Day 9 - Walk off the beaten track

Sunday 17th April

When you come out of the driveway for the Educaid building, people always turn right to go onto the main road. Today I went for a little wander to see what happens if I turn left.

Then road curved round and I soon reached what looked like a dead end, but to the left I saw a rocky incline which led down to an open area with some stalls. I stepped gingerly down, carefully placing my feet on safe-looking bits of ground, much as I would when hill-walking. To my right a statuesque man sat on a chair silently in the shade of tree and stared out onto the path I was walking as dogs barked around him.

When I got down I crossed a bridge, walking slowly as a woman came the other way carrying firewood on her head. Beneath the bridge I saw a stream that may have looked quite attractive if it weren't generously framed on either bank with piles of discarded rubbish.

On the other side of the bridge I followed a dirt track. A girl with wild hair who looked about 6 deep-fried sugary cakes made from rice dough. I walked past a tree in whose shade a gaggle of children started chanting when they saw me. I soon worked out that they were chanting "Lebanese! Lebanese!" I read that at some point in the twentieth century, I think after the second world war, a number of Lebanese people came to Sierra Leone for reasons of commerce. I think they are relatively rich, so it would be rare to see them in this part of Freetown, hence the children's excitement. I stopped and talked to them, much to their excitement, and then continued.

A girl walked through the streets gleefully playing with a toy car made from an old sardine tin.

From the bridge onwards, the paths were sloping up a hill, and as I got further up, I increasingly saw dilapidated half-constructed buildings and shacks made of corrugated iron or zinc. I later learned that these buildings high up the hill are often poorly constructed and attract rent as low as Le 10,000 per month (just under GBP1.50) I quite liked the view from high up the hill, but apparently the practical difficulties of getting water and fuel up the steep incline are locally considered to offset any aesthetic benefits of the location! For a living, many of these people get large stones and break them down to a useful size and sell them on for Le 1000 each (c. 15p). They live near the poverty line but were smiling and friendly as I walked through.

As I walked, many people said hello to me. One of them got talking to me and asked if I wanted to come with him to watch the Arsenal game in the nearby "cinema". I declined, but now wonder what else I would have learned if I had joined that man.