Singing and Shouts for starters!

In the dry season living, working and leisure in Freetown is as far as is possible an open air activity. So if you’re cooking, washing, selling or buying, plaiting hair or just sitting listening to the radio, you try and do it out of doors. Likewise with travel, be it in a poda poda mini-bus or a taxi you ensure that all windows are open. The vehicle may not have a suspension worthy of the name, or tyres with visible tread but a full sound system is a requirement of both forms of transport. So as we approached Christmas, the reggae, rap and bee bop rhythms invariably include the words of carols or well known songs and the occupants unite in a sing along journey that can heard by all those who are stuck in traffic or walking by.

To date all services of Methodist worship have been inside buildings, where the multifarious sounds of the adjacent street are an ever-present accompaniment to the liturgy. In the order of service, which is occasionally printed the presence of shouts and the development of Singspiration is apparently a recent phenomena. Shouts are repetitive choruses which are introduced by worship leaders. So following the formal act of confessional prayers which are recited from memory, the congregation is invited to stand. Then, with the support of competent drummers and even more skilled organists and pianists, there follows a melody of shouts that evokes, rhythmic clapping and in pew dancing from young, very young and the not so young. The infectious delight of the congregation is clearly evident, even if it is difficult to determine the words which may be in Krio, Mende or English. Then after a period of ten to fifteen minutes, the attentive ear of the congregation receive the cue that the singspiration is coming to a close, as the worship leader guides the congregation into a pattern of silence, followed by open prayer.

Charismatic, independent churches has influenced the introduction of Singspiration, which many people, among them life-long committed Methodists, have been hoping to see present in their own churches, which were regarded by outsiders as being spirit-less, cold and overly traditional. For many people, worship in the Independent, Charismatic and Pentecostal churches fed their souls in a manner not found in Methodist or Anglican worship.

Methodist minister Dr Leslie Shyllon, wrote that whilst the churches in Salone had “endeavoured to Africanise their ministry and organization (and to a large extent succeeded) but they have failed to Africanize either the liturgy and forms of worship or the theology of the church.” * Just as we were preparing to meet him, as a colleague whose long teaching ministry had taken him into retirement, we received news that he had died shortly after being admitted to a local hospital. Dr Shillon identifies that on arriving in Freetown from the Provinces, adherents of indigenous religions have found a proliferation of mosques and churches, but also a Christianity that is inaccessible to both their academic and emotional sensibilities. His analysis of the historical African churches concludes that the needs of the followers of Indigenous Traditional Religion (many of whom are illiterate) require a greater consideration than is currently been given.

Being an atheist, an agnostic or being indifferent to religion is not an option that many people find desirable in Freetown, or if they do, would not want to shout about it!

*“Two Centuries of Christianity in an African Province of Freedom” L.E.T.Shyllon 2008

For additional photos please see the following:
http://picasaweb.google.com/clark.janice/WelcomeToSalone

Illusions of Babylon and Bethlehem!

Illusions of Babylon and Bethlehem!

Time spent studying in the United Kingdom led Karim Bah to make a documentary film, “Babylon Illusion”, as his response the expectation of many young Salonies, who leave Freetown for the illusion of the good life in London. In turn the reactions of the audience at the film’s premiere at the British Council earlier this week, indicates that the young writer-director’s perceptions are shared by many of his peers. Bleak images of Africans living in opposition to the harshness of a British winter and working long hours at menial tasks, are easy to contrast with the razamataz of a Freetown street market, where socialising is as important as the trade itself. However the frustrations of a Salone musician whose potential is not being realised in the midst of London, creates a more detailed narrative of the living illusion of ‘west being best’ for those desperate to make the exodus.
Many, in the largely male audience at the British Council were but a few years younger than the men who flocked to Aberdeen Health Clinic this week to undergo medicals tests. Dressed in civilian clothes, they described themselves as trained soldiers and perhaps many were ex-combatants, but each of them expressed their ambition to serve in Afghanistan. Some acknowledged that desert warfare was a long way from the tropical rain forests of West Africa, but they insisted confidently, “soldiering is soldiering”.
Only a few minutes earlier at a point a little further down the iridescent Aberdeen – Lumley beach, (which stretches for three miles and faces west into the open Atlantic) Janice and I had been watching another group of young men. They were fishing. Under a scorching sun, they had laid a kilometre long net in a huge arc from a rowing boat and working in two teams they were proceeding to haul the net ashore. The entire process takes approximately 2-3 hours and when the catch has been landed and the women have carried it away in large plastic bowls, the task is repeated once again. And no doubt they would do it again the following day.
Later in the week another group of men and women were gathered, for the purpose of listening to readings associated with birth of Christ, and singing carols as part of the theological college’s end of semester’s service of worship. In the college’s main hall, with the fans working overtime against the heat, we were spared “in the bleak mid winter”, which was helpful, but there was still no contextualising of what the birth at the centre of our reflection means in a country where maternal mortality places Salone women at a greater risk than their sisters in 166 other countries. Then having greeted each other in a fulsome manner, we all left for the streets of the city, where being Friday, Muslims are more likely to be wearing traditional north and west African dress.
Seasonal visitors from near and far have increased the city’s congestion but slow moving traffic makes the task of street vendors who selling to customers through open mini-bus and taxi windows all the easier, especially if they spot you gazing at their wares. I cannot recall my thoughts as I turned my head in response to a voice close to my face and met the sight of a young man’s two severed forearms extended towards me. As our taxi pulled away, in an instant he was gone but the piercing image was a stark reminder of the reality for many, who lost limbs to opposing sobels, (soldiers/rebels) that the war that ended a decade ago, will never be over.

