ANDY’S AFRICA DIARY

JULY 2, 1983 SATURDAY

Today is the big day. We're finally heading toward Africa. The last few days, since June 28, have been spent at an orientation session at Princeton University. Our time was spent in lectures on African art, society and culture, medical problems and needs, and discussions with Africans who were visiting the United States. We also had discussions amongst our group on how organization and responsibilities would be handled and just getting to know each other.

Our group is scheduled to work on an agricultural project in Mabuveh, a village 70 miles from Freetown, Sierra Leone. There is also another group, a medical group, going to another village in Sierra Leone.

Our group has 11 members. The leader is Steven Harris from Santa Monica, California, who went to UCLA and the University of London. The other members are: Klaus Scott from Charlottesville, Virginia; David brown from Queens, New York (Albany State University); Clark Spurrier from Cleveland, Ohio (West Point); Jeffrey Madison from Philadelphia; Aves weaver from Atlanta (University of Atlanta); Eve Nighswonger from San Francisco (San Francisco State University); Laurie Newman from Cape Cod, Massachusetts ("Columbia University); Nanotchka Chumley from Los Angeles (Occidental University); Bernita Ingle from Muncie, Indiana (Ball State) and myself.

It is interesting and fun meeting people around our country. Our group really has quite a diversity in backgrounds; a teacher, a chemist, a medical student, an anthropology student, a West Point student going

into politics, an international relations student, a mathematics student and so on.

This morning was spent getting all of our gear packed up. We were all loaded on to a bus at 4 p.m. and headed to Kennedy International Airport. Things were getting more and more exciting. The bus ride was great. I saw the New York skyline for the first time - what a big city! At the airport we all piled out of the bus in front of the Royal Air Maroc terminal. We were on a 747 and we left New York about 9 p.m.

Everyone cheered when we finally took off. We flew through the night and saw a spectacular sunrise over the Atlantic. We finally saw land. The coast of Morocco was our first glimpse of the African continent.

JULY 3, 1983 SUNDAY

We arrived in Casablanca, Morocco about 8 a.m. local time. We saw some villages and farmland on our way in. We spent a long time in the airport waiting for arrangements to be made to get us into town. Around 11 a.m. a bus took us into town, about 15 miles away and we were checked into a hotel for the day. The city looked pretty nice; it was a Mediterranean city.

By now I was very tired, "but I decided to explore a little with some of the others in our group. About two blocks from the hotel I managed to lose everyone. I looked around a minute, trying to fend off some rather eager salesmen, but didn't see any Americans. I was beginning to worry. After five or six minutes a young man walked up to me and said his name was Mohammed. Fortunately, he spoke fairly good English. I asked him how to get back to the hotel and he said he would show me, but first he wanted me to go to a cafe with him. I said no. He finally walked me back to the hotel. He wanted some money, saying he was a poor student and that I should understand because I was a student, too. I gave him a dollar (I only had three anyway). I was glad that episode was over. I went up to my room to get some badly needed rest.

After dinner of soup and chicken we headed back out to the airport. Our flight left at 11 p.m.

JULY 4, 1983 MONDAY

Another night flight. We celebrated "the Fourth of July" with a couple of half-hearted half-asleep notes of "Oh Say Can You See." We also saw a spectacular lightning storm. We arrived in Abidjan, Ivory Coast at around 7:50 a.m.

I stayed at the airport with about half of our group - too tired to go into town. We tried to pass the time by playing "think" games and taking naps on the table. Finally, about 8:50 a couple of gentlemen from the Ministry of Youth and Sport took us to their building to get a shower.

We were back at the airport at 4 o'clock and in the air at 5 o'clock. Our Sierra Leone Airways flight landed in Freetown about 7:30 p.m.

We were met at the airport by Shellac, who will be our camp leader, and some of our African counterparts; all are from the Voluntary Work Camps Association of Sierra Leone (VWASL) which is sponsoring our project.

