Other Forms of "Taxes"

Last time I talked about the Black Tax, but there are other "taxes", too. These aren't what I actually owe a government or society. These are what we may call "headwinds" or "obstacles" toward progress. At least in Sierra Leone, we see:

• Limited clean drinking water. Many broken water pipes exhaust an already small and old architecture. During dry season, you often get water only three days a week and often have to pay someone to deliver 5-gallon jugs to you.

• Lack of mechanization. A lot of work is done by hand, rather than by machine. Wages are lower and more back-breaking work (literal ditch digging).

• Poor banking access. Bank accounts are hard to get. Even when you get one, the distrust is so high, online access is intermittent, and inflation is bad. Even for me, I usually have to attempt 3-5 logins before I finally get in (yes, even with a password manager using the exact same username and password. Imagine that happening in your world. That would never happen.). 

• Unyielding inflation. We may complain about inflation in the West, but five years of inflation in the USA is often felt in one- or two-years here. How can you save money if it constantly becomes devalued and you don't trust the bank? Or they don't pay interest?

• Lack of tracking/experience. Good training requires someone with good — or great — experience. This is severely lacking here. While the resourcefulness and ingenuity are exceptional, countries in West Africa could be so much more advanced with better training. Examples include: poor or inexperienced electrical wiring, plumbing of pipes where the sewage or water get stuck or brittle pipes may break. Many pipes are laid on the ground instead of buried and protected by a covering — this causes numerous pipe bursts. 

• Very old machines and vehicles. Many of the trucks, vans, sewing machines, and other construction tools are old. Some of the semi-trucks (lorries) are from the 1960s through 1980s. Quite impressive, but also means breakdowns happen significantly more than what the West sees. Again, the ingenuity of mechanics to take a barely-functioning vehicle and somehow get it to keep going is simply admirable. Imagine trying to get the necessary and high-quality parts for all those various machines!

I've included pictures below. They don't show the broken pipes, banking, or inflation, but I want you get the idea. Hopefully this gives you a small glimpse into life in this community, into this nation. While there are plenty of hardships, I'm daily amazed at how resilient, compassionate, ingenious, and creative people are here. They don't let a broken down car the lack of water stop them. They keep going, albeit slowly — like a tax.

A number of vehicles are broken down blocking one lane of traffic. This has been the case for over a year.

Blue-tented semi-truck: this truck was broken down in the middle of the roundabout, partly blocking traffic. I saw this during a morning run coming back to the ship.

At the gas station in Makeni, two men were chipping away for a shallow trench to run pipes or lines to the gas tanks underneath. All done by hand.

Freetown has a terrible water shortage in the dry season (Nov-Apr) and water leaks are very prevalent so there are constant patches and repairs. The Guma Valley company is hard at work to repair pipes all over town.

This ship, while creating beautiful sunset photos, has been derelict for years or decades.

It is very common to see cars broken down on the road. Vehicles are overloaded with passengers and supplies, putting further pressure on vehicles. Coupled with dirty diesel or petrol fuel, inadequate maintenance, and often poor washed-out roads, and you get an increase in breakdowns.

Quite the overloaded vehicle driving from Guinea. Look at the right-rear tire. Trucks are expensive and harder to come by.

The rear axle came completely off. You should have seen the picture from the rear.

The door handle...needs some help.

Thankfully, there were two toilets and the other one had a seat. It just wasn't attached so you need to remember to sit down slowly and softly.

If you look closely, all the boards bow down. The roof will likely hold up, but you should appreciate the ingenuity and relentless determination.

I really do like the lightbulb covered by a cut-off plastic water bottle and other plastic shrink-wrapped (melted?) over the base of the light socket.

We can see all this and feel defeated or sad. We go through the cycle of optimism, wishful thinking, defeat, "why even bother?", seeing glimmers of hope, and hopefully and finally seeing progress and opportunity. It's taken me awhile, but despite the challenges, I see hope and growth in this country. I see great work. But these detrimental "taxes" slow down much of the opportunity.