Peace Corp Experience

Sierra Leone - Fortunately, Unfortunately

The Cotton Tree, commonly known as a kapok tree, 

is a historic symbol of Freetown, the capital city of Sierra Leone.

Picture from my own collection.

Adventure in Training

Fortunately we arrived safely in Freetown, Sierra Leone.

Unfortunately we were very tired and hungry.

Fortunately the Peace Corp had food ready for us to eat.

Unfortunately we were unprepared for the hot spicy food.

Fortunately there was lots of water to drink.

Unfortunately we didn’t speak the language.

Fortunately there were language trainers to teach us.

Unfortunately I was a slow learner.

Fortunately we had lots of practice.

Unfortunately the culture was foreign to us.

Fortunately we were introduced to many cultural experiences.

Unfortunately it was very hot and humid. 

Fortunately there were showers

Unfortunately the plumbing was precarious.

Fortunately it still worked.

Unfortunately the shower head came off and the water squirted everywhere.

Fortunately I could call for help.

Unfortunately I forgot I was not dressed and help was a guy!

Fortunately he stopped the flow of water.

Fortunately I had a towel.

Fortunately I never saw the guy again.

 

Snake Stories

I served as a Peace Corps volunteer from 1974-76. It was one of the greatest adventures of my life. It opened my eyes to a whole different world. These stories are in honor of the Year of the Snake.

Story 1

We had just entered the dry season in Kabala, Sierra Leone in West Africa where I was stationed as a 20-year old Peace Corps volunteer and school was in full swing. My roommate, Kathy, and I had arrived home from teaching school feeling hot and dusty. Our habit was to take a bucket bath to freshen up. We did not have running water in our house. We just had a bathhouse out back with a latrine and bathing room and paid a student to collect buckets of water for us from the community tap everyday. The structure was mud brick with a corrugated metal roof and mud floor. Our yard was surrounded with a six-foot metal fence for privacy.

This particular day, I went first, stripping down and wrapping a towel around me, I quickly nipped out to the bathing room grabbing a bucket of water to take with me. There is an art to taking a bucket bath. You wet yourself down, soap up and then rinse off being care not to get soap in the bucket. Your hair is washed in the same way. One bucket of water had to go a long way.

After finishing, I headed back to my room wrapped in my towel and Kathy slipped out for her bucket bath.

As I was drying off, I suddenly heard men’s voices yelling outside our fence. Then I heard them banging the fence with sticks. Neither Kathy nor I were in any fit state of dress to go out into the yard to see what was going on.

I quickly dried off and threw on a loose African robe. Heading to the back door I heard someone break in our gate. By the time I reached the door two men were beating the ground with sticks. “Wetin de apin?” What’s going on?” I yelled in Krio. One of the men scooped up something off the ground - a Black-necked Spitting Cobra! “Tanki ya, Tanki ya!!” Thank goodness for the care of our neighbors.

Story 2

Kabala was the largest town in our northern district of Sierra Leone. There were several volunteers from  the U.S.A. (Peace Corps), England (VSO) and Canada (CVSO) in Kabala and the small surrounding villages working in education, agriculture, and health. On weekends, the house Kathy and I shared would become the gathering place and guest house for the volunteers in the area. I have fond memories of those weekend gatherings.

One such weekend, we were all sharing a meal, chatting and solving the world’s problems well into the night greased with a bit of palm wine. As people do, at some point in the evening, I headed out to the latrine. It was dark outside but I knew my way having done this many times. I headed in and used the latrine. On my way, back to the house I passed Kathy, who was using her flashlight to make her way to the latrine. I had just reached our back door to our house when she let out a terrible scream. I and a couple of others rushed to the latrine. In the dim light of her flashlight we could see a snake curled around the toilet just below the seat. A shiver ran through my body as I realized that I had just used that toilet oblivious to the fact that a snake was curled around it. Needless to say, I never ventured to the latrine without a flashlight after that.