Postscript: In an earlier posting I wrote of the instability in neighbouring Guinea and the following may offer a broader consideration of the continuing problem and the threat it poses.
WHY GUINEA MATTERS -Jeggan Grey-Johnson
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/61075

Human Rights Day 2009

Human Rights Day 10 December 2009
Focus on Africa, a BBC World Service programme, keeps us in touch with the situation in the neighbouring countries, such as Guinea, but also other African countries. The programme is broadcasted at regular intervals throughout the day, and having turned on the radio, just after 7pm on Human Rights Day, we heard that Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) had been declared unlawful in Uganda, and that anyone found practising it, would be imprisoned for 10 years, and if a person dies as a result of the act, then it is life imprisonment for the practitioner. FGM is seen as a violent, inhumane act practised on young girls, and therefore is a violation of human rights.
The World Health Organisation estimates that 130 million girls and women in Africa alone suffer the physical and psychological effects of some form of FGM. It is estimated that 2 million girls are circumcised every year, equivalent to 6,000 genital mutilations per day and 250 mutilations per hour.
There are various campaigning groups, both inside the countries where FGM is practised and also elsewhere. For those of us who come from countries where such a practice has never been part of our traditions, it is hard to understand how such violence can be inflicted on young girls.
FGM is practised in Sierra Leone, and it is estimated that 94% of females have gone through this initiation ceremony and become part of the “Bondo Society”. There are a number of reasons given for the important of the practice – that it is a social event, bringing women and girls together, that it ensures that young girls are marriageable and therefore it has financial implications if you have daughters. It is also argued necessary to reduce sexual arousal and therefore limits promiscuity, and is even deemed to give more pleasure to men during intercourse.
The marriage of one’s daughter is an economic affair, and therefore fathers will want to negotiate the agreement being made between two families for a good “dowry”. The status of a father in society will be dependent on such issues and therefore a non-circumcised young woman will bring disgrace to a father. Men are therefore socially indoctrinated into believing that their bride needs to be mutilated in order to protect her virginity and honour.
The Bondo Society is said to be a cohesive force within a community, and after the war, a return to its practices indicated restored, social stability and the continued maintenance of tradition. Family heads save a whole year proceeds from farming activities to spend lavishly on ‘Bondo' ceremonies.
It is difficult to stop FGM from being practised when it continues to remain popular with many of the women in Sierra Leone, and men too, and is seen as a vote winner at elections time. Candidates for the Nation’s Parliament have been known to condone FGM as they go around campaigning prior to elections, and gain votes as a result.
The front page of Premier News, 9 December edition had the headline PAY ME MY MONEY? A 17- year old girl had been forcibly initiated into the Bondo Society during the process of childbirth, resulting in both physical and psychological pain. Who gave the orders for the procedure to be carried out is under question, and the nurse responsible delivered the baby, and performed the initiation on credit, hence the headline. A local human rights group and Amnesty International condemned the act.
The Ministry of Gender, Social Welfare and Children's Affairs has drafted a bill aimed at protecting children's welfare. Knowing that the banning of FGM will not bring votes, there may be little incentive to pass the bill, even though lip service is paid in certain social settings condemning the practice.
Worldwide attention that has been paid to the issue has increased gradually over the last 30 years so that it now appears on the agenda of many UN agencies. FGM is considered as a health issue, a torture issue, a children’s issue, a women’s issue, an economic issue. It is a faith issue too, if one considers that all religions affirm the Golden Rule “Do to others as you would have others do to you.”
For local anti-FGM campaigners, life is very difficult. Speaking publically about the practice is considered a taboo, and therefore other means have to be devised to educate girls about the practice, eg. training girls in income generating skills, such as sewing, and hairdressing and in the process talk about avoidance of having their bodies abused. Alternative positive rituals for social cohesion would need to be devised to fill the vacuum that the removal of the practice would leave. An overnight decision to ban it would force it undercover, but sensitive collaboration of representatives from the whole community, looking at the practice from many different perspectives, might bring about new ways of being for countless girls and women around the world.
12 December 2009

