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Being in Sierra Leone is like a never-ending SAT study session: dogged exercises that strain the mind and knowing that there’s really no point in resisting cause what has to be done will – and whether you like it or not, problems will jump out, for which no amount of preparation you’ll be properly equipped .
Last week on our way back from the shelter at Kissi Town we got into a small accident. Small for us, but a bit more severe for the people behind us. Ashley, Jon, and I were sitting in the back seat of a poda-poda, the 18th, 19th, and 20th person to be jammed into the vehicle. We were temporarily stopped to let out a passenger when we heard a loud crash. We turned to see another poda-poda barreling towards us. Oh great. In milliseconds, reflecting on family, God, how-in-the-world-am-I-going-out-before-Castro?, and a few books I’d always wanted to read. Fortunately, the poda-poda had lost much of its speed, so we only sustained a moderate jolt. Wails of hysteria went up from our vehicle and we piled out of the van like clowns on a circus floor.
We quickly learned a car had tried to overtake a huge truck, which slammed on its breaks in seeing a slowed poda-poda in back of ours. Everyone involved was okay, except one man who stumbled out of the truck with the bridge of his nose split open. His eyes were shocked saucers and blood dripped down his shirt and pants. Ashley yelled, “Pressure, pressure!” and a man put a rag to his head. He was put into a poda-poda and taken to the hospital; I was surprised with the speed it all happened. We all piled back into our vehicle and couldn’t help but turn our heads at every screech and horn honk for the duration of the trip. Thankfully, that has been our first accident in Sierra Leone. Breakdowns, however, are par for the course.
Meanwhile, progress at the shelter is going well! The last week and a half have been especially busy with finalizing fund allocations, drafting of necessary documents, and co-coordinating project completion, both at the shelter and at the farm.
At the school/shelter, bunk beds are almost complete. They will provide proper bedding for all 32 students and the shelter, many for whom this is the first bed in their life. Toilet construction is also underway: the 16-foot pit has been dug and we are finalizing estimates for construction of the toilet structure. Our primary goal for this trip was to make improvements for the student living conditions and it is a blessing to see our donated funds take shape in tangible ways.
Ashley did much research prior to our trip about solar lights and we were able to bring two such lights for the shelter. A small crowd of children, teachers, Reverend Spencer, and distant onlookers with baskets on their heads watched as we instructed use of the solar plate and the charging process. This will lessen the need for kerosene lamps, which cause respiratory problems in children and adults. We hope to supply more of such lights in the future as they are unavailable here.
The agriculture project continues to do well. 4 acres of land have been cleared using a method called intercropping. As you can see from the pictures, trees are not completely cut down, allowing for regrowth and prevention of erosion. Crops planted are the following: peppers, eggplants, potatoes, corn, groundnuts (like peanuts), cassava, rice, pumpkin, okra, and pineapple. Abdul Smith, the head farm laborer, consulted farmers in the area and decided that diversifying the crop types will result in greater selling profits. Moreover, as we are now using donated land near the school for agriculture classes and food for the students, we can focus the profits at the farm for school/shelter improvements and food for the children. The Ministry of Land recently visited the farm to commend the work being done with the agriculture project.
At the end of this month, under the supervision of Compassion First volunteer, Jon Fjeld, Makripodis Secondary School/Fountain of Mercy Shelter will embark on an Okada Service (Okada = Nigerian word for motorcycle taxi). This Okada will operate in the Freetown Peninsula and is hoped to bring in significant profits for the school and shelter.
With the agriculture project and now the Okada service, we hope to help the school/shelter move further towards self-sufficiency and sustainability.
As noted several times in other entries, things in Sierra Leone work so incredibly slowly. Due to cultural differences, certainly at times, and to the obvious difficulties like poor infrastructure and lack of materials - but usually simply in the fact that what you’d never expected to happen, will. It works both ways, too: I have been enlivened and amazed by the support so many people in the Kissi Town area are giving to the projects at the farm and shelter. Reverend Spencer summed it up best in reflecting on the recent improvements at both sites: “It is great….fine, just fine!”
Got back from a short trip to Kambia - town in NW Sierra Leone where we spent a month last year working with AMNet (Advocacy Movement Network) on children’s rights
/women’s advocacy – a few days ago and it is always crazy to go from the peace of the rural, ultimate country life, to that of Freetown and the insanity that persists.
