As I said yesterday, sometimes you hate this place and sometimes you absolutely love it. Today we slept in and debated about going to Kono. It’s a long drive, and Clem and Callum really wanted to go and stay overnight, but we had no idea if we could get in to see the mines at all, or if there was a place for us to stay to night. Callum just kept saying, “We’ll just go to a bar, make friends with some South Africans, and then they’ll put us up for the night for free and get us into the mines tomorrow!” The idea sounded pretty sketchy to me, plus I’m broke, so I told them I’d sit this one out. The other girls weren’t to keen on the idea either, and really wanted to see Makeni, so Danielle, Ashley, Taylor and I stayed behind while Erdi, John, Clem, Callum, and Gay left for Kono.
Buy midday, we were ready to go to Makeni, and decided to walk through some villages first. Erdi told us that if we were to cross the street and follow the path across from the hospital, it turns north and follows parallel to the main road almost all the way to Makeni. We decided to try it, and it was so fun! All the villagers were so excited to see us, and kept yelling hello to us in Timone and Creole. All the kids would run up to us and try to grab our hands, and when they saw our cameras would ask us to snap them. When we’d show them the picture we’d just taken, they would all laugh and ask for another. Eventually, the path turned and seemed to go farther away from the road, so we took another path the took us to the main road and followed that the rest of the way to Makeni. We kept taking pictures of the kids and the people and the countryside. At one gas station there was a car blaring music and a whole bunch of people our age hanging out there. We were on the other side of the street when we passed, and I noticed a little boy out on his porch dancing to the music. It was so cute! I told the other girls, but he’d already stopped dancing, so without thinking I did a little impression. All the people hanging out at the gas station started laughing like crazy, and they started dancing too, it was so fun!
Once we got as far as St. Mary’s, we stopped to get a little lunch. We all ended up buying a little cracker or something as a snack, and got four bananas for 1,000 Le, or 23 cents. Once we’d finished our lunch, we walked the rest of the way to the clock tower and started shopping for fabric and mats, which were the two things the other girls wanted to look at. I bough more fabric, and now I really am broke! Haha, not really, but I might be cutting it a little close! I have three mats now, I bought a third one because I’m not in love with one of the first ones I bought, and so I might sell it to Ashley since she likes it. If I did, that would mean I could afford to go to the beach next Sunday when they go, and I really want to join them. Now, if your name is Tim, Jane, or Andrew, or Grandma or Grandpa, (or anyone else for that matter) and you’re reading this and worrying about what’s going to happen if I run out of money, I want you to stop it right now. I’ve already told the other girls the situation, and they agreed that if I need to ‘buy’ some Leones from them, but pay them back in U.S. dollars of via a check when we get back that they’re willing to help me out. I don’t anticipate that happening, but I’ve covered my bases anyway, so stop worrying.
Once we were done in the market, we took motorbikes to the tailor to get some things made for the girls. We were walking from the tailor to St. Mary’s, which is right around the corner, to get some drinks for tonight when the hospital’s van that they use to pick up workers who live in Makeni stopped and the driver asked if we wanted a ride back. After a brief stop at St. Mary’s he drove us all back to the compound in air conditioning.
Once we got back, Marcel asked if we wanted to go down to ‘the river,’ which apparently doesn’t have a name, it’s just called The River. Danielle and Ashley opted to stay behind, but Taylor and I went with Marcel, Dr. Kelly (a friend of Marcel who’s visiting for a while) and Dr. Abel and his family to The River. It was very nice and cool, and we waded in a bit, but the water was rather muddy so only Elliot went swimming. On the way back, Marcel decided to take us the back way, which was a terrible road through all these cute little villages. It was nice to see the villages and the HUGE rice farms, but the road was so bad that I got sick. Luckily I got out of the car in time, and after that they let me sit up front. We were also really close to where the village road comes into Makeni and becomes a nice wide paved road. We passed Wousam, which is a really nice hotel that looks very out of place, and is frequented by family of Adex and Danas workers when they visit. All the rooms have AC, there’s a really fancy restaurant and a clean pool, as well as high speed internet on the whole compound.
By the time we got back the other girls had eaten dinner, so we bolted down our food and then tried to watch “Up” but the disc has a scratched and wouldn’t play. After a shower that felt wonderful because I was gross from walking around all day, it was time for bed.
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