Climate Change – Harmattan style

Climate Change – Harmattan style
It’s here, the Harmattan has arrived! The Harmattan is a dry and dusty West African trade wind, which blows south from the Sahara into the Gulf of Guinea for what constitutes the dry season for Salone.
The word Harmattan may be from the Arabic ḥarām, evil thing, but, given that it arrived within a two day period, we are no longer sweating profusely when doing physical activities, despite it being hotter (30C), it’s not all bad news. It also marks a significant shift in food production and agriculture that requires respect and reflection, after all, this is the time to talk “climate change” seasonal or otherwise, especially when you are not in Copenhagen.
With the exception of the Freetown peninsula, the whole of Salone’s coastal area and also that of it neighbours Guinea and Liberia, are low lying and subject to the impact of the change in sea levels. The worst example of this is in Liberia, where the majority of the population live in coastal cities including the capital city of Monrovia where 200,000 people (one fifth of the population) live less than a metre above a sea level that has been rising significantly in recent years. Some districts have seen the loss of land, previously a kilometre from the Atlantic Ocean. A study commissioned by the Liberian government suggests it could cost up to $175m (£106m) to build sea defences at Liberia's five major cities. Such an amount is about half the national budget and therefore the government has submitted a request to help protect Monrovia, to a fund set up by the United Nations, after the Kyoto Protocol, agreed by the majority of the world's countries a decade ago.

A position paper on Climate Change, written for the delegation from Sierra Leone to Copenhagen, indicates a dramatic change in recent years with Salone’s dry season being reduced from six months to three months per year. This drastic change had provided many critical issues for the government of Sierra Leone. The prolonged humid season has increased the prevalence of mosquitoes and malaria has become a nationwide epidemic. This in turn threatens the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set by United Nations to reduce extreme poverty, reduce child mortality rates, fight disease epidemics such as AIDS, and develop a global partnership for development by 2015.
In Guinea, the nation’s attention may well be on the current political climate and not that of the climate change summit in Denmark. Since the death of Guinea’s President late in 2008, the country has been governed by a military junta under the leadership of Capt. Moussa Dadis Camara , who was only a child when the late president took power 24 years previously. Dadis, as he is known by Guineans, promised to establish a multi-party democracy and announced that he had no intention to become the nation’s president. In September 2009, when rumours of his new presidential aspirations began to circulate, a mass rally of opposition was held in by a political party in a football stadium of Conakry, the nation’s capital. This peaceful and well attended event concluded with un-precedent episode of rape and tortured and the death of over 150 people, for which the military appear to entirely responsible for.
Condemnation by the African Union and the global community, of the atrocities, led to a United Nation’s team being sent to conduct a full investigation and whilst the enquiry was taking place last week, Captain Dadis Camara was said to have been shot in the head and flown to Morocco, where he continues to undergo treatment. Whilst the soldier suspected of the shooting, Lt. Toumba Diakite, is still on the run in Guinea, scores of military personnel have been arrested. Meanwhile Capt. Camara's deputies have tried to squash rumours of a power vacuum and confusion over who is in charge. The interim leader, Gen. Sekouba Konate recently appeared on television, for the first time since the shooting, to urge unity and military discipline, whilst further announcements suggest a protracted delay in the return of Capt. Dadis Camara.
The talks in Copenhagen addressing our fragile eco-system are of paramount importance to the whole of humanity and yet it is clear that some nations are under greater threat from the effects of climate change than others. The term ‘fragile state’ is a composite, multi-dimensional description that depicts life in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone in numerous ways, including sharing the same eco-geo-political climate.
11 December 2009

Tengbeh Town: its road-railside reality.