We were all piled into a minibus with our luggage and headed for Freetown. It was a cool night with drizzle coming down. After about a 15-minute ride the bus drove up on to a ferry boat that took us across the mouth of the Sierra Leone River - about a 45-mlnute trip.

We all wandered up on deck, in the drizzle, and watched the lights on the shore. We were treated with beers and sodas.

Upon reaching shore we went another 15 minutes until reaching town. The city itself was mostly dark at 11 p.m. When we arrived at the Youth Center where we're staying, we unloaded everything, got something to eat and were briefed on the events of the next few days. Then we got some sleep - thank goodness!!

JULY 5, 1983 TUESDAY

This morning we were treated to breakfast at a nearby restaurant, which included eggs, toast and bacon.

It was fairly sunny this morning, which is pretty unusual for this time of year. Across from the Youth Center is a park and if you lean over the porch and look down the street you can see the Atlantic Ocean. The streets are narrow and not always very smooth; deep gutters line the roads and there really aren't what you'd call sidewalks. There are people and oars everywhere, all using the road, so that the cars and buses are constantly honking their horns. Traffic lights and signs are virtually nonexistent. Most of the buildings are one, two, or three stories tall with only two or three buildings you could call skyscrapers, and yet, this city has 500,000 people living in it. I guess the city is spread out and many people live in the shanty-towns on the outskirts.

After breakfast, Shellac took us to see the Mayor of Freetown. He is a real joker and very hospitable. He gave us a little bit of history of Freetown and Sierra Leone and we had an informal discussion on how the hierarchy of the government was organized. Basically it was from the top down. There is the central government in Freetown, then the four provinces which break down into districts, and finally these break down into chiefdoms.

Later in the day we went to the Sierra Leone Museum. We saw some tribal masks, carvings, instruments and tools. The museum itself was very small - just one medium-sized room.

This evening while I was taking a cold shower I heard my first rainstorm. It came down so hard I couldn't hear the shower over the pounding of rain on the roof.

JULY 6, 1983 WEDNESDAY

This morning we went to visit the Minister of Social Welfare and the Minister of Health. The Minister of Health (who I think was talking primarily to our medical group) discussed the problems of getting villagers to keep practicing good personal hygiene after the people who taught it have left. Many health problems could be solved if the people understood the important role hygiene plays in maintaining good health.

This afternoon we were guests at the Mayor's house. He has a very nice house overlooking the city and ocean.

I've had my first encounter with the tropical climate. Yesterday morning I woke up with a swelled up left eye. Colleen, from the medical group, put some cream on it and the swelling went down after an hour or so. This morning I woke up-with the same thing except that it was my right eye that was all swelled up. We never figured out what it was, but my suspicion is that is was a bug bite.

I've tried many different foods the last few days. All the fresh fruit that you buy at the market is delicious; pineapple, bananas, cocoanut and mangos. I've tried kanya, which is a sweet made with peanuts, rice and sugar - it's very good.

The market is quite a place. The people have their wares set along the side of the street and it's usually pretty crowded. They sell everything: souvenirs, shoes, textiles, fruit, rice and bread. It's fun to barter with the salespeople. It helps when one of our African counterparts comes shopping with us so that we don't spend more than we should. You also have to be careful all around town but especially in the market for pick-pocketers.

JULY 7, 1983 THURSDAY

After waking up this morning to the usual din of car horns and a nearby rooster, we had breakfast of pineapple, pita bread and peanut butter. Klaus, Laurie, Emanuel (one of our counterparts) and I walked up the hill about a mile from the Youth Center and saw Fourah Bay College and the Parliament building. Both look out over the city with the Atlantic down and to the right and the rugged forest-covered hills climbing up to your left.

Incidentally, our African counterparts are: Shellac (our leader), Joseph, Emanuel, Syl, and Michael. All lived in or near Freetown. All are Creoles, descendants of slaves that were captured by the British on their way to the New World and then returned to Africa; specifically

Freetown.

