Bob and Betty in Sierra Leone

Connecting human rights acvists in U.S. & Sierra Leone

2011-10-09T14:37:00.000-07:00

Two groups of students have forged a new relationship: human rights students in Sierra Leone and in Mississippi. It holds promise for new understanding between them. The Sierra Leone students formed a group called Project 1991 at the end of our nine-month stay in Sierra Leone 08-09. Some of my human rights students there had very interesting life stories and wanted to share them beyond just in class. Betty collected them and put them on a web page at www.usm.edu/humanrights of the University of Southern Mississippi. They are survivors of a decade-long civil war that began in "1991."

When they were in my classes in Freetown, SL, they carried out my community service assignement: teaching about human rights for ten hours in local schools. They did a very good job. So they wanted to continue that, and they have, some of them are still doing it. Hence Project 1991 is an on-going program of public education about human rights by a group of these students.

Betty and I met with them in the summer of 2011, two years after we had lived in SL. They had been teaching human rights in public schools, at sports events, and want to expand their work. While we were visiting last summer they elected officers and planned some future events.

Meanwhile at the U of Southern Mississippi, where Betty and I teach, students in the USM Center for Human Rights and Civil Liberties decided to make fund raising for Project 1991 one of their projects for fall 2011. The campus group Students for Human Rights is taking the lead in this. And two of the Sierra Leone students are on the USM Center for Human Rights facebook page by that name. A dialogue is beginning.

I am proud of my former SL students for carrying on this important work and with minimal funding over the past two years. If anyone wants to contact them directly, they can find the names of Abdul Lebbie or Alpha Barrie on the facebook page above. Ideally they would like to share stories and experiences with other suriviors of civil wars and other human rights challenges. If you want to reach them, they have their own facebook page at "Project 1991 Promoting Human Rights"

Reflections as we end the trip. August 10

2011-08-21T14:41:00.000-07:00

We end with some pictures of our friends...

Gladys, our former housekeeper and cook,

Prince, now a successful computer engineer,

and Dr. Desmond Williams, project advisor for Project 1991.

The dark glasses are hiding are our new identity; not really, just hiding an eye infection called Apollo (pink eye) common in the rainy season.

And lastly our reflections on the trip....
Why Sierra Leone for vacation? Why not England, France, or California? That’s not easy to explain. We lived here from 2008-2009 in a comfortable apartment with a distant view of the ocean and electric power one day out of three (or less). It’s a crowded city; some key roads between towns such as Freetown and Bo and Kenema were partially unpaved (but now are paved). And the Krio common language is one I was not very good at learning.

So why are we here again? I guess it comes down to the people. It sounds like an over-used phrase, but people for the most part are genuinely friendly, welcoming. And I wanted to see some of my former students again. (We got here after most had finished their semester, however).

Both Betty and I wanted to see if the human rights volunteer service some of my students were continuing could be formalized into an on-going initiative with at least some funding. And Betty has been commissioning two local artists and encouraging their work as creative sign painters. And she, along with people in Hattiesburg, are funding the education of several local children at a primary school and wanted to visit them.

Also, we like being at least tangentially involved in a country’s development. The U.S. is so vast, one rarely notices impact of one’s contributions, but there – and here- local initiatives do make a difference.

Finally, we prefer to be at least somewhat out of our comfort zone, away from the mesmerizing effect of constant texting, emails, cell phone calls, computers. Life in the U.S. can be very fulfilling; but we want to know what’s going on in other parts of the world and, if possible, be a part of it.
…
We’re back home in Hattiesburg, MS. It’s summer HOT. The television news is mostly about the U.S. again. Classes are starting. Betty’s new book of African photos paired with African proverbs is out (and beautiful). www.AfricanWisdomInImageAndProverb.com

I only hope that amidst the hustle and noise of daily life, exciting and rewarding as it is, we can keep a bit of Sierra Leone in our thoughts, rejoicing at their progress, recalling the challenges there. And if you’ve traveled with us this far – I wish the same for you and all the best in your daily life.

Courage, Principle (August 9, 2011)

2011-08-21T14:40:00.000-07:00

Courage, Principle (August 9, 2011)

Sallieu Kamara and Paul Kamara (no relations) are among a small group of Sierra Leoneans who peacefully resisted the abuses of authoritarian governments here in the 1990s. When a military junta seized power in 1992, they and some other journalists refused to stop reporting about the junta’s violations of human rights. I knew that from my previous round of interviews here in 08 and 09. What I learned today in more detail was the day the two of them refused to be cowed by a show of military force.

Their newspaper For di People (For the People) had been shut by the junta for critical reporting. But they instead launched a human rights organization that publicized the abuses of the junta. One day they were both ordered to appear before a hall full of uniformed military leaders of the junta. They were told in very clear terms that they must stop their criticism of face possible death.

As Sallieu recalls the moment, Paul thanked the military for the invitation to be there. He said the military have the duty to defend the country, and that no one disputed that. But, he added, the people have the duty to defend human rights and he fully intended to continue doing so. He suggested they either kill them there and then or let them go to continue their advocacy of human rights.