Tengbeh Town: its road-railside reality.
Where we live, 19a Old Railway Line, places us not just on what was until the early 1960s a narrow gauge rail line that climbed to the summit of the hills above Freetown, but also on the edge of Tengbeh Town. It sounds as if it should be a slumbering middle-England football club but in fact is a very vibrant community that clings to the precipitous incline on the side of a mountain and hugs the road which has a more manageable gradient.
Janice and I regularly walk down the hill for 10 minutes to where taxis have their terminus in the centre of the community. “Taxis” operate like a bus service which has no fixed route and the driver negotiates how many people he can cram in and how much each passenger can be coerced to pay. When I state our destination, the response of the young driver is not about whether he intends to go in that direction but is instead, “oh mohs yugimme?” And as in all trade negotiations, nothing has a fixed price in Freetown, there is “white price”.
In reaching the terminus we pass the high walled premises said to belong to the Minister of Finance, the headquarters of World Food Programme, a mosque of a very fragile construction, the sign boards to two independent churches, the Lutheran Bible Translator’s Offices, three schools for varying ages. Amongst all these is a myriad of commercial enterprises from football cinemas, car repairs, tailoring and clothing repairs, bread makers and sellers, fruit stalls and invariably they are all within or attached to a family home or the grounds of the home. So that the events of cooking , washing laundry and personal ablutions, are all within view of those who pass by. Be it day or night, there is constant stream of activity for which the idea of lunch time or afternoon/evening closing time would be totally alien to the rhythm of day by day survival.
Just how compelling and demanding life is on the margins of the road-railway line, was made even more graphic on a recent visit to the Conteh family, to see their home, to eat a little food and experience his mini enterprise which included the chance to view some premiership football in the ‘cinema’ he owns. Sam Conteh, a native Sierra Leonean, gives a clear account of how hard he has found it to legally defend the boundaries of the plot of land he inherited from his Krio stepfather. And Kortor his wife, is equally graphic about the physical confrontations that have occurred with intruders, land grabbers and corrupt police officers who appear on the pretence of having the power to evict. The Conteh’s home is a few metres from the old railway line, a humble timber framed structure that was constructed within a four day-night period, in order to assert their rightful claim and ensure their continuity as owners.
Their land is also adjacent to a thoroughfare, which clearly determined the positioning of a corrugated zinc sheeted shed which can seat 200 people in front of two TV sets positioned less than a metre apart and the sole reason for young men paying 8p each, to see two English Premier football matches simultaneously, with the commentary being switched from one to the other at half time. The sound system, a loud hailer, is located outside to advertise the location and broadcast the events being shown via a satellite dish, attached to the roof of a lean-to kitchen. In this microcosm of urban living, where a tenant of the Conteh’s, a middle aged woman who suffered a stroke eight months ago lives in two small rooms with her six daughters and various children , where a welding workshop functions with the aid of near deafening diesel generator and the lounge of the family home serves as retail outlet for cold water, major questions are raised about how the social context shapes the understanding of personhood, of being an individual and being human. In this the communal concept of being African – a person is a person because of people, is instrumental in appreciating how the community of Tengbeh Town functions.
Our limited travel across Freetown confirms the widespread urban poverty which is reported as being ‘multi-faceted, infectious and compounded by high levels of inward migration and produces poor sanitation, uncollected garbage, an erratic water supply and intermittent power cuts’. As two new arrivals to a city, which may have close on two million people, we are part of the problem. It is therefore imperative that Janice and I, two Europeans, take seriously all that we encounter, whether they be individuals, communities, churches or educational institutions, and all of them African. In doing so, what and how we discover where we live and who we live alongside, is shaped by the events of recent history and that walk is both longer and more painful than the stroll we take down the old railway line.

World AIDS Day 2009

World AIDS Day 2009 – The growing challenge of providing HIV treatment.
Tuesday 1 December 2009 – Freetown , Sierra Leone.
As Jenova and Sentu, two women health workers, took the details of the 190th person willing to have a rapid HIV test, a young street trader arrived at the steps to the veranda with her wares carefully arranged on a large round enamel tray and balanced on her. We were in a suburb known as the Low Cost Housing in the East of Freetown, and were observing the testing of residents and passers-by at the invitation of Ernest Jusu, the leader of the HIV/AIDS team from Kissy United Methodist Church Hospital. The team should have been operating from the local Methodist church but had discovered that its premises were not available, which led to local residents offering their own homes for such purposes. On one side of the narrow, pot-holed and muddy street people were being registered before walking a few steps across the road for testing and counselling.
By the time we reached Low Cost Housing, it was well past lunchtime having spent a long and very humid morning in Victoria Park for the commemoration of World AIDS Day with hundreds of T shirts wearing HIV activists, school children, teachers, police officers, women’s groups and street traders, waving their banners and posters, being led into the park behind a military band. At the opening ceremony, attended by numerous civic and national dignitaries, Dr Brima Kargbo, the Director of the National HIV/AIDS Secretariat had stated that 48,000 people were living with HIV/AIDS in Sierra Leone and that the prevalence rate of 1.5% represented one of the lowest in Sub Saharan Africa. A statistic which should, he said, not be allowed to rise any higher and in time decrease. He also indicated that during the year, the statistics for tested pregnant women had shown that almost 10% were positive which underlined the slogan of the day, “Protect your baby, get tested for HIV!”.
Feeling somewhat hungry, I discovered that the enamel tray of the street trader offered bread buns with a fish ball filling, and onions and chilli if desired. No sooner had she given me the change for two 10p buns, than she was being asked her name and encouraged to take the HIV test. A very softly spoken and diffident Amainda*, gave her full name, followed by her address, age: 22, marital status: married ,occupation: street trader, religion: Muslim and number of children: two. And then with her number on a slip of paper, she crossed the road with carrying her goods, to give a blood sample to the technician who was occupying a cramped space on the veranda of a simple brick-walled home. Built to wall height level by the government in 1979, it had then been and completed by the father of William Saifa, its present owner ,who with his wife,Sally had opened up their home for testing purposes
Inside the house, Ernest explained that the testing was being conducted in confidence, and the possibility of people guessing one another’s status was minimised by the amount of time taken in the post-test counselling. A positive result would be quickly verified, and followed us by another form of testing, and the time given to indicate the two results would be brief and approximate to the time given for a negative result. Ernest called the number of the next client to receive their result and Amainda entered to be told that the two tests had confirmed that she was HIV positive and would she please attend the Kissy hospital the next day or soon thereafter. After a brief pause she had gone as quietly as she had entered.
After completing 213 tests , 15 of them with pregnant women, results showed 3 people had tested positive. We returned Kissy Hospital a few miles away where I raised the question of what the new WHO guidelines would mean for the hospital. There has been universal satisfaction in seeing the annual global rate for new HIV infections decreasing yet again and with it a renewal of commitment to see them fall even faster. However, with only just half of the 20 million people needing Anti Retro Viral medication actually receiving it, the news from the WHO, that commencement of treatment should begin at an earlier stage when the CD4 count is 350 or below, rather than the current practice of 200 or below, has been received by many governments with less enthusiasm. As the number of people continues to rise, starting treatment earlier will only increase the pressure on health budgets with Kenya and South Africa being swift to announce their financial problems.
Ernest explained that Kissy Hospital had pre-empted the WHO recommendation and had been treating people with the higher CD4 count for sometime. Thankfully for Amainda, and perhaps her children and many more women and men in Sierra Leone too, treatment is available at no cost to the individual. Nevertheless I doubt that Amainda would have regarded that as good news on the afternoon of December 1st 2009 but it may well prove significant in what hopefully will be each and every year for many decades to come.
*Not her real name.

