Easter

 

I went away at Easter for two days and it was lovely even if it was overpriced. My first time outside of Makeni since I arrived in Sierra Leone. I went to a resort outside of Freetown on Mama beach. We left early on the Saturday and before arriving at Mama Beach, we visited Kent and Sussex which are two old Colonial towns outside of Freetown. We also saw the caves where the slaves were loaded onto canoes which then brought them out to the boats which took them to America etc. These caves run far inland under the ground. The slaves were loaded down through an opening in the ground onto these boats. The caves are hardly visible from the shore. So the slaves were already half way out to the waiting boats before anyone realised. It’s awful to think of what happened in such an idyllic setting. There’s also a small holding cell there with hardly enough room to stand up in and approx. 400 slaves were kept in there. Anyway enough of that.The beach was quiet and secluded with sunbeds and shade. The food was very good and the rooms were clean and with a shower. So what more could you want? There were also plenty of breezes. As it was a French resort the sockets were two pin!! I couldn’t believe it. It must be the only place in Sierra Leone with two pin sockets and of course I had left my two pin adapter back in Makeni. However they found me an adapter. There was no Internet or phone coverage in the hotel compound even though it was advertised as having Internet. The first morning I went down to breakfast I asked them what was for breakfast as they didn’t have a menu and I couldn’t see any food displayed and the reply was ‘What do you want?’

I eventually discovered that the Breakfast Menu was: African Omelette, Plain Omelette, scrambled eggs or fried eggs with bacon and sausage. So I chose scrambled egg and I asked if I could also have bacon with it. Just as the waitress was leaving I asked ‘Do you have any fruit?’ Oh yes. So I also asked if I could have some fruit. Well the breakfast was beautiful. I had pineapple and water melon followed by scrambled eggs, a slice of bacon, two sausages and a spoonful of baked beans. There was also lovely coffee. No matter what you ordered you got bacon, sausages and baked beans with it but we were all quite happy with that. However the following day there was no bacon or baked beans available for breakfast. It was Fruit, African Omelette, Plain Omelette, scrambled eggs or fried eggs with sausages. We asked for our omelettes without sausages but were told’ No , Everything comes with sausages!! Anyway it was fine and the sausages weren’t too bad even though only a few of us ate them. For lunch and evening meal they did a variety of salads and fish among other things and it was all lovely. This was a big change for me as all my food since arriving here has been plasas. i.e. Rice with a sauce.The dining area was tables in a sandy cove under a number of trees for shade and overlooking the beach & the river which flowed into the sea. It was an idyllic setting.

 I had a lovely weekend.

On the journey back to Makenii we saw a number of processions with Devil Dancers. They were out in force because it was Easter. When you pass them you can’t look at them. If you do you get harassed by them.

 Its now the week after Easter and it has

been hot and sticky all day Saturday and Sunday. We kept expecting rain but it didn't happen. Also we all thought that we would get town light on Friday night but that didn't happen either. We had been getting town light every second night for a few hours. It didn’t happen on Sat or Sun evening either. I hadn’t had any water for several days either because there was no electricity to pump the water up from the Bore hole. During this past week I had been existing on what was left in the tank. However by Sun.there was no water left. It had all finally run out and there was no drinking water either. On Sunday evening I was so desperate for a shower that I went off with my bucket looking for water. I eventually got half a bucket which kept me going until Monday. Then members of staff carted large basins of water on their heads up from the school well and poured it into barrels. They carried it upstairs on their heads. I’ve got a barrel in my bedroom and there are barrels in the kitchen, toilets etc. So that should keep me going for a while. On Sunday I visited a number of houses. One of the teachers who had had a baby, another teacher who was off sick and an old an old lady whom I heard was looking for help. I think this was another reason why I was so hot and sticky and really looking forward to a shower and when I discovered that there was no water left for either washing or drinking it got to me but I gave myself a shake and went off with my bucket to look for water.

So my feelings of despondency didn't last long!!!

When we arrived at this old lady's house she was bent double, the poor soul but was so happy that Sr. Mary and I visited her. She gave me a big hug and clasped me to her bosom!!! She is living in a very basic mud house in a swamp in Makeni and was looking for help to buy bags of cement to stop the rain and water coming in. The inside of the house was mud floors and plain mud walls. It looked more like a store than a dwelling. There was no furniture as such except a few stools. The first room that we went into when we entered the house had a single bed supported on a few cement bricks with a sheet on it. I think this is where her grandson slept. We asked to see the granny’s bedroom. Her room was similar but had a proper bed with a mosquito net over it. It was over beside the window which was just an opening in the wall with bars on the window. This was the only light into the room except for what came in through the holes in the roof. There was a hole in the roof just above her bed. Along the lower part of the wall you could see where the wall was crumbling. Once the rains come in earnest the water in the swamp will rise and surround her house. It will come about two feet up the wall. So it’s imperative that the outer wall is cemented to prevent the water getting into her bedroom. Recently friends from both my walking club in East Kilbride and the sett dancing club in Glasgow sent out some money. So I’ve lumped all the money together I'm using some of this money to help this old lady by buying 5 or 10 bags of cement. One of the teachers, Moses, who is very honest went with a builder on Thursday, to assess what materials are required etc. So yesterday the builder returned with the Estimate which was for Le800,000 ( £130 approx.) So I gave them the money to buy the materials and they are going to work on it this weekend. It’s imperative that it’s done quickly before the rains arrive in earnest. I walked past her house last night and I saw that the sand has already arrived. It was on the road outside her house. I’ve also used some of the money to buy resources for the school. I still haven't used up all the money I had when I came out so yesterday I also sent more rice out to the Amputee Village.

