The elections are tomorrow and the
country is literally buzzing in anticipation. Since the beginning of
last week pretty much the entire community have been proudly wearing
their voter ids around their necks day and night.
The two parties going for the
presidential leg of the elections are APC (All People’s Congress)
represented by the colour red and SLPP (Sierra Leone’s People’s
Party) represented by the colour green. Since I have arrived back
there has been at least one rally for each side every other week
either in Freetown or smaller towns’ along the peninsula. A typical political rally looks a bit like a St. Patricks day parade, lots of colour
(Green or red, depending on the party), lots of drunk people and the
odd man dressed as a woman and woman dressed as a devil...... Ernest
Bai Koromo the incumbent president is set for a landslide win and
after quizzing many people in the community the consensus is that he
is a fine man and has done a lot for the development of the country
in the past four years.
From doing my own research the phrase
'lesser of two evils' rings home. Mr. Koroma appears to genuinely
have the nation’s interests in mind but this is Africa and
therefore the corruption is at times more open and obvious than in
our own countries. The brutal civil war here ended more than a decade
ago but it seems the development of the infrastructure and job
creation didn’t really take off until Koroma got into power just
under four years ago. After the war ended there was an awful lot of
international funds being pumped into the country but little evidence
of how this money was benefiting the people was to be seen. This
visible development since Koroma gained power has secured him a place
in the hearts of many. The oposition leader Mr. Julias Maada Bio was
the leader of SLPP duing the war when the second Coup that overthrew
Strasser and most people are opposed to turn back the clocks to the
horrors of the lost decade and looking forward to seeing further
development of their beloved country.
Tomorrow registered voters will have
the opportunity to choose their new president, the District Chairman
(Mayor), their MP and local Councillor. It is expected to be a very
proud day and unlike in Europe there will be no secrecy, with each
member of the community dressed explicitly to express their
preferences. There is little to no trouble expected in the lead up to
the elections, despite the high security measures being imposed by
NGO’s and International businesses and schools throughout the
country. Many NGO’s have been closed for business for some time
already and will remain closed for up to six weeks with their
employees either on leave or on lock down in their compounds. From
where I am sitting this seems over cautious and a little sad but I
imagine it has much to do with protecting liability.
The plan for tomorrow is to don my red
T-shirt and head up to the community center to enjoy the buzz, get
some photos and maybe even have a glass of poyo and a bit of a boogie
with the locals.
Meanwhile back at the ranch, there has
been some sad news with the loss of our building team’s first
external contract. The news was broken earlier this week after a
month or so of trying to find a solution to a grossly miscalculated
budget and time frame. Unfortunately for both Tribewanted and Orphund
there was no simple solution to be found – money don done!
Thankfully one beautiful earthbag building, one block of colourful
compost toilets and one bucket shower has been completed before the
money ran out.
On a positive note the Orphund team
have not given up on their dream to have the first eco-orphanage in
Sierra Leone and plans for a quick fix concrete structure to house
the kids have been stopped. Fund raising will resume and hopefully
the eco-building will as well before the end of the year. In the
meantime an important lesson has been learned, we hope, and the
building team are back on site restoring and rehabilitating our
accommodation before the tourist season reaches its peak in the
coming weeks.
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| Alusain breaking stones |
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| Ali fixing the pulley in our new bucket shower |
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| First earthbag orphanage building in Sierra Leone |
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| The Orphund and Tribewanted building teams outside the new compost toilets |
In other news I am very excited to have
tracked down a heroin of mine that I met the last time I was here.
This lady, Hannah, has one of the most amazing stories of survival
and strength in the face of incredible obstacles and since I met her
here in February of this year I have wanted to write about her story
and harness her strength to inspire and empower other Sierra Leoneans
especially her fellow women. We have planned to catch up next week so
watch this space....
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