Bumpy Roads

We’d recently been invited by a Paramount Chief, which is kind of like a village mayor, to come and visit him at his chiefdom in a place called Gbemdenbu. So on Thursday we took up his offer and decided to take a little trip. We left Makeni later than planned as we’ve fallen into the laid back Salonian lifestyle now and become used to things never really happening on time. We picked up a poda poda, which as usual was crammed with as many people as you can fit in and started along possibly the worst road I have ever been on. I normally hate the potholes in England but this road took it to another level. We were swerving around all over the place and our driver was absolutely crazy and kept trying to overtake the other cars and bikes. I’d also managed to sit next to something that could have potentially knocked me out if I hadn’t braced myself every time we went in another pothole. After about an hour of this we reached the village and met up with the chief who took us to his house and introduced us to his family. The house was like all the others in the village and I had sort of been expecting him to have this really posh house so I was a little disappointed. We sat outside and had a really nice dinner called goat pepper soup. I didn’t think I’d like eating goat but it tasted really nice. After dinner we had a beer and the chief then wanted to show us his farm and the river nearby so we jumped into a very nice 4x4 jeep and headed off on yet another bumpy road. This time it seemed even worse as we’d just eaten and were being thrown about all over the place. The Chief has his own rice farm but because it was starting to get pretty dark we could barely see anything. We couldn’t see much of the river either and a poor guy had to lift us all across some water to get there. Adam and Josh also got attacked by some weird ants that started clawing at their feet. After that we were all kind of looking forward to getting back in the car, but before we set off the Chief decided it would be a good time to crack open a beer for the journey back. Great. Not only were we being thrown about because of the bumps but we now had to worry about knocking our teeth out or spilling it over the new car. I took my sips very carefully. Arriving back at the house we were offered some more of the dinner we previously had. Not refusing another portion we all took up the offer. However this time it was cold soup and instead of the nice goats meat we had before it was the leftover scraps and I literally had an unknown floating goats organ in my bowl. So far I've been enjoying all the new foods I've tried but this time I honestly couldn’t put myself through it so had to leave it.     

After the second dinner we were taken to the guest house and invited to spend the rest of the night with the deputy minister of agriculture for the whole of Sierra Leone, which was quite a privilege. His house was lovely and even had a swimming pool which we were all impressed with. We sat in the garden with some of his relatives enjoying an array of alcohol like Baileys, Campari, Brandy and wine most of which I didn’t really like but had anyway. One of the minister’s relatives was an older guy who lives in America and is a dentist but had come back to Sierra Leone for a 2 week holiday. He was a funny guy who said he’d been drinking all day and was still going at midnight which I thought was quite an achievement for someone for his age. We left a bit later and returned to what seemed like a triple king sized bed.

The next morning we went back to the Chiefs house for breakfast which was yet more goats meat and organs with bread. It took me a while to realise I was eating the insides of a goat because it was all chopped up but once Josh confirmed there was definitely some organs in there I couldn’t bring myself to eat the rest. The rain then started coming down pretty heavy and we were eager to get moving back to Makeni so we decided to head off. The Chief informed us that it can be quite difficult to get a poda poda back so as we all sheltered under a metal roof we started thinking that it could be a long wait. Luckily about 20 minutes later one came along and I even managed to grab myself the front seat. It was yet another crazy driver going along the bumpy road and I sat there for the next hour or so with the guy next to me somehow managing to fall asleep, a leak above my head, the feeling that my breakfast could come back up at any time and a fair few chickens thrown in the back of this poda poda which must have had no suspension and every so often needed someone to give it a push to get it started again. Just another standard trip in Salone then. You’ve just gotta love this place.