Solo to Bo

October 13, 2012

Solo to Bo

Late last week, I received a jovial call from our District Warden, Anne Marie, who was pleased to inform me that some boxes with my name on them had arrived at her house that very day “and would you come pick them up soon, please?” she pressed.   Alas, I was to learn that Anne’s village is located about 45 minutes on the other side of Bo from me.  Despite that fact, we decided I’d attempt to make a run two days hence which was this past Saturday, October 13.  Fortunately for me, Anne was going to be going through Bo that day so she promised to meet me there so I could accompany her back to her house, retrace my route back to Bo, and head back to Njala hopefully before dark…when the snakes come out.

Well, I have never done the trip to Bo alone yet.  There has always been some lecturer, usually my friend Philip, who tags along and points me in the right direction when I start to go astray.  I might also add I’ve never gone on anything other than the university shuttle which is free and goes right to the Bo Campus…other than its arduousness, once I’m on the van it’s pretty hard to get lost.  Of course, this was the weekend and I was pretty certain I was going to have to go both ways on public transport so I was a bit more than nervous about the prospects.  However, I needed those boxes!

 

I was out at the Hospital Junction, as it is called, Saturday morning at 6:40 a.m. with a few other travelers.  The hospital is on the far left, the billboard sports female condoms, and the Pointe Bar is the little place on the right. There was a shuttle bus that went to Freetown that morning so, if it came (they don’t always), I had the first leg of the trip under my belt.  Mind you that this is the 7-mile jaunt up the dirt road to the main highway to Taiama.  You have to know that it is littered with potholes many a foot deep or deeper and the serpentine route cars, vans, and motorcycles take is beyond belief.  They go all over the place and on both sides of the road.  It is terribly bumpy not to mention that we’ve never made it in less than 42 minutes…seven miles in 42 minutes…do the math!

I jumped out at what a lot of the volunteers call Pineapple Junction (they sell them there when in season) and got ready to board my first rural poda poda.  These are old, very old, vans that smoke and sputter their way up and down the road carrying upwards of 10 people not including the driver.  That’s four to a bench seat and two in the front bucket seat.  We call it cozy in Sierra Leone.  I was in the very back with three other people and noticed that when the driver shut the back hatch, there was about a two-inch gap between the door and the body of the van…they had replaced it with a door from some other make of vehicle…I thought “how inventive” until we started up and the smoke and fumes came in the aforementioned gap as well as from under the van itself…you could see the pavement through the floor as we moved along.  Thank goodness two windows could be opened or else we’d have died of asphyxiation! 

We got to Bo without further mishap and I considered myself lucky to have done it for so cheap and in just under two hours (that’s a total distance of about 47 miles…again, do the math).  I had ahead of me about five hours of shopping and waiting before we would actually leave for Anne’s village so I hit the streets to acquaint myself with the markets of Bo.  I was thrilled to see a woman selling carrots and potatoes so I grabbed about six or seven of each not caring one bit that I was getting robbed at 17,000 Leones ($4.00 American).  These would represent the very first vegetables I’ve eaten at site these past two weeks and I would have paid any price for them!  Presently, all we have here in the village now are onions and garlic and they are hard to come by. 

I scoped out various other stands and stopped at one that sold fabric.  I need curtains in the worst way at my house.  The afternoon sun pours in the big living room windows from about 2:00 to 6:00 and the temperatures inside stays at about 92 degrees on a good day.  My thinking is that some curtains would block those rays so when the dry, hot season hits in a couple of months, I’ll be able to keep the place habitable.  But, she wanted 20,000 Leones a yard and remained steadfast in her price, so I told her I’d think about it…I passed later and she yelled, “Hey white man, you want the cloth?” to which I told her I’d be back…so it goes.  I may still get a good price!

We finally got on the road to Anne’s by mid-afternoon via a taxi (don’t fool yourself; it is really a smaller version of a poda poda (usually a little Toyota-ota) with six passengers and the driver.  When we entered Anne’s little bungalow, much like my own, I could finally see why she was “mildly” insistent I pick up my mail…an entire corner of her front room was filled with goodies for all the volunteers in the area!  I grabbed my boxes and headed back to the road to stop yet another taxi heading back to Bo and directly to the Njala Lorry Park where I got a last taxi to Njala…or so I thought.  This guy never went over 35 miles an hour, I swear.  Nothing on the dashboard worked so I’m not positive, but he turned off the engine and coasted down even the slightest slope only to turn it on again and pop the clutch when we were all but stopped.  About half-way back, we ran out of gas so he calmly got out and replaced the one-gallon plastic jug he had under the front hood with another he had kept at his feet (inside the car mind you) and we took off. 

Four hours later, I opened my front door and hauled in my bounty.  Completely forgetting I was thirsty and hungry, I read my mail and unpacked my boxes.  You can see the efforts of the days travel…well worth it, indeed!  I have picture books, novels, academic textbooks, and even some art supplies to use for this coming semester!