from orphanage to market...

Weekends. Always a lovely break from the week, and in Sierra Leone, it’s no different. Sleeping in an extra hour, eating breakfast in your pajamas, having plenty of time to wait for the water to heat in the boiler. Little luxuries which make the weekend such a wonderful time.

I didn’t post a blog yesterday because, comparatively to the earlier week, very little happened. I went with Helen to an orphanage run by a Canadian couple out in Regent. We left a little later in the morning, took a taxi to the main bit of Regent and then hiked for a good half hour up to the top of one of the nearby hills. About fifteen or twenty orphans live in the compound set up by this couple after the war. They are there for various reasons, into which I didn’t really pry.

In any case, we arrived there only to find that no one knew of our coming and the proprietress had gone away for the day (which we were expecting) and she had taken the key to the school room with her (which we were not expecting). So we made do for the morning, practicing some basic math and reading from some of the books collected in the house. I worked mostly with two younger girls, Kathy and Kadiatu. Probably kindergarten or first-grade reading and math level. It kind of reminded me of when I student taught the first-grade kids (Emily, Will Donner, Tim Clark, and Miranda) on board the CBM. :)

We had a fun time, but then the kids all went off to do their chores, and Helen determined that it would be next to impossible to get them all back together again with any kind of focus for work. So we left there a little earlier than normal. Helen had contacted the vocational educator at another VVF centre, but she wasn’t available to meet up, so we headed back to the team house. We couldn’t get transport in Regent, so we walked to IMATT, an international co-operative training center for the Sierra Leonean military. It was a good walk, probably another half-hour or so. Then we found a taxi there that would take us to Mamba Roundabout, a ten minute walk from the house. A lot of walking, but it was really nice to get out and about and see some more of the country.

I was really exhausted, and crashed around four, after attempting to read and stay awake. I woke up a short time later, but never really got my energy back. The sun and heat had drained it all away! :)

Today, I enjoyed a leisurely morning and was sitting out in the verandah when an old colleague of Annekoos and Bastiaan came to visit with his four year old daughter, Esther. It was really nice to sit and talk with them. It was really enlightening to hear his opinions on George Bush, Tony Blair, Salone (Sierra Leonean) politics, superstitions, etc. He explained that he loves Tony Blair because he is crafty, and has so much power in his speaking. He told me he hates George Bush because of his pride and how he has stumbled into the Middle East, leaving a “scar,” as he put it. He says that the next president should do everything possible to bring reconciliation. I couldn’t agree more.

I just got back from downtown. I went with Anne, Bas, and Sandra to the fabric street. I bought some really lovely print and batik for a skirt and a shirt-dress. I think the tailor is coming later this week, and I can give it to him.

It was really great to walk around the market. So much life and color concentrated in one place. The markets in Central America were similar, but this was much bigger, and the wares much more diverse. I don’t remember ever seeing pig’s feet in Guatemala! :) It was really fun, though. And it was great to get out of the house for a little while. The other three have been here for so long, and are really knowledgeable about how everything works. It’s so great to have them as a resource, and I’m ruing the day when they will be gone. But until then, I’ll try to learn as much as possible, and if I make some mistakes a long the way, then that is also a way to learn…

I wish that all of you could be here with me, or that I at least could connect your mind and your senses to mine. Sierra Leone is a full sensory of experiences. I haven’t taken many pictures as of yet, because I find them so inadequate to convey every part of that moment. What picture, for example, can tell you about the sounds outside the window which have become so common place – the birds, the wind in the trees, the children’s voices, the clinking of rocks being broken down, the distant techno music, laughter, crying, all at once. How can you know the smell of Sierra Leone? The sort of campfire smell mixed with earth and, oftentimes, rain. I don’t want to lose these moments, because I know that they will all pass by fast, fast. But, I suppose, the nooks and crannies of memory will have to suffice. Man has not learned how to capitalize on that God-given system…