Case in Point

So here is a micro case study of issues in Africa/Sierra Leone. We are sitting outside chatting, dusk turns to dark. I get up to walk Yapo out of the compound. It's dark, I don't have the "cat's eyes" people here seem to develop. Someone called my name, I turn and step towards them and smack!! My foot goes straight into a big rock, I stumble over it, down to my knee and my hand. It's dark I can't see anything. I pick myself up, brush off, start walking... Ow!! I've cut up my toe, of course I don't know this yet, there is no light. It is nothing big but several spots, its bleeding, not just a scratch.

I only know this once I pull out my mobile phone and use its light to see. How else do you see it, there are no street lights, no house lights, nothing. I go inside to dress it. But what about clean water? What about first aid? They recommend salt. I have my stuff, but what would they use? And how do you dress it in the dark? By flashlight...? I sit down in the shower floor, head lamp putting a little light on the situation. But sitting there next to me is the inch and a half cockroach that's been there on its back all day. The floor is grimmy dirty, the water is from the well and been sitting in a bucket all day, but there is the roach "helping" me. At least I have my first aid stuff. They would have just salt - which is not bad.

Point is, we wonder why life here doesn't statistically add up to the West. There is no light so easier accidents. There are only the most basic first aid methods. There is no light to dress a wound by, and there are unsanitary environmental conditions. Power, clean water, medical supplies... all tied up into one stubbed toe. Welcome to Africa... I'll be fine, but what if it was more? And how many people didn't get better? Time to get to work!! :-/

Gear

So just about all of my gear has now arrived.  In the last few days I have gotten the solar panel and my new headlamp, as well as most of my clothing.  I have a pair of lightweight quick dry pants that zipper into shorts.  I also have gotten a microweight wool T-shirt for hiking and and a lightweight wool hoodie to keep me warm as needed.  These items will be my staple for the trekking part of the trip (i.e. the stuff to get all sweaty!!).  Today my water purifier and sleeping bag arrived as well.  The sleeping bag is a bit tight (i.e. as a mummy bag should be...), but super light and small.  

All-in-all, I'm pretty much all set.  I have everything I need except for a fully functioning stove.  This is still a bit tricky as I want to use the aluminum can stove but I can't get it to work just right.  I would hate to have to buy a stove, as the one I'd need to guarantee it would work was over $100.  So I'm just gonna keep trying...  ;)

This is gonna keep me warm late at night!!

But fact of the matter is that most all of my gear has arrived now.  I can now really start thinking about the last little things and how I want to pack everything up for the trip.  Someone asked me yesterday if I was ready to go, I was iffy on answering.  I would say unequivocally now - not 18 hours later - that yeah, I'm ready to go!!   

Finishing it up

Big day today, started playing around with things this morning and then the day just took off.  Sorted out the phone, and then banged out the Gamechangers stuff for Kaps (more later on that).  Went and picked up the now dead automobile, managing to get it back home - limping the whole way!!  Then I sat down and started looking at sleeping bags online.  And I found a steal to good to pass up.  $60 dollars for a 40+ degree nylon and down bag from Lafuma.  THAT'S $240 UNDER BUDGET!!  Sweet!!!  Who cares if its a mummy bag, giddie up!!  Regular price is $125, but Sierra Trading Post was cheap and my friend gave me a coupon on top of it all.  I also would like to publicly thank the person that donated the money specifically for this sleeping bag... I now officially get to sleep with her the entire three months I'm gone!!  lol. Nice!!  ;) 

I wanted to buy the bag locally from Mountain Tops, but I have little choice as I know they can't do that kind of price.  I feel a bit bad, I wanna use them.  But they haven't been very proactive with helping me with my stuff.  Its been over a week and a half and the only word I've heard from them was when I stopped in there.  Still no response to my email or the things I asked about even after stopping in.  So I had to just get things done.  I leave in less than three weeks... no time to wait.

That was the premise of it all today, get it done.  I ordered the two shirts I've been procrastinating on, the Steripen, and the solar panel - which is huge in terms of having time to experiment.  But I mean screw it, the only way to now if it'll work is to get it and try it out.  If it doesn't work Amazon will exchange it for me!!  Gotta make it happen.

I now have pretty much everything of consequence bought.  Only details left...  feels nice...  relieving...  

What!?!?

Just not sturdy enough...

Dan?!?!  My REI superman...  was mistaken when he told me that my cookware was titanium, its aluminum.  I am not sure if you know that aluminum is actually not that great to cook on.  Some of the metal leaches into your food, which is of course not good.  So I may have to look at this again.  I also went out running last night with my headlamp and it didn't get the job done.  I got a light weight one from Petzl and the strap doesn't seem to be working well, not very secure.  I tried another one on while I was there and it seemed more stable, so I will probably exchange it.  The way the light worked wasn't really ideal either, so we will see how another one works out.  All told, I will be exchanging much of what I bought, the steripen, the headlamp, perhaps the the cookware (beggars may not always choose...), and even the camelbak bladder I bought doesn't have a valve to shut off the water (which I've already had an issue with on my other one).  The beauty of REI though is that they have the 100% satisfaction guarantee.  Meaning I can just go in and exchange them.  Fabulous store.