All of our counterparts are college students, most studying to be teachers. A couple other good guys that hung around the Youth Center with us were Frederick Pratt-Davies, "Freddy" and Jerry Thomas. These two are directors of the VWASL.

Today was Bernita's birthday so we all went down to Dilly's to celebrate. Dilly's is a little pub next to the Youth Center. The Africans love to dance and Michael Jackson is very popular.

JULY 8, 1983 FRIDAY

The mass-transit system in Freetown is by poda-poda. The poda-podas are European mini-buses that move the people around the city. There are no scheduled routes, so you have to look around until you find one that is going where you want to go. This isn't too difficult because there are poda-podas everywhere and the attendants yell out their destination. The people are packed into the poda-poda beyond capacity and the drivers do not depart until their vehicles are full.

Today a group of us took a poda-poda out to the beach. It was great; the water warm, nice sandy beach and shady palm trees. The problem is that it rains too often. Well, we were supposed to be roughing it, but so far it's been like a regular vacation.

JULY 9, 1983 SATURDAY

Today Steve and David were ill from the food and Colleen came down with a terrible fever of 104°.

JULY 10, 1983 SUNDAY

Tonight was the Ramadhan festival. About midnight there was a large torch light parade down the main street and there were tables with food on each side of the street. The whole thing was very spectacular.

JULY 11, 1983 MONDAY

This morning we got all of our gear loaded onto a poda-poda for the trip out to the village of Mabuveh. I think everyone was anxious to get out of the hustle and bustle of the city and into the bush, which is where we came to be.

The trip out was 27 miles of paved road and three miles of dirt track. Along the route it was green everywhere. You could watch the clouds building up on the hills. Along each side of the three-mile dirt track was 8-foot tall elephant grass that lashed at you through the windows of the bus as we drove past. Every half-mile or so there would be a clearing and a small cluster of thatch-roofed huts.

When we arrived at the farmhouse we unloaded our gear, got dinner started and spent a couple hours building frames for our mosquito nets out of sticks and strings and putting them up over our straw mattresses.

The farmhouse had three small rooms and one large one. All the floors were dirt. The roof was tin and the walls were made with mud brick. In the front was a porch with bamboo benches. Behind the house was a small thatch-roofed kitchen house.

This evening we had a group meeting to get the camp organized. Several committees were set up; the work committee sets up working hours and decides what work should be done. I was voted chairman of the social welfare committee, which is responsible for getting some activities going - games, discussions, etc. Finally, there is the disciplinary committee, which is responsible for deciding on disciplinary action if needed.

We set up our working hours from 8 a.m. - 11 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. – 2:30 p.m. On Saturday we only work from 8 - 11. We have Saturday afternoon and all of Sunday off. We can do anything we want but must be back in camp by 10 p.m. Sunday night. This rule was mostly for our own safety.

JULY 12, 1983 TUESDAY

Today was our first day of work. We started clearing the field out in front of the house using hoes, shovels and hands. Eve was wondering If there might be a John Deere dealership in Freetown. Some others in the group went out to find some bamboo to be cut and put in the ceiling of the house.

This evening I was enticed into trying palm wine. It's pretty strong stuff.

JULY 13, 1983 WEDNESDAY

Today we cut and hauled more bamboo. The bamboo grove is about one and one-half miles away and it takes two people to haul one log, so it is a slow process collecting a large amount of wood at the house. I cleared field most of the day, putting a blister on each thumb. The disciplinary committee met tonight concerning Notchie and Aves, who hadn't returned to camp when they were supposed to. The whole situation was pretty messy. We finally decided that they should make up the work hours they missed.

JULY 14, 1983 THURSDAY

Today was my first day on kitchen duty. I washed dishes, swept the house and fetched water from the stream which is about one-quarter mile from the house.