When I gave the money to Moses he said " God Bless You & Thank you very much" I told him it wasn't me who was donating the money but my good friends back in East Kilbride and Glasgow. So he sends God's Blessing onto you all.

It’s very hot and close here in Makeni and we have just had another downpour of rain this morning. Its been a number of weeks since the last one but they'll probably start to be more frequent from now on. So I was thinking of that old lady this morning when we had that downpour. At the moment we’ve got constant electricity and internet. The President is in town. I wonder if there is a connection!!! We’ll see what happens when he leaves.

School closed here yesterday for a two week break. Most of the children left yesterday but there are still a few here. Their parents have got to come and collect them. So if no-one came for them yesterday they are still here. So today we are busy trying to make arrangements to get them home.

Hope the temperatures at home are now a bit better. You should start to see an improvement from now on, surely..

Hope all is well with everyone.

Palm Sunday

 

On the 13^th March there was great excitement here in the Hearing impaired school because the ‘rains’ arrived. There was a Dutch film crew here filming the children and the staff. They were making a film about the Cluny order and the work that they do in Sierra Leone. On the evening of the 13^th March, the sky became very dark and the wind started to blow really strongly. It was like being in the middle of a sand storm. There was dust everywhere. Then one of the film crew announced that a new pope had been selected but as yet no-one knew who it was. There was a lot of cheering and shouting. The wind got stronger and everyone was running round closing windows, doors etc to stop all the banging. Then the lightning started. It was amazing to look at. It was also very hot. The electricity went out. Then, just after 6 o’clock the rain started. It was torrential but also fantastic. The temperature dropped immediately. It got so much cooler. The children were dancing around with excitement. I even saw some very young children out in the street pulling off their clothing, giggling, laughing and dancing about in the rain and washing themselves with a bar of soap. A number of people had radios out trying to get information on who the new pope was. Darkness then fell and there was still no electricity, so we had to find candles and get them lit. So it was dinner by candlelight!!! I was transported back in time to life here 35 years ago. The electricity didn't come back on until 10pm. It was fascinating watching the rain and the forked lightning. It rained a lot during that night. You could hear it pelting on the corrugated tin roofs. However the following day it was back to normal. Blue skies and warm weather. Since then we’ve had the rains twice and we had a whole week of severe power cuts but this past week has been very good. We’ve had six consecutive days with no power cuts!! The rumour is that at the end of this month maintenance work is starting at the Power Station and there will be three months of power cuts. So of course when there is no electricity we have no internet. You also have to make sure that you keep topping up all your appliances like mobile phone, lap tops, kindle etc so that when the power cut occurs you are not caught out as I was last weekend .

One of the teachers told me about a month ago that the person whom he rents his house from had just increased his rent again and he was finding it very difficult financially. It’s only a very basic house but each year his landlady increases his rent. His mother in law had given him a small piece of land. So he had started to make mud bricks so that he could build his own house. Each weekend he would make so many. With the first rains he lost 2000 of the bricks he had made. Last week after another night of rain he lost another 3000 bricks. So it looks as if he’ll have to postpone building his house until after the rainy season. Perhaps by then he will have managed to buy the materials for the roof so that it will protect the mud bricks. This teacher works so hard. His brother died last year so he now supports and looks after his brother’s three children as well as his own two. There is a real need here for some sort of Credit Union to help people like him financially.

Last Tuesday we had a party in the school to celebrate the school’s feast day, St Joseph. The day started off with assembly and a discussion about St. Joseph. Then later in the morning we had mass and afterwards we had a party. Despite their hearing impairment all the children have great rhythm and are fantastic dancers.  Michael Jackson wouldn’t have had a ‘look in’!!

Yesterday was Palm Sunday and all the Christians here celebrate it with gusto. They all gathered for Church at a certain destination about an hour before the service was due to begin. Some came with palms and others collected their palms from branches of trees that had been cut down for this purpose. Some of them had huge branches and others smaller branches or just palm leaves. As everyone was assembling it was like a social outing. People meeting and chatting to each other. They were also making crosses from their palms and plaiting the leaves on the branches. I even saw one person make his branch into a staff. Then the procession took off with everyone waving their palms and singing’ Hosanna’ It almost felt biblical. You really felt that perhaps Jesus would pass by on a donkey though I don’t think there are any donkeys in Sierra Leone.  I find all the people here very spiritual. They talk about ‘Papa  God’ and they sing with fervour. Even the early morning daily mass is full of singing. The mass yesterday lasted two hours and if you count the procession etc it was three hours.  Everyone came out of Church in a very happy, jubilant mood. Then tragedy occurred. One of the young hearing impaired boys dashed across the road outside the cathedral and was knocked down by a’ Dawnus’ four wheeled vehicle. ‘Dawnus’ are a Welsh firm who have the mining contract in Sierra Leone. The poor boy had got three quarters of the way across the road when the accident occurred. Luckily not too much damage had been done and the child is in hospital recovering. He is being kept in for three days for observation. He banged his head and hip in the accident. Sister Mary phoned the driver today to find out if his firm would help with the hospital bill and the travelling expenses for the mother. She came from Lungi which is a 3 to 4 hour journey from Makeni. He agreed to pay the hospital expenses but nothing more. ‘Dawnus’ are a huge Welsh company involved in the mining here in Sierra Leone and making a lot of money.

 As it was also International Youth Day yesterday, there was a Youth Rally and they climbed one of the local hills. I joined them for the climb. Though steep it was a short climb. The worst part of it was the heat. There was a great party atmosphere with singing , dancing, drama and praying. It was nice being among so many enthusiastic young people. However I was exhausted at the end of it all and I slept like a log last night despite the humidity. I think It’s  building up for more rain.