The Celebration of Eid al Adha for Muslims and Christians.

The Celebration of Eid al Adha for Muslims and Christians.
The Jamat Congo Town Mosque is situated between our house and the centre of Congo Town which lies on the estuary of the Sierra Leone River. When liberated African slaves in Freetown arrived in the early part of the 19th Century, they occupied various locations and the place names chosen or given sometimes reflected the origins of the inhabitants, in this case the Congo. As our house is located up a steep hill, a few hundred feet above the mosque, the first call to prayer of the day is heard with clarity and volume as we lie in bed, under a mosquito net, designed to keep the mozzies out but for sound to filter through.
On visiting the mosque for the first time, we were welcomed and shown around the building by the resident caretaker who explained how a former chapel became a mosque in 1958 under the direction of Ulthman Cole, a convert to Islam. Today the well maintained premises would accommodate two to three hundred men and women, within a building where 40-50 people regularly attend the first prayer of the day at 6.30am.
Eid al Adha, or as it is sometimes known Eid Mubarak ( a feast of thanksgiving and sacrifice) involves the story of Abraham and Isaac that is to be found in both the Bible and the Quran, and is therefore of particular relevance to the Christian and Muslim traditions , as an act of trust, reliance and patience, shared by both faiths. (Genesis 22 and the Quran Surah 37 102). This year it fell on November 27th making that day a national holiday in Salone. So with the encouragement of Mr Jullah a practising Muslim who mans the gate of the compound for our house, we made our way to the National Stadium for Islamic prayer.
We were arriving with hundreds of others, all of them Africans and dressed in a variety of clothing styles. Weaving our way through a throng of people with serious infirmities and many of them amputees and all seeking monetary support, I was conscious not just of the collective excitement (that usually accompanies a crowd arriving for a football match but not a usually prayer meeting) but also the mass identity of being a Muslim on this one of the highest days in the Islamic calendar.
Our entry was from the west, so that the several thousand people spread across the football pitch ringed by the eight lane running track were facing away from us and towards Mecca. The stadium’s seating was empty, there were no spectators, so as the final announcements were made with, “go home and make thanksgiving with a goat if you have one or if not a chicken and make a feast to the glory of Allah”, the congregation began to rise. Some of them to have their photographs taken with friends, others unperturbed by the humidity of the languid air and thick lush grass, remained in conversation as though sitting in the goalmouth of a stadium for 36,000 spectators, was a common occurrence.
Janice made the comment that all the church services we have attended so far have usually lasted a minimum of two hours, whilst the prayers in the stadium were completed in less than 20 minutes and yet people are more than willing to make the effort to travel for such a short period. As we walked around the running track among the throng, being within it but not belonging, it was impossible not to reflect on the inter religious relationships between Christian and Muslim within Salone, They are publicly acknowledged as being exceptionally good when compared with its west African neighbours and that they contribute to community and national unity. Quite recently the Methodist Minister for Salem Aberdeen Methodist Church commented that the demographic makeup of the local community, with has a very high percentage of Muslim vis-a-vis Christians, is reflected in church celebrations. This is because so many members of the same extended family are Christians and Muslims. We therefore look forward to attending a delayed Advent service on December 8th , when an attendance by both Muslims and Christians is anticipated, to discover if this affects the shape and liturgy of the service or its duration.

