archives

So I got denied at the Executive Mansion archives. Harsh. There was a fire at the mansion in 2006, which many viewed as an assassination attempt because the president was in the building at the time. Because of security reasons, then, (and I think they're not in the best condition, having survived a fire...) they don't let the public view them. Still, I think it's a little bit silly since what's the point of having archives if you can't look at them? But it hasn't all been dead ends: I found the National Archives building downtown yesterday and put in a request there, so I should finally have something to look at by Thursday next week. In the meantime, I've been exploring Monrovia (the grid system makes this really easy), watching a lot of CNN, sitting on the beach with my new friends, and actually doing a lot of work. I still have about 7,500 photographs of documents from Freetown to go through, so no shortage of work!

contrasts and comparisons

So, Monrovia. It’s funny because in some ways it reminds me of how I felt going to China right after Jordan: because there were some conveniences that I had really missed, it seems uber-developed. There are really well-stocked supermarkets with more American food than is available in the UK (they run cheaper than London though! JIF peanut butter is ~$4.50 here and Skippy is ~$8 in Hampstead). Internet service and mobile phone coverage are better. The businesses in the downtown/city center are all in actual shop fronts (service stations, supermarkets, pharmacies, restaurants, “department” stores), set back from the street, and there are parking spaces. There are working streetlights at night, though I understand that electricity more generally is harder to come by and people rely on generators. The infrastructure of the city seems to be pretty decent. Sidewalks are pretty much intact. There were still vendors set up on the sidewalks, but more like the Senegalese DVD and designer bag vendors in Europe than the semi-permanent structures in Freetown. However, I didn't really see any houses or anything - there are some high rise apartment blocks that looked similar to ones in King Tom, but I haven't seen the same kind of dense urban housing here - so I'm not sure of the state of living conditions in the city. Poverty levels are definitely really bad here, and the dual economy thing is weird (you know it's in Liberian $ when the price of peanut butter is $285! but do you know for sure that the pizza you had at lunch was US$11, or L$11? Since a cab ride is L$25, I kind of just work it out from there. The exchange rate is US$1=L$62). I would say that Monrovia reminds me more of Camden than of Freetown. I really like it here.

In Freetown, on the other hand, there were basically no working lights in much of the city – at night, all of the street vendors would light candles. And most shops operated out of one room wood/tin shacks that doubled as housing for the owner (you don’t go in them: they serve you “over the counter” at the door). While the downtown of Freetown was more urban, with high rises and the like, and a significant lower-middle class, they seemed to have a much bigger slum in the East End. They had a really big problem with refugees to Freetown from the interior during the war and none of them have gone back, which means that there are way too many people for the tiny amount of space between the ocean and the mountains.

And something that’s really interesting about both places: I think when people (myself included) picture poverty-stricken African countries, I don’t think anyone pictures there being an urban middle class. However, in both of these countries there is a professional class in the capital - professors, government civil servants, aid agency local workers, medium-size business owners, bank tellers. This is a really nice thing because it sort of gives you hope that it’s not all bad news and either extreme poverty or ridiculous opulence. I mean, the middle class here in West Africa has nowhere near the levels of consumer spending of the middle class of America or England, but (oh boy, here comes my dissertation topic) you can see the same middle class values translated throughout the world, particularly in the focus on education, morality, financial security, order, etc. Maybe this is just my internal optimist looking at the bright side, but I think it's important to see beyond the really obvious poverty because, while it's important to address, I think that just leaves people feeling hopeless about Africa.

why mosquitoes suck:

Because my room didn't come with a mosquito net, so I had to put up my own, but there was nothing to hang it on, so through a combination of band aids and suction cups (from my washing line) I managed to finagle something. Which then proceeded to fall down on me in the middle of the night and which I subsequently wrapped myself in. Fun. And totally ineffective at repelling the nasty buggers. I managed to escape Freetown without a single mosquito bite. Didn't even manage my first 24 hours here!

Also, I lost/misplaced the key to the lock I so cleverly put on my luggage....

On the plus side, I went to a restaurant called Golden Beach last night with some very cool people and had Club Beer and samosas. Yum! It's this gorgeous restaurant with tables on the sand and palm trees overhead and the ocean and sunset right there in front of you (imagine getting a really good spot at ocean city and then having palm shade and food served to you right there). Unfortunately to get down to the restaurant from Tubman Blvd I had to walk between a pet monkey on an unexpectedly long leash and a pet monkey (no leash) playing with a dog. ewww.

