Our Site by the Numbers

Post by Lara

9 June 2014

Our little town in Mende land, Sierra Leone has a lot to offer—at least by local standards.  For security purposes we’re not permitted to name our town on our blog, but we can tell you a little bit about it with the following rundown, which should be at least mostly accurate as of June 2014:

Overview:

7,000-10,000: Our town’s population.  The number varies a whole lot, partially due to poor information and partially because different estimates include more or less of the surrounding neighborhoods around the town.  What we do know is that this is the largest town in our district.

2: American citizens (except when Dennis Glover of www.realafrica.blogspot.com is around)

2:  Chiefs living in the town. The town chief (a woman) and the paramount chief (a man) both live here.

4: Languages frequently spoken (Mende, Krio, English, and Temne—though there’s a smattering of Fullah too)

2: Basic religious distinctions (Christian and Muslim)

17:  Churches

5:  Public Mosques (private ones in homes don’t count)

1: Police Station

1: Prison

0: Post offices

1: Community bank

0: Community Libraries

6: NGOs with offices in town

4: Organizations that run solar power

0: Functioning internet cafes

1: Radio station that broadcasts 8 hours per day

3: Cell phone towers

Schools:

4:  Secondary (junior high/high) schools

7:  Primary schools

5: Nursery schools

1200: Students enrolled at Lara’s school

210: Students that Lara teaches (4 different classes)

800: Students enrolled at Kevin’s school (+/- 100— it is difficult to get a straight answer)

110: Students that Kevin teaches (3 different classes)

Health:

1: Hospital

1: Clinic

1: Nursing School

0: Doctors that live in our town year-round

1: Community Health Officer (in charge of the hospital)

5: Pharmacies that sell everything from soap to amoxicillin to glucose injections to codeine (no prescription required! See # of doctors)

2: Traveling veterinarians that service our whole district.

Market, etc:

6:  “Bars” (places you can buy beer and soda—not necessarily cold)

0: Supermarkets

2:  Places you can buy a hot meal between 12 PM and 4 PM any day but Sunday

0:  Places you can buy a hot meal before 12PM, after 4 PM, or on a Sunday

3: Hardware stores

4: Shops that sell bulk dry goods every day (i.e. rice, flour, margarine, dried beans, lentils, etc)

2: Stores that sell toilet paper (as long as it’s in stock)

1: Vendor that sells towels and bed sheets

Transportation:

0: Paved roads

1: Ferry crossing

1: Boat that runs daily down to the nearest port town

1: Vehicle leaving for Freetown every morning around 7 AM

30: Capacity of the average Freetown vehicle

1: Vehicle leaving for Bo every morning around 7 AM

25: Capacity of the average Bo vehicle

2: Places to buy gasoline by the gallon

1: Place to buy diesel by the gallon

16: Miles to the nearest commercial bank (which is insured)

52: Miles to Bo (the nearest supermarket, reliable internet café, branch of our cell phone company, and Peace Corps medicine and mail drop)

180: Miles to Freetown and the Peace Corps compound

At Home:

35: Pineapples planted by us since we came

19: Papaya trees lovingly nursed and planted by us

19: Papaya trees eaten by grasshoppers in one fateful weekend

3: Mango trees

1: Avocado tree

1: Cacao (chocolate!) tree

1: Coconut tree

1: Bitter orange tree

2: Chickens living it up in the oh-so-posh Flaute hen house

5: Dogs (that we say belong to the neighbors…but may as well be ours)

2: Adult cats

9: Kittens born and raised by our mama cat, Nimbus (we only kept one)