Thank you Mr Mansour!

Just before I left for Tanzania, I introduced you to Mr Mansour who runs a small tailoring business right by our office. Since I got back with all the material I bought in Tanzania, he's managed to design and make me two dresses and one skirt, all for the grand sum of 70,000 Leones (which is about a tenner). Running outside for a dress fitting in between meetings and workshops has been really fun and the first (and probably only) time I can say I've had a personal tailor. He's one of the smiliest people I've ever met and, along with Josephine (who I buy my bananas from) and Mohamed (who I buy my afternoon coke or sprite from), I'm going to really miss the community I've got to know around the office.

With Mr Mansour in one of the dresses he made me

African patterns clashing with Lebanese furniture

Bureh Beach Party and Tacugama Chimp Sanctuary

This Saturday, 110 people from Freetown headed down the coast to Bureh beach for an all night beach party, organised by Beth (whose yoga classes I've been going to). I left it a bit late to book one of the beach huts or tents but managed to set up a makeshift tent, hanging my mosquito net from a palm tree shelter and using a couple of cushions from the sofa to sleep on. Felt pretty hardcore just along from the IMATT (British Military) guys with their fancy camouflage mosquito-netted hammocks! 

It was an absolutely stunning beach and there was a great atmosphere with games of frisbee and beach volleyball going on as the sun set, followed by fresh fish, rice, beer and dancing round a massive campfire. Someone had managed to rig up a sound system and the usual Salone mix of reggae and rap blared out till about 7 in the morning (not that I made it to that point!) 

View from tents on to beach

My "tent"

Watching the sunset

Sunset volleyball

Next morning breakfast

On the way to Tacugama via Kent(!)

On the way back from Bureh, we took the mountain road to Freetown and visited Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary. I've never seen chimps before and I found them fascinating to watch. Apparently they're our closest living evolutionary relatives and our genomes are nearly 99% the same! At Tacugama they rescue chimps from homes where they're kept as pets and prepare them to be released back into the wild. I was really impressed by how well run it is and wish I had more time so that I could stay the night in one of the tree-houses they have for overnight visitors. It's totally uncommercial and I hope it stays that way...

Think my "Chimp" is better than my Krio!

Heading up to the viewing platform

Just hanging out (-;

The laugh-cry continuum

Every day in Sierra Leone is different, and every day brings it's own challenges and breakthroughs. There can be high highs and low lows, often in a very short space of time. Part of this way of life has produced something that I like to refer to as the "laugh-cry continuum". Let me explain...


During the course of any given day, a number of situations arise where, depending on where I am on the continuum, I may feel like reacting to a situation with either laughter or tears. As far as possible, I try to opt for the former, following my Dad's advice that whatever happens in life, keep a sense of humour. Wise words. Thanks Dad.


Here are some examples:


Last night, after a particularly long day at work, we didn't have any water in the flat. Bearing in mind that it's around 33 degrees with very high humidity, it's not much fun when there's no water. So I decided to take our two buckets down to the outside tap and fill them up so we could at least wash dishes and have a bit of a wash ourselves. Very stupidly I forgot to put on my flip-flops and when I got outside and it was dark I stepped straight into some chicken shit. Cue laugh-cry moment. It was a close call, but managed to somehow see the funny side.


At night, if our landlord's in and there is a power cut, there is a generator that comes on in it's place. The only issue is that in order to switch from national power to generator power, we have to pull a lever in the kitchen. During any given evening or night, this may happen a number of times. It's great when it's either national power or generator throughout the night because it means the fans keep running. But when it's a mixture of the two, it's often quite a broken night's sleep because you get hot very quickly when the fans aren't running. On one particular night, just after I arrived back from Tanzania, it happened four or five times. It wouldn't be so bad but going to bed can be quite a complicated procedure because of getting in and out of the mosquito net. Once inside, it's not possible to turn out the lights so getting in and out is all done by torch. As well as the torch I also need to remember to have my phone inside the net because it doubles up as my alarm clock and an eye mask because the curtains don't block out the light. During the ear infection week, I also took a bottle of olive oil in with me so I could pour it into my ear before lying down. If I forget any of these items or need to switch over the power it can provoke a laugh-cry moment. Most of the time I manage to chuckle, but I when it's 4am and it's the third time I've switched the power over, it's not always easy to keep a sense of humour!


I think one of the most amusing tests of the laugh-cry continuum came today when I found myself juggling a programme modelling session with Jalloh, booking flights to South Africa and skyping with our London office to try and get approval for said flights. Somewhere between all this I went downstairs to buy some bread and bananas as I realised I hadn't had any breakfast. It was only when I got back upstairs that I realised the back zip of my skirt had come undone and I'd been walking around the office with my underwear on full show. No question - definitely a laughing moment!

The mosquito net trap!

Two good ears!!

Today I finally got referred to an ENT Consultant who managed to prod, poke, syringe and extract the impacted wax that's been causing my temporary deafness after the ear infection I picked up last week. It hurt like hell but it was such a relief to be able to hear again that I gave him a big hug when it was all done! I think he felt so sorry for me that he cleaned out the other ear too and told me I now have the cleanest ears in Freetown. Hope they stay that way!!