Several years later, Paul was persuaded to join the junta briefly to help prepare elections. By this time the junta was mostly headed by civilians. In his brief tenure (one month) he several times refused to sign false documents, further angering the junta. Shortly after his last refusal, he was seriously shot by assailants who clearly meant to kill him. Sallieu witnessed the shooting, which he attributes to the junta or its supporters, and was able to get Paul to a hospital where he survived. Today he is back in the Cabinet of a new, civilian government, as Minister of Youth and Sports.

Scholarships for children

2011-08-21T14:29:00.000-07:00

Before I left for Sierra Leone several people donated money to help pay the school fees for children who otherwise would not be able to attend school. My thanks to the members of the Hattiesburg Unitarian Universalist Fellowship (HUUF) and Hattiesburg Public Library for their donations. Here is a picture of the 6 children who are being sponsored and another of Abdul Lebbie who runs NDC ( Network for Disadvantaged Children) with his wife and twin daughters.

A typical day in Freetown (Betty Press)

2011-08-21T13:16:00.000-07:00

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This was my first day to really try to get around Freetown and take care of some the activities that we are supporting here. We were lucky that our favorite taxi driver, Sheku, (the one that we worked with before) had just come back from doing business in another city and was available to help us. He already knows a lot of the people I need to see and where to find them. And it is nice to work with someone who we like and trust. Today he also informed us of the latest political news as one of the main political parties here just had their convention and chose their presidential candidate for the 2012 election. On Sunday we were warned to stay away from the area where the convention was being held due to possible violence and heavy traffic. But from what we heard things stayed pretty quiet.

So today I was off to cash some money. I went to one of the major banks in downtown. After being referred to several different windows they didn’t seem much interested in cashing my dollars so I ended up doing it discreetly with one of the street changers in the back seat of my taxi. That’s not how I would prefer to do it but the banks here are not set up for “tourists”. After that fortunately the traffic was not too bad and we were able to get Bob to his next appointment at Fourah Bay College on time.

Then Sheku and I went off to find Meddish, the artist I have been working with. I had some money for him and I also wanted him to do a few more paintings that I could take back with me to sell for him. Meddish only speaks Krio so Sheku helped me out with the translation. Sheku also agreed to buy the boards, and get them cut so Meddish would have something to paint on. Meddish is one of the few people who doesn’t have a cell phone so locating where he is always takes time. His friends at a kiosk where he cuts hair said that he was at his mother’s. So after about an hour of searching here and there we finally found him. This is just another example of what it is like to do business here. It takes time and patience and bearing up under the heat and humidity. Meddish is an untrained painter but I think he has real potential. I am advising him to do some pop art type work some of which you can see in the photos. Later I took him to a small art center where he might be able to sell his work here. He doesn’t have much confidence in his work and I so I am trying to encourage him.

These are the pictures that he painted for me and I picked up later in the week. I think these are some of his best. if anyone is interested in buying these please let me know.

Later in the day I also got in touch with another artist called Sparta. I had sold two of his paintings and so he, too, was so pleased to have some extra money. People are really struggling here to survive. Sparta is a good graphic artist but he doesn’t have regular work. I met him because he had painted the sign for the Obama International Bakery back in 2009.

After working with Meddish I went off to Cardiff Preparatory, the school that was near where we used to live and where I took so many wonderful photos. I was shocked to see that in place of the solid school building there was now a structure entirely covered in tin sheets.

As it turned out there had been a dispute with the Church of Jesus Christ and the Latter Day Saints over who owned the land where the school was located. So one weekend the church sent in bulldozers and knocked the school down. The only things saved were the benches…all the computers, books, and supplies lost or taken. Unbelievable! The teachers and the children marched in protest up to the Presidential compound that is located near the school. There was also TV coverage by that time. President Koroma saw what happened and ordered the church to rebuild the school. But so far they have only built this tin structure. Later it was determined that the school is on government land not on church property.

The picture with the girls running was how the school used to look in 2009.

Florence is the deputy headmaster at Cardiff and we have been sponsoring several children at the school with the help of some other of our friends. One of them is Minkailu who had just broken his arm. The other who is doing really well with her grades is Jestina, shown here with Florence and her mother.

The other two are no longer at Cardiff. Sarah had a problem with her family and is now at the SOS Children’s home with her little brother. I went to see her just before we left the country. She seemed a little sad but gave me a big hug. The home is a good one as far as childens'homes go so I think she will be all right. Jestina and Sarah are special to me because their picture from 2009 is featured in my book. Another student graduated from Cardiff and is now in a state junior secondary school. So things change!

By that time I was tired and ready to go back to the guesthouse for a break. It’s a problem to keep one’s energy up in this chaotic urban environment. As we were driving back Sheku was stopped by a traffic cop who asked to look at his documents. Sheku just showed his driver’s license but would not give it to the cop before knowing what the offense was. If you give over the license it is hard to get it back sometimes. I started writing down the cop’s name and number and so he got upset with me. So finally what was the offense…too many decorations on the car!!! The cops are just harassing people, trying to get money. Finally I think he decided we were too much trouble and he wouldn’t get anything from us so he let us go. This is something taxi drivers have to contend with on a daily basis.

We are staying at a very pleasant guesthouse. We have AC and lights 24 hours and even more important WIFI...though the internet is so slow that is frustrating to use it and with the heavy rains the server is often down.

