Road Trip 3.0

Or, End Radio Silence.

Last week I returned to Freetown after three weeks in Eastern Province and what was sadly my last major road trip before returning to the UK/S. The map above charts my movements, as I realise the names will mean little.

The roads were bad, but could have been worse. The rainy season gods were smiling on me (most of the time) - they must have been impressed with my driving through a torrential downpour the first day - and didn't wash away too many critical sections. The only weather-related glitch was getting stuck an extra day in the village because the swamps/road filled with water the first day and took three days to drain. We traveled out of there in high style: with manpower, shovels and a pickaxe to build the road as we went (plus, serious agricultural booty including 2 roosters, about 50 pounds of papayas, an entire bag of ginger and lime for making gingerbeer, some 30 pounds of cassava, and a bag of rice for someone's mother).

Highlights included:

-walking into Liberia (twice!)

-seeing Guinea across the river

-learning to ride a motor bike (finally!)

-getting three country chickens (cock fohl - boys) and other nice gifts

-meeting bohku (plenty) wonderful people

-spending time in the village cooking, climbing into the forest, and learning Mende words (plus a surprise highlight t.b.a.)

-exhausting myself before I exhausted my potential sources for research material

-listening to my research assistant's endless supply of "Krio man say..." and "Mende man say..." proverbs.

Not-lights included:

-driving on abominations of a road (however, no breakdowns or flat tires and got stuck only twice = victory)

-being turned away from one of the Sierra Leone/Guinea waterside villages because of tensions surrounding a border conflict (difficult to solve with a country that has no president)

-getting innumerable and unidentfiable bites, some of which are not looking so good

-fuel shortage in Kenema on day two (road trip in the Eastern province is a carry-what-you'll-need endeavour, including fuel and water, which incidentally started to taste a bit like fuel)

Current mission: obtain two-week visa extension and sell car. Will also add posting backdated road stories to the humble blog.