Working in Sierra Leone: The Experiences of PAS' William Kros
PAS Program Associate William Kros is presently involved in the rebuilding and development efforts of the West African nation of Sierra Leone. PAS is involved in this effort through a project with Sierra Leone’s National Power Authority that is aimed at enhancing the country’s water and energy sectors. For Mr. Kros, however, his most recent trip to Sierra Leone was not his first experience with the civil war-torn nation.
Mr. Kros had been to Sierra Leone in the early 1990s, so his present experiences have a basis for comparison. These experiences became noteworthy the instant that he visited Sierra Leone once again. What better place, then, to begin a look at these experiences than at the airport?
“The airport is still an absolute nightmare,” was Kros’ impression upon his most recent arrival in Freetown, the capital city of Sierra Leone. The airport was filled with porters in white shirts who insisted on helping travelers in every conceivable way. At a minimum, Kros ended up tipping at least five porters for the most innocuous tasks. The reason for the abundance of porters is that porter jobs are among the choicest jobs to get in Sierra Leone. A porter makes enough money to support an "extended" African family. The average porter can provide for 10 to 15 adults/children.
Going through immigration was an experience not soon to be forgotten for Mr. Kros. His laptop was confiscated for a reason that was unknown to him. He recalls the retrieval process as such: “The immigration officer gave me two choices—I could return to the airport in 2 weeks to retrieve it, or I could pay him $100 dollars and he could expedite my redeeming it immediately. Of course I was very grateful that he could ‘expedite’ my getting my laptop back so quickly, so I gladly paid the $100.”
These events that Kros recounted, however, had not even occurred on the terra firma of Sierra Leone and Freetown. The airport is located on an island off Freetown. To get to the mainland, one travels either by ferry or helicopter. If the ferry is taken, the addition of a bus ride is also necessary to complete the trip to Freetown. This combination of transport makes the trip to the mainland approximately a half-day event.
The other option of getting to Freetown from the airport, however, is via helicopter. According to Kros, a trip to the mainland via helicopter “is a harrowing experience as it is always overloaded—people are packed in like sardines. Most passengers pray very sincerely on the short flight.”
Departing Sierra Leone proved to be equally as challenging. To begin, there was only one flight each day to Kros’ destination of Ghana. The first three days Kros attempted to leave Sierra Leone, the flights were canceled, rendering his tedious helicopter flights to the airport in vain. On one of those three days, the flight out of Sierra Leone was canceled because the plane was diverted to pick up the Ghanaian Soccer Team. Since each helicopter ride cost Kros $20, he eventually spent $160 to ride the helicopter back and forth from Freetown to the airport. And, since the telephone system did not work well enough to permit him to call the airline to cancel his flight (which in fact they canceled), he was required to pay the airlines $200 for changing his departure date.
This brings Mr. Kros’ experiences directly to the topic of the telephone system in Sierra Leone. According to him, the telephone system is “still very poor—the chances of winning a lottery is better than getting a long distance call through.” He noted that the telephone system seemed always to malfunction, particularly at the times when he was trying to return home to the United States. Instead of being able to call the airline to find out the status of a flight, he had to actually go over to the airport to find out if the plane was going to fly that day. This, of course, required another helicopter ride from Freetown to the airport.
Since most people do not have a personal computer in Sierra Leone, Kros mentioned that they often go to one of the many companies that rent computer time with access to the Internet. However, as the communications is so poor and the sending/receiving speed (212 baud) is so slow, it usually takes about an hour to send and/or receive a couple of messages.
Kros generally stopped off at one of these stores first thing in the morning (the local consultant he was working with owned the store). He met many interesting people who came in to rent an hour’s time to send and receive messages. Most were educated people. Kros found most interesting the two Irish catholic nuns from Dublin who came in every morning to send messages. He found out that they had been in Sierra Leone for more than 20 years and operated a grammar school—a very strict school. They took turns coming in and usually did the same type of work—soliciting funds and school supplies from donors around the world via the Internet. They were very proud that they were responsible for raising good future citizens of Sierra Leone. When he asked them why they chose this career, “They looked at me with their steely Irish eyes and stated, ‘anybody can take a regular job—we wanted to make a difference!’ I didn't ask them any more dumb questions.”
