And the walls came tumbling down…

There have been a few noticeable changes in Freetown over the past few weeks. There have also been some things which we would have expected to change, but have annoyingly stayed the same! In a way, I feel words won’t do, so I’ll let pictures show tell the story.

What has stayed the same

1. Rainy season turns to dry season… nope, still here… 

See, by the end of September, what we were all expecting was this…	…but instead, what we’ve been having is still a whole load of this…

How annoying right! On that particular day, I had to wade through the mucky water to get to the bank. Not enough antiseptic spray can make that seem ok!

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Before I attempted to catch a taxi from the VSO programme office to go to the bank, I called my housemate, saying, ‘I don’t know, I think I’m going to brave it to the bank.’ to which she replied, ‘no, I think what you mean is, you’re about to stupid it to the bank!’

She was quite right!

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2. Yep, you guessed, there is still a lot of traffic… and yes, there are still a few unpleasant smells you have to endure sitting in a hot poda, and yes we’re still taking the exciting route down the hills of Freetown!

 

What has changed

1. The most dramatic change which all Freetonians can attest to is the widening of Wilkinson Road. Okay so at the moment, its more of reducing the walls to rubble and possibly destroying the livelihoods of shop owners and street sellers (even though, I have this uncanny feeling that the street sellers are quite accustomed to being moved, and so will find a new spot to sell their produce before the diggers move in!).

A couple of weeks ago, this scene was eerily reminiscent of the aftermath of civil unrest, something all too familiar to the history of Sierra Leone. I have to applaud the workers on their efforts however, it has returned to looking like the Peaceful Salone I know! The rubble is being cleared at a speedy rate, workers are ACTUALLY working! and the roads actually looks like they might have a fighting chance of being finished by the given deadline.

See, the plan is to widen the roads in Lumley, and also complete the extension of Wilkinson road from 2 lanes (or 4-5 lanes depending on whether you define it using the road traffic rules or from the lawless Freetonian drivers point of view) to 4 lanes in time for Sierra Leone’s 50th Anniversary of Independence, led by the Chinese railway construction group. The idea is to reduce the traffic and congestion going into town, which is a good thing, since it means a 15 minute journey will no longer take an hour! Also, there is a hopeful possibility that they will put in pavements, meaning we won’t have to fear for our legs or life when walking down the road, which we currently share with cars, trucks, lorries and believe it or not, mangy dogs!

Jimmy the Chimp from the Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary says hello!

Well worth a trip if you ever visit Freetown!

Till Next time,

Banke xoxox