We began our third day by heading to the World Hope Office with the other teams, then, after
dropping them off, drove with Swallu to the Clock Tower to pick up Jawara. Together, we
headed to Sheikhu’s workshop to check in with him about the tentative construction deal we
had made the day before and ask when he would be able to start.
When we arrived at his workshop, he greeted us and confirmed he was able to start
immediately, which was a pleasant surprise. We met his two hired men, Abdullah and Ali,
showed him the updated plans for the mushroom house, and asked about his materials needs
so that we could do some purchasing for him today. Sheikhu looked over the plans and
explained that he would need to see the site first in order to make a proper materials estimate.
He began packing his bag and shouting instructions to his workers––apparently, he wanted to
go with us immediately, which was a surprise. He and his two men piled into the bed of the
truck with their tools, and we all drove to Jawara’s property to show them the site.
We all unloaded at the site and immediately got down and started showing Sheikhu and his
men where we wanted the mushroom house built. As we pointed out the places the corners
should go, we noticed a thick stream of black ants running straight through the middle of our
intended construction site.
Jawara let out a surprised yell and we looked over to see him hopping on one leg and cursing at
he slapped at his sandaled feet. A few seconds later, I felt a stinging on my shin and looked
down to see several of the ants swarming over my boots and up my pants. Sheikhu and his men
quickly backed away from the ant-infested territory, and Sheikhu aggrievedly informed us that
we would have to deal with the ant problem before work could be done. (“Kerosene––you have
to buy kerosene!”) While Jawara hemmed and hawed about the price of kerosene, which was
apparently quite high, one of Sheikhu’s men flipped over an old cement bag that seemed to be
the source of the river and uncovered a writhing heap of millions of ants. They began to
disperse as we watched.
After having seen the site, Sheikhu understood how much cement, sand, and stone was
required for the floor and offered to come with us to ensure that the proper types and
quantities were purchased. While Ali and Abdullah worked to level the patch of ground where
the house would be built and mapped out the corners using sticks and string, the rest of us left
to buy materials. First we went to the place on the side of the Kabala highway where the stone
and sand delivery drivers hang out with their trucks, and Jawara struck a deal with them to get
two truckfuls (“trips”), one of sand and one of stone, delivered to the site for 1 million Leones
(paid on delivery, at our request) later that morning––we would go buy the remainder of the
supplies we needed, then meet the drivers at the site. As we left, there was an altercation
instigated by a group of young unemployed men hanging around near the drivers’ depot who
saw our vehicle and began heckling our driver Swallu in Krio, asking him for money and taunting
him when he refused. After one of their remarks, Swallu became visibly upset and began yelling
and gesticulating out the window. Jawara, similarly outraged, jumped out of the car and began

yelling at the group angrily until several of the truck drivers came over to the group and
attempted to cool things down. After the argument had subsided and we were all back in the
car and driving away, we asked what had happened. Jawara explained that one of the men had
used an expletive to refer to our group, and that he and Swallu could not tolerate it. (“Here we
have a policy: public mistake, public correction.”)
We continued along the road until we arrived at a place where we could buy softwood planks
(timber type unknown) to frame the cement floor as it was poured. Sheikhu oversaw the
selection of the wood as well as its cutting, which was done with a gas-powered bandsaw set
up in a roadside shack a hundred feet from the timber vendor. We left him with 20K Leones to
pay the saw operator (2K per longitudinal cut) while we got the other supplies (cement bags, a
shovel, and a hand pan for the concrete floor) from a hardware store that Swallu knew had
good prices (a big deal because the prices for most building materials seemed to be pretty
consistent across stores, at least within Makeni––Jawara told us that everything would be much
more expensive in Freetown due to limited supply). We returned to pick up Sheikhu and the
wood, loaded everything into the back of the truck, and returned to the site, where Ali and
Abdullah had flattened the ground and the site was ready for construction.
When we arrived, Sheikhu informed us that we would also need to go get a 55-gallon drum, a
few 5-gallon jerry cans, and a bucket for use in mixing and pouring the concrete. We headed
back to the hardware store to grab those items and dropped them off at the site. Now that they
had everything they needed, the men got started working on the floor, which they said would
be finished and curing by end of day. With our work for the day done, we headed back to the
World Hope office with Jawara, where we hung out with the rest of the teams for a few
minutes before calling it a day and heading to dinner.

Sheku’s workers, Abdullah and Ali, clearing and leveling our site before construction.