Helping the Stranger

In our house, any reference to Freetown or Sierra Leone that is heard on the BBC World Service is quickly seized upon, with eager interest. As Sierra Leone is a small country, our antennae for receiving any global reference to it, seems proportionately higher than it would be if living in the UK. How gratifying it is, therefore, to hear good news about Salone and not yet another negative bulletin on matters of health, education or perhaps bad governance. When the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) announced the World Giving Index 2010, that of all the 153 nations surveyed, Sierra Leone was in 11^th position, in its overall willingness to give to others. Australia and New Zealand may have tied for first place, but Sierra Leone was in first place for the countries of the African Continent.

The CAF World Giving Index is shaped by using an average of the same three measures for all of the countries: the proportion of the public who had, in the previous month, given money to charity, who had given time to those in need and thirdly, helped a stranger or person they did not know.

The news came whilst preparing to preach at the annual thanksgiving service for a local benevolent society, which coincided with hearing of the author J.K. Rowling’s £10 million donation towards building and supporting a Multiple Sclerosis clinic in Edinburgh. In addition an email arrived asking us to donate blood at a local emergency hospital. Together they provided more than sufficient reason to study carefully the consequences of the CAF report on how we respond to need, local and global.

No day goes by without two contrasting experiences, being gently asked by individuals, known and unknown, to support them or their family’s need of food and education fees whilst being confronted with another ostentatious building project which shouts, “we have abundant personal wealth”. The habitats of people near to where we live provide physical reminders of the disparities of human existence for Freetonians. And yet in the midst of such day to day reality, Saloneans demonstrate to their African neighbours the capacity for generosity, for grace and for compassion.

Week in and week out, when attending worship services in various churches, we are aware of the emphasis given to numerous collections that punctuate a three hour liturgy. The obscure reasoning used in encouraging the congregations to be generous, causes us to question what is an appropriate response to such demands. The global rise in ‘prosperity preaching’, (the more you give the more you will be personably blessed), has not escaped Salonean churches, and there is no shortage of mega religious events which invariably promote the idea of benefitting significantly, through one’s own personal giving.

The news of the CAF report, coincided with the request for us to donate blood and our subsequent hospital experience has added further to our consideration of giving and receiving. Women arriving at the Mercy Ships Hospital for fistula operations have often travelled considerable distances on foot and by public transport and in doing so have left behind the vital support of their immediate family. For some women, treatment for fistula can only be conducted following an operation to provide a temporary colostomy at Goderich Emergency Hospital. This hospital is a few miles out of Freetown on a wretched road but it has an excellent reputation and its 200 hundred beds are fully occupied. Treatment is free, but in the event of an operation, units of blood of blood have to be donated, before surgery can proceed. We were asked to show up at the hospital and to offer blood in the name of Fatma, who was awaiting a colostomy before undergoing a double fistula operation at Mercy Ships Hospital.

We had decided to try and take other potential donors with us and so Mohamed our nearest neighbour, having been assured he would have enough blood to offer, also joined us. Others quietly declined. Our offer to give blood in the UK has always been declined, on the grounds of either having spent too many years in tropical countries or having a history of malaria. Mercy Ships had assured us that such circumstances were no barrier to donorship in Salone. Our decision to take others was to promote the giving of blood by Saloneans, as a way of helping the stranger.

In the blood laboratory of Goderich Hospital, a large sign dominates one wall. No Money for Blood Transfusion. Please Bring Donors. The staff were intrigued that we should be donating blood for a person we had not met and knew little of, as we waited alongside others donors, with friends and relatives in the hospital. As the age for donating blood is between 16 and 55 years it was decided that we could offer only one paediatric unit each, whilst Mohamed, if he agreed, which he did, could offer an adult unit. A midwife friend, who works in remote areas of the Kailhaun District, on the eastern edge of Sierra Leone, where Liberia and Guinea meet, has often spoken of how difficult it is to obtain blood from relatives of those needing treatment. If no blood is given, patients are sent home to die.

