Demolishing Lumley to construct highway will breathe new life into the area

They said it wouldn’t happen; which is why some continued to build. They said the govt would not have the ‘cahunas’ to clear out the Lumley junction area. On Saturday, they were proved wrong as work commenced on the dismantling of buildings and the market at Lumley. This is all for a good cause though… National Development which is more important than any individual or enterprise. As far as I know, residents have been compensated.

This is part of the preparation for the “Extension of Wilkinson Road to Water Street” Project, which has an optimistic end date of July 2011. Wilkinson Road through Congo Cross to Water Street will be upgraded to a four lane highway.

Residents and landlords of the Lumley and Juba hill area should be licking their lips because if the congestion problem in that area is solved.. not only will it ease their daily frustrations but it will become a more desirable place to live once again. Sadly, it lost its prestige after the conflict and I know from experience through our real estate business that hardly anyone wants to live there these days. These areas were the choice for Presidents, Ministers and those fortunate enough to be in the higher end of the Sierra Leone – or certainly Freetown’s – citizenry.

So as I sit in my office at Congo Cross, looking at my vandalised sign board next to the fence that is supposed to be knocked down as a part of this project; I’m trying to visualise what a four lane highway running right in front of us will look (or sound like) in the next twelve months. Scary, but totally worth it for National Development.

Happy Birthday VSL! Six years later, we look back to the future

After a friend of mine reminded me of how much Visit Sierra Leone had done over the last six years – whether I realised it or not - I was forced to go back into the archives and find a document called inspiration.doc. If you remember this document, it means you have been there since day one! The first couple of paragraphs read:

“When was the last time you heard Sierra Leone mentioned in a sentence without being followed by one or more
of the following words: donated, aids, war, war child, war-torn, prostitution, rebels, amputees, corruption, poverty, rebel, RUF, child soldiers? Whilst these may be perfectly valid in the context in which they are used, anyone who’s been to Sierra Leone will know there are many other sides to the country.

Not enough is said about the natural beauty of the country, its people, and what it may have to offer to the world at large. This has been the inspiration behind the development of www.visitsierraleone.org . This website aims to promote those aspects of Sierra Leone which makes it a tourist destination for the adventurous traveller. The intention is not only to target non-Sierra Leoneans but also Sierra Leoneans scattered across all continents.”

Or course, the site looked different then and I have been looking for a screenshot but unfortunately, I didn’t keep any. I did however find the original logo which I cooked up myself one evening.