Monrovia

So, busy past couple of days! I spent the last week in Freetown working in my office at FBC (my first office was at a college I don't attend....), running errands (mostly at the bank), and doing lots of "last night" stuff: Paddy's/Atlantic/Sports Bar, lunch for the family (tuna pasta salad), and dinner with Edgar's parents at Eden. Overall, a really great last week!

Today I woke up at 5:30 to get the ferry to Lungi for my flight to Monrovia. The ferry was nowhere near as crazy as the Banjul-Barra ferry in the Gambia. Met a nice woman working for a UK-based NGO, so had someone to chat with on the ride and the flight here. We took a 19 passenger prop jet: old school. It only takes an hour to get here, and then it took another hour for the 19 of us to go through immigration and luggage collection.

Monrovia seems pretty cool. Very different from Freetown, which is hilly and has winding English roads. Liberian license plates look just like American ones, and with wider streets, crazy humidity, and the fact that it's totally flat - built on a marsh - it's kind of like being back in New Jersey! I'm staying in Sinkor, which is south on the Monrovia penninsula. Haven't been around to check things out yet, but I'll let you know when I do.

Tacugama Chimpanzee Reserve

Wow, what a cool place! Way up in the hills beyond Regent there’s this small, secluded chimp reserve where they rehabilitate and reintegrate into the wild 90-odd chimps rescued from “live trade” (as pets). It’s kind of like primate Jurassic Park – and one time, the chimps even escaped when the electric fence was down and killed one person. Seriously. Jurassic Park. With monkeys. I am not a fan of monkeys (freaky, people-wannabes) but even I was excited and impressed by the place. And they seem to have really dedicated staff and good facilities. During the war, one of the chimps and at least one of the staff died, but things seem to have improved since then. The place doesn’t have any government funding, but it is supported by numerous wildlife trusts, etc. If you ever find yourself in Freetown, definitely plan for a trip up there: the ride up through the mountain jungle alone is worth it (take a 4x4!). They even have a lodge where you can stay overnight.

Makeni

Went to Makeni yesterday. The trip there was pretty cool (although we did have to stop for a ½ hour mechanic trip…) through rice fields and palm-studded savannah. Everything is so green and lush in the rainy season. We went over Okroh Hill, where the British fought against the RUF in 2002. Makeni itself was the headquarters of “the rebels” (as they’re called in Freetown) and when we got there, Paul (Lama’s friend) showed me around the former HQ and RUF hospital. Very interesting. The town was pretty small, and clearly really poor, but the houses were nice and they have good food there. We went to the Apex, a new classy hotel and club opening there soon – I think Lama told them I was a guidebook writer or something because they let us just wander around and inspect unoccupied rooms and hang out at the not-completed poolside bar. I also made a bunch of little kid friends – they didn’t believe that the ‘Opito’ was real, so I had to convince them I’m not scary and then we played games like “high five” or “shaking hands” or “little kids pointing to a body part and giving the English name and then rolling on the floor laughing when I repeat it.” Good times. And I took lots of “snaps” today. My Krio is getting better too (understanding – not speaking!). And I saw the president’s motorcade coming in to the city as we left. Makeni is President Ernest Bai Koroma’s hometown. The road to Makeni is also an extremely nice, new two-lane highway, funded by the EU. Thank you EU!

On the way home we were chased the whole three hours by an amazing thunderstorm right at our backs. Finally, when we hit ridiculous Freetown traffic through the East End, it caught up with us. I did get to see the East End, though, which was exciting and something I wouldn’t do on my own during the day. The East End is a rougher part of town and was more damaged by the war, since that’s where the rebels came into the city. You can still see bullet holes in the three-storey, iron-work balconied apartment buildings (this part of town really looks like the Freetown in Blood Diamond, even though that movie wasn’t filmed here at all…) Freetown at night is such a different place. There are almost no working streetlights, and everyone seems to have a second (or very long first) job as a stall vendor at night. This usually entails selling chop (street food) or phone top-ups from a shack or a table outside illuminated with a kerosene lamp. The streets are just jammed with people, and although I find it intimidating because it’s harder to tell where you are at night, it also kind of feels like you’re in the middle of a really crowded block party.

