Sierra Leone News

Today, I went out to Godridge and low and behold! the “big guns” were out! I mean the heavy road equipment were out clearing the busy road from Juba all the way to Lumley Police station! I’m sooooooo excited! I mean Lumley will look brilliant once the road gets a new makeover. And if they tackle and widen that bridge to Juba that will be even better!

I can hear the cynics like many who’ve told me how the “government hasn’t got the guts to do it”, “Oh they will loose the elections etc etc”. Nonsense!!!!

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This is a question posed by one of my visitors and to answer “YES” directly will be difficult as we all have different tastes and needs as well as creature comforts which we may see as a necessity.

To give some perspective - $1400 a month is much more than what 90% of the population earns so straight away you’ll be in the top tier of income earners.

I mean, doctors recently got an upgrade to $600 / month (from $200/month) and Nurses to $200 / month (from $50 / month! I know SHOCKING!!!

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The morning after! I couldn’t even sleep properly.. all I could see was the lost penalty goal that lead to further penalty lossess!!! Twist and turn, twist and turn, had we done this, had we done that… hindsight is always illuminating. A loss is a loss and we lost! 4 years is a loooooooonnnngggg time! Ohhh Ghana!

How could we be so close yet so far!!! Anguish, anguish…my son cried like a baby (he’s 5 years) when the game ended and I must say, I shed tears few myself. He kept asking me why Ghana has been kicked out and for once, I was lost for words. How can one explain a loss so painful?

Well, I’m still proud of the Black Stars! but for me worldcup is over, can’t be bothered who wins now. I can only wait and hope for next time round.

BRAVO Ghana Black Stars! Still flying our Flag High! Long Live GHANA………..

What can I say but that I had tears in my eyes…. Ghana wins against USA yesterday was so amazing! I expected them to win and when it happened, it brought tears to my eyes!!! LONG LIVE GHANA!!!!!!. We watched all of this in Makeni, Sierra Leone. We came for the weekend and watching it at the hotel bar gave an edge to it as all the American supporter from African Minerals were there to support their team

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It’s been a while since I posted mainly because I’ve been so busy! Anyway, yesterday was double celebration for me - firstly, we welcomed a friend who’s come to stay for good and secondly because Ghana won against Serbia!

It felt really good. In addition, to these 2 pieces of good news, I’m aware of 4 for more Sierra Leoneans coming back from US for good…some have already enrolled their children in my kids school….very excited.

At the end of the day Sierra can only be developped by Sierra Leoneans…. and of course those of us married to them (ha..ha ha….)

Well, what I can I say… back to square one - noisy generators, no light during the day and so on! I keep hearing excuses - fixing technical problem, waiting for the rains etc.

In April, we had light almost throughout starting from Good Friday only for it to off on the 29th April, 2 days after independence.

I mean what’s going on? Sierra Leoneans deserve 24/7 light and nothing less. I’m tired of hearing all the different excuses.

To those in charge of Salone light: just get on with it and give us the light we deserve. Confound the doubters and make Sierra Leone proud.

In case you haven’t heard, Mr Tejan cole has resigned his position today as the Head of the ACC (Anti Corruption Commision) :!:

This is a tragedy for Sierra Leone - a country riddled with bribery and all forms of corruption,

hearing of which will make your ears tingle! YES, it’s even official, Sierra Leone is more corrupt than Nigeria…if you don’t believe me click here to see what I’m saying.

Having said that, a lot is being done to reverse, this dreadful image of this beloved country. I can reliably inform you that, quite apart from the various government officials and individuals that are being hauled to court by the ACC, different arms of the government are implementing systems designed to stop the onslaught of corruption.

For instance, last week, we went to the port to collect our stuff and much to our surprise, a new system is in place now. (read about our previous experience here.)
All monies are now being collected directly by Ecobank directly into bank coffers so the port officials/employess no longer handle money. This is a step in the right direction and other departments like SierraTel, NPA etc are doing the same.

Sure I can’t list 10 other things they can do to make it better but this is not the place.

The fact is, while these new changes are good, the fight is far from over. When people are used to extorting money from other people as a way of living, when one avenue is stopped a new one emerges. And we saw that at the quay last week. (I’ll write about the new corruption tactics in a future post)

There may be a myriad of reasons why Mr Tejan Cole is resigning. So far no reason has been given, it could be personal, it could be moreon a matter of principle, who knows Fighting corruption is a hard and one cannot give favours to anyone. Here in a Sierra Leone, I can imagine, it takes its toll rather quickly.

Whatever it is, I wish him well, and hope we get someone just as passionate to fight corruption and bring a good name and to the country once again.

The dry season along with its heat is slowly giving way to the rainy season. It’s been singularly hot this year but I’m not complaining considering the bumper harvest I got this year from the plum tree in our backyard

See pictures here. Actually, I harvested about 5 bowls, each containing between 200-300 fruits!

Unfortunately, I don’t eat a lot of the stuff so I gave most of it away. Still I’m excited about the potential of harvesting one’s own crops and it’s got me thinking about planting fruits and vegetables I really like.