This document was sent out in July 2004 and was effectively the ‘launch’ of VSL – there was never an official launch with balloons and champagne – and it explains why VSL has remained a passion. At the time, I was a pretend nerd working in the IT department for the charity SCOPE. Now I’ve moved back to Freetown and dedicated full-time to VSL and its sister business, VSL Property, and my only regret are the internet speeds, which were much better at SCOPE in 2004 than in Freetown in 2010!
As always, one is thankful to the assistance provided by friends and family over that time, and I guess birthdays are the time to look back and reflect as well as plan for the future.
At six, VSL has changed. A lot. So many things have happened in that time. We still deal with all manner of inquiries relating to Sierra Leone, one of my personal favourites being “Can you tell me more about the poro society and how do I become a member?”… or one that came through last week “i need a sierra leone passport will that be possible even if it will cost me 500us,thanks”. Er, no. We continue to provide free advice through the forum and continue to be driven by the central goal of “rebranding Sierra Leone”, which was our catalyst in 2004 and continues to drive us today.
But from an information-based website with a single person at the helm in 2004, we are now an Inbound Tour Operator/Travel Services company with staff of six (up from one in 2008).
As recently as 2008, you’d have been hard pressed to find an operator running scheduled tours to Sierra Leone (not those organising one-off trips for adventure seekers). In 2010, we are proud to represent three UK-based operators now including Sierra Leone in their brochures, with another few from Europe in the pipeline.
We’re proud to have received acclaim from industry leaders such as Bradt Guide and the Lonely Planet.
Bradt Travel Guide for Sierra Leone: Visit Sierra Leone has single handedly done more to promote
awareness of Sierra Leone as a tourist destination than anyone else."
Lonely Planet West Africa Guide said of our forum community “Tons of travel advice and an active discussion
forum where, no matter how obscure your inquiry, someone will probably have an answer”.
Of course, I cannot talk about VSL without mentioning our forum community, who have been quite supportive over the years. It’s a blessing that relationships, both business and personal, have been formed on that platform and will hopefully stand the test of time. Perhaps one of the best things is how many of our active participants have actually relocated back to Sierra Leone. Mah-D, Fisherman, Saloneboy, DCGunner, Nasratha, Sabawaka, Joyah Bobor, DarkChild and others…we’re still waiting on you Cool-runnins!
As a small but ambitious company, our emphasis is now on serving clients to the best of our ability and with a passion for sustainable tourism development, we also provide valuable services to corporate clients and groups, both before and during their stay. We want them to leave with positive experiences and fair recommendations that Sierra Leone is worth a visit.
Among the highlights of this work was the chance to provide travel and ground handling services to South Africa’s Bafana Bafana and the Equatorial Guinea national team (our office staff are footie fanatics) but it has also been fun to learn about the positive work that many of our clients do. One example is the group at Mape Project, who we have been providing some logistical support to. Their vision for tourism development is astounding and you can find out more about their work at www.themapeproject.com.
On the development side, learning of the work that Madieu Williams, the Sierra Leonean born American football safety player for the Minnesota Vikings does through the Madieu Williams Foundation with a joint partnership with the Healing Hands Foundation in the field of Health and Education was inspiring.
A few months ago while we were in Berlin for the Travel Fair and were able to get some tour operators interested in Sierra Leone as a possible destination and just a few weeks ago, we worked with the National Tourist Board (SL) and Exodus in bringing four journalists from The Metro, Times Online, The Independent and The Press Association to Sierra Leone for a press trip. The first of those articles is out and we are proud to say that Exodus will start advertising their trips here for January 2011. See Metro Article.
Six years later, in our own little way - we’re still trying. Just imagine where we might be, with your help, six years from now.

With the Beach Bars gone…can somebody at least turn on the lights?

 
Picture courtesy of Awoko.org (http://www.awoko.org/)

Almost two years after the beach bars were demolished by truckloads of soldiers and armed police to make way for tourism revamp just how is that going? How is the beautification process coming along? No, honestly. Because I may have missed it. Maybe just getting rid of the bars was seen as beautification itself? How long do the trees need? What are those structures starting to rare their pop up where the beach bars used to be? Roy’s for example? I’m not knocking Roy’s because I like what they’ve done but it proves the point that existing owners could have been given the opportunity to modify their establishments.

In any case, this post isn’t about the bars being gone. It is about what has failed to follow. Forget the trees for a second… why is there still no power along the beach in 2010? All these shiny new restaurants and hotels like the Taia Resort have to generate their own power. 

Taia Resort

I mean, common… this is an accessible, flat stretch that already has power at the Police Post (Aberdeen end) and Golf Club (Lumley end) in the capital city.

As the President rightly tells us every now and again, infrastructure is the foundation for economic growth. So, maybe the Tourism Ministry would do well to gather round their friends from Energy and Power and any other related Ministry and get Lumley Beach out of the dark ages. Sometimes, I am tempted to believe that the powers that be are scared of Tourism development in this country and as a result, sub-consciously or otherwise, sabotage it.

Please, this is not 1910 it’s 2010 and this is our city beach; and filthy though it may be (for another article), we love it still. So if the Ministry is serious about the ‘tourism revamp’ along the beach, this would be a good start – two years later.

See earlier article about the demolition:

So what do you think of the beach bars situation?