Forgot to mention: Tuesday morning, before I went to meet up with the VSO lot, Hirut and I went down to Lumley Beach again - she for a jog, and me for a swim. Alhaji insisted on accompanying her with the bottle of water, we can't stop laughing - he's a very sweet guy but horribly overprotective!
Yesterday was Christmas Eve. We spent it at Big Market in town, a place where you can find all sorts of curiosities, like these spirit bottles:
They're Mende and their original owner had given them up because he said they caused him too much trouble. They were his distant relatives and had been in the family for many generations, but he felt they brought misfortune.
Hirut was considering buying them, and I told her she'd best ask what's in them first as it might cause problems for customs. Luckily, Elizabeth the cook is Mende and when she showed her the picture she said there would be nothing in them. I remain unconvinced ;)
The neck rings on them (I think it mentions this in the Wiki article too) are because Mende see rings on your neck as a sign of beauty:
Mende people consider a beautiful neck to be one with rings: they are a sign of beauty because they suggest wealth, high status, and are sexually attractive. The rings indicate prosperity and wholesome living, and are given by God to show his affection for a fortunate few. As well, the rings indicate a relationship with the divine: the Sowo itself is a deity from the waters, and the neck rings represent the concentric waves that are formed on still water by Sowo's head breaking through the surface. The spirit comes from the water, and what the human eye sees on the necks of women "is human in form, but divine in essence", as portrayed in the mask. - Wiki
So, I guess these two are women.
You thought being put in a home was bad, but just think, your great grandchildren could sell you on to a flea market for an arranged price :op
There were loads of masks from SL, Mali and West Africa upstairs. Lots of cloth as well. I bought a beautiful necklace, and one for Hirut for Christmas.
Downstairs we found the herb sellers:
Everything from curing insomnia to growing your man a bigger mojo! 'You take my medicine, id work,' she'm say.
The long black pods, on the right, you burn like incense sticks to keep away the mosquitoes.
If that doesn’t work, the light wood in the sacks is stewed down into a tea to cure malaria.
At the front, under the white bags, you can just make out little bags of pebbles. They’re grey not white, and these are the famed ‘edible stones’ some women get addicted to eating when pregnant. I bought one to try it, but haven’t yet. You can either eat it or rub it on your skin as powder, to take out the oil (natural powder puff), or grind it up with water as a face mask against heat rash. It’s supposed to suck all of the impurities out of you.
I also bought 'black soap', which is made from banana-leaf charcoal and rolled into small balls. It's also good for heat rash and skin cleansing - amazing smell to it. They also had tiny little bottles of crystallised mint for smelling salts, and others of ground mica: natural mascara. Cosmetics as well as medicines.
This woman had cures for things you didn’t even know you could get! Vaginal douche anyone? :oO
So, we had a lot of fun poking around the market and looking at all the curiosities. Then we swung by Lumley Beach for ice-cream and a drink, and returned home for some quality TV watching: Spiderman 3, 13th Floor and the fantastic US series Dexter, about a serial killer who kills serial killers, who's investigating himself as a forensic scientist! It's excellent and Jaime Murray from Hustle was in it, too! Think I'll have to buy it at some stage.
We really veged out. Then we decided to go to Paddy's, which is one of the main nightclubs in Freetown. It's a big bar and dance floor under thatching, open on all sides, but still really warm that night. We got there around 11pm, which was still really early, so we perched at the bar and had drinks until it livened up, then had a bit of a boogie. I wasn't really feeling the vibe: lots of chairs but a very small dance area, so felt a bit cramped. They had a brass band playing carols when we first got there, then it gave way to the regular top 10. Was fun, but I wasn't 100% in the mood, so we headed home quite early, around 2-ish. I was finding the continuous stream of social events a bit of a shock to the system.
Today (Merry Christmas everybody!) we got up really late and had breakfast, then Hirut's Aunt Mamoona came to visit. Really nice lady who's lived in Ethiopia for years with her husband. They've just retired back to Sierra Leone, so she's getting used to the change. We had a wonderful Christmas dinner on the balcony of yams, cassava, meat soup - then a buffet of plantain, jollof rice (a major national dish), meats, salad and all sorts. It was scrummy, and followed by chocolate cake, iced jelly and ice-cream.
We exchanged gifts late in the day, under the tree. I'd bought a necklace for Hirut and she'd bought one for me. Her parents gave me perfume, and I had one 'mystery gift' which arrived in the post about a month ago. I'd saved it and taken it with me. I had no idea who it was from, and it was wrapped in red monster paper. Inside was a beautiful bag in my favourite style, made from funky fabric. I realised it was my friend Vikki who had made it for me. I'd asked if she could replicate one from an old bag I had that was falling apart - she's great at sewing - and she had! Was really sweet of her. :)
Mum and Dad both phoned, but I didn't talk long. The line with Dad was really bad - huge delay between turns, and it's hard to talk in a public area, so I said I'd catch up with them when I get back.
Was a lovely day :)
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