Transforming Public Health, Family Wellbeing and National Security

Transforming Public Health, Family Wellbeing and National Security
Health: When we arrived at Lungi Airport, Freetown just over three weeks ago, Peter was stopped by health authority officials who asked for his yellow fever certificate. On producing a wad of travel health papers we were quickly waved through and assumed it was an example of over -zealous officialdom. However this week the World Health Organisation has just announced the start of a programme to address the world’s highest incidences of yellow fever which are found in the West African states of Benin, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
Yellow fever , which is incurable but preventable, is carried by mosquitoes and produces symptoms of jaundice, fever and lethargy . With previous mass vaccinations having been conducted almost forty years ago, there is an urgent desire to address the needs of 12 million people who are spread across the three countries beginning with infants and young children. We have already seen evidence of the vaccination programme conducted by a team of health workers operating alongside a mini-market of informal traders at the road at a busy intersection in the city. We look forward to hearing the results of global initiative which has the potential to prevent illness and premature death.
Wellbeing: When friends and acquaintances heard we were coming to Sierra Leone, several of them gave us an assortment of details, letters, money and medication to deliver to persons who had clearly been significant in their own lives in recent decades, in the hope that we might be able to extend those relationships. Progress has so far been slow but one example is more than worthy of sharing.
In the late 1970s when was Salone was the recipient of a large number of inter-continental tourists, a “beach boy” (his words) Sam, a married man, was working for a seaside hotel resort and made a huge impact on a holidaying couple from the UK, in two consecutive years. This led to Sam Conteh being invited to study for two years at Stoneleigh Agricultural College in England and also spending time working on the same couple’s farm. This established a relationship which has been maintained despite the turbulent decade long war and resulted in Sam’s three children being given names as an expression of his gratitude. Finding Sam’s house where he lives with his wife, Koto, and children was proving problematic despite their address being on the same road. Old Railway Line Road is narrow, runs for over two miles, climbing to around two hundred feet and the house numbering is not sequential. It was therefore a delight and a relief to make contact with the Conteh family and learn of how the continuing relationship with a UK family has shaped the life of the family in such a meaningful way. Sam is employed as the head gardener in a British military training camp, IMATT which is located on a hill close to the embassy of United States of America which we have referred to in earlier letters.
Military. As avid listeners of the BBC World Service for Africa, we have heard of the start of the long awaited inquiry into the war in Iraq and are aware that it is not likely to change the British public’s opinion of it being a highly inappropriate military action taken by the then Prime Minister, Tony Blair. In Salone you will not hear a negative comment on the same leader’s decision to send British troops into a war that after a decade of barbarity had resisted the peace initiative combined force from West African nations, and would not be resolved by any others means. The highly successful military intervention then led to the formation of IMATT, (International Military Advisory and Training Team) . From a strength of several thousand initially, there are but 40 officers who will oversee the completion of the programme following the next national elections in 2012. On a visit to the camp organised by Sam and conducted by a Scottish sergeant, we learned that members of Royal Sierra Leone Armed Forces are being trained for service in the Darfur region of Sudan. This will involve serving alongside others forces within the African Union.
Each of these three snapshots in their own way demonstrate the impact of intervention, be it small or large. Thankfully, all three accounts are transformative. Sadly this is not always the case.

Aw di bodi?

Aw di bodi? Freetown, 18 November 2009
Today the United Nation’s Population Fund has announced that there are now one billion people living on the continent of Africa. Here in Sierra Leone, one of the smallest of Africa’s 62 nations, it is common to hear two people greeting one another in Krio with the words Aw di bodi? In English, “how are you?” and with the reply being, Di bodi na bad, how usef? (I’m fine how are you?) Such a familiar social interaction struck me as having resonance with the Methodist Church’s poster “The Body of Christ has AIDS” and to prepare us to re visit one the Methodist Church’s projects in Wellington, to the East of Freetown.
Our previous visit had been a year ago in the company of two very close friends. It was easy to recall the location of the centre, on the ground floor of a church manse, in a dynamic but economically challenged small town, where artisans and informal commercial trading are all part of the social fabric of delapidated homes and new construction sites. The roads, largely of earth with remnants of tar macadam, are pot- holed and declined into being just tracks for those on motorbikes or foot. Wellington is a very impoverished community that is nevertheless, home to an invaluable HIV/AIDS initiative for people who are HIV positive.
It had been agreed that aspects of both Janice’s and my own job description would include work relates to the church’s commitment of HIV/AIDS; for Janice, with special reference to the centre and for myself, the teaching of studies on HIV/AIDS at the theological college. It was therefore valuable to initiate both of our contributions, with an understanding of how preventive education, testing and counselling function in Sierra Leone society today. Part of this included discovering if our own bodies were HIV positive or not and undergoing the testing programme at the centre, which included pre–test and post – test counselling.
Idrisa Songo is the Director of the PLHA (People living with AIDS) project which is but one of four Methodist Church HIV/AIDS initiatives. It is the largest in the country for PLHAs, with some 400 clients across greater Freetown. Idrisa explained that whilst the modest centre is a focal point for nurses, social workers and volunteers, the work of home based care happens elsewhere. Nevertheless the number of PLHA who visit the centre and access its services are clearly closely attached to its supportive environment and the empathy and solidarity offered in making a regular visit.

The project funding comes largely from Christian Aid and the Global Fund for AIDS, TB and Malaria, but I was more than surprised that the budget for staff salaries, including the director, three nurses/counsellors, two social workers, two administrative officers and the stipends for twenty volunteers and the delivery of extensive home based care programme is a mere £62,000 per annum. It is therefore not surprising that in discussion with a group which included staff, volunteers and clients , it was possible to identify several areas where the project was struggling to reach the goals and desired standards of care that many hoped would be integral to the project. One such example was to ensure that social workers and volunteers would be provided with basic medication, hygiene and nutrition kit, that would prevent opportunistic infections and assist food security for those who are clinically affected and confined to their homes.