My finances are back to possibly being perilous as well, so I need to be careful about everything.  I had been told I would be getting unemployment, however, that may not be the case now.  Back to square one...

On a side note, I wanted to say that it had been a bit since I checked in on Crisis Watch (pdf), which is a great piece of information put out by Crisis Group.  And there it was - no Sierra Leone!  This group and publication specifically tracks crisis and war across the globe, and it has no mention of Sierra Leone at all.  In other words, its not in danger of a crisis!!

Random Taskings...

So today is thus far pretty straight forward, I've looked into some interesting stuff.  I actually did start an REI registry, but really so I could have a list of things that I decide upon.  The first one is described below, the SteriPen for water sanitation, and is actually on sale!!  So I'm gonna have to get on that one!!  I have also just been running through music from Sierra Leone on a great website SierraLeoneNow.com.  I found a couple decent songs, one of course was a good slow jam which immediately got me fired up!!!






And a little rap.... which unfortunately doesn't give me an embed option for right here.

I called the Hennessy Hammock people and the website phone number went directly to a women's mobile number who had to call me back because she was 'outside the country'!!  Not sure how that worked...  But anyway, good conversation.  They actually let you get a hammock for a couple weeks and if it doesn't work out for you, you can send it back.  That's a great deal, sleep in it a few nights in the woods and still take it back, sweet.  We talked about two options, the Hyperlight ($229) and the Deep Jungle ($269), the deep jungle has two layers on the underneath part of it, and another pad if desired, so that mosquitos can't bit you through the fabric - sneaky little critters!!  The other one is just plain light.  I didn't ask about the difference between the bottom entrance versus the side zip entrance, but as per looking at the website now it seems I should have.  It would be nice to be able to use it as a chair as well, side zip?  There is one called the Ultralight ($189) that has the side option, as does the Deep Jungle.  They all come with the rain tarps, but she thought it might be worth thinking about a larger one if I'd be in rainy areas.  Worth a thought, but I should be there after the rainy season is mostly ending and under trees as well.  

But the most important thing thus far is that I started going through my list of NGO's doing work in Sierra Leone and sent several of them emails introducing myself and the project.  This will be of the utmost importance as once I am on the ground it will nice to have people to coordinate with and just simply sit down with and talk to.  I will be able to bring them additional publicity through any exposure I can generate, and in-turn possible help them obtain more donations.  Obviously as well, there could be longer term implications for cooperation once our non-profit is further established.    

SteriPEN (REI Review)


Many of us like this miniature light saber. It uses ultraviolet light to deactivate the unseen cooties (viruses included) that could be lurking in water. Short-wave UV light (specifically, UVC, which transmits "germicidal" attributes) zaps, or "disrupts," their DNA, rendering them unable to reproduce and thus cause illness. This is what my coworker's daughter took on her trip, and she returned healthy and well-pleased with its performance. The SteriPEN is typically my first-choice water-treatment item for backpacking trips, but every person has different preferences. It may or may not be the right item for you.


Pros:

• All SteriPEN models are small, simple to use and lightweight.
• No wait time is needed once water has been exposed to UV light.
• UV light imparts no taste to the water.
• The wand can be used to treat water (without ice) in individual drinking glasses, such as in hotel rooms.
• UV light is very effective against Cryptosporidium, the most treatment-resistant pest among protozoa and bacteria.

Cons:

• The quartz lamp could break.
• Batteries can run out. (The manufacturer recommends using lithium batteries.)
• Not effective in very dirty or gritty water unless it is prefiltered or clarified. Light must interact with organisms in order to be effective.

Tips:

• If water has a high particulate content, use the SteriPEN's prefilter — a screw-on cap for water bottles equipped with a 4-micron screen.
• The use of the prefilter is advised in any outdoor situation to keep water as particulate-free as possible.
• For speed and simplicity, bring a water bottle with threads that are compatible with the prefilter.
• If the water clarity is poor, give it a second or even a third dosage of UV light.

Hiking Lessons

So yesterdays trip was a very good learning lesson on what I will be doing daily and how best to try to handle it. Firstly, the water situation is going to have to be solved properly.  I was planning on getting a camelbak bladder that can either go into the backpack or on it somehow.  My backpack is not ideal as it is old and doesn't have a compartment made for it.  The other thing is that I drink a lot of water, so this is key.  I was out for pretty much 7 hours yesterday and I drank over five liters just while I was out, never mind before and after, and I still only peed once while I was out, and that was at about 6 hours into the journey.  So in a day like yesterday I would imagine that I drank 7 or 8 liters of water.  The plan then is going to have to be to make sure that when I wake up that I start hydrating immediately and that once I stop I do the same.  Because the more water you carry the heavier it all is.  It is nice though that your pack gets lighter as the day goes!!

