A little bit about Sahn

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I am aware that when you read this several days will have passed since I wrote it. None the less I feel compelled to share the following with you. We do not have any internet nor do our phones work here in Sahn, so we have not been able to upload anything since we left Freetown. So when you read this, we will be in Bo and have acces to a computer.

Sahn has a stunning location. It matches all my imaginations of a ‘Tropical African village’. There are big palm trees everywhere, and the environment is extremely fertile. Except for the mosquitos, there are many amusing and beautiful insects. David talked about a gorilla settlement a few miles down the road, and Morten has already seen a monkey. In some way it is a true fantasy oasis.

Most of the houses we visit are made of clay and bamboo (Until recently I thought bamboo only existed naturally in Asia) for walls and palm leaves for roofs. Wherever we go there are people cooking over open fire, and there are always loads of kids running around between the houses.

But everything sweet has a sour side. It is very sad to see the state the village itself is in.The village was nearly destroyed during the war, the biggest buildings are still ruins. I can’t stop thinking what the village would have looked like if the rebels hadn’t burned down all the buildings, and so abruptly reversed development.

In spite of this, many people have impressed me. Everyday I see people carrying gigantic items on their heads, be it a big log or a container with water. It looks really convenient though. You can carry a big load, and you have both hands free to use for other purposes. Perhaps I should introduce that carrying skill in Denmark.

Another thing I’ve come across that I find strange is some of the eating habits. Or maybe “strange” is a wrong word to use, maybe I should say surprising. For the most part we’ve eaten rice. Not that there is anything strange in eating rice, but it turns out that the rice which is a daily part of a sierra leoneans meal is imported from China. This means that it is  more rentable to grow rice in china for then to ship it to Freetown, for then again to drive it 7 hours through the country on bumpy gravel roads and sell it in Sahn, than it is for a local farmer to grow rice or another eatable wheat. In one of the worlds poorest countries, I find it odd to see that it is still cheaper to import rice from china. Go globalisation…

The chinese must do something right.

-Jacob

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 21st, 2007 at 4:39 pm and is filed under Eradicate Malaria. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.