richard.bayfield's blog

The Sunday before Christmas is always a favourite of mine. There are only a few days to Christmas and yet it is usually a time for relaxation and fun with friends, often the annual Christmas carol service is followed by drinks at our house or at a neighbour’s house.  

We embark on another tour of the Koidu area initially on foot which gives us a chance to hear Christmas carols to a reggae setting from various ghetto blasters and to see large cardboard Santas and snowy scenery as we walk past some of the market stalls. It is also possible to buy small Christmas trees and sets of lights here, which seems totally incongruous with the sun blazing down and us wearing shorts. However the fun and joy coming from carols set to a reggae beat seems entirely appropriate as Christmas day draws nearer. 

Thursday 18th December 2008

It’s 5.15 am and Pastor Eric kindly gives us our early morning call, followed by a lift to the central bus station. Today we are travelling by a Sierra Leone Bus Company coach to Koidu in Kono district.

It's Sunday morning and Pastor Eric meets us at exactly 9.00 am. It's the only time that an agreed meeting time has been met so far (African time tends to mean waiting for up to 30 minutes from the agreed time). However we are going to church and we cannot keep God waiting!

Eric takes us to Yatta's church (the Christian Community Mission Church Freetown) which has no fixed building but currently meets near the centre of town in the YMCA building. We are amongst the 1st to arrive and Yatta begins the service on the dot at 10.00 with only a handful of others with us.

Everywhere you go, you cannot get away from it. People where football shirts of major European and Sierra Leonean teams and shirts bearing your standard sports manufactures (Nike, Umbro, Adidas, rebook etc). People ask you what your English team is and they always have a view on it – especially if you’re not a top 4 team when they will say your team is not up to standard etc. Differing from my visit to North Africa and Morocco (which many here don’t view as Africa) there doesn’t seem to be shops selling the shirts to a mass audience.

Thursday 11^th December 

Freetown is very busy, very buzzy and very friendly with everyone wanting to shake hands and say hello. After a few minutes of being “English” and pretending to look the other way we soon adjusted to the new culture (as we had the new climate) and started getting in first with the greetings! 

We left the UK with a frost and overnight temperatures below zero. The arrival at Freetown Airport in early evening saw balmy temperatures above 30 c to greet us. In fact there was rawness about the atmosphere as we stepped off the plane into the heat. We were met in the baggage hall by Pastor Yatta. The heat and noise here in the baggage hall is intense as over 200 people all seemingly with the maximum baggage allowance try and position themselves next to the short conveyor which has room for about 40 at most!