The backpack is a bit tricky, it is not ideal.  It is old, and was not bought to do what I'm doing but to go around europe from hostel to hostel.  It is not going to be good in the rain and was not entirely comfortable.  I mean it was ok, and poor people don't go out and buy new things, but my shoulders are a little sore today, but nothing I would get used to though.  The bag's straps don't sit at the same angle as my trap muscles do so they dig in a bit.  The waste strap is a bit tricky as well, couldn't get in right spot to take more weight off the shoulders without restricting the waste area.  But the biggest thing that I really needed was a pocket or two.  Everything I have on that pack is in the back, I definitely need something on the waste strap that I could put the phone in, pen and paper, snack, whatever.  Everytime I have a thought and want to remember it for writing later it would be nice to be able to note it, and pockets in my shorts seemed to be in the way of walking.  That will be a necessity.  I definitely will need a compass, I was actually quite happy with my sense of north and south, but it was because I knew the map of the trail and the sun was out.  I'm good at that stuff anyway, but Sierra Leone will be a different and less 'known' scenario.

Shoes:  I love the Vibrams.  But I have to get my feet in better shape to stretch and work like that.  The hills took a lot out of them, asking them to flex more and more powerfully than they had.  I should have done about ten miles the first day out instead of 16.  I also would like to get one of the trekking pairs that has a little bit more grip and a bit of padding.  The padding could be a plus, especially with the pack on - but not a necessity while walking, running it could help though.  I'd also like to get the new running one the bikila, that has a bit of padding as well.  It seemed like my body was used to walking "barefoot" with my natural weight, but once I put on the heavy pack my heel strike got much harder.  After about a mile or so I feel like my stride had adjusted to the body/weight dispersment.  My feet are really sore on the inside today.  The muscles and tendons really.  But actually it is mostly the left one which a did hit at one point.  I also have a leg length discrepancy that annoys one side or the other at times.  So it could be some of all that.  I don't have anything even remotely resembling a blister though.  They were fabulous in that sense.  Actually, the shoes were fabulous in general except for a little slippage in the beginning on steeper grassy hills, but it was fine once I settled in.  

I started out in a simple pair of cotton shorts, it really would be nice to just use synthetic moisture management shorts and stuff, but I just don't feel as good when I wear synthetics.  We'll see, a pair of running shorts I have would have been great so maybe i'll try them in the future.  But the shorts I started in were really quite good, they did get drenched though.  I changed into more typical lightweight cotton cargo shorts once I started back.  I don't know if it was because when I stopped that I stopped sweating and my thighs dried up, but the chaffing started immediately.  I changed shorts after not even a mile to similar ones as what I started in (and have been running in regularly) but they didn't help.  I will need to solve this problem as it is debilitating.  Inner thighs and 'up' ouch.  Body glide is another option, but that is one of those long term debilitating, short term 'solutions'.  Your body becomes dependent upon it.  Usually I get some chaffing the first few times out running each spring in shorts but my thighs just sort of adapt after a bit.  Maybe this would happen?  I don't know, this was pretty bad.  I must admit I even thought that I might need to consider underwear as I was finishing up - huge concession for me.  Then of course my mother gave a brief lecture on that one as well.

One thing I was thinking with the shorts and shirt was to have two pairs one for the morning and one for the afternoon as I did it yesterday.  That way the wet one could hang and dry while hiking.  If I wore one pair all day they would never dry at night and it was really nice to put a dry pair on after lunch.  I wore a 'spouse' beater (more commonly known in a 'gendered' context which I prefer not to use;)  I thought this was pretty good.  I don't know if it is best, but I was cool enough I suppose.  I can't vouch for how good it would be to walk into a village like that though, backpack on, looking gorilla-esque.  I still want to try the silk shirts and see how they works.      

I also stopped to try to get some stuff out of my pack and it underlined the need for organization.  I wasn't trying to be for this day, just looking to add weight, but I will need to develop a system.  I am going to basically be living with this thing on my back and need for it to be completely functional.  I also saw a father and son that were using hammocks, they didn't have much great to say about them.  "Good for a couple days, but not extended trips".  Everything I hear though is that I will have to stay off the ground with tropical camping, and that pretty much starts and stops with a hammock.  Theirs was interesting, straight tied to three trees it was just a nylon hammock with a mosquito screen on the top.
 



I'm thinking I will have one, they said they were great weight wise, but then I would take a bed role and light bag so I could sleep on the ground if needed.  One thing I took from the book a long way gone, is that surviving in the forests there is incredibly feasible.  Ishmael was 12 and he managed with just the clothes on his back, I should be able to as well with my pack and no war to navigate through.