As World Aids Day approaches, I trust that the concerns of the 40 million bodies that are infected with HIV and the countless millions more who are affected will feature in your prayers.

Letter Two from Freetown

Despite having just arrived, we were invited to be part of the ministers’ retreat in Salone’s second city, Bo, taking place from 9 - 13 November. Tropical ‘volume’ rain could be heard on the heavy rain zinc-iron roof during the night, and it was still raining when we awoke at 5.30am. So clad in our kagools we went up to the President’s house to await our lift. Our house is at the bottom of a stone laden slope, which fortunately drains well.
We travelled with Arnold Temple, the Secretary of the Methodist Conference, and President elect. His driver collected us soon after 7am, then went to pick up Arnold, and then on to the Church office, where we waited over an hour, to make sure that the bus, taking other ministers from the Freetown area, did not leave anyone behind.
We had been to Bo, on our visit last year, and so were greatly appreciative that all but 5 miles of the 180 mile journey is now good tar-sealed roadways.
The retreat took place at the Catholic Pastoral Centre in Bo, where some people endured somewhat basic accommodation, but which provided all of us with one or other of Salone’s staples, rice or cassava (tapioca), with a soup made up of local greens, peanuts, onions, a piece of fish and chillies, twice a day. The retreat was led by a team of facilitators from the Methodist Church in Britain who had been missionaries in Sierra Leone in the 1960s-70s. Not only did they lead the retreat, but through informal conversations provided us with many stories of their time in Salone. They and we were accommodated in nearby hotel, where we were delighted to meet up with two Christian Aid workers and a team of animators, who were doing some filming for the second animated DVD, for the Methodist Youth Resource Centre, on HIV/AIDS. On one of the evenings we were given a presentation by the young people of the music and dance they use to educate rural and urban communications about the virus.
A mini bus had been provided to transport us between hotel and centre, and like many other forms of transport it had biblical texts painted on it. Others have made up slogans, or references to Allah, usually with words of encouragement. We needed them on a bus with bald tyres, lack of suspension, dodgy steering, and a make shift overhead locker, supported by a pole and wooden slats. The UK car scrappage scheme could do well here! Fortunately it got us safely back to Freetown, and we only needed to get out once, when we hit a boulder on what is referred to as the by pass, a mountainous road which passes through places where internally displaced families are still living in UNHCR tents. We passed through small towns including Gloucester and Regent, locations where anglophile Christian Krios, returning as freed slaves in the early 1800’s , settled among the hills. From there we travelled to Leicester Peak, studded with radio antennae, houses for the very affluent, the British-led International Military and Training Team (IMATT), and the imposing recently constructed American Embassy, evidently it is but a smaller version of what built in other countries. The retreat facilitators were to be housed for their last two nights in Salone at a Catholic Retreat Centre which has a 270o view of Freetown.
It was great to return to “our home” having spent only 5 nights there before going away. Fortunately beginning feeling at home is not a long process for us.

Letter One from Freetown

I am sitting on a small verandah of our home facing east over the centre of Freetown. We are living on a Methodist Compound on Old Railway Line Road, which is also the place where Francis Nabieu, the President of the Conference lives.

Our travel to Sierra Leone went very well, leaving Queens Foundation at 4.30am on Tues 3 Nov and arriving at the house, around 10pm. On arrival at the airport we soon spotted someone holding a piece of paper with our names on, which was most reassuring. Bakary recalled doing exactly the same a year earlier. A quick changing of money, the purchase of tickets for the Pelican water taxi, fairly newly introduced, and then the wait on the shore to go on board. Once across the bay, Ali, the President’s driver was there to meet us. He had taken us around last year, so it was good to meet up with him.

We were taken straight to our house. The church people had worked very hard to make it ready for us. It has not been lived in for a number of years, and so needed some renovation work done on it. It is a comfortable house, that is now our home, with two bedrooms, kitchen, bathroom, and a large dining/living area. The super-king sized sheets we had brought out with us are ideal for the two family size beds in both bedrooms . A five piece suite fills the lounge area, and a large dining table provides seating for six people. All our boxes we had sent in June were waiting for us, and except for the boxes of books the rest has been unpacked and in place.

Electricity is spasmodic. It was necessary for us to lend to church the money to buy a fridge but it has probably been off more than it is on. Cooking is done by gas, and water is brought into the house, each day, from another source. There is the hope that the compound will have water delivered to fill the new tank that has been installed, which would mean a shower, rather than the bucket and cup method we are use at present. We knew that this was probably going to be the case, and so adjustments are quickly made. Time begins to change in significance for so many simple domestic activities.

The house is surrounded with a variety of trees, including frangipani, which brings back memories of our time in PNG. A number of goats wander around, and need to be chased off the verandah at times. The family who are living with Francis have chickens and a clutch of chicks.

We have been out and about doing essential shopping for setting up home, and learning where to go to buy things is slowly taking place. There are supermarkets, which have British prices but are inflated into Leones so the muesli is stretched out by extra oats!