The Hash Harriers of Freetown (July 31)

2011-08-16T10:13:00.000-07:00

Each week a group of men and women from a variety of income levels and nations, mostly Sierra Leoneans, go jogging through some of the back footpaths and crowded local streets of Freetown. They often get lost – intentionally. It’s part of what is known as the weekly Hash Harriers run, part of a global program in many countries.
Today Betty and I joined them after a two-year absence. Eventually, every runner who has completed 25 runs gets ‘named,’ at a ceremony that has the runner kneeling and being doused with a bucket of water. Names often reflect personal attributes, interests, or physical characteristics. We were fortunate to get ‘named’ two years ago as (Betty) Mami Yoko, and I as Bai Bureh, a ‘warrior’ who led a rebellion in the 1800s against paying taxes to the British colonial government here.
I like to exchange greetings with local residents as we run through their neighborhoods. And if you get behind, residents kindly point the direction the group has gone. The ‘trail’ is marked by periodic handfuls of confetti, indicating you are “on-on.” If you come to an X you have to turn back; this gives slower runners a chance to catch up.
Two years ago, the run ended in the same place as today. Toward the final half-mile or so, runners can speed up if they like. Two years ago I was flying down a hill toward the finish in first place when a tall Sierra Leonean flew past me. This time only one runner, a guy in dreds, was ahead, and I sprinted to catch him. I was gaining as I heard calls from the other runners that I had gone the wrong way, and the dreds guy wasn’t even part of our group. But it was a fun outing as I loped in well behind the first group of runners. Others walk a shorter route, as Betty did today, taking some photos along the way.

Human rights Project 1991 July 30

2011-08-16T10:07:00.000-07:00

Two years ago when I was teaching human rights at Fourah Bay College in Freetown, I sent students in both my classes (a total of about 250 students) out on a community service project to teach human rights in local schools. They did it; and they did well, according to their reports and m follow-up contacts with their supervisors.
Today, two years later, some of my students are still teaching human rights in local high schools, passing out leaflets at some sporting events, and conducting a radio program that has expanded from one to now two hours a week. I am impressed with their volunteer spirit and dedication to human rights education.
It’s the longest-running community service project I’ve seen students do anywhere, except for a few of my students at the University of Southern Mississippi who kept tutoring Hispanic children in English more than 18 months after our class in Latin American politics ended.
The students here in Freetown call themselves Project 1991, named after the year the civil war began (it ended in 2002). It started when Betty Press selected some of the accounts my students had written about their wartime and peacetime experiences. Many said they wanted to be human rights activists; and they study in the Peace and Conflict program here. They are survivors-turned-activists.
We met on campus with a dozen of the most active members of Project 1991. For three hours they discussed progress to date and plans for the future. In discussions that at times were heated, they adopted three principles: transparency, democracy, and 50/50 (male-female leadership in the group). They plan to transform from a recognized campus organization to a national “community-based organization,” and plan to carry on their volunteer education efforts.
They need modest funding, however, for local transportation, human rights t-shirts, placards, and possible renting an office. They have a Facebook page (Project 1991) and an initial web page (www.usm.edu/humanrights then click on Project 1991).

Into the Gola Rain Forest (July 28)

2011-08-09T05:43:00.000-07:00

On a four-hour trek into the Gola, one of the world’s dwindling number of tropical rain forests, Vandi Bobby Kallon, pauses, takes a deep breath, and smiles serenely. “I’m happy if I come each day to the forest. The air is pure.”
We’ve just hiked up a rolling hill overlooking a small grassy plain where buffalo roam. There are signs, but we don’t see the buffalo. Bird life is plentiful, however, and apparently some rare birds live here.
Vandi has walked with expert bird watchers through this forest, which straddles the Liberia/Sierra Leone border. He already knows a great deal about the birds, identifies them correctly and helps us spot them. But we are only on the edge of the forest, and the area has much new growth from after the time logging was stopped in 1986. The interior areas are still natural rainforest. Two intrepid visitors hiked the length of it with Vandi in seven days.
Palmer Finando, who arranged our trip, showed us one unusual sight which were some gravestones left during tribal wars between the Mende chased the Gola people out of this area in the early 1900’s.
The challenge is probably political. In Guatemala, for example, a rainforest has been invaded in some areas by illegal logging, some of it by the military. In Brazil, development and roads are steadily opening new portions of the rain forests to settlements and business. Here, the forest’s timber is still an attraction.
But Sierra Leone has taken important steps to guard its forest from destruction. Several dozen guards patrol the area; and there is a buffer zone of community forests where residents are free to use a sustainable amount of timer and animals. Tourism is bringing in small amounts of money for the local villagers near the forest.
Palmer Finando, a really nice man with a vision for the future of Gola, is the forest department’s tourism director in Kenema, nearest city to the forest. He can be reached at finandop4868@yahoo.co.uk or www.golarainforest.org.

A visit to Kpakuma (July 24)

2011-08-01T16:30:00.000-07:00

On the drive back with Joseph Lamine of Freetown and Cindy Nofziger, the organizers of Schools for Salone, we stop at one of the other 15 villages their group has built with local labor as the villagers’ contribution. It is Kpakuma, another small cluster of homes on a narrow dirt road and over a log bridge. The women recognize Cindy and Joseph and quickly group behind her singing a traditional song and dancing as they proceed slowly through part of the village. The children are excited to receive pencils.

