01/05/2024 Bikepacking Sierra Leone Day 150 : Money Talks

“I lived in America for 30 years,” said Robert. “I got my masters there.” Robert was the constantly smiling manager of this hotel. I always like people with big smiles. I asked him about his degree, and then asked if he had family in the US.

“Yes, my daughter lives there; she is in the university.”

“Why did you come back if she is still there,” I questioned.

“In the US, you don’t have the freedoms that you have here. For example, in the US, I had to get up at 8am every morning.”

I interrupted, “but you manage this hotel now..”

“Yes, but I can get up at 8:30 now. I had to leave my wife. She did not want to come here, but I told her that I want to be free.”

I knew I was missing something here: “but it is nice in the United States,” I said.

“Ah, you think it is nice in the United States. But is it really? First you get a house, then you need a bigger house. Maybe I retire at 60, and then I have to go back to work because the money is going down. Here, the people are happy. And they have nothing… NOTHING. and the children, they are covered with dirt, but they play and smile and are happy.”

Although I did not agree with his assessment of the United States, I did agree that most (but not all) of the children I’ve seen lately have looked really happy. I see them playing in the street with their toys made from trash, and I think about kids in the US getting sensory overload with toys. It is common to see boys running along with an old tire - guiding it as it rolls with a stick. The other toy I see a lot is a car on a string. The car body is made from a quart oil bottle, and the wheels are made from bottle caps. It’s a plastic toy, if you will. Besides that, not many toys.

Although our views differ slightly, i liked Robert, and might try and pry some more philosophy out of him. I joked, “you need to talk to the 100 new ‘friends’ I meet every day, asking me to take them to the USA.” He laughed, knowingly.

Speaking of smiles, I got a little “pick-me-up” from a few ~10 year old girls selling water. I was chatting with them about the trip, and they were all smiles. Meanwhile, a huddle of young men were hanging out whistling at me and clucking and all these other stupid things people do to try and get me to come over to them. The little girls said, “They want to talk to you, but they don’t know English.” We all kind of laughed at the boys’ foolish behavior. I had “accidentally” forgotten my change for the water with one little girl, and honest as she was, she came to remind me. I said she could keep it, and the other girls wrestled her - all laughing. Robert is at least right about these kids being happy.

This transect of Western Africa has displayed quite a big variance in women’s rights. I was happy to see these intelligent girls speaking English, which is the National Language. Hopefully, this will give them future opportunities. Most people here speak Krio.

Before the girls, I’d been pretty down. I had written to the boss of the Ivory Coast embassy in the capital of Sierra Leone (Freetown), and he said he isn’t going to give out visas until further notice. The whole reason I dealt with coming to Sierra Leone was to get that visa. The silver lining, though, is that for the last several months, I have been in touch with a cyclist who lives in Freetown… so I’ll make this into an opportunity to meet him instead. I “met” him on Strava. “The Scriptwriter” always knows the best next-move. If I cannot get the Ivory Coast visa, further Eastward progress will end for me. The go-around options of Mali and Burkina Faso are OUT for me due to “level 4” (highest level) terrorist activity. The highlands in Guinea were excellent, so going back for a deeper exploration would be rewarding.

For the first time since Spain, today’s ride was almost entirely through a Christian part of the country. Now I am meeting people with easy to remember Biblical names like Matthew and Mary. It has also resulted in some different signage, and churches dominating mosques.

Down here in Sierra Leone, it is dramatically more humid and uncomfortable. As a result it seems like the peoples’ tempers are a little bit shorter. People don’t smile quite as much as they did up in the Highlands and I have seen people fighting - something I never saw up until yesterday. I do not want to be a “spoiled American,” and so I try my best to be respectful and polite of people in spite of the discomfort, unexpected delays, and tedious processes to do anything.

Again, there is so much more I want to tell you about this fascinating country (and remember, we still haven’t finished Guinea)! But it’s time for bed now. Thanks for reading!