STORY #71
Posted by Megan on Friday, July 12, 2013
Name: Ali Meyer
Description: small, silver
Saturday, June 15th, 2013
The following is from a few minutes in a vehicle on a paved road (a rarity) around Freetown. I'd look up, write what I saw, look up, write, repeat. Here's a glimpse: graveyard with weeds higher than the markers & flowers sprinkled among them. People using the gravestones as a place to rest. Trash lining the streets. Sewage filled gutters. People washing their clothes in side gutters. Huge cart on the road filled with scrap metal, wood, random parts being pulled by a man with a Yankees shirt on. Huge wooden empty cards on their way to get filled. Kids in bright yellow and navy blue uniforms on their way to school. Women with a huge plate of gadee (banana leaf wrapping up a jelly, lemon type of sweet). Gate with archway made of concrete for a university. Rusted, maroon-red zinc shacks. Street vendor with a little wooden cart selling Africell sim cards. Ground nut cakes for sale on a woman's head. Little packages of ground nuts for sale on the woman's tray in front of her. A petrol station where they have to pump a lever to get the gas in the car (no handle to hold where it does it for you.) Metal shacks with blue tarps 1/2 on 1/2 off. Lady with fried fish (the whole fish) in a plastic container selling to a man who has a piece of torn off newspaper for him to wrap it up inside. An old brittle concrete wall with white graffiti that says "--------------------" (don't pee on this wall). A young boy selling packets of water w/ a Manchester United tshirt on. A poda poda (old battered vans) with a "Only time will tell" lettering on the front. Anti-corruption billboard followed by ***(another billboard)*** displayed as a super hero to fight both unwanted pregnancies & AIDS. New building made of all concrete with trees/branches as scaffolding. Stacks of newly cut lumber (by hand, not machine) for sale with about 5 men sitting on top of it awaiting a customer. A vendor w/ a little wooden shack selling misc. items has speakers the size of my nephews blaring a Salone artist. Pharmacy store w/ a green t on the metal doors that open up to a white tiled, glass window'd store. 2 foot allleyway littered with trash and a poor man sitting at the edge (plastic bags w/ his belongings). A dog ferociously biting into another dog yelping like its being killed, behind a sign for Star Beer. My driver yelling at an Okala (motorbike taxi) who pulled out in front of us (I heard 2 words out of everything he said: crazy & stupid). A line of Okalas awaiting customers & staring at me. A woman with a huge bowl/basket hybrid filled with cassava leaves. A woman w/ a bowl/bucket filled with individual packages of flip flops for sale on a sidewalk bride thing over a sewage-filled gutter (w/ a section missing so there's potential to fall in). Boy selling a stack of music video DVD's next to my window. Smell of burning trash. Woman selling laundry soap in clear plastic bags that she divided up herself. Blue "Mega Cola" can with light blue dots. Maya candles sign (for the hours when there is no electricity). Man selling shirts. (A dozen or so on each arm and then a stack of at least 6 pairs of jeans on his head). A boy selling energy drinks in our passenger window. A man in a 10+ yr old Dallas Cowboys jersey. A man in a Diesel shirt. A woman in a black, red, green, & yellow Bob Marley shirt. An old man with the full Muslim outfit walking with his hand on his son's? grandson's shoulder. Man with a silver stove/grill hybrid on his head. Men in dumptrucks with shovels occupy the vehicle in front of us. We pass them & I see more men in dumptrucks & in the sewage filled gutters parked on the sides of the road, digging out piles of blackened trash from the culverts. Billboard: "Rape is punishable by law" with a picture of a man trying to put his arms around a woman who obviously didn't want him to. A man selling bread in little pink plastic bags on the side of the road, particularly thru car windows & passerby. Old white, partially rusted sign that says, "Youth Development Program" and another sign a few feet away with "Islamic Secondary School" with a huge concrete wall around it. Taxi driver coming our way with an air freshener in the shape of an American flag/liberty bell. Woman taking a 30+ pd netted bag of onions off the top of a poda poda. Poda Poda with "God's Time Is the Best Time" lettered on the front of it. Huge tourist bus packed with local Salone people on it. PACKED. Man selling plastic bag of crackers that looks like he just pulled them out of the box and threw it away. Man selling bags of popcorn that I'm sure he popped himself over an open fire. Man carrying a pallette on his head. Grandma who looks like an African queen to me sitting in the shade of a tree no more than 10ft tall (plastic lawn chair). Boy with a faded red "BULLS 23" jersey on. Girl with a rice bag on her back, holding it with strings she tied on herself. (And then we hit the incessant bumps in the road & I had to quit writing or get sick.) :(