Christian Kijam tells me his mother is living there and is 116. I ask to meet her. She comes walking out of her home, slowly but steadily, and sits on the front porch to greet her visitors. She doesn’t look near that age; and even with questions I cannot determine her age. Often people in rural areas are not quite sure of their age

Opening of new school by Schools for Salone July 24

2011-08-01T15:41:00.000-07:00

Schools for Salone (July 24)
On Sunday we were invited to the opening of a new primary school built by Schools For Salone in Lungi village near Bo. The students and teachers from Ventura, California raised the funds for the school. At the opening there were lots of speeches, singing and cultural activities to entertain the villagers and the guests. The dancers were in masks and costumes, part of the secret men’s (Poro) and women’s’ (Bundu) society, part of the deep cultural underpinnings of Sierra Leone society, especially in the rural areas. In this case the pictures tell the story of how excited and appreciative this village is to have a good, well-built school in which their children can learn.

A day in Bo July 25

2011-08-01T15:35:00.000-07:00

The day began with a jog along dirt roads and paths winding among solid, one-story, tin-sheet homes of brick or cement. After breakfast in our hotel we hop on two okadas (motorcycle taxies) and head downtown, into Sierra Leone’s second largest (but still small) city of low buildings, and crowded streets. We spend the morning trying to connect to the internet to send out a few emails and upload our blog entries for the first few days in SL Electric power is an uncertain feature of SL – with much less in the dry season. Here, for example, we are told there are often days, sometimes weeks without power. But this is the rainy season and power is plentiful – but not the Internet due to narrow bands reaching the country.
Betty photographs babies being weighed on a sidewalk in front of a clinic under rehabilitation, part of Sierra Leone’s new law offering free pre and post natal health care for babies and mothers. Free, except when you need to purchase drugs. But wait in a long line and you get your baby weighed or get high protein food supplements given by the Food and Agriculture Administration of the UN. Some were definitely malnourished.
After lunch of cassava leaves and rice (delicious), Gibril Bassie, who runs a human rights organization here, drives me to the Njala University campus. Retiring Dean Abu Seasy shows me around, explaining his lecture classes were usually about 300 students, while a student mentions his government classes had only 40. The main campus, a good drive from the city, was destroyed during the civil war (1991-2001).
We find an Internet café and mange to upload some blog entries, and then join Gibril for refreshments at sitting outside a local café on the outskirts of town. Gerbil, whom I’ve known since 2008, was a military officer, then a Karmajor (armed local militia that fought rebels in contested parts of the country. Though like many here, he has traveled abroad, he chose to return to Sierra Leone after the war. His program visits local schools and community groups to discuss human rights laws and development.
Edward John Bull, SL’s national director of the Catholic Charity Caritas drives up and joins us. SL is changing in visible ways (more paved roads, more homes) and invisible ways, he says: people are less focused on their extended families and more on ‘nuclear’ or immediate families; there is some upward movement into the ‘upper lower class,’ and a small but growing middle class. But there is little movement of the very poor; and the gap between the wealthy and the poor is growing.

Unfortunately it has been too hard to load the pictures for this post Betty will try to add some for the next post.

Village visit (July 23, part 2)

2011-07-25T10:50:00.000-07:00

Lansana sits on a wooden bench on the front porch of his small home in Mandu, a farming village about 18 miles from Bo. The dirt, pot-holed, rutted road, runs from the Mende region to the Temene region (the other major ethnic group). This whole region was engulfed by the vicious civil war of 1991 to 2002. The movie “Blood Diamonds” portrays some of the violence of that war, including amputations by the rebels. But today, a decade of peace later, there have been two peaceful presidential elections and a change of power. Another election is due in 2012.

During the war, massive numbers fled the country or to Freetown or the bush. Lansana had to flee his home and run to the bush. Living in a temporary shelter he built in the bush, he and his family stayed for several years. Some of his children made it to Ghana and were later resettled in Australia where they live today.

But life in the village is not easy. “I’m penniless,” he says. Villagers live on the crops they grow (such as rice and cassava) and the little extra they sell. A group called Friends of Sierra Leone, mostly ex-Peace Corps volunteers, is helping the village construct a cement floor pig-raising facility that could boost local incomes. The government has constructed a grain milling and storage building along with a 36-foot well (none of it yet in use). There is a local school. Houses are mostly mud-walled with old tin roofs or thatch.

I write down and the practice with residents some words in the Mende language. All too soon we are heading back to town, riding again with Bob Moran, a former Peace Corps volunteer from 1972 who still lives in the same village where he was a volunteer. He works for the local Catholic Church at present and is the adoptive father of a locally born son. He visits his family in the U.S. from time to time, but he loves living here.

On the road again (to Bo) (July 23, part 1)

2011-07-25T10:42:00.000-07:00

After a day on the campus of Fourah Bay College to see some of my former students and ones Betty helped coordinate into a human rights education project (more on that later), our third day in SL we head for Bo, the second largest city. Up at 4:30 to catch the 6:20 government bus, we meet Bockarie Kamara, General Manager of the Sierra Leone road transport Corporation. He is supervising the loading, making sure everyone has his or her numbered seat with baggage ticketed and stored on board. Until two years ago he was living in the U.K. like many others in the SL Diaspora. He even likes the damp, cold wealthier of the U.K. But he decided to move back for a very clear reason: “This is home.”