Bugs.  Wow, they are annoying.  The one thing I can't understand is why it is they just want to fly into your eyes?  I don't mind them flying around me, or landing on me, but why must they fly into my eyes?  Even blinking isn't sufficient.  The problem that I had with this is you can't really enjoy the forest, you are kind of squinting and blinking, its like your face must remain tense and defensive at all times.  But it was really only an issue in the forrest, in the clearings it wasn't an issue.  I put on a little bit of natural bug spray and it helped some, but I think I sweat it off in about fifteen minutes.  It was supposed to be 92 (33C) degrees yesterday, but it seems much nicer and cooler in the forest.

As far as other equipment, I thought about a hat, but think it would be hot, though I did spend a lot of time wiping sweat off my brow.  So might be worth looking into, especially if it rains.  I think for me it really will be about more pockets and better organization of my thing in a way that is more usable while moving.  It is really annoying to have to take off your pack to do or get anything.  I'm thinking I might look into the way the army sets up their gear, could be a good benchmark.  I also needed business cards, as I met a few people that I could've just handing them a card and maybe they'd check the site instead of just telling it to them - I'd probably forget it.  They are one of the target audiences so a good idea.  The food was fine, nuts and dried fruit, broccoli and grilled chicken, I wasn't hungry much at all.  Not even for lunch or dinner for that matter, but I knew I needed to eat.  Fruit will be important, but it sounds like it is readily available in Sierra Leone.  My body will need the sugars.

Anyway, I think its time to end this novel for now.  I feel like there was more, but you're probably already either asleep or didn't even make it this far anyway!!  lol.  Enjoy the day...        
 

Appalachian Trail II

So... as I sit here icing my feet, which is %@%$@ cold by the way, I can't help but think that 16 miles first day out in Vibrams was a bit ambitious.  Maybe a month or so ago when I was out and about everyday wearing them it would have been fine.  But as it is my feet just aren't in shape to have a weighted down backpack on and go that far on that kind of terrain.  I definitely have some work to do to get my feet in shape to use the vibrams and do the milage I want to in Sierra Leone.  I probably should have just gone about ten miles today, I would have been fine.  I started feeling a bit sore at about 6 miles in but I was only two miles from the shelter and really wanted to gage my time over a specific distance (plus I always er on the side of ambition!!)  I rested my feet for over and hour though, and thought it would be ok.  I however exacerbated the scenario when I started having other issues and got ambitious again.

I didn't have any chaffing on the way out, but immediately upon starting back I could feel it, I had changed shorts so stopped and changed back to a similar thing like what I had originally had on.  It didn't matter though, and the worst thing about it all is that I specifically stopped at a bike shop in Pawling, to see if they had any body glide.  That was my third time in there - and frankly, they suck.  All three times I've gone in no one has said hello to me, they have a customer yet don't even acknowledge your presence.  the one time I waited and initiated an interaction.  I looked around, as if trying to find something specific (which I was - body glide and a compass).  I looked under this and under that, not a word.  I left, nothing.  I've worked in that kind of job, it doesn't take much to simply say hello and say they'll be with you in a minute.  Maybe I don't look like I'd be interested in some horrible thing like a sport - especially an endurance one!!  lol.

Anyway, sorry for the tirade...  back to the AT.  So the chaffing was an issue.  I also had trouble with my water set up.  Granted it was really pretty much there for weight anyway.  I had two poland spring 3L jugs (you've seen them if you've been ear me of late), I had them in my bag toward the bottom, but there were books in there and clothes and towels and whatever else I could find to weigh it down.  One jug and then the next got a little hole in it.  Must of been from the bouncing.  I was all but done with the one when it got a hole, but the second was leaking in the bag and on to me.  I ended up having to carry it in my hand for miles, it was mostly full.  So with about three or four miles to go I chugged a bunch of water, emptied the rest, crushed both bottles, tightened up the bag and decided it was time to run.  It seemed like good logic.  Get their faster, be uncomfortable for less time, but it was a chaffing disaster.  My inner thighs and up are raw, red, and painful.  Maybe that is a case in point why most people don't bother with logic!!  

In the last couple miles there was the longest hill of the jaunt, I was spent and it hurt to stretch my feet on the up hills so I had to change my form.  Even with running maybe a mile and a half or two on the way back I still made it back five minutes slower than going out.  I was 2:42 for the first eight miles out and 2:47 back, with about an hour and fifteen minute break for lunch and conversation.

I met some good people, I should have little cards with the website on it, these are the type of people that were interested in what I'm trying to do there.  Anyway, as it is, the icing is done - thankfully - and I need to eat something substantial.  I'll write a bit more on lessons learned and things needed in a bit - invaluable day...