Our Weekend Away

It was time for another trip away from Makeni on the weekend so we decided to go to Freetown on Friday then head to the beach Saturday and finally end up in Tombo the location for the CBF academy.

We left Makeni to start our 3 hour drive in a comfortable 7 seater car which we had all to ourselves. This was honestly quite a luxury for us as we are usually all crammed together. The driver was quite entertaining and spent practically the whole journey with his hazard lights on and wearing a builders hard hat as some sort of helmet. I wondered why he even bothered with this safety precaution as he wasn’t too fussed about wearing his seat belt. Anyway he did get us safely to our hotel after ramming his car through the crowds of people. Freetown is pretty crazy. It’s full of people, orcado’s and cars all travelling in different directions and getting on with their daily routines. Our hotel rooms felt like heaven as we were greeted with a blast of cold air from the air con and 24/7 electricity. We had dinner then made our way to a bar to meet Charlie from The Collective and Pete who works at CBF as well as a few of their friends. Freetown is much more westernised than Makeni so it was nice to be able to go to a proper bar and club again. We enjoyed having a few drinks at the club which was right on the beach then headed home at about 3:30am in search for some food. We came across a man selling omelette and bread which is as good as a Subway at that sort of time and headed back to the hotel. The next morning we met with Charlie to go over work and then had a look round the market for some Sierra Leone football shirts. We left a couple of hours later and headed to Burah Beach.

Burah is yet another beautiful beach here and when we arrived there were crowds of people dancing to music and playing in the sea. We arranged to stay in a wooden cabin and tent for the night and then headed straight for the sea. The waves were pretty big and went right over our heads so we spent quite a while trying to catch them and getting knocked off our feet. It was amazing swimming in the sea with music blaring out and mountains surrounding us. We spent the rest of the evening chilling out and having yet another nice dinner of freshly caught fish and rice with groundnut sauce. Perfect. The next day we headed back to the sea and Ben and Adam did a bit of surfing. We relaxed and then went off to the Craig Bellamy Academy in Tombo. 

The idea of CBF academy is that the boys who play in the leagues throughout the country can get scouted and selected to attend the academy where they will live and get schooled at free of charge. They also play football every day and have matches and eventually it is hoped that they will either become footballers or have occupations like doctors or lawyers. Two of the boys have already had the chance to go to America to play which is a great achievement. The academy is funded through the footballer Craig Bellamy himself and it is a great idea which is expanding further. We had the chance to have a look around the buildings and see the only grass pitch in Sierra Leone. We met some of the boys and were introduced to some of the people we are doing work for before making our way back to Makeni. Hopefully the next time we go up to Tombo we will get the chance to play against the boys.

We had a great weekend away and now its straight back to work. Ben leaves this Sunday so we’re hoping to get to all do something together before he goes.               

Celebrations!!

Its been a while since my last blog entry so this one might end up being quite long. Stick with it though cause I've got lots to say.......

We’ve had a few celebrations recently. No surprise there, it’s become quite apparent that the Sierra Leoneans love a good celebration. First of all it was Bob Marley Day and when I say day I mean it starts at around 8am and goes on till about 7pm where they then go onto another village to party well into the night. Now I never even knew Bob Marley had a day but I think it should be recognised more in England, mainly cause it’s just excuse for another party. Anyway, our neighbour Sallie invited us to go with her and the rest of her family so we joined them in the village next to ours called Mabanta. When we got there it was literally a big outdoor area fenced off and a guy blaring music out of speakers. There were people selling drinks and in the far corner a distinctive smell of weed was drifting through the party from a group of men smoking the biggest spliffs I've ever seen (very Bob Marley like). We soon got onto the Stars and in the dancing spirit with Sallie showing us all up with her dance moves. Typically it never takes long for kids to gather round us and we soon had pretty much every kid at the party dancing with us to. Sallie’s dad, Hassan, acted as our bodyguard throughout the party and whenever someone drunk gave us a bit of hassle he was quick to come over and give them a few words. He’d often say to us “don’t worry I will look out for you” while he cooly held a beer and cig in his hand and effortlessly danced in true dad style. It was clear he is respected by others in the village and is what I like to call “a legend.” What shocked me most at the party was the amount of kids that spent their time chasing each other trying to get a sip of the last bit of alcohol in a packet or a toke of a cigarette or even the little 4 year old who regularly stood with all the men smoking weed. I know that this is probably very normal in this country as I'm sure there’s no such thing as age restrictions for buying alcohol here but every time I see it, it really gets to me and I think about whether this has any effect on them when they grow up and how different their attitude is compared to England.

