Day 3 - Time for some work

I am already feeling much more settled in my new hood, went to the local bar last night at Allen town junction for a few beers with Giga and Idriss, and watched the town burst into life as dusk approached. Not many places have electricity so we sat with the dim light of kerosene lamps and bonfires, to the sound of African/Jamaican music being pumped out of the bars. As the mosque’s began to 

Call people in for the evening prayer the music was shut off. I tasted a local palm wine – pojjo, which is harvested directly from the palm trees into plastic containers and ferments getting stronger and stronger as the day progresses – think I’ll stick to beer for now. They also sell sachets of cheap alcoholic concoctions; spirits mixed with food flavouring, a taste tells me these things could cause some serious internal damage. Okay enough about the nightlife for nowJ

If I had to sum up the most pressing impressions so far it would have to be the lack of clean, safe water to drink and wash with and the dirt and smells, luckily the house where I am staying is very clean and the office where I work as well, but naturally there is a massive difference to European standards that is just difficult to comprehend having grown up there. Another really strong feeling at the moment is ‘where to start?!’ things here are just so different, but I think after some time that will all become clearer. And finally at the risk of sounding righteous, it really is all about attitude, these people laugh and smile a hell of a lot more than many of us Europeans who have everything at our finger tips. Not only that but it seems whatever the circumstances the same topics dominate: love, desire, fear, jealousy….

The first day at the office involved a lot of introductions and new faces, the dial up Internet connection is painfully slow and this really impedes productivity. Went to visit the farm where I got shown around, the pineapple plantations, cashew trees, chicken huts etc.  Lack of water in the dry season is a major issue but they have found some very clever irrigation techniques, which manage to circumnavigate this problem on a small scale for now.

Andy one of the volunteers who studied chemistry with a specialization on plastics, is doing some really interesting work such as fermenting rotten fruit to make lighter fluid for fires, he also brought a shredder to recycle plastic but there is not enough electricity to run the machine on a regular basis. Plastic is a big issue here, most products come from China and are made of plastic and there is no system in place to recycle this material and also the current culture here also does not support much recycling, for plastics at least, litter covers the streets, from plastic bottles to the plastic bags soft drinks and alcohol are served in. If you go to a kiosk to buy anything you get given a plastic bag for free and these are then found all over the streets. Andy and his girlfriend Charlotte wanted to potentially start a self sustaining business which would model the inspirational businesses which have been developed in China to recycle high quality plastic. Mountains of plastic are collected and cut up according to colour and each family in a village will take a certain colour plastic to ensure after it is shredded and melted it is of the purist quality. In some villages the government has even given households plastic shredders and melting machines to facilitate the process. Not only does this encourage people to keep the environment clean but they can also make a living for themselves by selling this plastic back to the bottle factories. The main issue with transferring this idea to Sierra Leone is the lack of electricity. The government simply turns the power for the country on and off for days at a time without any notification to local businesses or residents. Luckily Safer Future has solar back up generated by the solar panels but this also does not last long and is only strong enough to power small devices such as light bulbs.

Back to the water issue, in Allen town there is a water source which pumps water to the village but locals have cut this pipe at will to fill their buckets so they do no have to travel so far and the water then flows constantly from these slashes in the pipes all over the streets, not only wasting water but also spreading disease as it picks up waste and rubbish on its journey. A solution for this issue is really hard to fathom as I don’t think holding a town meeting and explaining this problem and asking people to walk further to get water rather than cutting pipes will be a viable solution. It seems as people have very little here this has created a mentality of ‘take what you can get, when you can get it’ which is quite a short term outlook but also understandable when you see the conditions people are living in. Although it sounds like it is each person for themselves here there is also paradoxically an immense sense of community and as the foreign white woman I feel very much looked after and protected by the whole community due to the respect people have for Idriss and what he has done through Safer Future for the people.

My first project will hopefully help me better understand the WASH (Water, Sanitation, Hygiene) division and the complexities associated with creating a project proposal, getting funding, implementing and monitoring the success of a project. 

A friend in Germany expressed interest in fund raising to build a well in Sierra Leone, therefore my plan is to travel to Port Loko district to see for myself the similar projects which have been implemented and to assess if any of the materials bought by UNICEF can be re-used for future projects. Basically the WASH division have a mission to educate villages around the dangers of open defecation and to empower and support the people of these villages to build a toilet for themselves both financially and technically. The Safer Future crew then monitor the success of this project and based on the utilization of the toilet and cessation of open defecation they then move on to the next step – building the well. One skilled technician is contracted locally or supplied by SFYDP along with a team of local unskilled workers to construct or rehabilitate existing wells. This process is closely monitored and supported to ensure that the local people are using the new facilities correctly.

This is a lengthily process involving quite some time and cooperation from both SFYDP and the local community and I’m looking forward to seeing how it works for myself.