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Saturday, July 15, 1978, 8:00 pm, Day 900
This construction might be too much to handle. Each day I work from about 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM, with no lunch and no breaks. These last two days I've lifted quite a few concrete blocks. My back was really acheing today. On my feet and ankles, I have quite a selection of scrapes, some of which are trying to get infected. On my hands, my finger tips are still holding out, but just barely. I think the skin is getting thinner each day. All of my muscles in general all ache.
Good points are that I haven't had a headache from the work lately, but while we were doing the formwork for the slab, I was getting a headache every day.
We, so far, have 2.2 rows done on the tank wall, and do about 1.5 rows per day. 12 rows total. After work each day I seem to follow the same routine. First, I come back to my room, sit down, drink some water, and just basicly rest. When I feel capable of getting up again, I take some water and go take a bucket bath. Next I go down to the shop for my dinner. Then I come back to my room and go to bed for awhile. When I feel refreshed finally, I get up and go out to walk a bit, but always end up at the tank site. There, I just sit down on a nearby bench and just stare at the tank. I find it hard to stay away from it, and hard to keep from looking at it. I guess that I am just admiring the work.
I've found also that alot of the people in town are doing the same thing as me. As I sit down and stare at the tank, quite a few people come by and start staring at the tank also. They too are admiring the work. They say that they are finally beginning to understand what it is that I am making here.
Sunday, July 16, 1978, 6:00 pm, Day 901
I don't think that I will do any physical work tomorrow. I worked today, and so now my hands and feet are worse than ever. It is my feet that I am worried about the most. I have about 4 or 5 sores on each one, and they are all trying to get infected. One on my right ankle is the worst. Swelling has started there, and I am soaking it at the moment.
I just finished 20 minutes of soaking. It doesn't look too bad now. When I am through fooling with the others, I will take my feet and prop them up on my bed, under my mosquito net. I plan to leave them there until tomorrow morning. I will join them later tonight, but for the time being I will stay here in this chair and read or write or something.
Starting tomorrow, I will be giving my body a higher priority than the tank. I don't want to spoil my body just to get this tank done. I'll let it stay unfinished first. Hopefully, though, we will have enough people come, so that the work can still progress. I plan to sit on the veranda of a nearby house, with my foot propped up, and direct the work from there. It will be good practice for them, since I am going to Freetown next tomorrow, anyhow.
Tuesday, July 18, 1978, 6:00 pm, Day 903
I am in Koidu now. My feet have been my biggest concern these past few days. They seem to be under control now, but they are far from healed. All yesterday and the first half of today, I spent in my room in Kamiendor, with my feet propped up on the bed. I soaked them good this morning, and I seem to have cleared out all of the infection. at one o'clock I bandaged them up for the trip, and I just now finished taking the bandages off and washing. My feet seem to have survived the trip.
I have alot of running around to do in Freetown these next few days. I hope my feet will heal up enough to manage it alright.
There was no work at all yesterday. The communal labor didn't show up. Today though, work seemed to be progressing nicely without me. I left them working on the 6th row, the halfway point on the tank wall. That means that all they have to do is to average about one row per day for the next 6 days, and then I will return and we could put up the tank cover slab.
My money situation has been tight there in Kamiendor all these past weeks. I've managed to squeeze through tough. I have 4.00 leones to pay for the bus tomorrow, and also 4.50 leones left over to cover food and taxis in Freetown tomorrow. I was on a budget of about 25 cents per day for pocket money. That means that I couldn't even afford to buy a coke every day. I saved up some on other days though, so that once in a while I was able to permit myself that luxury.
Wednesday, July 19, 1978, 10:00 pm, Day 904
I can't help but be worried about Diana. Plenty of times up in Kamiendor, even, I would think about her; hoping the best but fearing the worst.
I am in Freetown now, and still I don't know her present situation, but I think it is not too good. The first thing that I did when I got off the bus from Kono, was to go out to her family's house in Murray Town section. I arrived there about 4:30. They told me that Diana wasn't there, that she had gone to see the doctor that morning, that she had been sick these past few days with loose stools, sore stomach, and vomiting.
I waited there at her house until about 9:00 PM, when I finally left and came over here to the water supply resthouse. Her family figures that the doctor probably kept Diana overnight for observation. I hope she is alright. Unless I run into her someplace, I won't be able to know about her condition until tomorrow afternoon, when I will return to her house. Her family says that they will check up on her tomorrow.
Thursday, July 27, 1978, 9:00 pm, Day 912
It has been over a week since I last wrote. It turned out that Diana did spend the night at the doctor's request, but she was much better when I saw her at her house the next afternoon. Her whatever-it-was was all gone, but she had a cold. Diana agreed to come back up country with me on Sunday. We came up, spent the night at the chief's house in Koidu, and then arrived in Kamiendor last Monday.
The road is really bad now, because of the rains. It rained heavily on Sunday night, and so everything was still wet. We put our luggage on a lorry, and then rode the motorcycle here. I had to have Diana get off in order to climb about three of the hills. That was because they were really slippery and rutted.
Friday, July 28, 1978, 7:00 am, Day 913
The work on the tank wasn't as far along as planned. The wall was supposed to be finished by the time I got back, but due to rain and lack of communal labor, they still had one row to go. We put that on, on Tuesday. The people still hadn't gotten around to bringing too many bush poles, so I had them get on it. They had people in the town bring some in.
Wednesday and Thursday, we spent working on the formwork for the tank cover slab. We were using up the bush poles just as fast as they were coming in, but luckily we didn't ever have to stop and wait for them. We finished the formwork yesterday.
Today, the work will be to put all of the steel reinforcing into place. Communal labor's part will be to finish collecting all of the sand and stone. A long time ago it was scheduled that we would be pouring the cover slab tomorrow. We are still planning to follow through on that, and it looks like we will be able to get everything done in preperation of that today.
Friday, July 28, 1978, 3:00 pm, Day 913
We finished cutting, bending, placing, and tieing the reinforcing steel today. We ran out of binding wire, so we had to use string, but it looks like it will hold okay.
I told Diana that everyone was supposed to work tomorrow. I said that her job would be hauling water, as that is what all of the ladies will be doing. Diana then told me that she wasn't going to haul water, but that she was going to mix the concrete. I offered her a job tamping the freshly poured concrete into place, but she turned it down, due to the fact that she would be required to stand on top of the tank. She is afraid of heights, and doesn't want to fall off. Therefore, she prefers to remain on the ground and mix concrete.
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