place in Gbinti and seems to like it. Jim Olsen is in Madina. Things are progressing there, but they don't seem to be moving along enough to finish when his 2 years are up, in November of this year. Jim doesn't plan to extend.
So, in summarizing, it looks like it will just be me and Bob to carry on the program next year. To put it up to the quota, we would then have to bring in four new volunteers. These last two recruiting times, Peace Corps has not been able to come up with enough volunteers to fill our requests, so next year we might just have to get by with an even smaller program than we have now, or even scrap the program.
Then, also staying at the Freetown house recently, are two volunteers whom are going home for a few days on a medical evacuation. They are going to a hospital in Washington DC. One is male and one is female (Craig and Marty), and they plan to get married while they are there. There is a chance that they might come back again, but I don't know how good it is.
Now, onto the subject of Fatu. Saturday night, I went out to Omar Kayhams and found her. She was glad to see me. I found out today, and the other evidence tends to support it, that Fatu and Tom have broken up, possibly for good. I saw Tom this morning, and he doesn't seem to be willing to let her in again. It seems that last Monday night, very late as usual, Fatu showed up at his house. Tom wouldn't let her in, and wouldn't give her any money for the taxi. The taxi driver then supposedly took Fatu over to the police station to settle things, as she didn't have any money to pay him. Fatu hasn't mentioned any of this, so I'm not sure how much of it happened.
Then Wednesday night, according to Jim, Don M., and John Burke, there was a young lady that showed up at the house, at about 4:30 AM, very drunk. Nobody recognized her as being Fatu. John thought he recognized her as being a girl named Elizabeth, but he didn't really bother to get a good look at her. Don M. was sleeping in the room where I usually sleep, and this girl came in and turned the light on to see who was there. Don M. didn't recognize her then, but when Fatu and I walked through through his room at 2:00 AM a few nights later, he said that it might have been the same girl. The reason that I think that it was Fatu, was because that is the type of thing that she has always done with Tom, and Tom stopped taking her anymore. Also, Fatu was telling me some confused story about her coming to the house Tuesday night because she had this premonition that I was coming to town. She tells about meeting this guy with dark rimmed glasses (John) and the rest is all lost in a fog. It seems that this all really happened Wednesday night, and I came to town Thursday night, so Fatu was only one day off actually, in her premonition.
Saturday night, when I met Fatu at OKs, we had a good time. I also ended up buying drinks for Baby Joe, Alice, Kariatu I, Kariatu II, Maria, Satu, Mary, - I think that was all. We stayed, drinking and dancing, until the place closed down at about 2:00 AM. My money was done at this time, so we caught a taxi and went home to sleep. Fatu slept until 11:00 AM the next morning.
Sunday, Fatu and I both said that we were going to the beach, and so we arranged to meet there. I was at the right place at the right time, but I didn't see Fatu. That evening, at about 7:00 PM, Fatu showed up at the house, wearing her bikini and holding her other clothes. A few of her friends were with her, and they had just come from the beach. It seems that they had gotten into a fight out there, and that they ripped Fatu's dress and stole her purse. She asked me for money to pay the taxi driver, so I gave it to her. Fatu and one of her friends stayed, while the others left with the taxi. Fatu and her friend (also named Fatu), then washed up, and then they wanted me to go with them to their house near Brookfield's section of town.
I went with them. It appears that about 5 of these girls are all based at this same place. They appear to just have one room of the house, and this room can't be any bigger than 8 ft by 8 ft. It has a bed and a table and some boxes of stuff, so there is only a small bit of floor space left over. While I was there, these girls ate rice chop, and then started dressing for the evening out. It was really strange. They all just had on panties with nothing else, and they're running around eatting, washing, dressing, undressing, whatever, and what all. None of the clothes seemed to belong to any individuals, as they were all more or less just taking them first come first serve. The electricity didn't work, and all they had were a candle or two burning. Outside, this one spot smelled like a full-up latrine.
I could tell that these girls don't really lead a high-class existance. I think that they wouldn't mind getting out of the situation, if they had the chance. After they got dressed, me, Fatu, and two of her friends caught a taxi and went to OKs. I only had enough money for two beers and taxi fare, so Fatu and I just had one beer each and then left. It was 11:00 PM when we reached the house, and Fatu wanted to go straight to bed. I left her there sleeping this morning, as I had to come downtown to get a few things accomplished, as it is Monday.
These last couple of days, Fatu has told me a bit about herself. She told me all about her family. Her dad has 4 wives and 24 kids. Her mother has 7 kids. She has a twin sister living in Liberia. Her father is in Bo and her mother is in the country of Senegal. Fatu told me that she wanted to get serious, that she wanted to stop fooling around and to get married and settle down. She made it sound like it was just a general statement of her situation, and didn't sound like she had anyone actually lined up. She still seems eager to go up country with me, and so it looks like we will be able to work it so that she comes up with me when I go up, posibly this Friday.
I told Fatu that I have broken up with my cook, whom I had told her about last time. I haven't yet mentioned to her that I am trying to find a wife. I will probably hold off from mentioning that until I see how things go with her on her visit up to see me. Being that she says that she wants to settle down, then I see a slight possibility of her staying up country with me. I would be willing to keep her if she appears to get along all right there, and doesn't make demands on me that I am financially unable to fulfill. If she stays with me, then she would be stocked with some decent clothes and some pocket money, but it won't be anywhere near the 6.00 leones a night that I average with her now. If she wants me, and doesn't mind doing without all of the nights out to OKs, or other such stuff, then we might be able to manage on my salary. That is all that I ask. If she can go along with the fact that I am unwilling to spend more than I make, then I wouldn't mind keeping her on a full time arrangement.We'll just wait to see what happens. In Kamiendor, she will have to learn to do without Star beer. I don't know how this will affect her.
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