Tomorrow: Tacugama Chimpanzee Reserve!

winding down

My research up at the archives is winding down now, with only about 5 books left to photograph. Now it's all about reading through the ten thousand pages I have stored on my computer. Fun!

Tomorrow I'm headed for Makeni, capital of the Northern Province. It's about 3 hours to the northeast of Freetown and supposedly the roads are pretty good. I'm only spending the day there (still hoping to get to River No. 2 beach on Saturday) but I'm still excited to be seeing other parts of the country. Apparently the drive there is through the savannah region of the country, primarily devoted to rice-growing. Looking forward to reporting back on this excursion on Saturday.

Meanwhile, plans for Monrovia are ticking along. Having a little trouble convincing the hotel there that I should be allowed a single room (I think they see me as a walking bank) but I'm hopeful that this will all work out. And I'm cooking dinner for my host family on the Saturday before I leave, which should be fun. Any suggestions for which kind of American/European food to cook? They seem totally skeptical and keep asking if I could just make jollof rice or groundnut soup. Just goes to show: to each his own....

a tourist day

So I finished up a big chunk of research at the archives yesterday, which left me today free to run errands downtown (and surreptitiously take some pictures!). I mailed my ballot - hope it gets there in time; changed some money; bought my plane tickets to Monrovia; had lunch in Crown Bakery and read Newsweek; and then went to the Sierra Leone Museum.

In a city that has very little tourism, where most non-Sierra Leoneans are with NGOs or the like, taking pictures of historic sites attracts an uncomfortable amount of attention. People seem confused when I'm walking around downtown too - I think they expect all white people to drive around in the white official NGO 4x4s. Even in the taxis I rarely see other white people. And apparently no one else does either, because everywhere I go it's "psssss - hey white girl!" It seems strange that there's any surprise at all - when going to Diaspora or Crown Bakery I run into tons of Europeans and Americans - but I suppose that's not what they see. So, in a way, I'm really glad to be staying with a local family, eating their food, learning Krio (very slowly). I think my impression of Monrovia will be really different because I'll be staying in a hotel there.

typical Freetown day

So this is my typical day in Freetown:
Get up around 7:30 (because it’s really hot in my room then as the sun comes in). Do ½ hour of yoga. Take a cold bucket shower (actually feels really good). Get dressed and pack my bag for the day. I leave for the college at about 9:15, 9:30. Getting to college consists of walking up the road to King Tom Bridge (I’m living in King Tom district, which is just west of central Freetown) where I get in a taxi headed for Circular Road. There are usually 3 other people in the taxi, or we pick people up on the way. You don’t tell the taxi where you want to go; you find a taxi that’s going where you’re headed. Then I get off at Model (pronounced Moe-del, even though it’s actually at the model school) where I catch a taxi up the hill to Fourah Bay College. The taxis up the hill usually cram 5 people in – 4 in the back, one up front – and then speed up this clearly very dangerous road up the mountain. Keep me in your prayers…

The archives open around 10, when Abu lets me in and I get to work photographing all the relevant material we found in the storage room on the first day. I listen to BBC World Service while I work and then at lunch time, Abu brings me a soda. I work until about 2 or 2:30.
At which point I’m free to run errands in town (have to take another taxi down the mountain) or go to Diaspora (a really nice cafe/wireless/library place) and get some coffee and use the toilet, since I’ve been drinking water and soda all day and there’s no working toilet at the building I’m in at the college. If I’m doing errands in town, I walk down the Circular Road from Model into town past Victoria Park (c. 1897) and along Siaka Stevens Street and catch a taxi back into King Tom or to Diaspora from the Cotton Tree. I really want to take pictures of downtown. It’s there that the closeness of the possibility of redevelopment stands out because the war damage isn't sooo bad there – parks, schools, nice roads, stop signs, street lights, air conditioned office buildings – just with a few too many people with no jobs…

After Diaspora, I come home around 5:30 and sit on the verandah with a coke or fanta and watch the sun set behind the mountains directly in front of me while the kids from Edwards and Prince of Wales secondary schools walk home. Then it’s dinner and then I escape to work in my room. Work means my article, reading theory, or copying pictures to my computer/recharging camera batteries/etc for the next day. And then I go to bed by 10. Not terribly exciting, but slightly more exciting than the British Library! I get to go to the beach, too, which is a major bonus!