JUSTIN WALLEY
  • More than a game
  • One Football No Nets
  • Some thoughts from me
  • My travels in sport
    • Copa America 2015 Chile
    • Sierra Leone 2013
    • Euro 2012 Ukraine
    • Copa2011 Argentina
    • Rugby World Cup 2011
    • Africa 2010
  • About me
    • My life in football
    • My life travelling the world
    • My journalism work
    • My first published book
    • My life philosophy
  • Contact
    • My media pages
  • More than a game
  • One Football No Nets
  • Some thoughts from me
  • My travels in sport
    • Copa America 2015 Chile
    • Sierra Leone 2013
    • Euro 2012 Ukraine
    • Copa2011 Argentina
    • Rugby World Cup 2011
    • Africa 2010
  • About me
    • My life in football
    • My life travelling the world
    • My journalism work
    • My first published book
    • My life philosophy
  • Contact
    • My media pages
Search

Sierra Leone 2013

Making a difference through football

On the road

1/3/2013

0 Comments

 
Picture
Picture
Tuesday, February 19, 2013 (day 41)
Kabala - Makeni


5.30am alarm; 5.30am call to prayer. This town feels much closer to Mecca than Makeni.
I emerge into the cool darkness with no sign of the cook for my promised 6.15 breakfast. There's nothing for it but to start making my way into town in the dark with a tiny bit of dawn creeping in to show me the way. I should perhaps feel threatened but I don't. With it already 6.30 it is clear to me that the only way I am guaranteed to make the bus is if I break my rule and jump on the back of a motorbike. I stop the first rider I see near the cotton tree on the Guinea road and ask him to 'very very slow slow' to the government bus stop.
To be fair he isn't riding much faster than you would a bicycle and we only actually pass three more bikes on the road into town. 

The bus is completely full and some of the lads are trying to put me in a poda poda. Travelling up on the government bus felt as safe as I have done on the roads here so I am going to stick to my guns and the lads from yesterday, remembering me, allow me to pay to sit on my stool again. The bus departs 15 minutes ahead of its scheduled departure. Lucky I got here 20 minutes early. Breakfast would have spelled disaster. I am sure Sajid factored that in.

My mini road trip out here has felt like real backpacking. I have seen some amazing sights especially now in the early morning light. One scene that I am sure will stay with me is of a dozen or more kids all huddled around a fire, reading hand-written Islamic teachings on long wooden tablets.

They are a friendly bunch on these government buses. One of the lads I have been chatting to for most of the early part of the journey from Kabala is an army lad who knows Coach Moses in Makeni. He jumps out at the battalion base; Salone's forward defence should there ever be - God forbid -  an incursion from Guinea.

After an hour there is a stop for breakfast where I buy seven ripened bananas for a total of fifteen pence. Many of my travel companions eat some white slop that looks like a cross between porridge and old rice.

Every second person on the bus wants to chat and is keen to know what I have been doing in this country and what my take is on Salone. One recurring theme of conversations I have been party to during my time in this country is a a truly passionate desire for Sierra Leone to develop in the coming years. It seems like everybody wants this to happen and they also love discussing how it can be achieved.

About an hour away from Makeni we pass close by some amazing otherworldly mountains that look like the kinds of shapes a four year old would cut with scissors if you asked them to represent this scene. The contours and shapes of these mountains really are quite incredible and bizarre and prompt a bus debate about life on Mars. One bloke is convinced that intelligent life resides there and says it is only a matter of time before the truth outs.
I love the Salone people in this environment. They are friendly without being over bearing and always want to debate some subject or other.I suddenly feel taken by the desire to get on one of the buses going in the other direction and extend this road trip over the border to Guinea, before travelling beyond there to the conflict-free parts of Mali. 


We are back in Makeni for 10am, allowing me to work all day. My final day here.
Picture
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.



    Volunteering in Sierra Leone

    More Than a Game joined The Collective and the Craig Bellamy Foundation in Sierra Leone for a two-month voluntary placement in January 2013.
    You can read detailed blogs and photos of this experience below and by clicking on the 'archives' for January, February and March.

    During March and April 2013, we continued to bring you news about More Than a Game's fundraising appeal and posted more photos from our time in Sierra Leone.

    Picture
    Picture

      Contact 
      ​More Than a Game:

    Submit

    Archives

    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013

    Categories

    All
    African Minerals
    African Nations Cup
    Albania
    Bance
    Banjul
    Blood Diamonds
    Bureh
    Burkina Faso
    Civil War
    Craig Bellamy
    David Beckham
    Education
    Family Kingdom Resort
    Fifa
    Football
    Football Coach
    Footbaltic
    Freetown
    Fuel Crisis
    Gambia Bird
    Givengain
    Guinea
    Harmattan
    John Obey
    Junior Fc
    Justin Walley
    Kabala
    Kissy
    Krio
    Linesman
    Lumley Beach
    Lunsar
    Makeni
    Malaria
    More Than A Game
    Murraytown
    Ocada
    Petroipa
    Picket Hill
    Poda Poda
    P Square
    Real Stars Fc
    Religion
    Restless Development
    Revolutionary United Front
    Riga United Fc
    River Number 2
    Salone
    Sawulia Fc
    Sektars Football Club
    Sierra Leone
    Sierra Leone Mission
    Street Child
    Suliaman Samura
    Temne
    The Collective Sierra Leone
    The Craig Bellamy Foundation
    Tombo
    Tourism
    Tribe Wanted
    Unicef
    Volunteer In Africa
    Waterloo
    Witchcraft
    Wusum Stadium

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • More than a game
  • One Football No Nets
  • Some thoughts from me
  • My travels in sport
    • Copa America 2015 Chile
    • Sierra Leone 2013
    • Euro 2012 Ukraine
    • Copa2011 Argentina
    • Rugby World Cup 2011
    • Africa 2010
  • About me
    • My life in football
    • My life travelling the world
    • My journalism work
    • My first published book
    • My life philosophy
  • Contact
    • My media pages