In Kambia, greeted friends and families and police officers and teachers and former RUF rebel leaders (now an ordained minister), and more kids than I can count, ate food that was so kindfully made but truly strange (weird parts of goat and chicken swamped in a pool of palm oil), ran in the rain and pushed around a little naked kid on a makeshift cart, while showering saw a spider large as my hand on the wall behind me, watched a 17-year old boy give an English letter writing assignment on a chalkboard on a front porch, listened to the call of prayer and sat watching an old man next to me push his head to the ground repeatedly, walked to a village called Kassasi and saw Koranic verses tied up in pieces of paper with string hanging from houses to ward away evil spirits, saw the ills of intermarriage in all its forms also in Kassasi (disproportionate limbs, crossed, vacant eyes), watched a man cut bark chips off a tree trunk to soak in water, then boil, of which will be drank to cure malaria – a traditional medicine that works -, threw dozens of children up into the air and think I re-herniated my neck disc, watched football matches in a concrete box of a building with 50 sweaty men, saw the greatest of storms approach like an angry child across the sky, battling its way with grey fingers and then pounce on us, the goats hiding under eaves of houses, gave gifts to neighbors (mostly clothes from my drawers that they treated as heirlooms), saw billions of stars in the sky, waved to a man climbing up a palm tree to tap it for palm wine, held baby Jonah Walton Turay (AMNet staff member we worked with last year named his boy after myself and Ashley…an unexpected surprise in choice of names last year upon his birth!) and watched him alternate between fascination and terror in seeing a white person (he didn’t cry while Ashley held him, rats!),
ran through the jungle on paths walked by rebels and soldiers and now just farmers and villagers, the deep rotting smell of jungle at once alluring and repulsive, heard “Opato” (white man) hundreds and hundreds of times from little kids, shook the leathery hands of old men and women, in one instance a blind woman in her 60′s who held her hands into the air and waited for me to shake it, her nephew explaining that she was shaking hands of an Opato, sat on the back porch with Ashley and watched the wind dwindle and with it fading sounds of goats and chickens and leaves, spoke to a sweet little 9-year old girl named Senna with browning hair due to lack of vitamins and watched the night envelop us.
Drivers here take this sign too literally.Since our arrival last Wednesday, we’ve visited Makripodis Secondary School/Fountain of Mercy shelter home several times to meet with Reverend Spencer to discuss improving living conditions and daily diet for the children. To maximize profits from the farm at the John Obey community, located 5 miles from the school, we’ve decided to use 100% of farm profits for essentials such as food and medicine. Two additional acres at the farm have been cleared, providing enough room for recent planting of corn and groundnuts, in addition to the already planted potato, cassava, pepper, okra, and cucumbers. Meanwhile, we discovered a plot of land adjacent to the newly donated home can be used for an additional small farm. This will eliminate the costly expense of transporting students to the farm every weekend to work. And, this will provide on-site, hands-on access for teaching Agriculture class.
Today we met the Reverend in Freetown to finalize plans for building bunkbeds for the shelter children and preminilary plans for a proper toilet facility. We are excited as both projects will be an enormous improvement for their personal hygiene – 21 boys currently sleep on the floor in the church and 8 girls plus Rev. Spencer’s wife sleep in one double bed. A certain blessing for overall health and physical comfort.
We also distributed some clothing that was donated by parents of students from The Marin School in Sausalito, CA. One boy whispered, “Now I will have a clean shirt I can wear to church.” To see their serious faces as they buttoned up new shirts, to hear them talk and compare the crisp whiteness, a humbling scene.
Tomorrow we will be purchasing sets of academic books for the children. At present, most classes have only one copy of a book per class (For example, teaching The Tempest in literature class with one book for the teacher).
Last year students of Makrapodis Secondary School boasted the highest scores on the BECE (Basic Education Certification Exam) of all schools in the rural district on the Eastern Peninsula of Freetown. Without a passing score on the BECE, students are not allowed to continue secondary education. 100% of Makripodis students passed their BECE last year, an incredible accomplishment for these students, many of whom were rescued from forced labor and street prostitution as a result of being orphaned at a young age. This was achieved by selfless teachers who have worked for two years straight with no pay, no electricity at the school, thereby requiring students to study by candle or kerosene, and with woefully insufficient materials.
Being at the shelter again today – as always – is a humbling experience. Orphans who have been taken in and are living with love, compassion, and opportunities for education never seen before.
Near the completion of our meeting today with Reverend Spencer, Ashley leapt up from her seat and went to the window: A 9-year-old boy named Ibrahim walked slowly through the field admiring his new shoes we gave him today. Ibrahim was given to Rev. Spencer from the Ministry of Social welfare when he ran away from home, barefoot and with one change of clothes to his name; his parents did not enroll him in school, instead forcing him to sell petty supplies on the street. When Ibrahim did not make enough money, his parents beat him severely, so Ibrahim ran away. Ibrahim kicked his feet out left and right in the grass, swiveling his head, oblivious to the heat and sun above. Ashley snapped some pictures through the steel bars in the window, a great silence enveloping the room, Ibrahim’s body growing smaller, smaller, never taking his eyes off the bright whiteness of his new shoes.
- Ashley and kids, Ibrahim far right
Road to Kissi Town and shelter home