The other celebration that we recently had was much different and it’s nice to say there was no children smoking or drinking here. It was the Clubhouse 1 year anniversary and also Josh’s 22^nd birthday. We all dressed up and headed to the Clubhouse for some drinks, dancing to a live band and a lovely food buffet with potato salad, couscous, fried rice and a massive barracuda fish. Everyone was in high spirits and Josh was initiated by the miners and made to drink upside down with two men holding his legs up. We all had a very entertaining night and spent the Sunday after only leaving the house for dinner.

Other than all the celebrations we enjoyed a lovely weekend at a place called Robonko Village where we met our new volunteer Adam who will be working with us on CBF. Robonko is a little village in the middle of nowhere where you can take a picturesque motorbike ride through sugar cane fields and a cashew nut plantation which we found out takes 6 years to grow. We stayed in a type of mud hut with a thatched roof but it was really cosy and well made. During the day we went down to the river for a swim and had a nice meal of groundnut soup and rice with fresh pineapple. At night the sky was as clear as I’ve ever seen before and the stars were so bright. We spent a while just looking up and counting all the shooting stars we could see. The next day was spent relaxing with another trip to the river where on our way down we came across a green snake going across the path with a frog in its mouth. We left in time to watch the Man City and QPR football match which turned out to be a very exciting end to the premiership (sorry to all my Man U friends but I was very happy they didn’t win). It was yet another fun filled trip away and this weekend we are heading to Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone. 

Work wise has been fairly quiet this last couple of weeks. We’ve had limited internet access but it is finally picking up again and today me and Greg visited one of the schools I'm going to be working with to build stronger relationships with CBF. When we went to the school the first thing I noticed was that a lot of the teachers carried around a short bamboo stick, which I can only assume is used to flog the children with. The classrooms were cramped and what looked like was once the school hall now had 3 different classes in it and nothing separating them from one another so everyone had to shout to be heard. I have no idea how the children concentrate in those sorts of conditions. I'm looking forward to see how the other schools compare.

For the rest of the week we hope to visit a place called Kabala for the day, we’re heading to Freetown on the weekend and going to the CBF Academy in Tombo, we’re off to watch Sallie and Alusine play football today and I’m getting on with some of my questionnaire work. Busy week.           

               

A Night With The Locals

I'm almost a month into my time in Sierra Leone now and so far I’ve enjoyed every minute of it. I'm inspired by the people in this country as it is clear a lot of them have so little and have been through so much. The decade long war has had some major affects here. Today you can still see houses which were destroyed during the fighting and act as a constant reminder. I still find it amazing being able to talk to someone who is maybe only a few years older than me but has stories about how they had to flee their village into the bush because of the rebels or one guy even talked about being tortured. It really hits you when you talk to these people and I feel so lucky to have been bought up in a stable country where I've never had to see war first hand. The positive now is that you can see they are making improvements here even though they’re happening at a slow rate and there is still a fair bit of corruption you kind of get the feeling that war is something these people never want to have again. 

On a happier note, I really wanted to tell you all about the night we recently spent hanging out with the community people. A local girl called Sallie who is about 22 often comes to our house to chill out and being the only girl in the house I kinda like the female company. Sallie is such a lovely person, whenever you see her she’s got this huge smile on her face. She’s also got a son called Mohammed who’s 2 but the farther left them both and isn’t interested in keeping in contact. Sallie lives in a small house with about 10 other people, all of them are family or extended family and everyday she wanders round carrying a cool box on her head selling drinks. I don’t know how she manages it cause I've tried lifting it and its pretty heavy. She’s also this amazing runner so we’re hoping she will win the SL Marathon in a few weeks, which will mean she gets some prize money and makes her stand out for other competitions. 

