Hotel African Village

One story down and we are still in Barmoi, filming a drunk who climbs a palm tree and falls off. I am feeling really down today and everything seems a little too much to handle. Am cheered when I hear some of the village children shouting “quiet please, action” to each other in an imitation of what I shout before we start filming.

Yesterday lunchtime we had been amazed by a group of boys who are building a truck and mobile phone using local cane and a razor blade. Today they come back to proudly show off the finished product:

At the end of the day we are asked to go and pay our respects to the Paramount Chief of the district. When we get to the village he isn’t there, so the elders and the rest of the village are summoned by drums instead. We sit around quite formally in a huge and packed village Toukel. James makes us a speech about why we are here and the Lifecycle ambulance project. Then the elders make a speech about how important the project is and how happy they are we are there. After what seems like a lot of speeches we say goodbye and head back to the base. A slightly surreal experience, but amazing to see the whole village gathered and engaged.

It is Greg and my ten year anniversary, so in celebration we all head off to Hotel African Village for dinner. James is most excited that a hotel has opened in Kambia, even if it is owned by the same people who introduced the world to the Kambia beach (which we have since found out is due to have chimpanzees. Now monkeys I would travel for). The hotel consists of a compound with some nice looking thatched huts and a larger dining room. It is deserted and we eat on the balcony. African food – Red palm oil stew and rice – for Greg and I, which harbours the hottest chilli I have ever tasted. Toby and James are not so lucky, the chicken and chips (which sounded like such a treat) turns out to be cold chips and a skinny deep fried chicken carcass. They try valiantly to find some meat but eventually give up. Great to get out of the toukel and see some of Kambia at night. The small stalls that line the roads of Checkpoint, the end of Kambia town nearest the road to Guinea, are lit by paraffin lamps and look beautiful, if not a bit like a scene from Children of Men.

We get back to the base, get the generator turned off and look at the amazing stars.