The 130 miles or so to Bo, when we lived here, was a dust-caking, jarring venture on the unpaved, pothole-filled sections. Today, it is paved the whole way. We even doze off in our school-bus type seats (sans headrests). We stop at a crowded area downtown but before we can haul our two small suitcases down to the ground, two fellow passengers graciously offer to help and, suitcases in hand, lead us to a taxi. The two men, Albert and Samuel, are military officers (in civilian clothes). We exchange cell phone numbers and agree to meet socially later in town.

Mohammed Jalloh takes us in his taxi to the Imperial Hotel, a small one at the edge of town where we have stayed before: quiet, small courtyard and restaurant for a reasonable price ($45 for a double). I recognize the gate guard, Edward, who recognized us from two previous stays. Betty likes being in Mende country (the predominant ethnic group here) because her name is a popular one among the Mende, as hotel staff members tell her.

The main transportation in Bo is motorcycle taxies (Okada) for the equivalent of 25 cents a ride. That evening, after a visit to some villages, we hail an Okada in the dark and ride smoothly and at a modest speed into the town. The driver explains he is earning money to continue his higher education in agricultural management. This is a farming country, one with many challenges, as we learn on our visit to a village 18 miles from Bo.

Return to Sierra Leone (July 20)

2011-07-25T10:39:00.000-07:00

When you land in Sierra Leone you’re not in the capital, Freetown. You are in Lungi, across a very big bay that takes at least half an hour in a fast passenger speedboat. The alternatives are a shaky old helicopter, or a slow moving ferry that doesn’t operate at night. We chose the speedboat for $40 each. Soon the lights of the city were becoming brighter. The city crowds down to the Atlantic ocean, squeezed by low mountains that early Portuguese explorers said resembled lions – thus the name Sierra “Leone.”

A friend welcomed us and took us to his guesthouse with air conditioning and a view of the ocean and bay. The next morning we awoke to a different world, familiar from two years ago but new again: a downtown of tall office buildings competing for space with squat ones of one to several stories, all lining narrow streets overflowing with people, fixed-route, taxies (25 cents per passenger); unpaved back streets dotted with small kiosks and shops; high security walls around wealthier residences often against modest ones; low income neighborhoods of two room homes of brick, or mud walls, mingling with one-room tin shacks perched on steep valley walls with winding creeks used for public bathing. A city of contrasts, an example of income disparity that is global and growing.

There has been some progress in Sierra Leone since we left here two years ago: several key roads in Freetown are being widened. Electricity is a daily occurrence, though this is the rainy season when water levels are higher behind hydropower dams. There are still powerless periods in the dry season we are told. More schools are being built in rural areas. That’s where we are heading next – to Bo, the second city of Sierra Leone, and visits to some villages.

2011-07-13T19:32:00.000-07:00

Heading to Sierra Leone, just as a former journalist colleague is prepring a cover story for The Christian Science Monitor magazine on myths we have about Africa. Honestly, what are the first images you have when you think of Africa? If you've had the good fortune to have visited the continent, the images may be of beautiful landscapes, hard-working families, playful children, bustling cities, and yes, slums, poverty and dirt roads. But Africa is moving ahead. More democracy, better health, more education, and more wealth - a growing middle class.

Sierra Leone is moving ahead too, in terms of peace after a civil war. I will be glad to see some of my former students. We want to see if some of them can work with local SL ngos to continue their human rights education efforts.

Well, we're packed. Flying Thursday to London, then after a week with our foster daughter, off to SL. See you there.

getting ready

2011-07-10T06:46:00.000-07:00

We are getting ready to return to Sierra Leone for a visit. This has meant renewing passports, getting visas, getting malaria tablets, and emailing ahead to confirm old cell numbers. I hope to interview some former human rights activists I met in 08-09. At that time I asked them to recount how activists had stood up non-violently to authoritarian rule against three different governments (two of them military). Finally, in 2002, the civil war ended, and democracy took hold again. Now, in preparing for a book I plan on Sierra Leone, Kenya, and Liberia's peaceful struggles, I want to learn more about what has happened since democracy was restored; and what happened to those human rights activists.

In Kenya, some activists joined the government and actually obstructed justice and human rights, though most kept true to their cause. But donors made the mistake in Kenya of thinking it was time to shift their donations to the government and away from ngos since the 'good guys' had won. Well, that was a mistake, a corruption spiked and abuses continued, including the muder of two human rights investigators.

Sierra Leone, best known to many as the place of 'blood diamonds' which were used to fund the civl war that ended in 2002, is actually a peaceful country, democratic, and making progress on institutionalizing human rights. But many challenges remain, including disputes between political parties.

But a recent study by a Sierra Leonean found that contrary to conventional wisdom, a significant portion of citizens are voting across ethnic lines for the candidate of their choice. this is encouraging because ethnic voting loyalties can lead to violent clashes.

A post-script - on Somalia. The rains have failed for two seasons, according to an NPR report July 10. It's worse than Ethiopia 1984 or Somalia early 90s. Many are two weak to reach refugee camps across the border. The Shabab militant Islamic group, according to NPR, denied access to donor groups until recently. Now the U.S. is considering significant help; other donors would follow.

