Author: cjillmoses

The exchange rate is Le8390 to US $1. Last week I asked the hotel front desk about exchanging money. They offered to call someone and let me know when he arrived in the lobby. He offered a rate of Le8900 to the dollar. According to people at the office, Le8500 to 8600 was a good rate so this was very good. To exchange $100, he counted out 89 Le10,000 which is quite a stack of bills. Le10,000 is the highest denomination and worth about $1.20.

There are also Le5000, 2000 and 1000. I don’t have a Le5000 bill at the moment. Supposedly there are coins but I’ve never seem them used.

Local food is quite inexpensive – Le8000 for a half kilo of carrots, for example. Imported food like cheese is quite a bit more, often over Le100,000. It’s difficult to feel comfortable spending that much for cheese. Somehow 100,000 seems like a lot even if it isn’t. Also, it’s hard to carry enough cash.

The man pictured on the Le1000 bill is Bai Bureh, the chief of Northern Sierra Leone and the leader of the Hut Tax War against the British in 1898. The man on the Le2000 bill is Isaac Theophilus Akunna Wallace-Johnson (!). He was a unionist, activist and politician in the 1930’s until the mid-60’s. He worked to create unions, increase wages and improve working conditions, especially in the mines. Both men have interesting stories.

The front of the Le10,000 shown below and first issued in 2010 depicts a dove with an olive branch and banner saying National Cohesion, Peace and Prosperity. The story of 11 year civil war ending in 1999 is the saddest thing I’ve ever read. I can understand why peace would be important to celebrate. The reverse of the bill shown in the top picture above shows the “Cotton Tree”, a landmark marking the spot where freed African American slaves founded Freetown in 1792. They had gained freedom by fighting for the British during the Revolutionary War.

I was going to stop there, but decided to also check out the Le5000 and it’s too interesting not to share. The man on the Le5000 is Sengbe Pieh, or Joseph Cinque. He led the revolt on the Spanish slave ship, La Amistad. If being captured, sold into slavery, shipped across the ocean, leading a revolt and taking over the ship, getting captured by the US and charged with mutiny wasn’t enough, the whole thing turned into a US Supreme Court case. Ultimately the court ruled that the mutiny was justified since they had been kidnapped and sold illegally (the slave trade was illegal by this point in history) and he and the others were assisted in returning to Sierra Leone in 1842.

Yesterday, we visited Number Two Beach – a favorite of embassy staff according to co-workers. The embassy driver picked us up around 9am and we headed out of Freetown down the road along the coast. My hotel is in Aberdeen – a peninsula on the very western edge of Freetown. The road is paved and, once out of the city, has minimal traffic. Right before #2 Beach, the paving stops and the road is under construction.

It wasn’t even 10am when we arrived and few people were there. According to our driver, the community around Number Two Beach organized to manage the site without government assistance. We paid 5000 Le (leones) each – about $0.60 – to enter.

The beach has beautiful white sand and was practically empty and very clean. It’s located where Number Two River flows into the ocean.

It was low tide when we arrived, so we waded across and walked down Tokeh Beach on the other side. There were fishermen with a long net out in a U shape from the beach. There was a boat out at the farthest point and two groups of men pulling on each side.

By the time we got back over an hour later, they were close to finished.

We had lunch of barracuda kebabs and fried rice. Our driver was appalled at the price of the lunch – 70,000 Le ($8.34) – so helped bargain down the price of a little purse I was trying to buy at one of the craft stalls from 40,000 Le to 20,000 Le ($2.40).

Then we headed back to the bustle of Freetown on a Saturday afternoon.

Today I was able to leave the office and visits a couple of sites – a lab and the office of an NGO. It gave me a chance to see a bit more of Freetown as well as learn about the work being done. I’m not going to share specifics about work or co-workers on this blog. I’ll just say that visiting a location where the work is actually carried out certainly gives you insight into the challenges faced.

Some of the scenes I passed today:

Before I left, David Goldberg gave me a book called The Memory of Love by a Sierra Leone author, Aminatta Forna. I had really enjoyed the first book I read by her, Ancestor Stones, and was saving this one until I arrived. I’ve really just started the book but already identify with the British psychologist working at a hospital in Sierra Leone after the civil war. He notices the sounds of people living all around him and “how quiet affluence is…”

Quiet is certainly rare for most in a city like this, as well as privacy and space. And so commonplace in Chinle.