With our blood taken and stored, but without the usual cup of tea and scone, we were encouraged to say “hello” to Fatma and assured her of our prayers and learnt that she was from the north of the country and far from home.

The CAF report gives a clear indication that personal wellbeing influences generosity, more than a person’s wealth. Clearly most Saloneans have very little money, yet their elevated position in the index is largely due to their immense willingness to help the stranger in their midst. This provides us with yet another question, how is it that a small country which was recently torn apart by bloody atrocities, is still able to generate a degree of compassion which is exemplary on the continent of Africa? And this we witness on the streets of Freetown every day.

My first visit to Africa

I spent the first two weeks of August 2010 with Peter and Janice in their home in Freetown. We decided that I should write about my stay there, so here I am.

First of all, I need to say that I have never been in Africa before. And I did not have much knowledge or even curiosity about the continent. Since the decision to visit Freetown, I have read and talked a lot about Africa and I am a bit more informed now. I am also enthusiastic in learning and discussing about African countries and people, and this blog I am writing is a way of doing that.

People
I want to start with a dialogue I had with a woman from Freetown while I was still at Heathrow. We were waiting to be called to leave the departure gate and we talked a little bit. She had spent a month in London and was returning home. I asked her what she had missed most and she answered “Warmth.” Then I questioned her if she meant the climate or the people and her answer was “Both”.

After a couple of weeks in Freetown and then back to my hometown (in Porto, Portugal) I cannot say that I miss the hot and rainy season I experienced there, even if I miss the green, but I do miss the warmth of the people from Sierra Leone. I miss the “Hello! How are you?” way of interacting with people, not that we became friends with the people we greeted on the street, even if we eventually could and sometimes did chat a bit, but we had the most pleasant feeling of being in an unthreatening (I owe this adjective to Peter) and welcoming place. And that feeling accompanied me throughout my stay in Freetown, a place where human beings are friendly and also visible to one another, so why not greet each other?

Children are specially warm and affectionate. And they smiled at us, touched us with their hands, played with us, and wanted to see themselves in our photographs.

Once, on a walk with Peter, we passed a man who was listening to the radio, it was the news about the trial of the former president of Liberia, Charles Taylor, at the International Court for Human Rights in the Hague. Peter and I got interested and stood to listen to the news, watching the man’s comments and non verbal reactions. It may sound excessive but I felt that the three of us were communicating, were sharing feelings and ideas, and that happened because that man “allowed” us to stand there, let us share his time and space for some moments and he did not feel invaded or uncomfortable by our presence. For Peter and me it was an enriching moment because we were aware that we and that man were quite different listeners of the same news.

I consider that all I have been describing is warmth, warmth that I miss too. My own experience with people from Freetown is described in this way in the Bradt Guide of Sierra Leone: “politeness and warmth can be found in bucketfuls.” It was also interesting to know that in the World Giving Index 2010 published this September Sierra Leone comes on 11th place, a subject Peter and Janice are going to write about in a future blog.

Of course in talking about the way people connect with each other, I am not talking about relationships. This was something that was not possible in a couple of weeks, however I know that African people tend to have a wider net of relations than Europeans or Americans, life is much more communal and much less ‘on your own’.

For me this communal way of living is something that brings a lot of questions. I admit that I do not understand it very well and I need to learn much more about it. In a way being linked to other people to whom we have obligations and duties can lead to lack of freedom, we have to do what others want us to do and are nor free to choose our own route. It also seems very difficult in the African social world to have a ‘room of one's own’. A lack of freedom and individuality is a feature of social relations.

However there is a dark side of the freedom and individuality I praise so much. I will give just one example. Listening to the news of some catastrophe, where thousands of people die and being told that some bodies have not been reclaimed by anyone, has made me realize how some people are completely alone in the world and how frightening that is. I think that such a situation would not be possible if we lived within a communal society as African societies seem to be.

