crazymalc.co.nz - Home Page of Malcolm Trevena

Getting around in the Buduburum Refugee Camp

24th June 2006
At university I was known as LONSOD boy. LONSOD stands for "Little or no sense of direction". I got lost so often it just wasn't funny. It was like I should of have some sort of disability allowance. Maybe a state funded GPS receiver would of helped.

Getting around in the Philippines was very cool. Tricycles, motorbikes, sidecars and jeepneys were all viable options. You only have one option in Buduburum Refugee Camp. Your feet.

The Camp is a very flat place, which makes navigating very hard. I thought I would explain how I get to school everyday. Hopefully it will give you a bit of an insight into camp as well.

How to get to school
The walk to school takes me about fifteen minutes. It took me about a week to feel comfortable about getting to school and back.

Step One (as it were)
Head out of Guest House One and head up the main road.
Step Two
Stop and take a photo of the kids that come up and say, "Whi' man. Whi man. Please take a pic'ure."
Step Three
Turn right and head through one of the mini-fees. Liberians call a "field" a "fee".
Step Four
Wind your way between some houses.
The town planning here may be best described as not applicable. Wide roads soon turn into narrow alleyways and houses seem to be built wherever seemed to be a good idea at the time.
Step Five
Walk through one of the larger fees. This fee gets fairly disgusting. "Tip" or "Rubbish Collection Point" might be a better description. The fee contains:
- Ad hoc markets
  The market in the fee springs to life every morning and is quiet again by the time evening comes. I will never get used to the smell of market-fish.
- UNHCR (United Nation's Higher Commission for Refugees) Dumpsters
  The dumpsters are used to collect all the rubbish in the area. They often overflow.
  
  Carrie and Annie recently rip up the linoleum in their room in an effort to make their room cleaner. They asked me to take the linoleum to the dumpster. I said to them that I thought that someone would ask for it before I got it to the dumpsters. I was right. One man's trash is another's treasure...
Step Six
Emerge from the other side of the fee and walk down - for wont of a better word - a road.

None of the roads here have names. I tempted to make a map of the entire camp. That way I will get to name all the roads.

"www.crazymalc.co.nz Road", "Malcolm Parade" and "Coolio Crescent" have a certain ring about them.
Step Seven
Cut between some more houses and cut across someone's porch.

People don't mind it if you cut across their property. A polite "Excuse Me" never hurts though.

The phrase "their property" is a little misleading. Most of the land here is leased from the Ghanaian government by the UNHCR. It will be very interesting to see what happens when the UNHCR pulls out in September...
Step Eight
Zoom through the fee that contains the rather odd lumps of concrete.
Step Nine
Cut through the cornfields.

A river snakes its way through the cornfields. Paving stones are scattered along the riverbed to aid in the crossing.

A dumping ground can also be found in the cornfields.
Step Ten
Once you've made it through the cornfields, take a left and head along the path.
Step Twelve
Make your way past another school's fee, before heading past the large tree.
Step Thirteen
Head past the School for the Deaf.

The amount of deaf people on the camp has to be quite small. To have a whole school dedicated to them seems a little strange. Good for them nevertheless.
Step Fourteen
Just past the School for the Deaf is our final destination, the Children Better Way Primary School.

Hooray!

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(c) 2005 and 2006 Malcolm Trevena.
All the stuff on this site is written by me, Malcolm Trevena. Feel free to link to this page. Heck, you can even copy stuff from here if you want. Just make sure you sight me as a reference.