a breath of fresh air

Our car speeds down the nicest road I have been on since arriving in Sierra Leone. As the most “main highway” the country has, it is in relatively good condition. We stop in Waterloo, the last town outside Freetown on the way to Makeni. The car stops and we are immediately bombarded by children and young adults trying to sell us anything and everything. Bread, fish, biscuits, cold soft (soda), fried plantains… If the window is down you practically could eat an entire meal without moving just by biting down on the array of food thrust in your face. A get bocu padi dem. (I have many friends) One boy tells me he loves me and another asks for my number. Maybe this is what it feels like to be a celebrity. If it is, I don’t ever want to be one. I laugh and joke with them in my bad bad Kiro. And then we are off again and they promise me they will remember me forever.

As we continue on away from the busyness of the city, the landscape is not at all what I thought Africa to look like. It is lush and green—full of tall grass, tropical plants, flowers and palm trees. We pass through villages with houses that all look alike. Villages rebuilt after the war. The fighting left nothing but remnants of life scattered throughout the beautiful landscape. Housing projects and IDP programs came to rebuild, to get people to move back out of the overcrowded city of Freetown where the last refuge from the fighting was found. One after another, African versions of housing developments. Some villages reconstructed with mud bricks, others with thatched huts.

We pass through a larger village at a main crossroad on market day. People from all the villages within walking distance come to buy and sell goods. Colorful women with baskets piled high upon their heads line the roads as we pass.

There is freedom outside of Freetown. I sense it. Less chaos. More simplicity. A greater sense of peace. I take a deep breath of fresh air. There is freedom outside of Freetown.

***

I have come to Makeni, a town about three hours outside Freetown, where World Hope has another office. I have come to conduct communications trainings for the staff – how to write a basic impact story. FAAST is based in Freetown, but most of the work of World Hope is rural development out in the village communities surrounding Makeni.

I wake up to a baby crying outside and the dissonant praises being sung out to God in the next room. I have to pee, but it’s not light enough yet to not need a flashlight and to bother with winding my non battery powered light source doesn’t seem worth the effort yet. We have no NPA in Makeni. If people have power at all, it comes from a generator. No electricity, no running water. This is the Africa I was expecting. The Africa that gets along fine without these simple “necessities”. The Africa that sings praises to God for clean water pumped miraculously from the ground, as if Moses himself tapped the hard stone earth. The Africa so thankful for the opportunity to learn and grow and develop – eager to pass along not only knowledge but seeds to a fellow neighbor.

I see the work of Jesus – the way he calls us to live. And I see those living it sing praises to papa God for every chance at living one more day of life.

It is a breath of fresh air from the smog of Freetown. A freshness in the literal sense but also a clarity seeing the excited willingness of people to embrace new ways of life.

While I conducted the training, and Praise God it went extremely well, I am also here to capture stories for WHI general programs as well. I accompanied the staff to schools recently built, wells recently dug, and communities being transformed. I talked with villagers, laughed with their children and listened to their stories. It excites me to see the work of international development with true, tangible excited smiles to tell of the transformation.

I see people willing to break cultural norms that tear each other apart and replace them with a sense of unity and a spirit of working together. People learning to love and embrace their women, “we learn to call our wives honey” and empower them to take ownership of the work their own two hands can do. People learning to problem solve among themselves. To settle disputes and come up with solutions and even innovative ideas such as a shop for selling basic necessities to local villages to avoid the cost and time of traveling to Makeni or the inflated prices of sporadic good brought by traders. People learning to save money as a community for future development, for a bad harvest season, necessary repairs or a family in need of some extra help with school fees. People learning to value the next generation. To raise up healthy, educated children to carry on.

I am excitedly fascinated by what I see taking place and even more excited to sit down and write all the stories I’ve heard.

Yet, while my time in Makeni was a breath of fresh air, I am warmed by the feeling of peace in coming home. As we turn down Scan Drive I realize that this is home. I see familiar faces and hear little voices yell ‘Auntie Crissa!’. I am exhausted from the week but delighted to think that it is Sunday and we will have Scan Drive Pikin Club in a few hours. These are my neighbors, this is my community, I’m glad to be home.

Communications Training with WHI staff

 

Water is Life!

 

village life