Religion

I am starting again with a dialogue I had with another woman from Sierra Leone while at Heathrow, this time on the queue to the check in. When I told her I was going to visit some English friends who belonged to the Methodist Church she asked me if I was a Methodist. My answer was “I have no religion.”, to which she replied “That is impossible, it is impossible to live without a religion!”
It might be right that it is impossible to live in Africa and not to be religious. From what I have seen and experienced in Freetown religion seems to pervade people’s lives.

As I am not a religious person I do rarely attend any religious services, just weddings, baptisms and funerals. And the church I know is the Catholic Church. I do not have any particular memory of the few services I have been to.

In Freetown I went to three Sunday services. What struck me most was the joy of the people at church. That joy was shown in the singing, on the dancing, on the way people greeted each other, and their dress. As a newcomer I was asked to present myself, something I have never been asked before at church. I did feel welcomed.

I had the privilege of being in the baptism of Ali, a friend of Peter and Janice. Ali came from a Muslim background and had decided to become a member of the Methodist Church, having worked as the President’s driver for more than ten years. It was a beautiful and moving ceremony.

Ali allowed me to live another special moment in Freetown. Ali was feeling ill and Peter and I paid him a visit. Ali rents two rooms in a house inhabited by other people. The house is located in an area in Freetown like so many others: precarious housing, all cramped, with poor, if any, sanitary conditions. To get to Ali’s place we had to pass several other houses and saw people cooking or doing their washing. We greeted them and did not feel we were seen as intruders. On the way to Ali’s home and at his home I felt the dignity of those people in the midst of poverty. While at Ali’s, Peter asked us to pray and for a few moments I believed God was there. Well, at least love was there and if God is love, as Peter said to me a long time ago, maybe God was too.

Believing in God helps people to cope with their daily life which is so hard in so many ways. Talking to a colleague of Peter I asked him if people in Freetown were happy and he said that they were. I could see this on the streets and people would say to me “Tell God thank you”.

The links between religion, wretchedness and happiness have been discussed for a long time but reading about it is very different from seeing it. And I feel divided between a critical perspective and admiration and even respect. I find difficult not to acknowledge that the way people experience religion may promote acceptance of the unacceptable. At the same time I see the dignity of their lives and I cannot but be in awe of the way they manage to live.

War and Peace
Sierra Leone had experienced a brutal civil war which came to an end in 2002. From my understanding of what I have heard from some people in Freetown, peace is the absolute value. Even if people have to live with the physical and psychological scars of the war, even if people have to be neighbours to someone who had killed or raped a relative or friend, even if people’s homes were destroyed, peace must be maintained because war is far worst.

During the war several people had their limbs amputated. Today there is a football league of amputees. I saw them playing on Lumley beach. They were graceful!

What can I say about the way people in Sierra Leone lead their lives after the war? Does God help them? Is there a Sierra Leone genotype? Have they learnt that peace is priceless? Can we learn with them?

Scenery
Freetown has far exceeded my expectations about its beauty. The sea, the light, the hills, the views, the beaches, the trees – especially the cotton trees – make Freetown a stunning place.

All the walks Peter, Janice and I did together were spectacular. I miss those walks!


Peter and Janice
Peter, Janice and I did some calculations and we realized that we met in 1992 when they were living in Porto. It has been a long and very interesting friendship with a lot of sharing: we share thoughts, books, movies, photographs, recipes…

And of course they have shared their present experience in Freetown with me.

I had the opportunity to attend a Sunday service conducted by Peter and Janice at Mercy Ships, where they meet with other internationalists from different denominations, once a month, for a service. On that Sunday it was Peter and Janice’s time to prepare the service. And they prepared it! They dramatized a dialogue between Jesus and the apostle Peter and they were really good. What struck me most was their involvement and preparation even for a simple ceremony in a simple place with not many people. I see the same involvement and preparation in their blog too.

The three of us had some interesting discussions about Africa, Sierra Leone, the civil war in Sierra Leone, the meaning and types of marriage in Africa, the meaning of what it is to be a “person” in African culture. We watched some movies about Africa, read bits of books and articles. And I know we will continue to do all this through their blog, emails, texts, other meetings – that is a feature of our friendship. It is a demanding feature, I am aware of that, that enriches and challenges me and, I hope, them too.

