I am at an internet cafe in downtown bust Freetown but I am living in the lap of luxury as this one is air conditioned & actually working!!!!!! Abrahams is not however (he is the 18 year old son of the Kamara’s who accompanies me now that Collins is MIA),. He is tall quiet young man who |I really appreciate, he is my shadow here in SL.
The busy streets of Freetown are something you wouldn’t believe, the wretched stench of petrol (think a mix of diesel & propane fumes), sweaty guys pushing trailer like carts, cars, ladies all walking with their baskets on their heads, vans & people all share the street. As a matter of fact I just caught 2 pick pockets again!!! These ones didn’t get anything, I caught them before they got their hands in my pockets. They work in two’s, so if you get bumped on one side the guy on the other side is working you. I got bumped & knew this, I told Abraham, someone behind us began saying stuff in Krio (which is basically like a really fast Jamaican, whiich everyone speaks, they say English is the official language but it is in actuality Krio) I asked Abraham what the guy said, ‘abusive language towards them’, so other people caught on to their scheme as well. One should hav a zippered bag slung over your shoulder here.
I taught Class 1 (Grade 1) this morning, cutest little kids, as I said I would say half maybe 60-70% (at most) speak English & most not well or with that thick accent. So my lesson consisted of ‘I am Uncle Spencer from Edmonton Canada’…about an hour in I asked the kids if they knew what snow was, all of their little hands went up, first kid ‘Sierra Leone’, 2nd child “Kay!’, 3rd, ‘Freetown”…you just have to laugh!
Abraham & I are on our way to the BMI office to pick up my 2nd bag (so now I have 2/3!)
Yesterday was an extremely heart wrenchjing & powerful experience, a teacher, Paul Thomas (who is a Sierra Leonian who was in med school here but lost his scholarship so he is teaching now, a fabulous guy, ) & Abraham took me to Grafton, the war refugee camp to meet with many of the RUF amputee victims of the war. We first went to a fellow that Paul knows & teaches there he was very reluctant & didn’t think that it was a good idea, he took us to an elder anyway. The elder with all of his fingers missing explained that many people have come gotten their hopes up & nothing changes for them. Paul explained in Krio that I did not want to offend anyone. he agreed. They told their stories *& it baffles the mind how this could happen? All for no reason, they took him out & said take his arm (the one fellow John McCoys story) ‘Why’ he cried, they sis it then burned his house. I slipped him 5000 Leones as we left (about $ 1.75) he chased after me to thank me, you would have thought I’d given him $100000!! I asked the Kamoras & we are taking some goods to the other people later, maybe Friday.
I certainly have a different perspective of church groups & the UN. In other areas of Grafton (not the part I was) groups (there are big signs stating what group (usually a church)) is helping their & I must say that they are the best places (other than the UN & ex-pat places) I have seen. Much cleaner & organized than Thunderhill (which has refuse everywhere) & the rest of Freetown. Some peole are doing great work here. Corruption runs deep & it is not easy to get the goods where they are meant to go but obviously lots are making it)
There is so much one can do here for literally no money. School fees for a year are only about $50, all those cute little kids who are in my pictures around |Thunderhill, none can afford to go to school, but what ones do you pick?? It makes me even angrier at Collins for asking what he did, I am taking Gabriel to the dentist saturday before I go out to Tacugama for something crazy like $5.00!!! They have begun digging the water into the school, kids using picks & just bury a hose just under the surface of the shale, all for $180 or something. I have seen no one starving, everyone has food but thats avbout it, it is very hard so little thinks like plastic bags are hard to come by… oh the kids pencil sharperners….razor blades!!
They are also starting a dog cull here. There are literally hundreds & hundreds of dogs here none aggressive, all so timid & sskittish, but there are so many. I don’t tell people how much it breaks my heart, because when there is so much human suffering & poverty, animals obviously come last. I may go to the vet office to see how many I can save, the dogs that hang around peoples houses (NO dogs come inside here (fleas etc. ) but cats do (rats)) are flung ovber peoples shoulders or being drug with rope leashes to the vet, when they get their shots they get a blue collar, all other dogs will be killed. I do understand you can’t believe how many there are, sleeping on the road dodging traffic (so far I have saw only one dead one) they are hundreds of them everywhere.
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