Week of Events

Travel is always an adventure. This is me squished up against the window of a poda-poda (minibus) on the way from Makeni to Freetown. That's Linda and Diya (British volunteers) enjoying the ride as the woman in back looks baffled by the crazy white people. They cram as many bodies as possible into these things -- comfort is not a priority. One guy in front of me was hanging out the window most of the way there. When I went to inauguration, my taxi took somebody along in his closed trunk. You learn to accept such things as normal when you live here.

I went to a traditional wedding yesterday. My office-mate's sister got married. There were tons of people wearing nice African dresses and we had some food and listened to some live drumming. The odd part was that we didn't get to see any of the actual ceremony. It was held inside the house with a few family members, and everyone else was sitting outside listening to the MC relay the wedding play-by-play from a microphone. It was a good experience nonetheless.

The nuns from the Catholic Mission invited me to mass at a nearby village today called Binkolo. It was a special celebration for baptisms and confirmation, so the place was packed. They met under a huge hut made of tree branches. Most of it was translated from English to Limba, the tribal language of that area. The Bishop of the Makeni Diocese was there, and people brought him gifts down the aisle, including rice, potatoes, and two live chickens. They set the chickens down at the front and one of them immediately stood up and pooped right on the fancy church rug. Nice. And during the confirmation of about 40 people, the bishop asked questions about their faith and they would respond in a confusing way. 'Do you believe that Jesus is the son of God?' 'NO!' 'Do you believe in the Catholic Church?' 'NO!' and so on. All the nuns sitting next to me were in shock. Later we discovered they were actually saying 'Ndo,' which means 'Yes' in the Limba language. Whew.

One more thing...Thanksgiving. In the absence of turkey, Diya and I went to the market to pick out a live chicken. I pointed out the plumpest-looking one in the cage and watched the man slaughter it right there on the street. He dumped it in a plastic bag and handed it to me while it was still clinging to life. I told myself it was just a sack of potatoes and tried to ignore its movements. Luckily others took care of the plucking and cleaning. All I had to do was provide the oven. So we had some friends over and enjoyed an amazing meal of chicken, stuffing, mashed potatoes, corn and green beans. As the only American there, it was good enough for me. I hope you all had a happy Turkey Day as well.

I've lost a good chunk of weight since I arrived. I started running some mornings with our laundry boy Jerry, but stopped because I got a cold last week. I guess my body still thinks I'm in the States and should have a cold. Otherwise life is good. 'Til next time.

The House

This is my house. Thought you might like to see it.

Also, if you feel the need to send me anything, well -- I wish you luck. The postal service is terrible. But your best bet is to send it to me here:

VSO Sierra Leone
3A Millicent Drive
Off Wilkinson Road
Freetown, Sierra Leone
P.O. Box 19

Phone: (232) 076-200-399

Inaugural Insanity

Last week I went to Freetown with Radio Maria for the presidential inauguration. Ernest Bai Koroma was elected in September, bringing the All People's Congress back to power after 10 years as the opposition party.

It was crazy. I had no real reason to be there, but I just strolled right onto the field at the National Stadium and acted like I knew what I was doing. Sometimes it helps to be white. Radio Maria had a broadcasting unit in a car parked on the field near the stands, so I was close to the action.

The stadium holds 30,000 people -- but there must have been at least 50,000 there. I mean people were desperate to catch a glimpse of this man. They covered every inch of the place, including hundreds who climbed the four light towers to get a better view. People shoved their way in at every entrance, which caused huge fights all over the place. It was a bit chaotic. Sadly, the police stood on the field near us, just watching and laughing as people pounded each other and some were even tossed over the railing to the ground 15 feet below. I guess 11 years of civil war tends to give people violent tendencies...

It was the hottest day of my life -- six hours in the sun, mostly waiting for foreign heads of state to arrive from the airport. I heard that about 30 people died, presumably from heat exhaustion and dehydration. When the presidential motorcade finally rolled in, it was worth the wait. Check it out:

It was a very historic day for Sierra Leone, and I was happy to witness it. Everyone has a lot of hope for President Koroma (who is from Makeni). He vowed in his speech to tackle the huge problem of corruption in this country. They say it's so bad that the most corrupt agency in the nation is the Anti-Corruption Commission itself. Ah, perfect irony.

You can read more about the inauguration here.

Shameless Plug

The StoryCorps book was released yesterday at Starbucks!

Go to your local Starbucks and pick up a copy (or two) of Listening is an Act of Love. You can also order it from storycorps.net, and it will be available in stores next week I believe.

This book is what I worked on almost exclusively for the last four months of my job at StoryCorps. It's being sold by Starbucks as their featured holiday gift with a bonus CD. Anyway, just wanted to let you know it's finally here. Tell your friends and enjoy reading!

Surprise Holiday

Today was interesting. I expected to be teaching basic interviewing skills in class this morning, but I arrived to discover that it was a holiday (All Saints' Day) and no one bothered to tell the faculty. So I joined a big march (about 500 people) organized by Amnesty International in support of reparations for survivors of sexual violence. As a result, I got my first West African sunburn and now I'm exhausted. We walked a few miles to the soccer 'stadium,' with little schoolkids cheering us on all the way (they love to wave at us and yell "aportu!" which means white person).

There was an incredibly long series of speeches at the stadium which involved way too much yelling into the microphone. Then a rapper named Yok7 performed a couple songs for the kids. It was without a doubt the laziest lip synching effort in history. But the best part was his backup dancers -- three of them, all wearing identical Yao Ming jerseys. Awesome. It was like watching New York City street performers who forgot how to dance.

People wear lots of second-hand clothing from abroad. In Freetown, I saw a man wearing the exact same San Antonio Spurs t-shirt I have at home. I told him so -- he looked confused. I've seen a Don't Mess With Texas shirt and a Cowboys jacket, which made me happy. Today I saw a green basketball jersey that said 'Cougars' -- I could've sworn it belonged to one of my high school teammates. I also saw a New York Mets t-shirt that was mis-printed and said 'Mest.'

OK just wanted to share my unexpectedly strange day. Goodbye.