Izula travels to Sierra Leone

K

Knifestyle

Joined
Dec 6, 2009
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67
Just spent two weeks in an intense humanitarian/credit hour program in Sierra Leone, Western Africa. Yes, the one from 'Blood Diamond', which scares off tourists and charities from an otherwise amazing little country I hope to head back to soon. I carried my tactical pink Izula in a mercharness in my home-grown kydex rig under my outer shirt for the full two weeks. Full-time, whether it was an NGO conference, a hike through the mountains, or a walk on the beaches which were either gorgeous, or plain depressing. Worked out beautifully for helping out in the fishing villages while doing research, kept me sane with some whittling at night, and generally added a little peace of mind despite how wonderful this country is people-wise. This was taken on the coast, there's another picture on the famous 'Number 2' beach but this one shows off more of the semi-urban coast line across the mountains.
IMG_0830.jpg

Thank you for an excellent product, this may be the first one to head into this particular area. I doubt it, seeing as there's quite a presence of military left over along with a base full of contractors training the SL military, but the pink model is definitely a first for obvious reasons.
 
JV3 said:
good stuff! are those custom scales i see on the izula?
Click to expand...

Was wondering the same. :confused:

Cool trip! What were you doing? International work in Latin America is the dream here at my home!
 
Cool. Glad to see our knives doing things in 3rd World. That's what we like to see!
 
Africa always interested me..any more pics of the towns/people would be cool if you've got them..
 
Very cool. I have to admit though, anywhere in Africa accept maybe Egypt is not on the top of places I want to go list because of movies like Blood Diamond. Very cool pic though, and it's cool what your doing down there.
 
One of my lifelong best friends was adopted from Sierra Leone with his two sisters, both of who lost limbs to machetes. Their parents were killed in the civil war... crazy country. At 5 years old he had a survivalist mindset that takes a northwoodsman a lifetime of bushcrafting to build up.
 
Just got back from Phoenix meeting with friend of mine who married a girl from Djibouti. Wow, what a beautiful and intelligent woman. Speaks 4 languages fluently and has a little 6-year old boy that I'd kidnap and take home with me in a minute. Africa has a bad rap for a lot of things, but there are some wonderful folks there.
 
It was a research mission which required extensive integration ('going native', we're all sociology), historical research, political analysis, and me going from a buzzcut to a horrible mullet to appear as harmless and non-militant as possible. So you can infer, I currently resemble one of those jerks who live in coffee shops, complete with 'Save (insert country here)' shirts. However, this is a new twist for me, the years of prepping and training came first.

I did tour a camp for victims in a similar fate as your friend's sisters...The war is still a deep scar in many lives, my friends out there from the colleges grew up during it. At worst, they end up with the results visible from a mile away. At best, they're intact, but the memories aren't going away. Always the limbs...There are other issues out there that are more culture based that we had clashes with, but the dismemberment is something no one can take seriously until they meet some one or head out there.

The people are indeed amazing...They do not tolerate each other's races and religions. They EMBRACE them. Half Christian, half Muslim, and they are in perfect peace and harmony, each one attends the other's services for holidays and race and creed are just things to tell stories about. True, it's because they're all starving and struggling together, it is still a place where you're welcome for whatever you are. Friend of mine who sponsored my joining his group ('tribe' is a word the academics are trying to get away with...short for tribous, latin for 'savage'. You can understand the problem) spoke six languages, medical student, expert in both the major religions, and could find a good night club if you dropped him in a desert blindfolded.

As for the rig...Give me a while to get a camera together, but it's a basic fold-over kydex sheath with eyelets, and the handle is just black paracord wrap using a method I saw used on this very forum in a cordwrapping thread. I had it strung with the mercharness so it could be drawn into an edge-in grip, barely felt it except for a minute or two after shrugging the harness on. I'm a working-class student who can't afford the standard ESEE models or the accessories, but I've been a fan ever since the early RAT days, despite the fact some of you guys are carrying EDC kit older than I am. Two of my tripmates are now buying Izulas, one for his webbing gear, the other because it's 'freaking sweet', he wasn't a knife guy to begin with.
 
"Two of my tripmates are now buying Izulas, one for his webbing gear, the other because it's 'freaking sweet', he wasn't a knife guy to begin with" the Izula has that effect on people! cool pic and story
 
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