We'll be taking you along on the Sierra Leone trip. So thanks for your interest. And best wishes for a good remainder of the summer. Please post questions, comments; it's easier than it used to be. And you can share this blog with friends who might be interested. Bye for now

Betty's new Africa photo/proverb book coming soon

2011-07-05T19:07:00.000-07:00

Dear friends and colleagues:
The following is from my wife, Betty Press, who has just completed a book with some of her best photos from Africa. Since I am a big fan of her work, I thought you wouldn’t mind getting this email about it. Enjoy! Bob Press
…
I have some very exciting news. The book that I have been working on for the last year is now a reality. It is called I Am Because We Are: African Wisdom in Image and Proverb and consists of a selection of my B&W African photographs combined with related African proverbs compiled by my good friend Annetta Miller, a lifelong resident of East Africa. It is published in partnership with Books For Africa.

The book presents a different “image” of Africa, one of hope, celebration, and appreciation for what the African culture has given to the whole world.

Please check out details at www.AfricanWisdomInImageAndProverb.com. The book will be out in early September. For those of you who want to be among “the first” to get the book you can preorder on the web site and get free shipping. The books will be sent out when they arrive from the printer.

There will be several events surrounding the launch of the book and I will be sending out updates on these events as the time comes close.. Or follow me on my blog or facebook. Links are on the web page.

I know there are many people who are interested in Africa who would like to know about this book so please share this with friends on Facebook or send me their email addresses so I can add them to my mailing list.

If you do not want to receive any more information on the book just reply with this message in the subject line “Thanks for this; no updates needed.”

Thanks for your interest in my work.
Betty Press
Bettypress@gmail.com
www.bettypress.com
www.AfricanWisdomInImageAndProverb.com book website with photos; & to order
www.iambecauseweareafricanwisdom.blogspot.com betty’s book blog
www.booksforafrica.org

creative teching

2010-12-15T14:47:00.000-08:00

Well, it's been a while. And the name on this blog isn't up to date. I mean Betty and I have been back from Sierra Leone since summer 2009. But I did say I wanted to focus on teaching next. So here goes for the moment, and please comment.
I have been developing a teaching style that stems in part from Paulo Frere's Pedagogy of the Oppressed. He cautions us not to treat students as empty vessels into which we 'pour' knowledge. I agree. And I have a quote in my office from Benjamin Franklin which reads: Tell me and I forget; teach me and I remember; involve me and I learn. I like that.
So, putting the two together, where does that lead one. Your version may be different, but here's my current take:
1. Respect the intelligence students have: instead of pouring in information, involve students in discovering information and theories that make some sense of that information.
2. On a practical level, this has led me to begin allowing students to choose reading assignments for themselves and fellow students.
3. Critical thinking: instead of accepting summarizations of these readings, I accept only (a) arguments from the readings; (b) counterarguments students can come up with from other readings or their own thoughts; (c) linkage - the hard part - to some other readgins or cases.
4. This frustrates students looking for just lectures and exams. Unfortunately for large classes exams end up multiple choice. I don't even think exams tell us much anymore. Assignments throughout the term, research papers, and community service, give students a better opportunity to demonstrate what they have learned.
OK - that's enough for now, especially since I have no idea if anyone is going to see this. But if you have seen this, please share your thoughts.
Cheers,
Bob

democratic teaching model; getting back in touch

2010-04-21T09:30:00.000-07:00

Dear friends,
As the Spring academic term winds down, I wanted to share with you the very positive news from my classes this Spring. In further developing the concept of a democratic teaching model, I have been very pleased with the quality of student papers and discussions. The students have written solid papers that analyze instead of merely summarize scholarly articles. We have explored together various geographic regions including Latin America, Africa, Asia, and students have made very impressive presentations. The usual 10-minute presentations generally last most of the hour as presenters shift to leading discussions.

I am still exploring (probably always will be)effective teaching methods. I find myself coming half circle back to offering more (mini) lectures on theories, while at the same time allowing students to help choose (and assign to other students) readings, negotiate grading structure, and agree on class format. I still have requirements for a research paper and community service.

I would be most interested in anyone sharing their thoughts on effective teaching - and learning. We can start a facebook group for anyone interested.

But I feel as if those of you who have enjoyed Betty's and my Sierra Leone blog and want to continue with this one are folks who share a common interest in learning, travel, and sharing ideas. Not sure what the best format is, but would love to hear from everyone who either follows this blog, or happens to come across it. We could set up a facebook group; I use facebook now (for the first time) with my classes. I still need to set up a blog alert for those who said "YES" to wanting to continue with this one. Am actually not sure how one does that other than to send an email notice. Any suggestions?

Hope to hear from you. Google offers translation, so if I can use it, that means anyone can join in using their own language. Please, no commercial material and only posts one can share with families.

update on Sierra Leone youth and invitation to you

2009-12-24T13:21:00.000-08:00

Dear friends,
At this holiday season, we wish you special greetings. To our friends and those we have yet to meet, all of whom signed on to Bob and Betty’s Sierra Leone blog, we hope 2010 is a wonderful, productive, and peaceful new year.
This is to update you on a couple of positive things that have happened regarding Sierra Leone and to invite you to continue staying in touch if you want to (If you do, just hit reply and write YES in subject line or message area). We are also posting this on our Sierra Leone blog at www.pressnotes.blogspot.com

And since it is really ‘your’ blog, please add comments (or if that proves cumbersome on the blog, send them to bob.press@usm.edu,), news, travels, remarks on international events. It would be nice to have an open forum.

