My Day - Registration

This was my registration day:

3:30 woken by the man who goes around the neighbourhood calling out to wake people for their sokoli meal

4:00 still awake as now the mosque is calling people for prayer

6:00 woken again, this time by the rain coming through the window straight onto my bed

07:45 called Bob then fed the chickens, my favourite way to start the day

8:15 left home to go and register, as every foreigner has to as part of civil registration

9:30 arrived at the school where the registration takes place and joined the queue

12:30 finished registration process (and chatted to some lovely people while I was waiting!!). One of the registration questions was what time was I born, I don't think I've ever been asked that before.

14:15 arrived back in my area and stopped to pick up a MoneyGram. They said the code wasn't recognised so spent a while working that out

16:00 left MoneyGram place after counting all the funds to make sure it was correct. The largest note here is 10,000 leones which is about £1.13. Unfortunately they had run out of 10,000 notes so the whole amount was in 5,000 notes (about 56p).....there were a lot of notes to count!!

16.15 got back home and caught up on a bit of emailing

17:00 started to prepare food for the evening before it gets dark as no electricity

19:10 evening meal of Spanish omelette timed to coincide with the time those fasting for Ramadan could break their fast then spent the rest of the evening catching up with friends and family on social media (WhatsApp has made staying in touch a lot easier). Sent a postcard to Bob from the STANNP application.

11:45 time for bed

So all in all I was out for 8 hours just to register and collect some money. I'm happy to have got the registration done, I only heard about it the day before but it's a legal requirement for all foreigners who are resident in country for more than 90 days. We will be issued with an id card later in the year.

Water Shortage

There is a water shortage in some parts of Freetown at the moment, our area included.

When I met up with Jan and Nancy at Gatwick airport a few weeks ago to travel to Freetown together they asked if there is a shower in their rooms – there most certainly is a shower but unfortunately there has been no water since we arrived and the well is dry. (well, in Jan’s room it’s more of a tap sticking out of the wall but it does usually have running water in it).

A few of our containers for collecting water

I have two big water tanks in my compound that collect rainwater, one feeds the house and the other is for general compound use. We have had two big storms since we arrived during which the tanks collected enough water for a couple of very welcome showers but apart from that it’s been bucket washes all round and as I type the tanks are empty again. Usually when the tanks are empty we can top them up from the well, but with the well being dry at the moment that’s not an option.

Every couple of days my security go with all the water containers they can find and queue at a local stand pipe to fetch water. We have to ration the water we are using for washing and flushing.

Usually we would have enough water to last us through the dry season but unfortunately a few months ago a visitor accidently left a tap open and we lost 1000’s of litres of water in one day – it’s now that we are suffering from that mistake.

Jan and Nancy have been great and just get on with things without grumbling, they soon got used to using the buckets – but I’m sure they’ll be pleased if we get a couple of nights of rain to top the tanks up.

Some of our drinking water supply

For drinking water I get bagged water which, until the tanks are topped up, we are also using to boil for tea and coffee. 20 bags of water which contain between 250ml and 500ml cost around 35p, the same price as just one small 500ml bottle of water – you can see why I chose to buy the bags, they work out to less than 2p each!!!

It feels like a storm might be on the way, the temperature has dropped a little and there is lightening in the sky so it might be our lucky night.

I will try to remember to never again take water for granted.

My Day

This was my day today:

• Hand washed my clothes in cold water……it seems someone has borrowed my washboard, so that job was harder than it needed to be
• Reminded my security to pump water from the well into the tanks that feed the house so there will be water in the taps for my guests arriving this weekend
• Walked to work escorted by one of my kids – this young man had a hernia operation a couple of weeks ago so we are spending the days together so I can keep an eye on him
• Made and shared the usual lunch of bread and luncheon meat for 20
• Put together most of the remaining information needed for the upcoming Transform Salone website
• Received a visit from the Granny of one of the sponsored students along with a gift of bananas and a cucumber. She looks upon me as her daughter and always, always brings me a little gift. She reminded me that her monthly bag of rice provided by her grandson’s sponsor is due soon
• Chatted with around 15 of the sponsored students, collecting information for the reports for their sponsors
• Gratefully accepted a lift home from my neighbour
• Ate porridge for tea
• Cheered along with the rest of the neighbourhood when the electricity came on, then rushed around like a loony putting everything on charge
• Sent my daily postcard to my husband (using the app STANNP – if you spend a lot of time away from home try it, it’s great!)

All that is left is to make a cup of camomile tea then head off to bed.

No sickness, death or drama – all in all not a bad day!