Anyway, we spent the other night at her house where about 20 or so people other people had congregated outside. They were all drinking Poya (wine which has been fermented from palm trees) and I mean everyone even little Mohammed, listening to the radio and chatting while the children were playing. We joined them, sitting in the dark with our torches and the moonlight shining down. Of course it wasn’t long before we soon found ourselves teaching the kids things they hadn’t done before. Just simple thing like trying to tap your head while rubbing your belly got them in fits of giggles. I learnt a good few clapping games that night to and one lady in particular taught me a really good one and found it hilarious when a started dancing to the tune. There was one kid called YaYa who they say is 8 years old but is the size of a 2 year old. Everyday we walk past the house he comes running out to hold our hand with the biggest smile on his face. It was hard not to want to pick him up all the time or treat him like a little kid. A top up phone stall across the road then started playing music and all of a sudden the kids ran over and started dancing. I couldn’t miss the opportunity to go and have a little boogie so went over with them and poorly started showing off my dance moves. Obviously they started laughing at me but I was in the zone. Sallie then joined us and another lady was trying to teach me some sort of bum/hip shake which I failed miserably at. The boys stood away from the dancing, maybe trying to pretend they weren’t with the weird white girl trying to dance; I’m not sure on that one yet. It was such a nice feeling to be dancing under the stars and I'm pretty sure I had a smile on my face the whole time. The kids continued to play games till well after 10 and little Mohammed who had clearly had too much Poya decided to leave my top nice and wet after I had picked him up which I wasn’t too happy about but had to laugh at. I explained to Sallie that children that age in England would have to be in bed by 7 and there was no way they’d be allowed to wander around the street playing. She seemed shocked that this happened and that night I really got to see the huge culture differences there are between us and the Sierra Leoneans. I enjoyed my night with Sallie’s family a lot and learnt a great deal about our community here. I hope to spend some more nights with them and experience more about how they live here.                    

It's Not All Beaches and Relaxation

So I've noticed that I haven’t actually told everyone what I’m doing out here for 3 months. Apart from the obvious beach trips, mountain treks and enjoying a Salonian lifestyle I’m actually out here volunteering for a charity called the Craig Bellamy Foundation (CBF). To me this charity is perfect it increases the amount of young people going to school and gives them a decent education, simply by using football as an incentive which allows them to be involved with something positive and in many cases can change their lives. They have set up different leagues across the country involving up to 2000 kids but if they don’t go to school then they can’t play in any matches. Each club also runs community projects twice a month to help the children understand a range of topics including malaria, HIV, or hygiene. We volunteers also run capacity building sessions for the managers to learn essential skills for running a team or another business. I'm currently working in a city called Makeni which has around 700 boys and girls involved; there are 20 managers each with their own coach and club to run. 

Altogether 4 of us (me, Greg, Mark and Josh) made the trip from Heathrow to Freetown and joined Ben, another volunteer who had already been working with CBF for a month. Me and Greg have joined Ben with the various CBF projects that need work on and Mark is working on the first ever Sierra Leone marathon, while Josh is working for Street Child helping to run a restaurant called The Clubhouse. When me and Greg started work we were both a bit unsure on how we could actually help improve this league. It has actually taken us until now to feel we have something really worthwhile to implement. The first 2 weeks have been getting to know how things work and who everyone is. We’ve gone to games, met with managers, coaches and other NGO’s, attended community projects and recently played in a mangers verse coaches football match which mainly involved 4 apportos puffing and panting the whole time due to the heat. I have to say we were probably more of a hindrance to the team then an asset. 

One of the things I've noticed most about working here is that no matter how many times you agree to meet someone at a particular time or arrange a game to kick off at say 10 am it will almost defiantly not happen at the time you agree. For some reason time does not account for anything here. One of my best examples of this is that last week me and Greg set off to watch a girls match supposedly kicking off at 4pm, we were there on time and could see one of the teams had already turned up so went to go and speak to them. About 45 minutes later the other team turn up seemingly unfazed by the fact they were so late. Both teams were then ready to play but it became clear that there was still no referee. At this point both me and Greg were getting agitated so Greg kindly offered to be ref. However no one had a whistle so the game still couldn’t get started. In a desperate attempt to get going I walked off to the police station nearby and tried to get a whistle but strangely the only person with one had gone home. Typical. A few minutes later the ref casually turns up only about an hour and a half late and finally got the game on the way. After all that, me and Greg could only stay for 10 minutes as we had to be somewhere else. This little episode caused us to come up with an idea where points can be deducted for lateness and is something Greg hopes to implement across all teams in Makeni.  