1. Survivors for Human Rights. Since we returned from our academic year in Sierra Leone, Betty has worked with the Center for Human Rights and Civil Liberties at the University of Southern Mississippi to create a web page for student survivors of conflict.

The idea is to link Sierra Leone and other students globally to share their stories of survival as well as their hopes, plans, and progress toward greater world respect for human rights. You can see the page at www.usm.edu/humanrights; then click on Project 1991, the year the civil war there began. Please send Betty comments at bettypress@gmail.com. The students were among members of my two human rights classes in Freetown.

2. Sierra Leone calendars. The photos so many of you enjoyed of school children in Sierra Leone are now available for sale as a fundraiser for more schools in Sierra Leone. Betty donated her photos to Schools for Sierra Leone who made a 2010 calendar. You can purchase it for $15, and after the $3 production costs, all the rest goes to building more schools. Go to www.schoolsforsalone.org.

One of Bob’s former students, Raven Wilke, raised more than $800 for the school project in one evening. Betty and I have visited some of the schools. Cindy Nofziger is the U.S.-based director; her colleague works and lives in Sierra Leone.

3. Please stay in touch. Finally, if you would like to continue receiving occasional emails about new blog postings on (a) updates regarding Sierra Leone projects above; (b) – and this is a shift: bob’s teaching, please send an email response back saying YES.

Bob taught a “democratic’ class this fall in which students chose topics to discuss, format for the discussions, and grades. The issues included national security, national health care, affirmative action, gay rights – all chosen by the students. Discussions were civil, informative, and factually-based with sourced information. Now he is seeking ways to instill that kind of student ‘ownership’ of classes into his upper-level seminars. Stay tuned. Bye for now.

Back in Mississippi

2009-08-07T10:06:00.000-07:00

Hi folks,
For all of you who have taken the time to look at our Sierra Leone blog, we thank you for your interest, not just in us, but in the people of that amazing country. Betty and I are back in Hattiesburg, MS. If you ever come this way, or want to contact us, our home phone is 601-582-8756. The email is bob.press@usm.edu or bettypress.gmail.com

if you have some comments you want to post on the blog, please do so.

More photos -below

2009-06-17T08:16:00.000-07:00

Be sure to scroll down to Betty's amazing photos of downtown Freetown midnight parade and a daytime stroll by the 'devils, plus family travel in this beautiful country.

to our blog friends - as we leave Sierra Leone

2009-06-17T08:15:00.000-07:00

To readers of this blog:
Betty and I hope you have enjoyed reading the blog, looking at her pictures. The fact that you signed up for our occasional alerts on new postings shows your have an outward sense of the world and the fabric that links humanity everywhere. We wish you well in your own important endeavors to make our world a better place for everyone.
It would be nice to stay in touch, in case anyone has any suggestions on how….
Bye for now.

some thoughts on departing

2009-06-17T08:09:00.003-07:00

Some final thoughts….
So we are leaving after nine months. But though we leave Sierra Leone, it will not leave us. Sure, there were frustrations with electricity only about a third of the time (at best), narrow streets overflowing with pedestrians, traffic jams, etc. But it’s a beautiful country: the beaches are undiscovered gems; the country is safe; the people are amazingly open and friendly: and that’s not just words – they really are. They work hard when they get work. (We said good-bye recently to Sennuse who breaks rocks for a living and raises by himself his two daughters who are in Cardiff school (see earlier blog postings on the school.)
I’ll miss my students. Almost all of them are sincerely trying to find their way into the professional world (many as human rights activists), trying to scrape together school fees. Given the opportunity, their talents shine, as when they taught human rights in local schools..
Classes are way too big for effective teaching; too much time is lost keeping the class quiet enough to hear not just me but fellow students. Still – there’s been a lot of learning, as noticed in their research papers and reports on the their community teaching.
A history professor described Sierra Leone as stable on the surface and fragile underneath. The same causes that apparently fueled the war, including mass poverty and lack of education and opportunity, are still present. But one hopes the horrors of the civil war (1991-2002) leave people reluctant to allow another one.

Betty and I hope to find ways to link our students back in Mississippi to students here. She has collected the war and peace stories of some of my students, photographed them, and plans to put it all on the web. The student participants want to link up with students around the country and the world. We’re open to suggestions on where this might lead. Locally, the students want to start a Students for Human Rights. (Perhaps they could call it Students United for Rights Everywhere: SURE).
And Betty has commissioned two local artists to paint small signboards, the kind all over town on small restaurants and barber shops, a kind of no-depth, and almost cartoon-like depictions of people eating or getting a haircut. She found a local café that will display them for sale. We’re taking a batch home.

Sierra Leone - I hope we come back some day.

You Can Go Home Again

2009-06-17T08:09:00.002-07:00

You Can Go Home Again:
A number of Sierra Leoneans have returned to this country to live and work, some after 30 years in the United States. One returnee told me recently he had decided to stay in Sierra Leone, despite the low pay, lack of facilities (sporadic electricity, for example). “I’ve found my soul” here, he said. First, like other returned professionals, his services are very much in demand here. But beyond that, he likes the less complicated lifestyle and social aspects of life here. Another returnee is teaching at Fourah Bay College and pouring energy and new ideas into his work here. We are told that many of the big homes being built on the outskirts of the city are paid for by remittances by Sierra Leoneans living abroad. Some of them may be planning to return, too.

