Burning Both Ends

Wow!! What a long day... Its midnight in half an hour, I'm on a subway platform at 59th street. I just had a great meeting with a guy who was a Peace Corps volunteer in Sierra Leone in 1961-62. Yes, the first two years it existed. He really likes what we're talking about and was impressed with it all. I think it will open many doors for us/me. Time will tell. We have a lot to prove and to make happen, but even if in failure this will be a huge success.

The day itself though, wow!  I got 5 hours of sleep on a few drinks while discussing the sustainable occupy stuff last night. Then I was up at 6, chi gung, shower and get out to Brooklyn for work.  We went back into Manhattan and walked around the whole of the Museum of Natural History, then back to Brooklyn and worked late. I mannied for a total of 11 hours today, jumped on the subway and Africa meetinged it for 2.5 hours and now hope to get home and to bed before getting back up at 6 and doing it all again. Long nannying day and then occupy meeting after...

But this is the way it is right now. I am working hard. Occupy, Africa, Mannying, these are the keys to my future. They will succeed. #36

Things...

Getting close...!!  Also getting tired of planning and experimenting, and whatever else there is that I've been doing.  I've spent the last couple days out in the woods on two treks.  Not very long, but fully geared up.  Its been rewarding, no soreness, no issues, nothing of concern.  I still am not completely geared up though.  I finally gave in and decided that I needed to buy a stove.  I purchased the MSR Dragonfly stove.  I wanted to use the aluminum can stove, but I have just gotten to the point where there are too many uncertainties.  Most profoundly, both whether I could actually get it to work properly, and whether I could even get the right kind of fuel in Sierra Leone.  So I've decided to just get a proper stove that can use any kind of fuel (white gas, kerosene, unleaded fuel, diesel, and even jet fuel!!) and would function in most any environment.  But... another cost...  :-/  One, that had to be done though. 

Otherwise, the only real things left are to finish up my medical kit, get a bed roll of some kind, and maybe a safari type hat. Also, extra batteries, toiletries, couple books, etc.  I have also decided that I will take a bit of food with me.  Maybe a few couple kilos (4-5 pounds) of rice, some energy bars, and some homemade beef jerky.  I am of course experiementing with makeing the jerky right now.  Not bad so far...  we'll see...  ;) Ultimately though, this week is about relaxing, getting into the woods with my gear, and trying to just get comfortable walking and in my gear.   

If I'm safe...

Another substantial development has come about.  I spoke to the one Peace Corps volunteer that I have been coresponding with fairly regularly now - "Alli".  I spoke with her for 30 minutes and 37 seconds using SkypeOut and calling directly to her mobile phone.  It cost $14.48!!!!  Holy #$@^#$%^#@!!!!!  I guess I won't be hearing from too many people while I'm over there.  There has got to be a cheaper way to do that...  We'll see.  Not sure how much data usage goes one with skype to skype online calls.  That would seem to be a heck of a lot cheaper on the whole, but this puts all the cost on me while in country. 

...why wouldn't he be??

But this call was great.  I learned one fundamentally profound thing: I WILL BE ABSOLUTELY FINE.  I know there are enough detractors (or in urban parlance - "Haters") out there that have been critical - even patronizing at times - regarding my trip.  I have tried to tell everyone that I will be absolutely fine.  And I will.  I'll probably be safer in Sierra Leone than driving through Newburgh, NY!!.  There are good people out there, and it sounds like a lot of them live in Sierra Leone!!  ;)  

Fortitude!!

So usually, I just post links to these Peace Corp blogs on my walking lion facebook page, but this one deserved its own post on my own page!!   "Alli" is a volunteer in Sierra Leone (I hope she doesn't mind me marketing her site!!) who through strength of character ended up on a 15 mile walk through rural Sierra Leone.  She paints quite a picture, and one that I would hope my detractors would read and hear.  Hope, defiance, optimism...

    "They all jumped when we walked up telling us that it was going to cost 40,000 leones for a trip that is usually around 5,000 leones. They were trying to take advantage and make a few extra leones off the white girls. Fair enough and understandable but I wasn’t going to give in. Well, we were not particularly happy and tried our best to negiotate wit them, always smiling of course. They didn’t budge. So we said fine an din a stubborn, angered defiance and self preservation, we decided to walk. It was early in the day, we had water and bananas, so we headed down the road." 

Running and Networking

So I wanted to get this posted yesterday, but as is life things come up and take your time away...  I made yesterday into 'networking' day.  I started sending some emails to several communities that support Sierra Leone - Friends of Sierra Leone, and the Sierra Leone Diaspora Network.  I wanted to introduce the project and see if I could start generating some feedback about it.  I also posted a forum inquiry at thebackpacker.com.

The initial feed back has been rather mixed.  There has been quite fruitful feedback from a very nice women with the Friends of Sierra Leone (FOSL) that was both very helpful and genuinely concerned over the trip, to another FOSL offering encouragement and links to the newest peace corps volunteers in country: "Forever a work in Progress", "Peace Out", "Bryan Meeker in Sierra Leone", "Infinite Possibility", "Dispatch Sierra Leone", "Adventures from Salone", "Sarah and Carlos in Sierra Leone".  It seems that the emails for the Sierra Leone Diaspora Network are not working - or have at least bounced back as temporarily not working.  So no luck there, back to that drawing board in a bit...