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11月15日 statistician / econometrician jokeA colleague at work forwarded this to me; it's not bad at all.
10月29日 development book review: So Long a Letter, by Mariama BaWhen I was in Sierra Leone recently, I scouted around for some fiction by Sierra Leonean writers. I only found one, and her books were too expensive for me. So I bought a cheap paperback copy of what is required reading for Sierra Leonean schoolchildren (and Gambia schoolchildren, I learned later in the trip). It was very well done and - at 90 pages - a pretty swift illustration of some of the challenges faced by women in polygamist households in West Africa. Polygamist households are not a thing of the past nor of poorly educated or rural persons. When I was in the Gambia, I met major government workers who had two or so wives.
Here is what I wrote for Amazon on this book:
10月23日 pictures from Sierra LeoneHere are a few pictures from my recent trip to Sierra Leone. I didn't have time to take photos in Tanzania, and in the Gambia I was going to take photos but then my batteries died and when I went to buy new ones, almost all the shops were closed because of the holiday to celebrate the end of Ramadan (the Muslim fasting season) and the one open shop sold me batteries for 15 cents which lasted exactly 1.5 seconds in my camera. So I'll get a few in those countries next time. 10月15日 finally back home
Yesterday afternoon, after · 20 days · time in three countries (Tanzania, Sierra Leone, and the Gambia) · time in airports in five more countries (the Netherlands, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, and Brussels) · flying on five airlines [United, KLM, Kenya Airways, Bellview (a Nigerian airline), and Lux Air (a budget Portuguese airline)] · lots of runs on beautiful beaches · and some work I made it back home. Safe and sound. I'll get some pictures up in the coming days... 10月14日 my fake name and homelandAround my hotel in the Gambia, guys (I call them "touts") are constantly trying to get you to buy something or come to their restaurant or whatever. But they always start with a couple of friendly personal questions to get to know you. Unfortunately, they all ask the exact same questions, so at this point dozens of men have asked me, What's your name? and What country are you from?
At some point, I began to feel fatigued and defensive (since no one really cares about my name or home, it's just an unoriginal sales intro) and didn't like feeling that way, I decided to have some fun. My new name would be The Magic Man and I come from Brigadoon. Here is a real conversation (as far as I can remember it) from Friday afternoon as I'm walking along the beach:
And tout goes on to invite me to his bar and I pass. The great thing about this exchange is that I couldn't help but smile and be good-natured the whole time. (Unless you think it's inherently bad-natured to use a fake name, but I don't in this case: Everyone in the situation is being disingenuous, so I think everyone is playing by the same rules.) 10月12日 still got it OR getting hit on by hotel staff AGAINThis evening I was changing after a walk on the beach when my phone rang.
When I title this "still got it," it is the pivotal word. Still got ... a skin-color that signals relative wealth and a friendly demeanor.
I think it might be time for me to dial down the friendly, what with today's experience, the one last year, and the time a clotheswashing lady left me a love note in my clean laundry in Kenya back in 2000. the capital city without a cinemaEarly in the week, a waiter at my hotel informed me that there is just one cinema in the capital of the Gambia, in an area called Serakunda. All week I've planned to go on Friday night and partake of the offerings, whether they be outdated Hollywood, fresh Bollywood, or wildly over-dramatic Nollywood. But today a driver informed me that the lone Banjul cinema has closed down. [There are video shows, little rooms where you pay a few cents and watch a movie on a ... tv screen. Although I've frequented those many times in Kenya, the draw has faded.]
Billboards everywhere proclaim that the president is leading the Gambia to be an economic superpower in the 21st century. Can we please get some popcorn and fake butter with that? holiday surprise!When I returned to my hotel room at 9:30 on Tuesday night, I received a call from a colleague that Wednesday had been declared a public holiday! Wednesday was the celebration of the day that the angel Gabriel revealed the first verses of the Qur'an to the prophet Muhammed. Normally it's a school holiday here, but apparently the president was in a good mood yesterday and decided it would be a public holiday. We re-scheduled a few meetings (and still held a few), and it all played out okay...
Mr. Bush, I'll be returning to the United States on Sunday and am ready for my surprise holiday! 10月8日 stray dog development indexWhen I got to Sierra Leone last week, one of the first things I noticed was how many stray dogs there are. Loads of stray dogs! Same thing here in the Gambia, and I remember the same from my time living in the Dominican Republic. I see dogs sleeping, dogs fighting, dogs barking at me.
I'd like to construct a stray dog development index (kind of like the Human Development Index except gimmicky and not useful).
õõõõõõõõõõ Sierra Leone
õõõõõõ The Gambia
õõõõõõõõ Tanzania
õ United States
Now I can start an NGO to adopt stray dogs, since that would reduce poverty, right? RIGHT?
(What else could we do with the dogs? Take a lesson from Dunderbeck and Soylent Green. Before we make any rash moves, let's have a little talk about correlation versus causation.) beach run from heavenThis afternoon after work I went for a run on the beach (now in the Gambia: it would be easy to get my beach runs mixed up, as I've been grateful to enjoy them in Tanzania, Sierra Leone, and now here in the Gambia). After about ten minutes I had left all of the tourist hotels behind and was in wide open, beautiful beach, alone but for the dozens of ghost crabs scattering at my approach and the variety of unfamiliar birds. Peaceful and awesome!
