Meanderings [Saturday, June 23]

After a fast-paced run through the city with Osmem and a trip to the fantastic Crown Bakery with Sara and Amanda, I tried to walk over to Fouray Bay College to attend a political science class with Dabo, but I somehow walked the entirety of Circular Road in the pouring rain without seeing the road that goes up the hill to FBC, so instead I wandered around for an hour as water stained red-orange flowed down the streets and sellers hawked Le7,000 umbrellas.

After drying out at the Y and with nothing to do having missed the class, I went on a shopping expedition to Siaka Stevens Street. The first item I needed was a new Comium SIM card for my phone. This was pretty easy to find, as the cell phone companies' sell their products just about everywhere and have plastered entire buildings and cars with their logos - the orange Africell, the red and yellow Celtel, the blue Comium.

Next I needed a new "extension," or power strip/surge protector, as I've started keeping most of my equipment here at the Y(instead of iEARN) and there's only two outlets in the room. I bought one last week, but Jess needed one for her new accommodations in Lumley so I sold her mine. The vast majority of the stores are owned either by Lebanese or Indians. I walked into three or four stores and left unsatisfied, as the prices were all too high. I finally realized that their prices were entirely arbitrary, so in the next store I bought one for 25,000 which was, according to his original offer, supposed to cost 40,000.

I stopped by one of the photo stores in an attempt to find black and white chemicals, but was immediately swarmed by a mob of photographers asking if I needed passport pictures. There are probably 50 passport photographers who sit outside the photography store on Siaka Stevens. After finally convincing them I didn't require their services, I was informed that no one in Sierra Leone still used the "old technology" of black and white film.

After a thorough, but unsuccessful, perusal of Choitram's Supermarket in search of Gatorade powder or even a Turkish imitation of it, I returned to the Y and joined Sara, Amanda and Adams, a law & development grad student from Texas taking a short break from work up near Makeni, at Kiemans for an early dinner. Apparently we were too early, as Salima told us to come back later as she still needed to go shopping. As Sara and I were both incredibly hungry, we had a bowl of rice, sauce and soda, but promised to come back in an hour or so when Salima said she would have more food. I went out on Fort Street intending to take some photographs, but only made it about twenty steps from the Y when a quick "how di bodi" materialized a wonderful mob of children demanding to ask where my sisters where. I played with them in the street for a bit and then went back to the Y to get my sisters Amanda and Sara. The kids loved the attention and will stare with these big beautiful eyes, although there were a few who were terrified of us.

After plenty of jumping up and down and holding hands and running through the streets and throwing balls, we returned to Kiemans for a second dinner. We all thought Friday night night would be the best meal we had in Freetown. We were wrong. She surpassed it tonight. We didn't even have to order, as Salima had prepared a meal just for us. First came rice and a delicious beef boil stew. Then a plate of sliced cucumbers and fresh tomatoes. Then, when we could barely eat any more, she brought out an actual piece of grilled fish fillet and capped it all with fried plantains.