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Thursday, June 15, 1978, 3:00 pm, Day 870

I made plane reservations today. For a round trip ticket, Freetown to San Jose, the cost is 1,221 leones. That's quite a bit of money, but I will be able to find it if that is really what I want to do, and it is. Peace Corps will give me, in addition to my own plane fare, a per diem check for $360 and one third of my readjustment allowance - about $1000 more. This readjustment money, along with my money in the bank, will pay for Diana's ticket. That will leave me with the per diem money to use in America. While in America I could tap into some of my savings there. Upon our return to Sierra Leone, I will have two monthly paychecks waiting for me, and only have two weeks to go before I get another. That should put us off to a good start then, even though I'll be using up all of my savings here by the time of my leave.

Our plane schedule looks pretty good. We leave Freetown at 10:00 PM on Thursday August 3rd, and arrive in San Jose on the afternoon of August 4. We have a 2 hour stop in Monrovia and a 3 hour stop in New York. Since we have to change planes in each of these places, that gives us enough time to figure things out without having to feel rushed. Also, the stops are long enough to let us get refreshed a bit, but not so long as to be a waste of time.

Monday, June 19, 1978, 11:00 am, Day 874

Diana and I are busy going through all of the red tape to get her visa processed and hopefully accepted. Last Friday I went to the American embassy, and they gave me a visa application to fill out. We had some questions, so we both went back this morning, and they told us that they couldn't see us until the visa application was filled in and everything else done. We next went to get some passport pictures taken. Diana already has a passport, but it will expire soon, so it needs to be renewed. We went to the Immigration department and picked up a passport renewal application. We filled this out.

There were a few complications and differences of opinion. These were based on the difference in cultures. Diana, being a born and bred Sierra Leoneon, sees nothing wrong with dashing money to officials to get things done, or lieing when the truth might cause complications.

Diana figures that this is the way to do it. I am against it. On Diana's first passport, she had lied about her age by 4 years, because she was supposedly too young to get a passport before. She wanted to repeat that lie again this time, but I refused. I put down her real birthdate on the forms. Normal passport renewal fee is ten leones. Diana felt that she had to go through a "Big Man" she knows to get it renewed, but the Big Man wanted an extra ten leones, to go into his pocket, so I flatly refused. Diana tried to bargain him down, but I told her to forget it.

Finally, with the passport application all properly filled out, and accompanied by a statement of my financial situation and the proposed trip plan, I gave Diana the ten leone renewal fe, and told her to go back over to the Immigration department, and try to renew her passport the legal way, that is no dashing. It should work. If not, then it is somebody not doing their job properly.

I then typed up a letter to accompany Diana's visa application. Once her passport is renewed, everything has to be put together. The passport, this letter, a picture, and the visa application, and taken back over to the American embassy. Then they should agree to talk to us.

Wednesday, June 21, 1978, 5:00 pm, Day 876

I just got back from Madina a few hours ago. Craig Hafner, Peace Corps Rural Development officer (our boss) was going up to visit Gbinti and Madina yesterday and today, so I decided to go along. In Gbinte we stopped off and looked at how Bob was progressing with the work. So far he is just doing the well. His is the same design as mine, but bigger. He had dug down 4 feet, put in his concrete cutting edge and wall, and then dug out beneath these to sink the walls another two feet more. The walls sunk okay. That was a big uncertainty before - how exactly will the walls sink? Bob plans to go down about 20 feet altogether.

Next, we all went on up to Madina. There we met Jim. He was busy working on the excavations and formwork for the foundation of the tank. Jim has 600 concrete blocks made also, but not much else has yet been done.

While sitting down over some beers later on in Madina, we had a meeting on the upcoming training. We decided to have it one week in Freetown, two weeks in Madina, 3 days in Makeni, two weeks in Gbinti, and 4 days in seperate small villages. My job is going to be Technical Coordinator, and I will be doing mostlt the surveying and design part, while Bob and Jim will be leading the construction parts in their respective villages.

Thursday, June 22, 1978, 11:00 am, Day 877

I found out about a possible snag in Diana's passport and visa applications. We were talking about her getting her birth certificate to verify the date of her birth. She then told me that she was born in Nigeria and not Sierra Leone. She says she came to this country at the age of seven. Now, I don't know what this information would mean to her chances if it was found out. At present, we plan to not try and correct any more information, and I am considering changing her birthdate back to what it was before, but this would depend on the results of her passport renewal. Whatever birthdate ends up on her passport will be the same as the one that I will put on her visa application.

Friday, June 23, 1978, 12:00 noon, Day 878

Good news today. Diana's passport has been renewed, and also her visitor's visa has been granted!

A big poster hanging on the back wall of the passport office read "Trust in God is better than confidence in man." That couldn't be more appropiate. If the officials at the passport office were left on their own, it seems that they would never get anything done.

Diana brought her passport in on Monday, and so they told her to return on Friday to pick it up. During those days inbetween, nothing had been done on it. When we walked in this morning, they couldn't find her passport. Luckily, one of the ladies there was a friend of Diana's, so while we waited, she went looking all over to find it. Finally, they found the passport, but not the application for renewal. They gave us another form to fill out, but just after I started they finally found the original. It didn't take long after that.

We were out by 10:30 and the American embassy closed at 12. We were the only people at the visitor's visa section, so there was no hassle. The officer talked to each of us seperately in his office. After he was satisfied that we weren't trying to pull a fast one on him, and that we were coming back to Sierra Leone afterwards, then he agreed to give us the visa.

The only uncertainty left to me now is if Peace Corps in Washington DC will process my readjustment allowance check in time, so that I can pay for the ticket. We can't leave until that is done, and we already have reservations confirmed for us flying out on August 3rd.

Sunday, June 25, 1978, 8:00 pm, Day 880

My big item of interest today was my bus ride from Freetown to Yengema. I took the afternoon bus, which leaves at about 12:30. To make sure that I would get a place though, I arrived at the bus station at about 10:00 AM. I put my backpack down in front of the ticket window, thinking that I was #1 in line. A little later, Ed Sheridan, an education volunteer from Makeni, arrived and put his bag down behind mine, him being #2. We then sat down and waited. After awhile, I found out that in fact I was really #3. There were two small rocks sitting between my pack and the ticket window, which belonged to two small boys sitting nearby. I remember them sitting there when I first came, so I aknowledged the fact that they were first. At about 11:30 the window opened, and everyone rushed to take their places in the line. I don't know where they came from, but there were 3 extra people now in front of me. Then the boys brought in a friend, so altogether there were now 6 people before me. There was a limit of two tickets per person, and each of these were at the limit. In the end, I was seat #7 on the Kono bus, and there were 6 taken on the Kambia bus. That is a little off from having been #1.

The bus ride itself was a luxury. We had one of the new buses. A while after I had gotten my ticket, and when everyone else hadalso gotten theirs, I went back and looked at the list. The bus wasn't even half full. Therefore, I decided to move out of seat #7 (which was next to the aisle), and transfer to seat #45 (which was at the very back of the bus next to the window). It was great! In actuality I was occupying seats # 43, 44, and 45. I took my shoes off and put my feet up. It was a comfortable ride. Lots of room and no hassles that go along with overcrowding. I was even able to get off the bus, being more relaxed than I was when I got on.


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