Getting Around

I went to the Kailahun District last week to supervise the launch of the cocoa survey. It takes roughly 3/4 of a day of to get there from Freetown. The route goes like this:

Freetown to Kenema in a share taxi:
This section really isn't too too bad; tar all the way with only minor potholes. The standard seating arrangement in a sedan taxi is 4 in the back seat and 2 passengers in the front seat. 6 passengers total. If you're unlucky enough to be in a hatchback, then it's another 4 passengers in the second back seat, which makes 12 passengers total. Luggage, space is not a big priority, so bags, chickens and children are put on laps. You can get a full seat to yourself if you pay double though. On this recent trip I did that on the way back. I got the whole front seat to myself, and it was glorious. The driver also thanked me because with only one passenger in the front seat he had to make fewer payments at the police check points that liberally dot the road.
Cost: Le 32,000 ($7)
Distance: About 400km
Time: 4-5hrs, God willing. Cars break down quickly and get fixed slowly.

View from the front seat of a taxi.

Kenema to Kailahun Town by okada:
The tar road ends here. At this stage we transfer to motorbike taxis. Car taxis are around, but they take roughly 3 times longer than bikes to navigate the roads. A real time suck if the bike takes 3 hours as it is. There are some really bad patches. Broken down trucks and minibus taxis can be seen quite reliably in certain bad sections of the road. Stuck in the thick red mud.
Cost: Le 70,000 ($16)
Distance: 128km
Time: About 3-4hrs

 

Motorbike taxis, also known as okadas, are by far the most popular form of transport in these parts of the country. Operating an okada I think might be the main form of entrepreneurship for young men. Okadas are generally a little more expensive than taxis, so to make the prices more reasonable the number of passengers is increased. 2 passengers sitting behind the driver is the norm up country, but 3 is not uncommon.

 

At IPA we indulge and pay double to get the whole back half of the seat to ourselves. We also carry our own helmets around. Helmets are rare, and can range from a half decent helmet lacking chin straps to a busted in construction helmet. I've also seen horse riding hats and boxing headgear.

This last picture is of a good looking car in Segbwema, one of the towns on the way to Kailahun Town. I don't think it's a taxi (it's a "musical machine"), and I don't think it's moved for awhile, but its been a brave car driving around on those roads. This car might have been a mail van in Belgium in its previous, quiet life.

 

Cocoa Project

I went on a trip to Kailahun last week. It's in the far Eastern corner of Sierra Leoen, sandwiched between Liberia and Guinea. I was there doing some pilotting for a potential Cocoa project. We want to increase the incentive for cocoa traders to trade in high quality cocoa. It's still early days for the project though. On this trip, my main mission was to find out how to grade cocoa beans. The beans taste pretty good when they're fermented and dried properly. Like really really dark, slightly fruity chocolate.

Here are two cocoa pods that a guy called Adu-Jina in one of the villages gave to me.

The cocoa pod on the left is called "Ghana" cocoa. Also known as amazonian cocoa I think. The smaller one on the right is local Sierra Leonean cocoa. The Ghana cocoa pods produce more cocoa, and run all year round. The local cocoa is smaller, seasonal, but they say that it's more pungent.

I slept in a small town called Segbwema. Two of the cocoa traders we might work with are based there. There's a bombed out Guinean tank there by the central street junction. Kailahun was the rebel hot spot during the war. There's a great coffee shop next to the tank run by "Number 1." He sells nescafe, ataya tea and local Sierra Leonean coffee. All black and strong.

Some coffee on the tank with Fatoma.

I like that the guys hang their laundry out to dry on the tank. There's also a "For Sale" notice painted on one of its sides.

6 Bougies

Take a look at the piece I wrote on the 6 Bougie cloth I found in the Waterloo market. I posted it on my Salone Sundays page. The story behind African wax cloth is pretty mind-blowing. Globalisation is real, and we should tell the UCT Politics department.

The man with the 6 Bougies

Leone Stars vs. Egypt

A bunch of us went to watch the Leone Stars play Egypt on Saturday. The game was actioned packed, and Sierra Leone actually dominated. Egypt hadn't sent down a full strength team (apparently it was the u23s!?), but I give the boys in Green, White and Blue a lot of credit. The final score was 2 - 1 to the home side. The scene afterwards was absolutely mental. People were dancing on the roofs of taxis while they were parading down the roads. I was thanked at least 10 times by random guys celebrating on the street for wearing a Sierra Leonean soccer jersey on my way back home that day. These kind of victories do an amazing thing for a country. There is so much patriotism, exuberance and unity around events like these.

On the side, don't you think that "Leone Star" rings a bell with the "Lone Star State??" Liberia like to call themselves that too. So do some other places...