Sierra Leone

Well it is certainly rainy season in Sierra Leone and the celebration is immense. School children are jubilant and there was a dance in the Town Hall. The rain comes in huge downpours the likes of which I have never seen.

Living under a corrugated tin roof the noise is unbelievable and apparently July and August get worse. In Freetown it is dreadful getting around in the muddy streets and even the old rusty cabs are not much shelter. Most of the cabs are so run down that the windows are permanently open.

In Makeni the rain means a huge profusion of farming vegetables. The pcture shows the leaf of a gourd called a “Mattan” which is great with Jollof Rice.

Mosquitoes enjoy all the puddles and breed and I suffered a bout of Malaria – not a pretty picture. Altogether I am not unhappy about leaving in a couple of weeks. The last picture is a local "cotton tree" a very large and striking figure on the landscape.