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Makeni

Page history last edited by rsb 13 years ago

SMT was the next job, and they sent a driver to pick us up at ARD on Thursday morning.   Getting out of Freetown takes over an hour, but the 50 miles or so to Makeni takes much less time.  It's an interesting trip.  All along the road are small businesses, everywhere.  And fires - a lot of fires get started by accident or on purpose for various reasons, and no one pays them any mind.  We saw rock breakers, peanut driers, vendors of coal, firewood, acacia staff, etc.

 

On the way to Makeni.  These guys were cruising down the highway at considerable speed.

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Archibald met us at SMT, also with an awesome mustach, and got us to our hotel.

 

We were again checked into the best possible hotel.  And it was the best, in terms of facility, hands down.  The Wusum hotel had a pool and a hot tub.  However, Noahs and my experience there only reinforced our feeling that the staff at the more expensive establishments were not as happy as those at more modest accomodations.  That and 10X charges for the simple things left us determined to change our strategy going forward.  

 

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A note on the expenses involved in running a business in the provinces:

 

Businesses operate off wells and generators for electricity and water in Makeni.  Gasoline is the basic unit of power, but theoretically, a solar system could be put in place to reduce the amount of gas required. Hotels like the Wusum have large generators that run from 7PM to 7AM for guest AC/lights/water heaters, laptops, phones, etc.  and smaller generators for the staff during the day.  They also have a sattelite dish for wireless internet access - the fastest type of access available in the provinces.  A sattelite dish might provide 1M down, 512K up for 750US per month.

 

You could easily go through a couple gallons of gas and pay 20 bucks for internet access per person per day if you had a small hotel that offered free AC and internet access.  That's why they charge 50-200 bucks a head per night.  Small guest houses without those expenses can offer a room for as little as 20 bucks a night.  

 

In Salone, the per capita GDP is 500USD, but I bet the mode salary is less than a dollar a day.   There is no way the average person is staying at a guest house if they don't have to.

 

Next: SMT day 1

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