Kenema

Some claim it to be the second largest town in Sierra Leone, some the third, either way it’s semantics because it’s not a big place. Or so we thought.

On Sunday Mrs Faima’s son Emanuel (on leave from the army) gave us the tour of the town. He’s a quiet but very well informed gent and showed us to the far borders of the city. So thorough was this tour that we saw the water and electricity supply for the whole area (which was broken). The main road to Kenema from Freetown is tarmaced (financed by an Italian company), as is the road through the middle of town, but after that it’s dirt tracks all the way.

We began with a trip through a European looking park, which the Catholic mission had planted. It was beautiful and serene and much appreciated by the locals. It had long sweeping lawns and palm trees, reminiscent of a colonial lodge (probably the only place like this in Sierra Leone). Inside the park we located the town’s tennis court (lacking in fencing, could be an interesting game).

The tour was such a novel experience, not only for us, but for the locals in the suburbs that we felt like royalty with all the vigorous hand waving that we had to do. Half way through we visited the old airstrip. This was much used in its colonial heyday and during the war, but now is the spot to find palm wine (home brew) from small huts along the edge.

Having been introduced to the whole of Kenema we concluded our tour at the local power station. If retro-cool could affect a power station, this is it. Straight out of the 60s, it was proudly shown off by its workers as the bees-knees in electricity distribution. Imagining that we’d see hydroelectricity in action, or at the very least a water wheel, we bounded into the control room to find this was the only ‘safe zone’ of the whole building and we saw nothing more that dials (reading zero). Apparently there are rooms even the workers can’t enter.

In all seriousness, Kenema has got into all our hearts and we feel welcome everywhere. There’s no animosity to the ‘pumuis’ (white people); even when Jay got called ‘white monkey’ they were grinning their heads off. It’s nice to be in a place that is so grounded after such recent unrest. The war isn’t taboo to talk about, everyone was affected and has their own story to tell, but life goes on. And what leaps in development they have made. There is evidence of the total destruction that occurred all over, but it is alongside modern development. Considering it is 2nd to the bottom on the human development index, we are all massively impressed by Sierra Leone, and Kenema in particular.

After the excitement of the power station we ended up in Capitol (the restaurant part). Looking through the extensive Lebanese menu we made our choices only to find out that the Lebanese chef was on holiday. Rather that telling us this information at the beginning, we went through the whole menu asking ‘what is this exactly?’ to the reply ‘no, we no have’. Hummus it was.