Also, where all the other healthcare workers are constantly busy, the psychologist at first has a lot of time on his hands. No one is really sure what to do with him. I’m sure things will pick up for me at work soon.

I received some valuable advice from some of the local staff today:

• How to get a good exchange rate – change it on the black market
• How to have fun despite limits on going out at night – make friends and go out with them
• How to stay safe when out walking during the day – talk to people but not too much

The best part is that they are willing to help with everything.

After work, I walked on the beach – it was quiet, spacious and beautiful. (There was plenty of time before the sun went down.)

And then I had a g&t by the pool.

The embassy motor pool driver picked me up at the hotel this morning and drove me the 15 minutes to work. On the way, we passed school children of all sizes in uniform on their way to school and people flagging taxies to get to work. We turned in at big metal gates between high concrete walls at a sign for the Ministry of Health and Sanitation. The offices where I’ll work were inside the compound in a pre-fab building next to the ministry and upstairs through an unmarked door.

I share an office but have my own desk next to a window (it was years before IHS gave me a window and some people never get them). The view is… interesting. It’s hard to tell in this picture but I can see the ocean in the distance.

I got introduced around and settled in. Everyone was kind and welcoming. I met the other TDYers (other temporary people like me). And I recognized one of them! We were at the same trainings in Georgia in December. She also just arrived and will stay 3 weeks.

We sat through the RSO (regional security officer) briefing and learned what is and isn’t safe to do. This was the sobering realization. Safe activities are somewhat limited. For example, we can only travel in CDC or embassy vehicles and can’t go out at night unless in a CDC or embassy vehicles. It’s ok to walk around during the day, but they recommend going with others and definitely not standing around taking pictures with your iPhone XR.

On the plus side, we can reserve a vehicle and driver to go out of the city on the weekend to, for example, a nice beach. Oh, and I’ll have plenty of time to post entries in my blog…

I also have absolutely no excuse to skip exercising in the hotel gym. I can seen the ocean from there too. I can also see the hotel security guard checking for explosives under every vehicle before letting them in…

I have not spent much time alone in strange places. Most of my travel experiences have been with others. After having breakfast in the hotel and unpacking, I took a deep breath and set out.

The hotel where I’m staying is out on a peninsula surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean and only a few blocks from the ocean in any direction. The streets in this part of town aren’t that crowded – cars, taxis, motorcycles, bikes and people walking. Lots of fit guys running. People carrying bundles and containers on their heads. All kinds of interesting dresses in colorful prints.

The beach was full of people – mainly guys playing soccer.

I bought some fruits and vegetables from a street vendor – mango, avocado, eggplant, onion, tomatoes and chili. There is a grocery store right next door to the hotel. I found some other interesting things there an cooked my first meal in my little kitchen.

Delicious! And there’s leftovers for tomorrow!

“You know you are truly alive when you’re living among lions.”

-Karen Blixen

(Ok. This quote comes from a different part of Africa. There are no lions in Sierra Leone…. but there are Pygmy hippos!)

I left Flagstaff on the 5am shuttle on Friday, March 8th. Thanks to Nancy and Sibylle for driving me to Amtrak Station in the cold rainy dark). After 2 month of delays where everything possible seemed to go wrong — including the longest government shutdown in history — I was finally on my way. I was ready. I had all my immunizations, medical clearance, 2 passports, all kinds of training on what to do if something terrible happened. Everyone pitching in to cover for me at work had been briefed. And my very supportive co-workers had sent me on my way with a beautiful song and prayer, a silver horned toad pin, and an arrowhead — all to keep me safe.

After 30+ hours of uneventful travel, I landed in Freetown just as the sun was setting.

There was an embassy worker waiting to help with my bags, take me through customs, buy a ticket and put me in a taxi to the boat into Freetown where an embassy driver was waiting to take me to my hotel.

It felt so good to go to bed!

Home Suites Boutique Hotel – my home away from home.

The view isn’t very impressive but the rooms are lovely.