A woman walks past campaign posters for incumbent President Ernest Bai Koroma in Freetown, Sierra Leone, Nov. 15, 2012. Ten years after the end of a devastating civil war, Sierra Leone will go to the polls on Saturday to choose between incumbent Koroma and opposition leader Julius Maada Bio.

Opposition candidate Julius Maada Bio waves to supporters as his campaign convoy drives through the Kissy neighborhood, en route to his final campaign rally in Freetown, Sierra Leone, Nov. 15.

Supporters of opposition candidate Julius Maada Bio fill the street as his campaign convoy drives through the Kissy neighborhood, en route to Bio's final campaign rally in Freetown, Sierra Leone, Nov. 15. A few supporters displayed symbolic, or real, guns to symbolize the laying down of arms in favor of a non-violent election process.

A military police officer stands guard at the final campaign rally for Sierra Leone opposition presidential candidate Julius Maada Bio in downtown Freetown, Nov. 15. Incumbent President Ernest Bai Koroma, a former insurance executive who came to power in 2007 in elections generally considered free and fair, will face off against former junta leader Bio.

A supporter of opposition candidate Julius Maada Bio rests on a stadium field as he waits for Bio to arrive at his final campaign rally in Freetown, Sierra Leone, Nov. 15.

A pedestrian walks past a traditional colonial-era Board House dating back about a century on Pademba Road in Sierra Leone's capital Freetown on April 27. Scattered across Sierra Leone's capital Freetown stand ageing wooden houses, some of which look more like they belong on the east coast of 18th century America than in a steamy west African city. Others look like they may have been built hundreds of years ago in the islands of the Caribbean, another reflection of Sierra Leone's history as a colony established for freed slaves.

A traditional colonial-era Board House dating back about a century stands on the main road through the Congo Town neighbourhood of Sierra Leone's capital Freetown.

People walk past a traditional colonial-era Board House dating back about a century on the main road through the Murray Town neighbourhood of Sierra Leone's capital Freetown.

A former British colonial administration building stands on stilts in the Hill Station neighbourhood of Sierra Leone's capital Freetown. Alongside the Krio Board Houses, the Hill Station area of Freetown is home to another set of striking timber dwellings with a different history. After research in Freetown indicated that mosquitoes brought malaria, around 100 years ago the British colonial authorities relocated their settlement from the stifling coastal flats to higher ground. Large wooden dwellings stand on metal stilts driven into concrete piles. Covered porches descend to ground level.

Painted metal covers the walls of a traditional colonial-era Board House dating back about a century in the Murray Town neighbourhood of Sierra Leone's capital Freetown. The Board House style has been in steady decline for decades, as stone and concrete became more fashionable. Many of the homes are now dilapidated and patched with sheets of rusted metal to keep out rain during the wet season.