3 weeks old

Today I am 3 weeks old in Sierra Leone which is pretty weird because that isn’t very long and I feel that I’ve been here a long time already, but at the same time I still have so much to learn!

On Friday, my entire organisation went to our extension office in Port Loko, which is a town to the north of Sierra Leone. There are about 18 people in my organisation, just 4 girls (including me!) but everyone is ‘young’ in their 20s or 30s so there is a great atmosphere. The drive to Port Loko took about 4 hours, I travelled in Charles’ car with Alona, Anita, Bakarr and Osman. The roads aren’t all that great here and it takes some skill to negotiate them (Charles has promised to give me a driving lesson when there are less people as passengers!) but I felt totally safe in the hands of Charles and Bakarr’s driving.

We went for a 2 day workshop to discuss our strategic plan. It was a great workshop and we all worked very hard, but had a lot of fun too and I feel like I got to know some of my colleagues much better, as well as meeting for the first time some of our extension officers who work out in the provinces. We went out for a few drinks and some dancing on Friday night after we finished work (we set off from Freetown at 630am and didn’t finish until almost 9pm so don’t fret, I’m working hard!). There’s a lot of dancing goes on here, but I seem to be coping alright with it, given that I’m not a dancer at all back home. Most places you go are outside, and there’s something really great about dancing under the stars, I guess it doesn’t happen so much in rainy season though!

Saturday we got on with more work and we really achieved a lot, I felt, and I was really able to contribute (hopefully in a constructive way!) and there are certainly plenty of things that were written into our plan that have my name next to them! The hard thing for me over the two days was the heat, it was so hot up country and you don’t get the breeze that you get near the sea. We worked outside a lot and everyone is great at making sure I keep out of the sun and keeping me well supplied with water! It makes everyone laugh sometimes when we talk about how white I am. It’s not something I feel particularly conscious of and sometimes I walk down the street and people are staring at me, and I’m thinking, what have I got on my face and then I’m like, oh yea, it’s because I’m white! In Port Loko the kids made me laugh as there were some that kept peeking round the corner at me to see me and when I smiled at them they would run off, then be back 2 minutes later!

So I travelled back yesterday evening, the journey was easy enough and the guys dropped us girls in the city centre and made sure we got a taxi to take us to our respective homes and then all three guys who’d travelled with me called me to check I was home ok (see, I’m being so well looked after!) It was lovely actually, as last night was bonfire night and I was feeling slightly weird not to be on the Sele in Hexham watching the bonfire and seeing lots of people I knew. And I didn’t tell them any of this, but the guys here, just by being themselves, reminded me that I may only be 3 weeks old in Sierra Leone, but that I have friends here already.