First day at work
I was granted what I would later learn was a lie in – "don't worry
Murray, you can come in at 8:30". I'm slowly learning to shift my body
clock – most days seem to start around 8/8:30 on site and end around
4/4:30, again, depending on when people seem happy to wait until.
On arriving (the 20 second walk past the generator which powers the
whole complex) I caught up with Kamal over a few Turkish coffees (not
having worked out the intricacies of breakfast, two strong expressos
were a great start to the day). After a few of his acquaintances had
came and went, Kamal's brother Camil, a director of the same company,
took me round Freetown to look round some of their sites.
I'm sure I'll remember more detail later, but I slowly learnt what I'd
be doing during my time here. By early afternoon, having been round 3
other sites, we finally arrived at RidCorp, my site. It's a 3 storey
concrete framed building, which is now being fitted out. I'm working
with another engineer (a local chap called Mohammed) as site foreman,
in charge of about 25 labourers and apprentices, reporting to
Kamal/Camil every day on progress, etc. I'll go into more detail later
on what I'm doing, but basically we're supervising
plasterers/carpenters/electricians/plumbers (mainly the first two at
this early stage of the fitout).
Freetown
In Freetown there are always groups of people congregating everywhere
(although that is an oxymoron, it's strangely true). Street corners,
street edges, around stationary cars, in the middle of the street, on
the steps of every single building. Some of them are selling their
wares, often balanced on an aging stool/box/cart by the side of the
road, others carrying their entire shops on their heads, in the
typical African style.
Electricity and other mod cons
Sierra Leone used to be one of the most developed countries in Africa
until the 70's, when the British left. Since then, it has gone
downhill, with the electricity only being switched on again a few
years ago. This is till only a temporary solution, as the whole city
is being powered by one huge diesel generator, at a huge cost. This
supply is still erratic, and as I write this, I'm very grateful for
the compounds own generator, which kicks in within 1-5 minutes after
the power to the city fails (most days I'm told). As I write this,
occasionally I have been plunged into darkness, left with the glowing
light of my laptop, and the smaller, but equally useful glow of (one
of my) mobile phones connected to the internet (very slow (GPRS), and
temperamental, but better than nothing).
As you can see from one of my other posts, I finally managed to get
the internet working on my mobile, and sent a quick email, which felt
a bit like I was 'connected again'.
Far from home
After the first day, I'm full of lots of strange emotions. Obviously,
and perhaps unsurprisingly, I'm so excited to be here, having waited
the best part of two years to finally come out to Africa. Having
planned everything so meticulously, and having everyone around me
wishing me good luck helped enormously, but it still couldn't prepare
me for what's here, and how far it seems from dear old Blighty.
I hear you're 'suffering' with a heatwave of above 32 degrees. For
once, you might be beating Africa on temperature, as it felt like high
20's today – very cool – even by my African standards. Certainly the
locals felt it was 'cold'. It rained something serious last night, and
was still drizzling this morning – didn't feel like Africa at all –
more like home, just hotter. And with worse roads. Mental note – I
promise I'll never moan about another pothole in the UK ever again. If
your car can't get STUCK in a pothole, then it's not serious. If you
don't have to stop to pass around a hole 6 inches deep, it's not
serious. If you don't have to drive around a hole half the width of
the road, into oncoming traffic, you have nothing to complain about.
It's all relative I suppose.
