For those of you that enjoy notes from the field (and are disappointed that I’m back at my dreary desk in the U.S.), I urge you to check out my good friend at siphoning off a few thoughts.

The author, who works for a big international financial institution (and so will remain anonymous for now), is presently bustling about Sierra Leone:

This afternoon we were driving back from a rural school in Moyamba (Sierra Leone), and the road was so bad that at one point I said “Whoah!” as if riding a roller coaster. I then explained to my colleagues what a roller coaster and an amusement park were, to which the driver commented, “In Sierra Leone it’s free!” and another colleague responded, “But for us it’s not an amusement.” So true.

On a school visit, he marvels at new lows of attendance:

This morning we drove up to a school in Port Loko: we got there at 8:40, forty minutes after school starts. School enrollment is 202 students with 7 teachers. Present? 1 teacher, 1 student. That’s 0.5% attendance.

[Several more students and teachers came when the lone attending student rang the special HEY-NGO-or-other-foreign-people-are-here bell in the schoolyard.]

Definitely one of my favorite reads.