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.