Leaving Planet Africa.

Yet again. Getting in a car, then a ferry, then a plane, then another plane, then a train, then a bus, back to little Sheffield. Sending in a re-re-re-revised version of the baseline report this morning and hoping it is good enough to be THE final edition.

There are many things I will not miss saying goodbye to here; cockroaches easily top that list, followed by late-night dog fights, stifling humidity, sweating through a t-shirt at 7am, mouldy everything, the impossibility to ever get anything dry in the middle of the dank rainy season. I have missed things and people (one in particular) back home much more on this trip than others before, which has made it harder than usual to adjust to the inevitable discomforts of a third world country.

I WILL miss.... doing laundry and feeling that it’s the greatest physical accomplishment of my week.
I will miss cooking dinner and having the sounds of all the neighbours cooking filter in through the broken kitchen windows, and feeling that I am part of a loud and warm community.
I will miss the indescribable joy a perfectly ripe mango can bring, for a mere 25 cents.
I will miss the office banter that happens when the internet quits working and people are bored.
I will miss the kids in the street who grin up at you when you raise your eyebrows at them.
I will miss the women who carry unthinkably large loads on their heads so effortlessly.
I will even miss the men who holler ‘white girl’ at you as if urgently informing you of your skin colour and gender.
I will miss Monday night runs through little villages, big rivers, and rocky garbage dumps with the Freetown running club.
I will miss the indescribable privilege of sitting with young people giving up a valuable hours of work in their fields to share their thoughts about private and sensitive topics with me so honestly.
I miss all of you. Looking forward to being close[r] to you soon.

Last Days in Freetown.

Sunday was, appropriately, sunny, after days on end of rain and humidity. It was also the beginning of Ramadan, and as I’ve quickly discovered, no one really does much when they’re fasting all day. It was also the day our cooking hob tank ran out of gas AGAIN. Made me realize how much my life revolves around the kitchen here, not just making meals and snacks and food for the week, but boiling drinking water, water for tea, water to wash veggies in. I made fruit salad and read ½ a book out on the balcony for most of the day.. not a terrible way to spend a Sunday, though it felt mildly anticlimactic for the last weekend in Sierra Leone. That night we helped our landlord and his family break their fast with a massive Lebanese dinner. I have not eaten such a big and delicious meal in a very long time.

Some thoughts I’ve had since being here.

The more countries I visit in Africa, the more the continent feels like one big country. There are subtle differences but they are swallowed up in the sea of similarities between regions and tribes and languages and diets and traditions. This is oddly comforting; each new country feels familiar enough that it’s kind of like visiting friends of friends. There are the inevitable negative similarities like corruption and gender inequality, but in a way even those are somewhat welcome familiarities – at least you know what you’re up against.

Three things I’ve found to be very unique about Sierra Leone.
One: it is a religiously mixed country, roughly 70% Muslim and 30% Christian.
Two: it has only two major tribes: the Mende and the Temne.
Three: There has never been conflict in Sierra Leone around these issues. These religious and tribal factors have spelled continual conflict and chaos in so many African countries, but the level of peace I’ve seen between tribes and Muslims and Christians here is amazing. It could teach the U.S. a few things, really. (I’ve even heard a few people claim to be Muslim Christians, which is another issue in itself..) Yes, there’s been political and rebel conflict, which I don’t want to downplay as it’s some of the most horrific and evil violence I’ve ever been exposed to. But I don’t think that violence from the past should overshadow the impressive solidarity Sierra Leone has been able to accomplish in the meantime, or perhaps has had all along. 

Foo Foo and Other Things.

One week left in the land of the mountain lion! Busy working on the final draft of Restless Development's 2012 Baseline Report. In true African fashion, it's being turned in a week late due to several unforeseen dilemmas and having to learn how to use totally foreign computer programmes in the span of an hour or two... but all great work experience to pile onto the resume! A few photos from recently..

This is Foo Foo.
The Salone eat it with piles of brown fish stew on top.
I tried them plain... they taste like doughboys soaked in vinegar.
My intestines are still recovering. 

