KATHMANDU BABY

8/5/08 : The UN is leaving

Changing money. There are 6000 leones to the pound. I  have stacks and stacks of money.  I have never seen so much money ( and I don’t for long: the stacks soon diminish)

A procession, woman with painted white faces, masks and music. The men follow behind.  It is an FGM ceremony, there is no age limit. For the first time in Sierra Leone I am touched by a feeling of anxiety.

Special Court, visit some lawyer friends from London.  One  bemoans the lack of due process for his rebels on trial at the court.  I don’t talk to Emmanuel or any other sierra leoneons about the rebels, they have their own views of what should happen to the people whose brutal wickedness they witnessed first hand.

 I hope Emmanuel is not listening to defence counsel complain about the lack of fair trial.  It could open up a huge pile of other complaints, ‘severed limbs, people burning in tires, digging graves before being shot into it, stripped naked and left in the sun, put at the front of an onward assault by the rebels for the Nigerian ECOMOC troops to take aim at you …’ Emmanuel has his own views of the rebels.

‘good luck in the provinces: Yikes!’ is the lawyer from London’s  parting text

Yikes Indeed

Beautiful  beautiful  stretches of beach,  eat fried rice with Musa and Emm. Em drinks stout,’ it is good for you’.  I will never be able to convince him otherwise.

United Nations Integrated Mission In Sierra Leone Ems first proper and paid job after 9 months of volunteering for the them. The mission is leaving at the end of September.  Redundancies loom for the national staff, the well paid internationals leave for other pastures.   

Sheku, Ems country brother, also working in Nepal comes with us.  He gives money to the UNIMISL staff, why I ask?

‘ we give money, we are all victims, I was a victim once.’  The 43 year life expectancy is never far away.