Jottings from my African Kitchen Table: my friend Chris

I am sitting on our front terrace looking at the park and the strangest thought comes into my head – ‘I wonder what Chris would think if he was here’ (dont ask why I am not at work, it is a long story that I will tell tomorrow!)

For three short months, in Sierra Leone, Chris Manley was my best friend. We were both working for an NGO on our first missions and we just clicked. Nothing romantic, just instant good friends. We spent so much time together talking, talking, talking. I learned a lot about cars and logistics spending time in his office.

Walking home from the hospital we would buy 2 cigarettes each and save them for smoking on the veranda in the dark after everyone else had gone to bed. One night we pulled our mattresses onto the veranda – breaking all the security rules in the book – and slept outside for the night.

He told me there were only 3 books ever worth reading; they would give you everything you needed in life – The Little Prince, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, and The Alchemist. I had not read any of them, but did as soon as I had access to a decent book shop and can see what he meant; although I am such a book/reading addict I have not stopped reading other material!

He gave magic foot massages after a long day in the field.

He was not that fussed about cooking, I don’t think. In fact, when our cook was on holiday for a week and we decided that we each would take a night, when Chris’s turn came around he announced that we were eating out!

We went to Freetown several times and would go straight to a restaurant by the sea and gorge ourselves on lobster. I remember staying a few days at a place up the coast that lots of UN and NGO people went to where we would spend hours on the beach and eating more lobster. He tried to teach me how to throw a Frisbee properly – I never did and still can’t, I am left handed!

The really special time we spent together was when we went on our break to Mali. He had been thinking of going home overland, I can’t even remember what changed his mind. Everyone thought we were mad but no-one tried to stop us (even though we were in a country just coming out of civil war I can’t remember the security being that strict). We hitched a ride on a WFP helicopter from Freetown to Conakry in Guinea. After staying the night we hoped in a share taxi, managing to bag the front seat rather than squashing in the back, and went the length of country into Mali swapping over every so often to relieve our knees and sharing the risk of falling out the door!

We wanted to try and make it to Timbuktu but in the end we realised time was against us. We were not backpacking with no time limits. I think we had about 10 days all up.

Buses through the night, stopping at roadside stalls to drink instant coffee made with condensed milk – delicious.

Sitting on the rooftop of our hotel spending hours looking at and listening to, the mosque in Djenne.

Staying in the brothel in Mopti, hilarious, all the girls tried to entice him into their rooms as we walked through the corridors.

Walking in Dogon country, with more rooftop contemplations, truly amazing.

My memories are scattered and vague and there are no photographs to jog the memory. We did take a camera but it gave up the ghost after about 2 snaps. And Chris is no longer here to remind me, you see he died about 5 years ago.

We kept in touch after he left and caught up in London once I returned. I always had plans to visit him in Botswana when I was visiting SA for work but it never happened. I knew he was in Tanzania and one day I was sitting at home in Nairobi when I got a call ‘I am at Wilson for a few hours, get down here!” so of course I jumped in the car and we sat on the stairs at the Titan hangar and chatted and caught up as if all those years had just melted away. That was the last time I saw him.

I had an email from my friend Tamara asking if I knew Chris had been killed in a flying accident, I think I was back in Australia for a few months sometime in 2009 when I got her message. You see I did not know any of his family or friends in UK, only the 4 of us that had worked together for 3 months, I am not even sure how Tamara found out.

I drive past the Titan hangar everyday as I come to work and I look at those steps and remember a very special person who I have had the privilege to know.