Those two on the left look bad.
The one on the right just looks like he's having a bad hair day.

A fantastic mural we pass on the way to work everyday. 

Just found out Blue Star is a Sexual Healthcare Network.
Not entirely sure what their motto is supposed to mean, in light of this..

"Ideal para qualquier momento del dia."
Yes, that's Spanish for "ideal for whichever moment of the day".
Not sure how this billboard ended up in Sierra Leone.

A construction project on the main road, complete
with totally sketchy scaffolding.

Catchy slogans
+
sticker of Madonna blowing  kisses
=
epitome of a classy truck around here.

Missing everyone and am greatly looking forward to crisp, clear Skype conversations with most of you very soon..

Church, Etc.

I’m not an avid lover of church services, but I feel like going to church in a new country gives you a different perspective of the culture. And in Africa, the musical aspect is hard [for me] to pass up. So on Sunday, in another torrential downpour, I hopped in a soggy taxi and went with my co-worker Jestina to one of the biggest churches in Freetown – Winners (yes, the name pretty much says it all). We arrived at a huge building exploding with noise and a giant stage in the middle covered with artificial flowers, surrounded by rows and rows of red velvet chairs. We found seats and started singing along with the choir. Next thing I know, a female usher is shaking my shoulder and yelling something at me. Thanks to the giant speaker nearly vibrating off the wall with noise 3 feet away, I couldn’t hear a thing and shouted “excuse me???” as loud as I could. She said something like “Your dress is dirty!!! You must cover it with your jacket!!!” and proceeded to grab my raincoat and tie it around my waist. (Totally fashionable for church.) When she finished, I looked up and realized there were 4 large TV screens on the walls above the stage, and that MY FACE was on all 4 of them. Turns out Winners church has jumbo-tron type cameras (like at a sports game) in all 4 corners of the church that zoom in on various congregation members whenever the pastor gets boring. So that was fun.

The sermon was about listening to God and not others, not having sex with young girls because you’ll get HIV, and a story about the pastor miraculously escaping a rebel attack in Kono during the war (and consequently deserting his church plant there). The offering was taken in small garbage pails, which were then emptied into literal full-size garbage bins in the front of the church. We took communion, and as I went back to my seat, the left side of my face was suddenly doused with cold water. I looked up to see a middle-aged man with a bucket, smirking at me. He continued to the person behind me, took a handful of water from the bucket, and threw it at their face. I asked Jestina about this and she said it is ‘blessed water’ that you can’t leave without being immersed in. Blessed water my foot. All I know is that I’d just finished drying off from the downpour outside, and was soaked again even before I could leave the church. When we left it was still down pouring and there was a car with its entire back half hanging in a small ravine in the parking lot, and 4 men trying to physically lift it out. That was entertaining/odd.

And that sums up my Sierra Leonan church experience. 

Oh, and when I got home, I checked out the back of my dress and did indeed have a very large orangey-brown stain thanks to the wet, dirty taxi seat on the way over. I'm going to assume everyone at church realized it was mud, but it looked very convincingly like the a particularly horrific explosive diarrhea incident. 

Odds & Ends.

Decent internet = some extra photos from the last few weeks. Happy weekend, everyone. 

Diet Yoghurt. Because that's what everyone needs in Africa.
Oh well, at least Marvelous Marvic Loves Me. 

A poster at a youth education centre in the northern provinces. 

  

Trees overrun with bird nests. 

We found the Taliban Base!
Oh wait, it's aTalaband Base. That was done by MLK.

Kooky flowers.

River, rice fields, rain. 

This makes me so happy. Best possible way to start a morning.

The rather mangled power line out my window. The last 2 mornings,
I've woken up to very loud, bright explosions coming from it.
It must realize I was missing 4th of July fireworks.. how sweet. 

Being uncharacteristically patriotic by dressing in US colours for the 4th.
Appropriately, I also found these VERY PATRIOTIC KNIVES
 in our kitchen that day.  

Yet another great sunset from the porch. 

Finally... an afternoon at the beach for staff team-building exercises.