I wrote this for the VSO website:
Jerry calls my name softly from outside the window. It’s 7:15 – time for my morning run with the local boy who washes our clothes. The 20-minute jog is filled with little kids yelling “White man!” in the Temne language, and I usually greet several people I know along the way, given the small size of Makeni. After the run, I enjoy the luxury of a quick shower, but I try to conserve water so as to delay the need to crank up the generator and pump water from the well again. I eat some bread, bananas or green oranges for breakfast and take my antimalarial pill, then hop on my bicycle for the 10-minute ride to work.
I park the bike in my shared office at Radio Maria at 9am, then walk next door to the Fatima Institute, where my students are waiting in class. I give a small lecture on proper radio interviewing techniques and give some practical recording equipment training. At 11:00, I head back to the radio station to train staff and volunteers how to use the computer audio editing software in the studio. There is no electricity supply in Makeni, so at 12:15 the power is cut off to give the generators a rest. Once the power is gone, the people are gone.
I find an ‘okada,’ or motorbike, at the nearby junction and take it to the middle of town, where I have three main choices for lunch. They all serve the same dishes, depending on what’s been prepared that day, but I go to my favorite one to get a hefty plateful of jollof rice with meat. It beats the other option of cassava leaves or some variation on cassava leaves. There is always another VSO friend or two in the restaurant, so we go to the market together afterwards for the day’s shopping. I pick up some green beans or pasta at the only true mini-mart in town, then find some good local bread and oranges from the street vendors. Then I take an okada home and try to rest for a couple hours in the blazing afternoon heat. I sit on the porch and chat with the neighbors, listen to the radio, and watch people file into the ‘poyo’ hut next door to drink palm wine to their heart’s content. Before leaving, I boil a pot of water and pour it in the filter for drinking later.
By the time I return to work at 4pm, the power is back on and I am sweating. A lot. I take a minute’s refuge in the radio station’s only air conditioned room, then I meet with a large group of kids who are producing a children’s radio news program with me. I work with them for a while under the big mango tree out front, and then they disperse before dark. That’s my cue to attempt to connect to the internet at the Fatima Institute, which has the only public internet access in town. After a drink or a small bite to eat from the student canteen, I take my flashlight down the road, strap on my helmet, and hold on for the okada ride to another VSO house just up the highway from my own.
Since I am useless in a kitchen, my VSO friends are nice enough to feed me delicious Indian food for dinner. We eat by candlelight, talk about the day’s ups and downs, and share some chocolates that some kind soul has brought from Freetown.
I walk along the dark road to my house, greet the night watchman and go inside to light some candles. By this time I am exhausted, it is dark, and there is nothing to do except go to bed. I do my best to stay awake until 10pm, and then I can’t take it anymore. The bed is calling my name. I crawl under the mosquito net and roll onto my tie-dyed gara bed sheet. I try to tune out the roar of the football fans in the hut across the street and get ready for another day in Sierra Leone.
Yesterday was a good day. I saw David Beckham! You know, the British soccer star married to Posh Spice -- arguably the world's most famous man (outside the US). He visited in his role as UNICEF Goodwill ambassador. A fellow VSO helped organize his visit to a local hospital, but the whole thing was a covert operation so she couldn't tell any of us about it. Otherwise the entire population of Sierra Leone would have flocked to Makeni. Rumors were flying around town in the afternoon, so I decided to see for myself. A coworker and I caught the last five minutes of his appearance, just long enough to snap a few photos and brag to friends. Still can't figure out how I lived in New York City for a year and a half without seeing one big star, but I come to freakin' Makeni, Sierra Leone and get this close to David Beckham. Crazy.
We climbed one of the local hills (sort of Enchanted Rock-like), which was nice but not easy. This is James, me, ABJ and the requisite random boy with slingshot, strikin' a pose. We asked that boy what he wanted to be when he grew up. He said, "I want to go to America." We asked what he would do there. "Wash toilets." Sigh.
