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.
Koidu is the centre of the diamond industry in Sierra Leone and was featured in the film “blood diamond” (http://blooddiamondmovie.warnerbros.com/) about the recent civil war.
We arrive at the bus station just before 6.00 am to be greeted by loud afro music engulfing the station and to some extent drowning the noise from 300 + excited passengers and market traders. In other words its absolute mayhem and it feels more like a disco than a bus station at the crack of dawn!
There are 47 tickets for the bus and we first load our luggage into the hold. This takes about an hour as there is a more luggage than available space and some compromises are reached as to what is taken on board as “hand” luggage. We then enter the bus by ticket number in order to limit the crush; however it still takes another 30 minutes to load everyone up. I wonder why this constant need for pushing and trying to get to the front of the queue and then I think about the last time I didn’t get food after queuing for it in England – I cannot recall a single incident, sometimes perhaps my preferred meal has not been available but there has always been something. I realise that the culture here is different; the person(s) at the end of the queue here often go without so it’s not surprising that they push to get to the front.
The bus leaves at 7.45 and yet within half a mile we stop and pick up some more passengers. This process is repeated over the next couple of miles and suddenly the central aisle is full with about 10 more passengers and luggage. However the atmosphere is cordial and friendly with lots of laughs and smiles. Joni, Yatta and I sit in the front row and can observe all the action as there are 3 more riders on the landing next to the Driver (2 of them appear as bus officials) and they seem to moderate the additional passengers that we seem to accumulate and drop off at various stages of the journey. This despite the fact that we have the bus is supposed to go direct to Koidu with no official stops but with occasional stop for refreshments.
The first 110 miles to Makeni is a very straightforward journey with good quality roads that are much better than 4 years ago. We reach Makeni within 4 hours but the next 100 miles to Koidu is much more variable. In some areas the potholes have just increased in size thereby slowing average speed to below 30 kmh. The views of small villages interspersing the lush green jungle and countryside help to keep the journey interesting but the afternoon starts to drag as the road becomes ever more bumpy when suddenly there is excitement from the guys at the very front of the bus, “sneyke, sneyke” they cry and we see a snake “scuttle” very quickly across the road in front of us. A few miles down the road and the same thing happens again, I was surprised how quickly the snake moved (for those interested it was about 2 metres long and appeared lime green in colour).
At 5.00 we reach Koidu which seems a few degrees cooler than Freetown but temperatures are only just below 30c. We are given a warm welcome by Pastor James McCarthy who escorts us to the guest house. Our room is more spartan than in Freetown but air conditioning is not as necessary as it was in Freetown where temperatures were in the high 30’s. Power and running water will be available after 7.30 pm and so not wishing to wait we take a quick shower using the “bucket” method. This traditional approach helps remind us how much we take running water for granted in the UK.
We join David Sandi, Yatta, James and his team for a welcome supper of chicken stew at the guest house. They are extremely grateful for all the gifts we have brought out from the UK and they all send their thanks. The gifts vary from school teaching material to football shirts from contacts at the Craig Bellamy foundation (http://www.craigbellamyfoundation.org). Thanks to all of you who have given something!
After supper we go for a short walk around town and before long pass the cinema which is showing live European football – furthermore loudspeakers with the crowd noises are positioned to project the noise onto the surrounding streets, so if you want to escape football then don’t go to Sierra Leone – its everywhere! David Sandi suggests we stop at another guest house where we can have some “soft drinks”. David then promptly orders a “star beer” explaining that it’s the “local brew”. I exchange a knowing glance with Joni as we had already developed a taste for Star beer in Freetown! The Deputy Mayor joins us for a drink, he had spent much of the day with one of the interior ministers discussing various community projects which the government may sponsor (sadly these do not involve huge tranches of money but are at least a step in the right direction).
Friday 19th December 2008
We spend an exciting and inspirational morning visiting the three key educational projects in this area that we are supporting. Namely St Andrews school Maima, Bungalow school, Koidu and Ahkom technical and vocational centre Koidu.
The visit to St Andrews School Maima is truly moving as we received the most fantastic welcome from about 70 young children with smiles as wide as their faces. It felt totally spontaneous and was a wonderful feeling. Sometimes friends ask why are you doing this? The truth is its hard to analyse, a combination of helping those in need, reducing the guilt of living such a good life and so on but actually to have seen those grateful smiles makes it so worthwhile.
It was 4 years ago that St Andrews Maima School was opened to about 60 pupils aged 5 and 6. Daniel Kambaima, the head teacher today reported that there are now 221 pupils from 5 – 11 years of age. We have helped to extend the buildings over the last few years but it was really good to see a further extension being built with Government money today. In talking to the Governors it is unanamously agreed that we shall try and lobby for the Sierra Leone Government to take over the school. That is a very different model to the UK but it seems that here NGO’s and the voluntary sector seeds projects for the short term. In some cases as with Bungalow school the short term support is very limited (in the case of Bungalow School the church is now providing support after one NGO pulled out). However the principle of not being reliant on external support for teachers salaries and books in perpetuity is a good one. Pastor Yatta will now be lobbying the education minister for the transfer of Maima school but we understand this could take some time so please don’t cancel the standing orders just yet!
Richard
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