I asked if he'd mind having a photo taken with me and he got so into it that he wanted to do an "action shot" too, even though it was totally posed. I'll spare you a picture of the actual wax!

"Home" in Freetown

As a Restless Development nomad I don't really have a home at the moment. My worldly possessions are currently crammed into my old bedroom at my Mum and Dad's house in Kent. But while I am in Freetown, my "home" is a flat on a road called "Lower Pipeline". Much like the mystery of where River Number 1 is in relation to River Number 2, I am yet to discover where "Upper Pipeline" road is, but most taxi and ocada (motorbike taxi) drivers seem to manage to find my road.


I think I explained in an earlier blog post that during my first visit to Sierra Leone, I shared the flat with a British guy called Joe, who's doing a four month voluntary placement with our finance team. Now I'm back, Joe's still here and we've been joined by Perry, who is also a Restless Development nomad like me (originally from Tennessee in the USA), but as a member of our Senior Management Team, he provides Country Director level support while I focus on Programme Managers. 


Perry and Joe have been great at looking after me this week while I've not been feeling great. They've been cooking in the evenings, letting me win at backgammon (sure they just feel sorry for me because last time Joe and I played he beat me 9 games to 1) and not losing patience when I need them to repeat what they're saying because I never seem to hear the first time. I'm yet to get them to pour olive oil into my ear (which is what I'm meant to be doing) though. Think I can at least spare them that, even though it does result in me pouring half the bottle down the side of my head instead!


Wherever I am in the world, my Mum always complains that she can't picture me there, so these photos are mainly for you Mum, but for anyone else that's interested, here's some shots of "home".

Joe cooking during a power cut

The bathroom. You can tell I live with boys based on the toilet seat! One bucket for washing. Big bowl for washing clothes.

The living room/my workout area!

For anyone who's had me stay with them, you'll know that when I can't run I go a bit stir crazy, so I resort to my Davina McCall workout DVDs. Exercise really helps me get into a routine and de-stress when I'm on the move so much. I've lost track of the bizarre places I've done these workouts: Paul and Yvonne Wood's garden in Cape Town while doing the research for my MA dissertation, Chris and Clare Rowswell's living room during my last month in Morocco, numerous hotel rooms (including during my last trip to Tanzania during the Programme Quality Conference), and even a tiny cabin on a boat from Portsmouth to Santander. She's a well-travelled lady! Anyway, in Freetown I try to get to Lumley beach to run when I can, but when I Ieave work late it's not always easy, so out comes Davina (much to Joe and Perry's amusement). It's a bonus when the power's working as I can point the fan right at me and I'm a (slightly) lighter shade of puce when I finish!

The giant satellite dish outside our balcony. Our landlord (Mr Jabba) says it doesn't work but it's too expensive to move it!

The balcony/clothes drying area

Post-its!

Yes it's true. My name is Charlotte Crowe and I have an addiction to post-its.

Many of you have written to me, apparently concerned about my attachment to these little yellow sticky notes, so I thought I owed you a bit of an explanation. When I first arrived in Sierra Leone, it took me a while to adjust to the challenges of power cuts, intermittent internet access and the many other things that just don't work. In our London office, I take it for granted that I can get multiple photocopies, access to working projectors and continuous power all without batting an eye-lid. In the week before I left for Sierra Leone, I attended an event at DFID where we even had multiple screens to video conference with international offices. So it really was like going from one extreme to another.

When prepping for and facilitating my first training workshop here, I must have spent a good half day fighting with photocopiers and printers that didn't work, power that kept going on and off and even marker pens that had dried up (happens quickly here). I had grand plans for fancy power-points and aesthetically pleasing hand-outs. But just about everything that could have gone wrong, did. I think that's when my love affair with post-its began. Don't get me wrong, it took me a while to find some good ones (the first lot didn't stick to anything, which kind of defeats the purpose) but now I am completely sold and I really don't know what I'd do without them.

So today I was back in the zone and able to satisfy my addiction with a stakeholder analysis  and power mapping workshop. Just before I left for Tanzania, I did a half day workshop at the National Stadium to build our staff capacity for policy influence and advocacy work, and identify some of the main policy and practice issues affecting young people in Sierra Leone. So today was a follow-up from that, structured around one of those issues (the fact that private sector companies do not have youth-friendly recruitment policies and practices) to identify and analyse various stakeholders and brainstorm strategies to influence them and shape their policies and practices.

The next stage is now to turn all this information into an actual programme model and create an operational plan for the next 18 months. So that's what I'll be focusing on, working closely with the Programmes team over the next couple of weeks before I leave.

Quick update on ear. Went back to the hospital today and apparently it's still infected. I've been referred to an ENT specialist and have an appointment on Monday. In the meantime, I still can't hear anything in my right ear (which made today's workshop particularly challenging, much to everyone's amusement) and am keeping going with the antibiotics. Thanks for all your messages. It's not much fun being sick here.

