{"id":3786,"date":"2015-11-09T01:07:35","date_gmt":"2015-11-09T00:07:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tazmpictures.com\/site\/?p=3786"},"modified":"2025-10-16T14:46:38","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T13:46:38","slug":"remembering-sierra-leone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tazmpictures.com\/site\/?p=3786","title":{"rendered":"Remembering Sierra Leone"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a title=\"Trouble\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/tazmpictures\/14983849212\/in\/album-72157646175381472\/\" data-flickr-embed=\"true\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tazmpictures.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/14983849212_11b4a9ae38_z.jpg?resize=640%2C425&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Trouble\" width=\"640\" height=\"425\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><script src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" async=\"\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>Today Sierra Leone was <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2015\/11\/08\/world\/africa\/sierra-leone-declared-free-of-ebola-transmissions.html?smprod=nytcore-iphone&amp;smid=nytcore-iphone-share&amp;_r=0\" target=\"_blank\">officially declared &#8220;Ebola-free&#8221;<\/a>, having successfully gone 42 days (two incubation periods) without a new case of Ebola. \u00a0In neighboring Guinea, where the disease outbreak began, health workers continue to struggle for its eradication, working to save patients only a few miles from Sierra Leone&#8217;s border. When I was in Sierra Leone in August 2014, I never imagined it would take so long to beat this disease, which claimed the lives of 4000 &#8220;Saloneans&#8221;; dealt a massive setback to an economy that was still rebounding from years of war; and virtually destroyed its nascent tourist industry. \u00a0Causing no shortage of alarm to my friends and family back home, I tried to get out and meet some of the brave people struggling to maintain a sense of normalcy, and see a little of the once-bustling capital &#8211; and shared my experiences in a <a href=\"https:\/\/tazmpictures.com\/site\/?s=sierra+leone\" target=\"_blank\">handful of blog posts.<\/a> <a title=\"Phone Shop\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/tazmpictures\/14850662963\/in\/album-72157646175381472\/\" data-flickr-embed=\"true\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tazmpictures.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/14850662963_4fd0f55f1a_z.jpg?resize=640%2C425&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Phone Shop\" width=\"640\" height=\"425\" \/><\/a><script src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" async=\"\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\nI remember one day getting caught in a massive rainstorm one day while I was downtown, and I sheltered under the roof of one of the buildings along with about a dozen folks who were clearly from the lower economic rungs. \u00a0I bought a couple of cokes and shared them around as we waited. \u00a0A group of about a dozen boys &#8211; aged 8 to 13 or so &#8211; had been playing soccer. \u00a0When the rain started coming down in earnest (torrents), they simply stripped down completely, and continued playing, barefoot and without a stitch of clothing, on one of the streets of downtown Freetown!<\/p>\n<p><a data-flickr-embed=\"true\"  href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/tazmpictures\/14877337431\/in\/album-72157646175381472\/\" title=\"Market\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tazmpictures.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/14877337431_1a170fa0db_z.jpg?resize=640%2C312&#038;ssl=1\" width=\"640\" height=\"312\" alt=\"Market\"><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>When I think of Sierra Leone, I also think of people like Sergeant Marsh. \u00a0To explain who Sergeant Marsh is, I&#8217;m re-publishing below a post I had previous shared in the (soon-to-be defunct) blog site I put together in my &#8220;100 strangers&#8221; photography project. \u00a0Hopefully he and all of his fellow Saloneans will be able to move forward and put this terrible disease behind them for good. <\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Sergeant Marsh stopped me when I was walking through a market in Freetown, Sierra Leone, and asked what I was doing. \u201cTaking photos,\u201d I answered. He had a very serious, stern look and I thought he objected to this. \u201cHave you been shooting all of this?\u201d he asked, gesturing at the people and the flooded road in the street market. I told him I was a tourist, and I had snapped a few photos. He explained to me that he patrolled this area, and in the market, the vendors all threw their trash in the gutters, which caused them to get blocked, and the rainwater (it had been raining for days) then ran in the streets. It was his job to get them to stop doing this. He introduced me to his colleagues, who seemed utterly bored by the whole thing, and emphasized the presence of the \u201cfemale constable.\u201d He asked what I planned to do with the pictures I was taking and I cautiously offered, \u201cshare them with friends on Facebook so they can see what it\u2019s like in Freetown.\u201d He then insisted that I provide a positive caption \u2013 I should upload these photos to the internet, and tell the world that Sergeant Marsh and his colleagues were keeping the streets safe. That people should know this is a safe and nice place to visit. At this point I asked if I could also snap\u00a0<em>his<\/em> photo. \u00a0He agreed, and repeated what I should put in the photo captions, and re-introduced his colleagues.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><a title=\"Sergeant Marsh\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/tazmpictures\/14900248103\/in\/album-72157646175381472\/\" data-flickr-embed=\"true\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tazmpictures.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/14900248103_68ca218d77_z.jpg?resize=640%2C459&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Sergeant Marsh\" width=\"640\" height=\"459\" \/><\/a><script src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" async=\"\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Check out how sharp his uniform looks. \u00a0Sergeant Marsh is doing his part to keep the streets safe, and wants all of you to know that Freetown is a wonderful place to visit. \u00a0I think he\u2019s doing a great job. I hope I run into him again so I can tell him I have made him \u201cstranger number 84\u2033 in my \u201c100 strangers\u201d project.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>You can check out the other photos I took in Sierra Leone in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/tazmpictures\/albums\/72157646175381472\" target=\"_blank\">this Flickr album.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today Sierra Leone was officially declared &#8220;Ebola-free&#8221;, having successfully gone 42 days (two incubation periods) without a new case of Ebola. \u00a0In neighboring Guinea, where the disease outbreak began, health workers continue to struggle for its eradication, working to save patients only a few miles from Sierra Leone&#8217;s border. When I was in Sierra Leone [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1424],"tags":[1752,1425,1074,1423],"class_list":["post-3786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sierra-leone-places","tag-ebola","tag-freetown","tag-people","tag-sierra-leone"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tazmpictures.com\/site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tazmpictures.com\/site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tazmpictures.com\/site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tazmpictures.com\/site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tazmpictures.com\/site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3786"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/tazmpictures.com\/site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3786\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6673,"href":"https:\/\/tazmpictures.com\/site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3786\/revisions\/6673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tazmpictures.com\/site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tazmpictures.com\/site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tazmpictures.com\/site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}