Reading this week:

• Witness to Witchcraft by Harry B. Wright

For the next Sierra Leonean adventure, I went to Kenema for the night!

There is not really a big draw in Kenema if you’re just a tourist, to be honest. I hope the Kenema tourist board does not criticize me too harshly for that statement. But my time in Sierra Leone was drawing to a close (and has drawn to a close, by the time I am writing this), and I wanted to try to see at least one more part of the country. I wish I could have seen more of it, but in the meantime Kenema would do in a pinch.

Once I was on the road about 10am I drove pretty much straight there. I had contemplated stopping for lunch, but I had prepared myself in my usual manner for long trips to the unknown by boiling a number of eggs. The road system in Sierra Leone is gorgeous (between the major cities at least) so I flew on down the road snacking on my eggs along the way. The single most surprising thing I spotted was several different people selling, unfortunately, bush meat, in the form of two monkeys and at least one duiker. When that wasn’t happening the landscape was gorgeous, this time on the far end of the rainy season so everything was green and lush as I rolled over the hills.

Upon arrival in Kenema I checked in directly to the hotel and then turned around to hit the town. I was very excited just to see what was happening on the streets. Even if a city doesn’t have a major tourist draw there is still always something to see. People live there after all, and what they do and what they buy and what they eat is always of interest. If I had remembered to consult the guidebook we had before I left, I could have also maybe seen a waterfall, but blissful in ignorance my main destination was the famous Kenema clocktower.

Along the way I enjoyed the sights, including the clocktower (as evidenced by the photo at the top). I spotted a number of cocoa cooperatives and many signs for diamond traders, though I laid eyes on neither cocoa farms nor gems on this trip. People watching, I saw two women walking down the street in identical pink dresses, one holding a pink box, and at a gas station some men were taking advantage of the fuel truck being parked there by climbing on top and painting the gas station canopy. The standard greeting from kids as I walked about town seemed to be a thumbs up, and I enjoyed seeing sheep and goats and cows in various places. As for chickens, I saw at least one woman operating a grill with sauce-covered chicken feet, and rounding out the culinary endeavors where there was enough room next to streams people had nearly always planted rice.

In a win for the arts, at one point I passed a stand of a dude making statues and paintings. I had noticed the paint at first and then noticed the statues and then the paintings. Unfortunately I wasn’t in the particular market for any of the things he was selling right then, but it was very encouraging to see an artisan at work. But shortly after that my feet had brought me back to the hotel and, very sweaty, I decided to head in for the night. A dinner at the hotel restaurant (peri-peri chicken), served by the side of an empty pool across from a projector showing a football game and amidst a crown evidently pre-gaming a party elsewhere, topped off finally with some reading, rounded out the evening.

The adventure continues next week!