And all this wrapped up with Janice’s cookies, BBC World Service and some good laughs!

For all this and much more I feel deeply privileged and grateful.

Rita Estrada, Portugal, September 2010

A Tale of Three Cities: Freetown, Maputo and Accra and the price of bread!

On a day when Janice arrived home in state of delight, having found wholemeal flour in a local supermarket, the rioting over price increases for bread continued in Maputo, for the third day. The Mozambique government, having held an emergency session, appealed for calm, as reports of seven people killed and 280 injured in the protests.The army were then called in to clean the city of barricades and restore order and public security.

The rioting had been prompted principally by increase in the price of bread, in one of the world's poorest country, which has yet to fully recover from protracted colonial and civil wars, and with a current unemployment rate of 54%. The government had imposed a price rise of 30%, for the cost of bread, part of the staple diet for Mozambicans, who earn on average about US$37 / £22 a month. The fall of the local currency, the Metical, by approx 43% in one year against South Africa’s Rand, its principle trading partner, also exacerbated the plight of the urban poor. Added to this was the recent increase in both the cost of electricity and water.

Here in Freetown during the last month we have read in The New African and The Africa
Report of Mozambique’s economic success with growth rates of above 6%-7% for three consecutive years, a figure above the 5% threshold considered necessary to make real improvements in standards of living. Foreign investment in Mozambique has increased by approximately 44% between 2007 and 2009 but nevertheless, 40% of the nation’s budget is dependent upon foreign aid, as the country remains 175th (close to the bottom) of the United Nations Human Development Index.

It would appear that, following the outbreak of the global economic crisis in 2008, the attention that was then being given to the alarming increase of the cost of food on the world markets, had been largely ignored, as multi-national finance houses and western governments were desperate to establish their own economic survival. That is, until the fires which scorched Russia and much of its grain harvest caused President Putin to ban the export of wheat which, in turn, reduced the global supply of wheat by 8%. This has raised the profile of the talks called for by the African Green Revolution Forum held in Accra this past week on the production of food on the continent of Africa.

“This is the time”, Kofi Annan, former Secretary General of the United Nations, insisted, “to invest in the thousands of small scale farmers that exist in all countries”. The appeal coincided with announcement of Standard Bank Africa’s support of 100 million $US for 750,000 small scale growers of cash crops, including cocoa and cashew nuts in Ghana, Mozambique, Tanzania and Uganda. The African continent possesses 60% of the world’s land available for agricultural development and over the last decade food production in Africa in general has shown significant improvements in a number of countries, with the exception being those regions where conflict still persists. But the rise in level of food production in Africa has not protected those on the lowest incomes, who do not have the money to buy food, or have access to land to grow what they need to eat. Across the continent the increase in national populations and the rate of urbanisation have both contributed to the phenomena of poverty, made even worse by a fall in the world’s grain supply.

In Sierra Leone, we have noticed and have commented upon the rise of the cost of living caused by the introduction of a sales tax at the beginning of the year. Now in September, we are reaching the end (if the predictions are correct) of the heaviest rain-falls for the year , when the effect of the wet season creates food scarcity and increases costs. People in Freetown are never heard to complain about excess rainfall, knowing how much they will need in the dry season and those with land have been planting in earnest for while. Living as we do on a compound with gardening land available, we ought to be growing wheat. However in the wettest part of West Africa that is not an option and we shall continue to have to buy bread locally made from imported grain. But with the departure of the goat herd, we have planted sweet potatoes and cassava, for their leaves as well as their roots, spring onions, pineapple, okra, a variety of fruit trees including bananas, pawpaws, oranges, lemons and guava, as well as nursery of herbs. There are still various seeds to go in, such as corn and beans, and as we sit on our veranda at dusk, and wait for the owls to come out, we call to mind the words, “ Give bread to those who are hungry and a hunger for justice to those who are fed”.