Where We Live....

Now that we have been in Sierra Leone for a whole month, perhaps I should tell you a bit about where we are living.

We are in the chiefdom of Luawa, in Kailahun Town, in the district of Kailahun (pronounced Kye-lown) in the Eastern Province. While Kailahun is the principal town in the district, it is still quite remote and very basic in amenities. The town is estimated to have a population of about forty-thousand people but it occupies about the same amount of space that a town of about two to three thousand people in Canada might take up. There are a lot of people live in a pretty small space. 

There are no paved roads in town (or anywhere in the district) and no central electricity provider. Very few homes have running water or stoves so residents are always seen around town carrying water or firewood on their heads. Most people are involved in subsistence farming of cassava, sweet potato, and rice but there are also a number of palm and cocoa growers. Those with the best jobs are employed by NGO’s whose offices and vehicles take up a lot of the local landscape.    

Matt and I live in a guesthouse that is rented by the organization we are working for. There is one other Canadian living with us and the three of us make up what we believe to be the entire population of Westerners in town. We are lucky enough to have a gas cooker and a generator that gives us electricity for 3-4 hours a day. We have our own well that gets pumped into a water tower behind the house and provides the “running” water in the shower and the kitchen sink. We also keep large buckets of water from the town pump which is used for cooking (we drink bags of purified water). Although we have way more conveniences than almost anyone in town, it is still quite basic. Warm showers are a thing of the past and we wash our laundry by hand. Air conditioning is unheard of and without electricity, we cannot even run a fan while we sleep. Our home is host to all kinds of critters including ants, lizards, mice, and rats, and there is very little that can be done about it except to have the occasional meltdown.  

 Despite a somewhat difficult adjustment, I am now settling in and can appreciate some of the best things that Kailahun has to offer:

• Jungle surroundings that are incredibly lush and absolutely beautiful

• A yard with banana, orange, avocado and mango trees as well as numerous pineapple bushes (so far we have only had bananas)

• It is very safe – although we definitely attract curiosity everywhere we go, we are seldom harassed or hassled

• Neighbourhood children who come to play on our porch and who know our names and get excited every time they see us

• Raising hens (hours of entertainment if not yet also a food source)

Some photos….

 

              The crazy dirt road to Kailahun District

 The view from our front porch during a storm

The road from our house to work