Cooking is an all-day task for 16 people. There are four people on kitchen duty every day. Today I'm working with Clarky Aves and Emanuel. We get up about 6:30 a.m., get the fires going, and start water boiling for coffee or tea. All of our drinking and cleaning water has to be boiled, so we usually have a pot of water on the fire all day long. For breakfast we usually make bread and butter or cheese or sometimes rice porridge. At 11 o'clock we fix a snack for the workers, and at 2:30 when work is over we have our large meal. This is usually rice with some kind of sauce like fish, onions, peppers, cassava, okra and ground nuts, all cooked in palm oil. The cassava and peppers we get from the field and other foods, like bread, we buy from the villagers. Cassava is a funny looking tree that is kind of short. The leaves are edible and can be made into a flour that makes spicy cassava bread. The roots are good, too. They're like a stringy potato.

Later at night (around 7 p.m.) we have to fix another snack of bread and coffee or tea. The kitchen crew's last job of the day is to fetch enough water to fill the rain barrel for the next day's crew to use. sometimes we're lucky and a large rainstorm helps us fill the barrel.

JULY 15, 1983 FRIDAY

We started to make beds in the field today. We turn the soil over and pile it in mounds with paths between them. These mounds are where we are going to plant cassava trees.

Steve went into town to start making travel arrangements for our trek to Abidjan, Ivory Coast.

Last night we had a regular monsoon. The wind blew hard and the rain came down in torrents. No one could sleep because of the tremendous roar the rain made hitting the tin roof. Klaus and I sat out on the porch and watched for at least an hour. When it rains hard (which is about once a day) in Sierra Leone, it lasts for more than five or ten minutes, more like a half hour to an hour. The interesting thing is there is no thunder or lightning - just rain.

The Africans are very friendly and seem to enjoy us Americans. They are also more physical than us in showing friendship. It is a common sight to see two men walking down the street holding hands or with their arms around each other. It took us Americans a little while to get used to this, but we did.

The Africans also seem to have more experience with group situations. I think this may stem from their traditional extended family and the necessity of working together in order to survive. They certainly didn't have the hang-ups we Americans had.

JULY 16,1983 SATURDAY

Today we cleared paths to the two watering holes we use for bathing and fetching for drinking, we also started digging a new water hole closer to the house, we only had to dig about five feet - the water table is really high. Our last task was digging another hole for a new latrine.

Freddy and Jerry drove on out to the farm today. They brought Charles with them - a British volunteer that was on his way to work with the medical group.

We heard an interesting story on the BBC today. Four thousand Sierra Leonean refugees fled into Liberia because of reports of a bush devil. A good example of the impact traditional beliefs can have on a society.

JULY 18, 1983 SUNDAY

Today we cleared some more land and also went to visit the chief of this area. The people in this area are of the Temne ethnic group, so the chief spoke in Temne and Krio (an African pidgin English) and Shellac translated for us. The chief was a real joker and was very glad that Americans had come to learn about Africa.

JULY 19, 1983 MONDAY

I had kitchen duty again today - yuck!

We got a visit from Mr. Roberts, a Sierra Leonean agricultural expert. He talked about some of the problems Sierra Leone's agriculture is facing. Sierra Leone's staple crop is rice and it was hoped that Sierra Leone could soon produce all of their domestic rice needs, but now that appears. doubtful, at least in the foreseeable future, says Mr. Roberts. Rice production has actually been falling the last couple of years, mostly because of the high population growth rates.

Another problem is getting the people to change from their traditional practices to other, more productive methods of agriculture. Mr. Roberts said there are some easy, simple things that can be done to improve traditional methods.

Another problem is that some people hoard rice and eventually some is ruined and thrown out. Thousands of tons of rice are lost each year in this manner.

Finally, Mr. Roberts talked about the difficulty of education. He cited an example about a particular type of rice that would produce higher yields than the types of rice they grow now. It is cheap and easily obtainable, but nobody outside of Freetown knows about it because of the slow education process.