A visit to the bank took place on our first day, and an account has been open. We now await a cheque book so we can draw money out. As for setting up a broadband connection that is on hold, as we are to go away to Bo, the second city next week, for a conference, and so we will try to deal with that when we get back.

On the first evening, leaders of the City Mission Circuit which we are to be connected with came round to welcome us. Fourteen people all together, there was no power when they came or when they left an hour laters, so with limited lamps it was not always easy to tell who was speaking.

We have been to the Theological College and were given the subject areas to be taught next term. Peter was quick to relieve me of the Evangelism course !!!, and so I am left with English, Education Methods, and Principles of Worship. Peter has Evangelism, Pastoral Theology, Principles of Discipline and Christian Leadership at a variety of levels. So that should keep us going for a while. Olivia Wesley was pleased to see us, and we plan to return when we get back from Bo.

The second day we went out for a walk in the locality, and discovered a couple of excellent art galleries, which we will be more than happy to introduce to you all, when you come. There is an internet café within walking distance which we hope to send this letter from an also a mini market for basic essentials. Fresh fruit and vegetables can be bought from sellers on the side of the road, or walking the streets.

This morning, Saturday, has been spent trying out the new iron, which does not need an anti surge, unlike the fridge, putting up some wall hangings we brought with us, and the material map of the world, is being used as I write to discuss with Bernard, one of the many young people on the compound, which direction the wind comes from. This is to help decide where to dig a rubbish hole, for household rubbish, that is burnable. The goats are fed with anything that looks like food.

There is a breeze, as I write, there has been little rain, but heat and humidity are high. These two will continue to be true for the rest of our stay!!

The battery is almost flat, so I will bring this letter to a close. The blog will have to wait for a while, but hopefully this brings you up to date with where we are.

After waiting for a long time to be where we are now, we are delighted with physical surrounding and look forward to what lies ahead.

Love and Blessings

Janice and Peter

War Crimes

War crimes

With so much attention being centred on the opening of the trial of former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, in the Hague, it would be easy to overlook today’s news from Sierra Leone of a similar criminal procedure. In Freetown a United Nations supported court is due to deliver its last verdict on war crimes suspects from the country's civil war, which ended it 2002.
The ten year long conflict was characterised by widespread murder, mutilation and abuse of civilians. Three rebel leaders are awaiting the result of appeals against convictions for such crimes. The finalising of this trial would mean that the only outstanding case would be that of the former Liberian President Charles Taylor’s crimes against humanity, in Sierra Leone, whose trial continues in another courtroom but in The Hague.
See the following for more details; http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/8325470.stm
The subject of war crimes were not addressed when Janice and I were welcomed at St Andrews Church, Paddock Wood, Kent, yesterday. We were there at the invitation of a church which seeks to be connected to not just one area of mission but six different projects, with our future work with the Sierra Leone Methodist Church being a focus of prayerful engagement. St Andrews is both an Anglican and a Methodist Church and we were able speak to Rev Brian Knapp, the Vicar, before the service and then to share in leading the worship with Rev Lynda Russell, the Methodist Minister.
A small team had just returned from a visit to Bereko, one of the church’s mission projects in Tanzania, so we were able to appreciate the vitality of this congregation which is committed to enhancing its vision of a wider ecumenism than just that of a local church. Hopefully the provision of a prayer card – bookmark will assist the mission of not only St Andrews but other churches and individuals too.

Peter and Janice

Sierra Leone Reunion

“Exporation !” - an informative experience which surpasses mere preparation.

Janice and I have just returned from a 24 hour reunion of former mission partners and volunteers to Sierra Leone, which was addressed by Michael and Joanne Tettey, mission partner on furlough and Rev Francis Nabieu, ( pictured left)the President of the Methodist Church in Sierra Leone. The gathering not only attracted 25 people but assembled no less than 170 years of service covering the last half century and of course much of it prior to 1990 and the outbreak of the civil war.

It was a fascinating to observe the response of the seasoned group of “missioners” to the information shared by Francis on matters ranging from national and regional politics, economics and church development, and from Michael and Joanne on the challenges of providing good medical care and the nursing training at Nixon Memorial Hospital, Segbwema.

It was an event that re-affirmed our understanding of the multifarious challenges that lie ahead. However it was also humbling to appreciate how what we seek to do in the name of God’s mission is set in a time frame, that stretches across church history of which we are but a tiny part.

Before leaving the retreat centre, near Evesham, we strolled down to the River Avon on what was an idyllic autumn day and paused to appreciate what the event had given us and the application of the knowledge gained for our future time in Sierra Leone.

Getting ready

Getting ready and trying to look the part!



A warm October day in Birmingham is not the same as being in Freetown in November, but it is too good an opportunity to miss in trying out what might be appropriate dress for Sierra Leone in a few weeks time.



This week we have met with World Church Relations staff at Methodist Church House, in London, to finalise aspects of our appointment. It was also necessary for us to have another medical to prove that we are still fit enough to work in a tropical environment, such as Sierra Leone.
We are looking forward to meeting Francis Nabieu, the President of the Methodist Conference of SL, as well as returned mission partners at a reunion early next week.