Materials

This may sound like a boring topic, but the way everything is so closely monitored here is indicative of the culture of trust in Sierra Leone, or rather, the lack of trust. I'd hasten to add, that the local people here are not inherently lazy or dishonest, as the typical British Ex-Pat would have you believe, they just see opportunities if anything is left lying around, especially if it is of any value, so everything has to be kept behind bars, locked away, and/or monitoried/recorded.

As an example of this, every day, every site reports back to Kamal, the Managing director of the company, how many materials they have used, how much is left on site, what progress was made on site, and what materials are required for the next days work. He reads all of these every evening, and each morning, walks round the warehouse of the head office (with the storeman) picking out the materials that each site requires. This 'shopping' is then delivered to the site, and the process repeats. This happens every day. Including Saturdays. There are currently about a dozen sites in operation.

PS the reason for lots of blogging today is that there is no work on my site today - I think I should consider myself lucky, as most other sites are operating at full steam. I'm also recovering from a stomach bug - so sat out on the terrace, melting slightly, but enjoying the time off. Another reason for a sudden surge in communication is that I have discovered that the office here has a wireless internet connection - not quite lightning fast, but a whole world better than GPRS over my mobile phone. It doesn't work indoors, so I have to sit outside (next to the generator)