Getting to the hotel from the helicopter pad required Mr. Kros to take another transport adventure in Sierra Leone. The only public transports available in Freetown are taxicabs—cars or vans. According to Kros, the taxi driver always had a car/van that was full of people. There was never a time when he saw a cab with only one or two people riding. These rides cost about ten cents to ride, but the ride was with all kinds of people jammed in with you and/or on top of you. Kros states, “The taxis are ancient (more accurately antiques)—and really held together by baling wire, duct tape, and chewing gum.”
While Mr. Kros was in Freetown, he stayed in a small hotel with about ten rooms that was British operated. The U.S. State Department warns American citizens of the dangers of traveling to Sierra Leone, and thus the compound in which Kros stayed had a ten-foot wall around the building and sentries armed with automatic weapons that roamed the perimeter 24 hours a day. However, Kros said that this was “no different from the environment when he was in other African counties—security is just something that everyone adjusts to and lives with.”
Within the hotel, Kros once again was faced with the renowned Sierra Leone telecommunications system. Since there was only one phone line into the hotel, he “very selfishly tied it up by logging onto the Internet at night. So from about 7 PM until midnight no one could make or receive a call."
Kros noted that the selection of food in Freetown had not changed in the past ten years. The diner in the hotel where he ate had two selections—fish or chicken. As he did during his prior trip in the early 1990s, he alternated these selections for the evening meal. He recalls, “Although the food was horrible, there was plenty of it.” For lunch he mostly ate at the British Embassy cafeteria, which was located very near to the Sierra Leone National Power Authority building (where the PAS project is focused). His fondness for this cafeteria stemmed from their serving of one of the local favorite dishes—chicken gizzards.
While eating his luncheon meal of chicken gizzards at the British Embassy cafeteria, Mr. Kros had the privilege of meeting whom he considered a most interesting woman from London. Approximately 40 years of age, she had volunteered to come to Freetown for a year to teach an English course at the High School level. During her tenure, she visited a School for the Blind and was so taken by the children that she ended up taking over and running the school. She is still in Freetown, five years later.
On a visit to the School for the Blind, Mr. Kros noticed the absence of computers. When he asked her about this, she stated that there were no funds available for them. He suggested that she (with his assistance) write to Bill Gates of Microsoft for computers and software to enable the blind children to learn how to use the computers—very similar as in done in the United States. They spent several evenings writing to Microsoft and Mr. Gates for help. Although Kros has not yet heard about the status of this project, he hopes that this endeavor “works out well, as this dynamic woman can positively affect the future lives of many handicapped children.”
One of the things that Kros looked forward to at the end of each day were the funerals. The funeral procession—which was all walking except for deceased in the hearse—went by the building he was working in at the same time every day—4:30 PM. All of the mourners wore very white shirts or blouses, and there always seemed to be at least 300 people involved. What made the funeral procession really interesting, though, was the band that accompanied it. A very large brass band of 50 to 60 musicians was always out in front. According to Kros, “The music was not only loud it was positively stirring—the kind of music you would expect at a Notre Dame pep rally.” The music was intended to announce, as loudly as possible, the deceased's triumphant entry into the great beyond. The daily funerals always “pepped” Kros up.
Another facet of daily life in Sierra Leone that intrigued Kros during both of his visits were the dogs. He noticed that there was only one breed—nondescript, medium sized, dull brownish tan, and emaciated. Not skinny, but emaciated. The dogs spent most of their time laying on the side of the dusty dirt roads, only moving when their life may be in peril. Never once had he heard a dog bark, either on his trip in the early 1990s or now. The dogs acted as though they were in a trance, with the same blank lifeless look in their eyes. They hadn't changed one iota in ten years.
The World Bank supports most of the various work projects that are currently ongoing in Sierra Leone—which include street repair, remodeling destroyed/damaged buildings, etc. However, in many of the retail stores it is possible to buy those products and items supplied by the World Bank and that were intended for fixing up the streets and buildings. Unfortunately, these products have found their way onto the Black Market.
Kros could speak and write volumes about both of his experiences in Sierra Leone. For now, though, his work is focused on the National Power Authority project that is being performed by PAS. Kros states that, “If anything, because of the civil war the past couple of years, the country was in worse shape last year than a decade ago.” It is only through the efforts of people like William Kros that the country of Sierra Leone may one day recover from the terrible events that it has experienced during the last decade.