JULY 20-26, 1983 WEDNESDAY-TUESDAY

Just a lot of work; more clearing of land and cutting and hauling bamboo. The weather isn't too bad. It's overcast most days and the temperature probably ranges, from 70° - 80° F.

When work is done for the day and our shirts and pants are completely soaked with sweat, we peeled them off and went down to the watering hole - boy, that felt nice!!

The mosquitoes aren't too bad if you coat yourself with OFF at night. There are a lot of ants that smart when they bite, a few flying cockroaches and some unidentified insects (some ferocious looking) and also a lot of flies - they were the worst. They drove you crazy trying to shoo them away.

We saw a couple of small snakes in the field and at night the frogs had a regular party - they were loud.

This weekend we were in Freetown, we met a couple of guys that worked on a merchant vessel and they invited us out to the docks for a tour. The ship was the U.S. California, a merchant vessel which was unloading rice that came from New Orleans, Louisiana.

The ship was huge and they showed us the engine room, cargo holds and the bridge. The crew was telling us about the longshoremen who steal large bags of rice from the ship. They also said some of the people had been seen eating rice from the deck. That's when you know there are some hungry people.

JULY 28, 1983 THURSDAY

More bush clearing and hauling of bush that has been already cleared. The children from the village are over here at the house every day. They're fun to watch. We give them balloons to play with and bubbles. They really enjoy it. It's hard to get them to chew gum - they always swallow it.

JULY 30, SATURDAY

Today we planted some cassava trees. You take sticks from an old tree, break them up, and stick each piece about three-quarters of the way Into the ground. Also, the last few days 40 mango and orange trees were planted.

I started taking French lessons from Steve for when we get to the Ivory Coast (rather Cote d'lvoire).

Jerry Thomas was explaining to us that the ultimate goal of our project was to use the farm to better educate the surrounding people as to better agricultural techniques such as: alternatives to burning the bush which is dangerous and which leaches the soil of needed nutrients, and growing ground nuts all year instead of just in the rainy season, using watering techniques. The Farm Center may eventually be used as a model farm.

The Africans (at least our counterparts) talk freely about their politics. Most of then do not like the current president, Dr. Siaka Stevens, and they all agree that there is a tremendous amount of corruption in the government.

AUGUST 4, 1983 THURSDAY

Our last day in Mabuveh. We accomplished a fair amount in the last few weeks; we cleared a couple acres of land, planted trees and nearly finished the bamboo ceiling in the house.

This evening (night and next morning) we had a big party before we left. Everyone was there: Jerry, Freddy, the chief and other villagers. It was great. We had some hot pepper soup that made us wish there was a fire hose around somewhere.

AUGUST 5, 1983 FRIDAY

This morning we packed everything up and the lorrie picked us up at 12 noon (4 hours late) and we headed back into town and the Youth Center.

AUGUST 6, 1983 SATURDAY

This evening we all hung out at Dilly's for our final party in Sierra Leone with our new friends, we gave Dilly a certificate, Everyone was buying everyone else drinks. We had to get rid of our extra leones somehow. There were a few tears shed before the night was over; first by our African friends.

AUGUST 7, 1983 SUNDAY

We were supposed to take the 7 a.m. government bus to Kenema this morning, but some stuff was left behind at Mabuveh and it had to be picked up. So we ended up taking the 9 a.m. bus which eventually left around 12 noon. Freddy and Joseph came along to help us out. The road was okay and we saw some nice scenery. About two miles before we reached Genera, we saw an overturned bus off the side of the road. We found out that it was the 7 a.m. bus we were supposed to have taken. I guess several people went to the hospital with injuries. That was a real shocker to us. We spent the night in Kenema at Joseph's cousins'.

A little impromptu concert was given by a famous Sierra Leone accordion player. He' s really good and his songs are funny in a satirical way.