Description: small, silver
Saturday, June 15th, 2013
The following is from a few minutes in a vehicle on a paved road (a rarity) around Freetown. I'd look up, write what I saw, look up, write, repeat. Here's a glimpse: graveyard with weeds higher than the markers & flowers sprinkled among them. People using the gravestones as a place to rest. Trash lining the streets. Sewage filled gutters. People washing their clothes in side gutters. Huge cart on the road filled with scrap metal, wood, random parts being pulled by a man with a Yankees shirt on. Huge wooden empty cards on their way to get filled. Kids in bright yellow and navy blue uniforms on their way to school. Women with a huge plate of gadee (banana leaf wrapping up a jelly, lemon type of sweet). Gate with archway made of concrete for a university. Rusted, maroon-red zinc shacks. Street vendor with a little wooden cart selling Africell sim cards. Ground nut cakes for sale on a woman's head. Little packages of ground nuts for sale on the woman's tray in front of her. A petrol station where they have to pump a lever to get the gas in the car (no handle to hold where it does it for you.) Metal shacks with blue tarps 1/2 on 1/2 off. Lady with fried fish (the whole fish) in a plastic container selling to a man who has a piece of torn off newspaper for him to wrap it up inside. An old brittle concrete wall with white graffiti that says "--------------------" (don't pee on this wall). A young boy selling packets of water w/ a Manchester United tshirt on. A poda poda (old battered vans) with a "Only time will tell" lettering on the front. Anti-corruption billboard followed by ***(another billboard)*** displayed as a super hero to fight both unwanted pregnancies & AIDS. New building made of all concrete with trees/branches as scaffolding. Stacks of newly cut lumber (by hand, not machine) for sale with about 5 men sitting on top of it awaiting a customer. A vendor w/ a little wooden shack selling misc. items has speakers the size of my nephews blaring a Salone artist. Pharmacy store w/ a green t on the metal doors that open up to a white tiled, glass window'd store. 2 foot allleyway littered with trash and a poor man sitting at the edge (plastic bags w/ his belongings). A dog ferociously biting into another dog yelping like its being killed, behind a sign for Star Beer. My driver yelling at an Okala (motorbike taxi) who pulled out in front of us (I heard 2 words out of everything he said: crazy & stupid). A line of Okalas awaiting customers & staring at me. A woman with a huge bowl/basket hybrid filled with cassava leaves. A woman w/ a bowl/bucket filled with individual packages of flip flops for sale on a sidewalk bride thing over a sewage-filled gutter (w/ a section missing so there's potential to fall in). Boy selling a stack of music video DVD's next to my window. Smell of burning trash. Woman selling laundry soap in clear plastic bags that she divided up herself. Blue "Mega Cola" can with light blue dots. Maya candles sign (for the hours when there is no electricity). Man selling shirts. (A dozen or so on each arm and then a stack of at least 6 pairs of jeans on his head). A boy selling energy drinks in our passenger window. A man in a 10+ yr old Dallas Cowboys jersey. A man in a Diesel shirt. A woman in a black, red, green, & yellow Bob Marley shirt. An old man with the full Muslim outfit walking with his hand on his son's? grandson's shoulder. Man with a silver stove/grill hybrid on his head. Men in dumptrucks with shovels occupy the vehicle in front of us. We pass them & I see more men in dumptrucks & in the sewage filled gutters parked on the sides of the road, digging out piles of blackened trash from the culverts. Billboard: "Rape is punishable by law" with a picture of a man trying to put his arms around a woman who obviously didn't want him to. A man selling bread in little pink plastic bags on the side of the road, particularly thru car windows & passerby. Old white, partially rusted sign that says, "Youth Development Program" and another sign a few feet away with "Islamic Secondary School" with a huge concrete wall around it. Taxi driver coming our way with an air freshener in the shape of an American flag/liberty bell. Woman taking a 30+ pd netted bag of onions off the top of a poda poda. Poda Poda with "God's Time Is the Best Time" lettered on the front of it. Huge tourist bus packed with local Salone people on it. PACKED. Man selling plastic bag of crackers that looks like he just pulled them out of the box and threw it away. Man selling bags of popcorn that I'm sure he popped himself over an open fire. Man carrying a pallette on his head. Grandma who looks like an African queen to me sitting in the shade of a tree no more than 10ft tall (plastic lawn chair). Boy with a faded red "BULLS 23" jersey on. Girl with a rice bag on her back, holding it with strings she tied on herself. (And then we hit the incessant bumps in the road & I had to quit writing or get sick.) :(
