Wetin yu de du? (What are you doing?)

Yesterday, I visited our other site, Calaba town, and had my first glimpses of rural life in Sierra Leone. Cars overpopulate the roads here making even New York City traffic seem tame. So we took a long, circuitous route through the hills. Stunning views, lush rain forest and small settlements greeted us at every turn. Red clay roads, still washed out from the rains, made it a bumpy, wonderful ride. We drove through old Krio settlements, internally displaced camps and miles of uninhabited wilderness. The sounds of monkeys, small children and the constant bump bump of our land-cruiser provided the soundtrack while the musty, forest smell mingled with car exhaust and smoke gave the aroma. It was great to get out of the city for a bit and what a delightful overload of the senses.

To top things off, I finished my afternoon with a late lunch of street food. I know everyone tells you not to eat on the street, but I disagree (Audi, I am channeling your third world stomach. We will see if I regret it). I do think you get to truly know a place by your stomach. Not wanting to miss out on this valuable, cultural experience, I dove into some scrumptious food. From what I can tell most stalls have two choices for meals: kasada (a ground up, green leaf, that unfortunately has basically no nutritional content, mixed with spices and palm oil) or soup (a sweet, spicy red sauce that is somewhat stew like). Both are served over rice. You order by the price and you say it twice (a wan leh one 2,000, one 2,000 kasada, meaning I would like one plate of kasada for 2,000). It was delicious and spicy, seriously spicy. No joke, my nose ran and my mouth tingled for hours after!!