AUGUST 8, 1983 MONDAY

This morning we were picked up by a lorrie, and soon there were 28 people squeezed into the truck and the driver was trying to put more in. Steve got mad and told the driver that if one more person was let in, all of us would get off. That seemed to work, but still there were four

people hanging off the back and one lying on the roof.

The road - if you could call it that - was two muddy, pot-hole-covered tracks that wound through the forest.

After a while everyone in the truck was singing Michael Jackson songs and such hits as: "Row, Row, Row Your Truck."

We had to all pile out a few times to push or to let the truck get over a hill without all that weight.

We arrived at the Sierra Leone-Liberia border around 2:30 p.m. After the trauma of going through customs - checking passports, checking luggage, interviews and an attempt at shaking us down for some money -we finally left at 8 p.m.

All along the route were periodic check points and at the last check point before reaching Monrovia, all the luggage was unloaded and checked. We remained at the check point from about 4 - 5 a.m. to try to get some sleep.

We arrived in Monrovia at 7 a.m. and found a place to stay that Freddy knew about. I slept most of the day.

AUGUST 10, 1983 WEDNESDAY

We left at 7:00 a.m. just the ten of us in a van so we had a little bit more room than last time. Part of the route was through the Firestone Rubber Plantation. Arrived at the Liberia-Ivory Coast border at 2:30 p.m.

We left the border at 5 o'clock (made better time - only two and one-half hours at customs) and arrived at Danane, Ivory Coast at 6:30. In Danane we had to find another lorrie that would take us to Abidjan, we left Danane at 10 p.m. and arrived at Abidjan at 10:30 a.m. August 11. Twelve hours on that truck - we were beat.

AUGUST 11, 1983 THURSDAY

We caught a couple of cabs that took us to the American Cultural Center. They gave up some coffee and croissants and arranged a place for us to stay.

We checked into the Hotel Regima Palace around 3 o'clock. I'm rooming with Steve. Immediately we discovered hot water - fantastic 11 Finally we'll be really clean.

In the following-days we saw the sights of Abidjan. Abidjan is a very large city. It is known as the "Paris of Africa." There are quite a few new-looking buildings and an impressive skyline.

The people at the hotel were really nice. Steve did our French-to-English translating for us. It was a lot of hard work for him. we became particularly good friends with Julian, the hotel handyman. He was really interested in learning about us.

We also had dinner one night with a couple from Martinique, who we had met at lunch our first day here.

AUGUST L8, 1983 THURSDAY

This evening the Hotel gave us a big farewell dinner including lamb and wine. An Ivoirian journalist ate with us and bought us some champagne.

Later we went to the Ministry of Youth and Sport, where the medical group and the groups from Mali and Ivory Coast were staying. It was nice to talk to some of the friends we had made back at Princeton.

AUGUST 19, 1983 FRIDAY

Got up about 5 a.m. Couldn't find the bus that would take us to the airport and we were too low on money to get a cab. inally, in an act of desperation, Steve shelled out some American money for cabs.

We flew out of Abidjan at 7:30 a.m. and arrived in Casablanca at 12 noon. We saw a great dust storm over the Sahara.

We spent the night at another hotel.

AUGUST 20, 1983 SATURDAY

Today's another big day. New York here we come.

The airport was a real madhouse. I guess they don't get 400 people going to New York every day. We left at 10:30 a.m. It was a long flight home. Our first glimpse of good ol' USA was Cape Cod - what a sight!

Landed in New York at about 1:30 p.m. (EDT). No trouble getting through customs. We all said goodbye to each other and headed to our different parts of the country. I was on a plane to Detroit at 5 o'clock and I was home by 10 p.m. It's incredible how far you can go in one day.

SEPTEMBER 2O, 1983 TUESDAY

It's been a month since I've been home and already the impact of Africa seems to be fading, but I think about the trip often and I hope this Journal will help preserve some of those memories and serve as a reminder of the people, culture and problems of which I became aware.