No 2 beach - Tribe Wanted day 1


 

We had driven back to the guest house that night, and the next day planned to go out for another short trip with Leslie and Dave.  We met them at Bureh Beach, as Leslie was pretty well connected with people working for NGOs and there was a little picnic there.  

 

We had checked out of the guest house, in anticipation of spending an overnight or two at a beach, and were dragging our luggage around with us across beaches and stuff until we found Leslie and her friends.  If I have my days right, visiting Bureh beach was pretty much all we did that day.

 

At Bureh beach Noah and I had a great time talking to the locals, and were teaching kids to play uke when I had a pretty meaningful conversation with a local fisherman.  His was another case of having had some education before the war, but not being able to afford to get to school afterward (maybe 25 cents a day).  We played ukulele and talked about our lives for a while.  We talked about the secret societies in Salone, the US government, music, etc.  He told me that white people never talk to them.  That's sad.  That guy was one of the most interesting, optimistic, dynamic people I had met in Salone.  We had a lot to learn from each other in a short time.  When his fishing crew arrived he excused himself and headed out to join them.

 

I listened to the NGO workers talk a bit, and got a ride back to our guest house with one of them.  I asked our driver about how often foreign nationals spend time with locals.  It seems most white people working there either never intend to interact with locals on a social basis or become cynical after a few months, which is sad.  It's more a problem for foreign women, unfortunately.

 

On Thursday we went to Number 2 beach, which is a beautiful beach, but we felt like moving on when they wanted to charge us to sit on a chair on the beach.  I know that happens all over the world, but it's just not a feature of a vacation spot anyone really appreciates.  The chairs remained empty.  

 

We were considering what to do next when we got a call from Fillipo, and decided to head to John Obey beach and see what they were up to at Tribe Wanted.  That call was timely, because the weird fees and sales stuff going on at number 2 beach was starting to get us down.  I was really ready to head back to Freetown to try to find interesting people, but tribe wanted sierra leone turned out to be just the place to find them.

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Tribe Wanted is a pretty incredible thing.  This young guy, Ben, with no money, just decided one day to work with a Fijian village to build a vacation spot on an island.  Then he created a website and asked anyone who wanted to stay at that spot to sponsor it with a little money.  He made it work.  It was not easy.  

 

Tribe Wanted Fiji is now an awesome vacation spot in Fiji that provides jobs to the villagers on that island, and will eventually be turned over to them, I think.  

 

So this guy Fillipo visits Ben in Fiji, and decides to do the same thing in Sierra Leone.  It's under construction now.  You stay in tents and get fed for 50  bucks a night, and you can help build it, or just kick back.  Best place we stayed in Sierra Leone, bar none.  The people working there and visiting there are interesting people from all over the place.  It's like a hanging out at a good school or a science fiction convention. 

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Leslie and Dave stayed that first night, we had a crazy sitar-like thing, two ukes, a guitar, drinks, a fire, and good times.  They had to take off the next day, but Noah and I decided to stay as long as we could.

 

Next: Tribe Wanted day 2