Our little man turned 5 on Saturday the 8th April. He was on a high about the party for days before. We went to the Trade Fair at the National Stadium to buy both of them some Africana to wear on the day. It's on for the month of April and we'll definitely be going back in the evening time when it's more lively.
There was an excellent kids play area that was busy at least, and just what they needed to expend some pre-birthday energy.
And to further the birthday celebrations we started blowing up baloons and brought Daniel for his favourite, Pizza, the evening before.
On the morning of the party day I headed out to pick up a few final bits. As I turned the corner at the end of the road I saw furniture, clothes and stock piled up in heaps along the footpath. There were numerous police and soldiers at the edge of the road and people were coming to and fro with their belongings from the various pan body shops and dwellings in the area between our road and the main Wilkinson / Aberdeen Rd junction. There were women holding babies and young children, crying, and the guy we usually buy phone credit from was frantically directing people to quickly move his home contents onto the path. This was an eviction notice being served.
The owner of the large compound had died a number of years before and the caretaker, who had inherited the land on his death, had sold the land. The eviction notice had been challenged by the people who had been living and running their business from that spot for years (I even heard decades) and they had even managed to generate some policitical support for their plight. But the wheels of justice were in motion and the heavy hand of law enforcement meant immediate removal of contents as the humble buildings were being knocked that day. These were the people running the local businesses where we bought essentials every day like bread, eggs, water, phone credit.
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| The temporary fence in front was erected by evening time |
By noon the clear out was well underway, but there was little or no room left on the footpath for people to put belongings. It started to spill onto Wilkinson Road, the main thoroughfare through the west end of Freetown. Fighting broke out and the police retaliated with tear gas. We could hear the shouting as the riot broke out and the security guard at out compound came running over to tell us to close doors and windows just as the tear gas started to come in. I hauled the kids into their bedroom along with 2 of the other staff where we stay, one of whom was caught outside for a while and was choking. The kids, as usual, took everything in their stride and played with my phone while the rest of us tried not to panic. It was over as quickly as it started and the eviction process continued.
Not exactly good timing for a party, but also not possible to dissappoint a 5 year old who'd been talking about this day since we arrived in Freetown! There was also about 20 other kids who were expecting to be fed, watered and entertained for the afternoon, so we got back to preparations.
A great time was had by all and by sundown guests had gone and clean up was underway.
Hard to reconcile the events of the day, and when I met one of the shop owners on the street a few days later I hardly knew what to say. They never expected it would really happen.
