Taking the Initiative

After a few days of despair and longing to be back in Freetown, I decided to try to make things happen for myself. I had met a few people during my first weekend in town, including Gearoid, an Irishman who has lived in the USA for half his life and is in Sierra Leone to gather evidence for his PhD. It turned out that he had a spare room and was happy to share the house with yours truly, so I set about arranging to rent the room. The house is owned by the Fatima Institute, a college run by the Catholic Church. Another friend arranged for me to meet with Father Joe, the charismatic African priest who is in charge of Fatima. We eventually agreed that I could live in the house with Gearoid until January, although I had to bargain. The house is only for people with an association to Fatima, so, to cut a long story short, I am now a lecturer at the Fatima Institute!

I will do two lectures a week on communication skills, focusing on public speaking, and writing. I am very nervous about it all (I start this week!) but I am assured that I am educated to a higher standard than most people in this country and they are confident that I can do it. At least the kids really seem to want to learn; the few who are lucky enough to be educated to college level take it very seriously.

Anyway, the house is amazing! We have a compound with a guard so its safe. We have our own well for water (a little bit creepy, like in The Ring) and an outdoor kitchen. My room is a decent size and the house is clean and cosy. It is near the only good standard hotel in town, Apex, which had a swimming pool, nightclub (nothing too exciting) and even an internet café. Even better is the full size football pitch right behind the house, which happens to be where the Wuzum Stars train. They are Makeni's professional team, and we went down to watch them on my first night in the house, before joining a game with some other local boys. I managed to score the only goal of the game and I have never had a goal celebrated with such vigour! I hope to spend a lot of time down there this year.

My friend Jen came to stay for the weekend and on Saturday we got up early to avoid the heat so we could climb the biggest hill in the area. Wuzum Hill towers over Makeni like a smaller, green version of Table Mountain. We found some local boys at the base who were willing to help guide us up the hill for the small price of 2000 Leones (about 40p) and this proved a wise investment as it is not an easy climb in parts. The view from the top was outstanding, we could see the whole town and the surrounding countryside and it was well worth the climb.

Then on Saturday night Gearoid and I invited people over to enjoy our baked potatoes that we cooked in our “bush oven” (hole in the ground with burning embers, thanks Ray Mears!) with a chilli. It really made me feel at home to be able to have friends around and cook. We then hit the aforementioned Apex nightclub which had a distinct wedding party feel to it for some Star beers and dancing. Most of the music is West African, often in Krio, and it is growing on me fast (perhaps owing to my “adapt or die” mentality).

The job at the council is still proving to be difficult, but I am just trying to settle in by getting to know people, work on my Krio and avoid jumping in too fast (apart from the fact that I have agreed to work two jobs!)