[But, you say, haven't you learned anything? Jogging all alone on a quiet part of the beach? What if a mugger jumps out? No problem. I swim out from the shore - right hand suspended above the water holding my ipod - using the superior swimming skills I honed over several ... weeks in L.A. and back to the beach just in front of my hotel. I'm a man with a plan!] 10月7日 my favorite fact about the size of the Gambia
from the CIA World Factbook super-size my snailThis morning I walked out of my beach-side hotel room and met the largest snail I've ever seen: by far! This guy was 3/4 the length of my hand (and I don't have small hands). In the USA, if you want snails like that you have to flush them down the toilet and wait for them to become monsters in the sewer.
A little later, I saw the largest lizard I've ever seen (not in a zoo): at least a foot and a half, maybe two feet long. He was crawling around the children's playground (still not really big enough to enjoy the big-kid swings). I didn't stick around to see some kid come to play: Look mom, I found a gigantic lizard! the cash economyBefore I went to Sierra Leone, I was warned that credit cards are not used. So everything, from seven nights in a decent hotel to seven days of a car and driver to food, had to be paid in cash. I've never carried out around that much cash (lots of hundred-dollar bills), but apparently Sierra Leoneans do it all the time. They cart around gigantic wads of bills, as no one has a credit card.
I'm glad to have that load a little lighter now that I'm in the Gambia! 10月5日 cholera outbreak and the wrong treatmentOn Wednesday, the UN posted this bulletin:
Thankfully, cholera is easily treatable:
What? A course of dehydration? If you have cholera, you might try rehydration first and see how that works for you before the UN’s proposed course of dehydration. Just a thought. i saw the new president’s land rover … probablyJust a couple of weeks ago, Sierra Leone had (almost completely) peaceful parliamentary and presidential elections. The opposition presidential candidate won, and power was transferred peacefully. Many people in Freetown are excited and hopeful.
This morning on the drive to work, my driver pulled over to the flashing lights of a motorcycle. The motorcycle was followed by a second motorcycle, and then an alternating line of three trucks of soldiers and six SUVs, one of which apparently carried the president. Pleasure to meet you, President Koroma! 10月4日 running late, an acronym i won't be using at home (or anywhere else)The other day I sat in a meeting with a number of government employees and we decided the time of the next meeting. As everyone got up to leave, the chair of the meeting called out, "That's 11 o'clock sharp! No BMT!" I asked, What's BMT? Chuckle, chuckle. "Black man's time."*
Later I sat down with the same colleague to sketch the agenda, and after we had about eight agenda items, he commented "Don't forget Item 13." Refreshments! [In the actual meeting, yesterday, Item 13 was a big hit with all of the attendees. I even enjoyed my sealed can of orange Fanta...]
* I think many groups establish time zones to jest about their habitual tardiness. Growing up, I always heard about Mormon Standard Time (very late), and I think I've heard others. So who's on time? local language: krio OR how to get a girlfriend in FreetownThe lingua franca in Sierra Leone is Krio. It is the native language of the Krios, a community descended from freed slaves repatriated from the West Indies, the UK, and the USA. It's also the lingua franca used by about 4 million Sierra Leonean of other ethnic groups, who have their own languages but speak Krio to communicate across tribal lines. Krio draws significantly on English and Portuguese, but it also uses words from at least 12 African languages (from Wolof to Yoruba to Arabic).
Yesterday I purchased the Peace Corps - Sierra Leone Krio Language Manual (1985), and my local colleague Ibrahim and I immediately jumped to the dating section (just because I love that the Peace Corps manual has pointers for dating language in Krio):
Now read through the dialogue phoenetically and you'll pick up most of it.
Now you know all you need to hit on ladies in Freetown. I was tempted to practice these lines last night around the hotel, but I have a history of giving the wrong impression to hotel staff, so I kept my dialogue to myself.
* The background info is from Wikipedia on Krio, on the Krio people, and from the Peace Corps Manual. 10月2日 the admiring crowdsThis afternoon I went running. I donned my "Kenya dig it?" t-shirt, long shorts, and my running shoes and set off on the paved road from the hotel. Soon I turned off onto a road that was once paved but was now more gravelly...which then turned to a little path...which then almost disappeared but a man beckoned to me and so I had faith and came out on the other side.
Some people jog here in Sierra Leone, but not many, so it's interesting to watch people's reactions as I pass. Some look down at my shoes (which are still quite new, a birthday gift from my parents), some little kids yell out basic English greetings like "How are you?" and "Hello!", one guy jokingly encouraged me both times I passed ("Good job!"), some smile or laugh (presumably at the spectacle), some stare. Whenever I hit a dead end or decide to turn around, people ask, "What's wrong?" "Are you lost?" "Where are you going?" to which I try to be polite but brief (it's running time, not chatting time). loud noises: car horns and cell phonesIn the last few days here in Freetown, I’ve spent a fair amount of time walking around, and I’m impressed by the amount of honking. Cars honk for what seem to be a broad array of reasons; perhaps the Sierra Leonean car-honk dialect is a variation on that used in Cameroon, characterized by Tim Harford in The Undercover Economist:
Another distinct custom I’ve noticed involves cell phones. Everyone (not just most people: everyone) puts very distinctive rings on their cell phones (the kind that are cute the first time you hear them), and people answer their cell phones everywhere. I was in a meeting with significant government people the other day and people were taking calls. The top guy in the meeting had some silly pop song as his ring and received a couple of calls. Last night at the hotel restaurant, I eventually moved because someone or other at the table next to me received a call – no exaggeration – every 30 seconds. |
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