One of the projects I'm about to start is to evaluate the relationship CBF has with the schools in this area. There are 57 schools in Makeni and I've got to conduct interviews and questionnaires with as many head teachers or teachers as I can. I’m hoping I won’t have to visit them all.  I'm also going to be working on identifying how Homework Clubs can improve. Currently these aren’t really regarded as being important by many team mangers so I'm going to be seeing why this is and what the problems are. Hopefully I can just hold one big mangers meeting without having to analyse anymore questionnaires.

We’re getting another volunteer coming down on Friday so we’re all going to be heading a cashew nut factory with Charlie. I’ve no idea what we’re going to be doing but I hope it’s a lot better than it sounds. I’ll let you all know how it goes. Hope this entry hasn’t been too boring it’s just for anyone who wants to know a bit more about the work we’re all doing here.

Sun, Sea and a Poda Poda

Having spent 3 weeks in Sierra Leone and 2 of them in Makeni we decided it was time to get to the beach. Makeni is the hottest place in the country and we have definitely been feeling it over the weeks so we decided to head to Banana Island. This was a 3 hour drive and a boat ride away, so heading off reasonably early we went to get a taxi and managed to cram six of us, very uncomfortably into the car and set off. We had to change drivers when we reached a town called Waterloo and were set up with someone who probably looked about 14 though none of us really thought anything of it. You still come across a few road blocks when you drive around here, which always worry me as you never know what random excuse they will come up with for pulling you over, but we normally get through them with no problems. However this time the police man called the driver to stop and asked for his licence which of course he didn’t have. I don’t think people really believe in licences here. We didn’t really know what was going on but the driver walked off with the policeman and a few minutes later returned and the barrier went down. He had obviously paid a bribe to get through but we were kind of happy to just get moving again. 

We then had to get a little boat across to the island. I was half expecting there to be lots of banana trees or bananas to eat on there but when I arrived I couldn’t see any. I wasn’t too disappointed though as the scenery kept me distracted. The area was very green with lots of thick trees and bushes and it was weird to see that there was actually a working community living there. We stayed at a guest house which was right on the beach and had different rooms to stay in. Somehow I managed to get the luxury room and the boys had basic or standard but I wasn’t complaining about that. We spent the rest of the day resting in the hammocks and swimming in the sea at another beach up the island. The evening was spent watching the sun set on a raised balcony which looked out to sea and eating a delicious meal of fresh fish and couscous with the best tomato and garlic sauce I've had in a while. I didn’t have the best night’s sleep that night as the room was very open so I was worried about all the bugs as I had already gotton rid of a maggot and a disguising looking spider. I also woke up half way through the night with a spider in my mosquito net, not nice. 

The next day was spent relaxing again by the sea and having a little explore of the island until it was time to get going. We caught the boat back and once we had arrived on the shore we noticed there was a film crew there shooting something on slavery. One of the guys came up to us and asked if we could play the white people in the film who would be buying the slaves. He gave us some costumes and quickly briefed us on what we had to do. Trying not to laugh the whole way through we managed to pull off a pretty impressive show, so look out for “Good Mother Africa” in cinemas soon :) After our acting session we couldn’t find a taxi to take us back and spent half an hour trying to find someone who had a car. When we eventually found someone he told us he probably wouldn’t have enough fuel to take us the whole way as there is nearly always a fuel shortage here, so he dropped us back at Waterloo and set us up with a poda poda driver. These are like VW camper vans which they cram full with people. At first I thought we were lucky as it seemed we had managed to get our own private poda poda however he was soon calling more and more people into the van and I think we ended up with about 15 people all practically sitting on top of each other. We were about half an hour away when we suddenly heard a loud bang which we thought was the tyre. The driver pulled over but couldn’t see anything so got back in and tried to start the engine but it wouldn’t go. By this time we had been travelling for about 5 hours and just wanted to get home but we all had to pile out while the driver ran off to get water. We were pretty much in the middle of nowhere so the thought of him being another hour or so didn’t really appeal to us. We decided to try and hitchhike a lift. It wasn’t long before a car pulled over which already had about 7 people in but we decided this would be the quickest way to get back. The car was bundled with the 12 of us and 2 of them sitting on the roof but we were finally on our way again. He dropped us off and then it was another 15 minute walk to the house. Overall it had taken us over 6 hours to get back and we were well and truly knackered. It was defiantly an only in Salone moment but looking back it was quite an experience and an enjoyable couple of days at the beach.