Thea and James turn the problem tree analysis into a solution tree

Jalloh and Cathrin

The post-its start to take over

By the way, I'm not really impossible. It's our branding. And the "im" is crossed through!

Solution tree

Private Sector Stakeholder Analysis

"Charlotte Charlotte"

For anyone who knows my Dad, you probably know why we sometimes affectionately call him "Terry Terry". For those who don't, my Dad is very hard of hearing. So when you try to get his attention with one "Terry", it usually needs to be swiftly followed up by a second. Hence "Terry Terry". This provided us with hours of amusement as kids. But I'm currently getting a taste of my own medicine.

This morning I woke up with a splitting headache and two very sore ears, one of which was (and still is) completely blocked and I can’t hear anything out of. I blame it on the rooster. Let me explain. You see, even though Freetown is a city, it often feels more like a farmyard, and the flat where I've been staying is particularly farm-like, with chickens, dogs, cats and said rooster. The dogs bark a lot, the cats fight a lot, the chickens scratch around a lot and the rooster seems to have no idea what appropriate timing for his cock-a-doodle-doo-ing is. Some mornings, he starts as early as 3:30am, so I've gotten into the habit of wearing earplugs, which (I think) has caused the nasty inner ear infection I now have. 

Sierra Leonean hospitals are not the most fun places in the world. But I count myself luckier than others. One Austrian woman was in for malaria and looked so sick I wish I could have done more to help. She was with someone from her embassy who was trying to arrange to medi-vac her home. When I did make it into see the doctor, he was really good and totally worth the expat rate consultation fee. We may moan about the NHS at home but seriously, I’ll never take free healthcare for granted again. Anyway, he checked my ears, made a joke about trying to get around Freetown with my Oyster card (which was tucked into my passport from when I passed through London) and then packed me off with some ear drops, antibiotics, a warning about using ear plugs and an order to rest (jokes aside, being sick in a place like Freetown really takes it out of you).

Just noticed I’ve started to do that thing Dad does, tilting my head to one side to hear what anyone’s saying, so heading home now to try and get some R&R. Who knows, by the time this has cleared up, maybe I’ll even be “Charlotte Charlotte”?!

The cock-a-doodle-doo-ing culprit

And his family

First weekend back in Freetown

This week has been exhausting. It began with an overnight flight from Dar Es Salaam to London on Monday, going straight from the airport to the office for a full day of work on Tuesday. Thank you SO MUCH to Nita and Simon Wood for rescuing me with Mexican food, Cabernet Sauvignon, a comfy bed and HOT SHOWER on Tuesday night! I then flew back to Sierra Leone on Wednesday and was in the Freetown office on Thursday and Friday. So this weekend I've tried to take it easy, catching up on a bit of sleep, venturing out to the central Freetown fabric markets with Susie and Thea on Saturday (as if I didn't buy enough in Dar already?!) and heading out of town (for a very bumpy taxi ride) to Tokeh beach with Thea and Perry on Sunday. Still don't feel like I've fully recharged my batteries but it's a start...

Susie and Thea haggling in the market

Susie gets lost in a sea of fabric

The very phallic bird patterned material. No, I didn't buy it. Tempting though (-;

Tokeh beach. My favourite so far.

Perry and Thea catching some rays

Happiness is a coconut on a white sandy beach (-:

Beach football

Heading back to the taxi

Fishing boats

Week off in Dar Es Salaam

This week has been the perfect antidote to the hecticness of last week's conference schedule. I've been staying with friends on the Msasani Peninsula in Dar Es Salaam, and making the most of getting up late, swimming in their pool, drinking coffee with non-powdered milk, reading, sleeping in a comfortable bed and having showers with hot water. I feel like I've fully recharged my batteries and am ready to get stuck back into work (and bucket showers) next week.


It was also great to hang out with Kate (our Programme Manager in Nepal) as, like me, she'd tagged on some leave after the conference. We started the week by going to Bongoyo island (one of four tiny desert islands, a bit closer to the mainland than Zanzibar). It's part of the Dar Es Salaam Marine Reserve and absolutely stunning. We spent the day swimming in the sea, reading under a beach banda and eating freshly caught fish and calamari. Heaven. On Tuesday we treated ourselves to body scrubs and massages at a spa just round the corner from where I've been staying. It was so good I (slightly guiltily) went back again on Friday. On Wednesday we ventured into central Dar to go fabric shopping. I'm looking forward to getting some dresses and skirts made by Mr Mansour (the tailor next to the office) when I get back to Freetown. Kate (who speaks fluent Swahili from her time as a volunteer here) managed to get "local prices" and I ended up with four huge pieces of brightly coloured fabric for just over a tenner. Bargain.


Tomorrow I'm flying to London via Dubai and then have a day of meetings in the London office on Tuesday before heading back to Freetown on Wednesday. Wonder if I'll make it to O'Casey's in time for Open Mic night?!

On the boat to Bongoyo island

Blissful day reading under a Banda

Cleaning the ink out of the squid (not just dirty water!)

Lunch before...

...and after!

In central Dar with Kate

Fabric shopping

Roadside snacks