Ate a very expensive (£10) lobster yesterday at Lumley. The rain was horrendous too. The sky just pours on a daily basis! Nothing quite like it. At least if the water pumps are off, I can just strip and stand outside.
I spent the whole day in downtown Freetown, with the intention of getting some data from the SL Information Services/UN. It turns out that the building that they occupied is now a home for someone, and has been for the past few years. Nice of them to update their website isn't it? No wonder I couldn't get through to them on the phone. I doubt that I'm going to get the numbers of households in the chiefdoms that I'll be working in up near Kamakwie.
I also went to get my phone unlocked so I can use it as a modem with the laptop. What a palaver! Cost me about £30, and about a 6 hour wait... during which I explored the area!
So, first off, a walk down the main street, to a stroll through the market. I kept spying little nooks and crannies to get good quirky photos in. So I went and took em. I bet looked weird to most of the people. I spotted quite a high vantage point over what I discovered to be Kroo Bay. A big slum area which is literally on the mouth of a 'river'/sewage outlet. Now, I know people get tetchy when you start taking photos of them (some believe it steals your soul), so I'm careful to avoid any obvious snapping, but I was taking a photo of the slums when some old guy stops and has a go at me!
"Do you have permission?", he asked.
"Permission for what?", I replied.
"For snapping picture."
"I don't need permission, there's nobody in the photograph"
"They are peoples homes. You need permission from the Tourist Board. Would you go take a picture of State House?!"
I thought to myself, "Of course I would! Of all the tourist sites in Freetown, State House is probably high up on one's list!"
I said, "There's no sign. Who would I ask anyway? And no, I don't think I need permission from the Tourist Board!"
I walked away from him. But then I thought, maybe the Tourist Board doesn't want pictures of its slums being taken. Well, they're pretty unmissable, and people have a right to see these things. This sort of scenario happened again after I had lunch in the nursing school canteen (of all places). I was stood by a big awning that opened out to a view of the slum. The security guy stopped me and asked what I was doing, as I was pointing my camera out in the general area of the slums. I told him I was taking pictures of these cool lizards on the ground (I really was). I showed him, he saw them, believed me and he relaxed. Does it sound like people didn't want snap happy tourists taking pictures of slums?
Kroo Bay slum from the nursing school.
The controversial shot of Kroo Bay.
The lizard.
Kids by a water tap, near Kroo Bay.
Oh, and I bumped in Oli Johnson, a friend from Medsin in London. He's doing his elective here in Freetown. I'll probably catch up for a drink with him this weekend.
Ended the eve with a drink on the balcony with 2 Dutch researchers. One a lawyer, the other a nurse, both looking to see how returned refused asylum seekers have fared back in SL. It's the first project that I've heard about, but something that's very important for current advocacy efforts into ensuring asylum seekers are given fair hearings. SL is not a country where you get birth certificates, and for our governments to judge their asylum claims by asking them to prove their name with a birth certificate, or to prove that they would be tortured if they're returned is insane. Who could prove that they would be tortured, apart from having been subjected to it in the first place?
Anyway, had a nice drink. Now it's time for a shower... I stink.
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