Day 5 - Haircut

Wed 13th April

Last night I went to a "cinema" to watch the Manchester Chelsea game. They say cinema, but it's actually more like a TV in a room where drinks are sold. It cost Le 1000 (c. 15p) to get in, and when I asked to buy 4 non-alcoholic drinks, their fridge was not well-stocked enough to accommodate this request. Not to my surprise, I found that everyone in Sierra Leone supported a UK football team. When I asked which team I support, I thought it would be easier to give an answer rather than say that I don't follow it much. So I espoused Cambridge Utd. This seemed odd to the people I spoke to, for whom saying who you support was synonymous was stating who you thought would win (clearly not true for Cambridge Utd!)

This morning I attended the briefing as usual. In the briefing, Brima read out a letter sent by group A to the staff. In the letter they apologised for a misdemeanour. They had gone to an exam to find that the exam board had made a mistake and sent their exam papers to the wrong venue. Instead of contacting their teachers about this, they phoned their friends who proceeded not to come to the following exams. I found the language used interesting. The pupils described themselves as full of regret, and said that they "know you [the teachers] really love us" and "hope you can forgive us". I struggle to imagine such a letter being written at a school back in the UK.

In the morning I spent more time with Wurie talking through the photocopying project that he's taking the lead on. I'd like to kick the tyres on the assumptions a bit more, because it looks at the moment like the business can get a real return on capital of 8%ish in year 1, growing to 30% in year 3, all on quite prudent assumptions. Admittedly the assumptions include nothing for staff costs - the students will simply share the profits like shareholders. They have not yet decided how the profit will be distributed, since the business is still just being founded, but it looks like it will go into a fund that will finance university places for the participants.

In the afternoon Mohammed was still not yet ready to spend time with me because he had data inputting to do. So I went to get my hair cut. Or, to use the local lingo, I had it "barbed". I asked the barber to recommend a hairstyle for me, partly out of a sense of adventure, and partly because I wanted to make sure that he wasn't attempting something he couldn't do! He said he would give me a Fugees style haircut. I agreed to this, little realising that the hair would come out uneven, asymmetrical, and so short you can see my scalp! Many of the kids back at the school were very pleased with my haircut however, saying things like "Wow! You are really in Africa now!"