Massive storm last night. Thunder and lightening and all. I'd consider it a hurricane, but apparently they happen daily during the rainy season. I believe the monthly rainfall in Sierra Leone is about 10x that of San Francisco and 7x that of New Zealand in winter. It was raining sideways and I got wet in bed even though there is a two foot lip over the house and mesh on the windows. It was so strong that I though cars might start flipping over and I am sure many, many houses were either flattened or deluged with mud. I suspect that the goat may be dead because it was tied by its neck and I think it may have strangled while blowing away in the wind.
Today we went into downtown Freetown. We saw a man shaving another man's armpits. They do this because...well, don't ask.
As a result of the never-ending construction there are always huge trenches - ten foot high by ten foot wide - on either side of the road leading into town. The fact that they block people's driveways doesn't seem to be a big issue, they just stick a couple of boards up for any entering or exiting vehicles to drive over (they = Chinese companies who have all the roadwork contracts locked up for the next five years). We were scratching our heads trying to figure out why one SUV was head down vertical in the gully. On closer inspection, it had tried to drive across the boards and they had broken! So if you think you're having a bad morning, remember, there's always someone out there who has it worse!
Our podapoda driver deserted us midway home because he got in an argument with a customer and got out for a fist fight. Some random person began driving who apparently had no idea how to handle a stick shift, because it was first, third, first, lurch, for the rest of the journey. Ide still has white knuckles from trying to avoid being thrown through the windscreen.