Obama magic in Sierra Leone

2009-06-17T08:09:00.001-07:00

Obama magic
As mentioned before in this blog, I got tagged with the nickname Obama, probably because I would call out his name as a greeting before and after the election, and people began returning it. Now when I run through Sunshine Valley near us, a neighborhood of mostly low-income families living on steep slopes bordering a small stream, children and adults call out, even at a distance, “Obama.” I return the greeting.
On some runs in the valley, I play games with the children I see in the distance, across the stream, or high up a slope. We mimic each other’s moves, even throwing in a few yoga positions and end up with a good laugh. A few of the older youth get a good laugh at me because I can’t copy their handstands and other more advanced moves.
It’s energizing when children call out and run up to you or holler from a distance to start the game. It’s not the most efficient workouts, but it certainly is a wonderful way to spend an hour before sunset. I’ll miss those runs and all the people along the way.
Now I have yet another nickname (Bai Bureh, a chief from the 1800s: see separate entry on naming). The other day as I was getting into a taxi, a driver of another vehicle leaned out the window and yelled: “Bai Bureh.” And when two passengers got into the taxi with me, one of them looked up and said: “Obama.” People enjoy greeting each other and are often a lot warmer and open than we tend to be back in the U.S.

university students - insider view

2009-06-17T08:06:00.000-07:00

Student accomplishments:
I sent my 168 fall students and 115 spring students in human rights out on a community service assignment to teach human rights in secondary schools. Most of them completed the assignment very well, verified by signature of their supervisor and my follow up telephone calls to the institution. That’s more than 2,500 hours of human rights teaching. Students said they overcame shyness to address classes of 100 or more. And their reports showed they used a variety of teaching techniques which we had used in our class. They also had to learn their material pretty well to be able to teach it. Many students said it was a significant achievement for them and that they enjoyed it. I gave them each a certificate of recognition with their name on it for their future portfolio.

Students are raised on a habit of memorization and recitation from primary school on through secondary school. Critical thinking is often new to them. In my classes, however, students had a good chance to voice their opinions and knowledge. Many, including most of the female students, were hesitant, but after a while, they began participating more.

Student cheating;
While most of my students are honest and hard-working, some 17 (out of about 120) in my spring human rights class apparently cheated on their final research project, copying pages from each other. Since human rights and ethics are inseparable, I recommended their expulsion from the University to make room for more deserving students. A university disciplinary committee is reviewing the cases and will give the students an opportunity to present their case. A number of the students have admitted their cheating to me; a few have denied it, despite documentary evidence to the contrary. One senior faculty member described cheating at the College as “blatant.” Some would prefer less of a penalty such as not counting their report on which they cheated. I think that’s too mild. My syllabus called for expulsion from the class with an F for plagiarism.

Peace and Violence on campus
Last summer, students went on a rampage and destroyed their dormitories after campus student elections. Last winter, a student died during a harsh university club initiation. So this spring I began meeting with campus student leaders to encourage them to make initiatives to try to bring peace back as the norm. A number of groups did so, with handouts, banners, and even a student Peace Summit where leaders of rival factions pledged non-violence. Several students are trying to follow up with an Alternatives to Violence Project involving conflict avoidance training at colleges and schools nationally.

getting an additional name

2009-06-17T08:03:00.000-07:00

Naming ceremonies:
For most of our time here Betty and I have participated in the weekly ‘Hash’ club events. This group of up to 100 Sierra Leoneans and internationals every Monday runs or walks through backyards and along dirt paths through neighborhoods whose residents welcome us, cheer us on and point the way for stragglers to catch up
In the honorable tradition of the ‘hash, you get ‘named’ in a ceremony in which everyone pours water on you (a few enthusiasts who empty a bucket on your head). Names range from the ridiculous to the historic. Betty and I were lucky, we got historic ones.
At my naming, many people assumed I would get named ‘Obama,’ which is the nickname that has stuck more than any of the others I’ve been given here (see a separate entry on this. My full name up till now has been Bob Bangura Jalloh Obama Press). At the last minute, my Sierra Leonean friends chose Bai Bureh. He was a local chief who resisted the British imposition of taxes on the homes of people in the 1890s. He led a ‘hut tax’ war against the British and had the upper hand for a few months, eluding capture. He allegedly could become invisible - and could hide under water for long periods (I think I’ll skip trying that one). He was finally captured in 1898, sent into exile in Ghana and finally brought back in 1905.
After our last run/walk, Betty was named “Mammy Yoko,” after a brilliant, beautiful Paramount Chief in the 1800s who “saved her husband from a long imprisonment under the British. She made a personal appeal to the Governor, “who was charmed by [her] beauty and feminine graces.” (Now I know who to turn to if I ever get arrested.
Actually, getting Sierra Leonean names is much more meaningful than some of the rather crazy names often given out. And it means we take an added bit of Sierra Leone history home with us.)

Visit by neice Heidi and Independence Day Activities

2009-06-13T05:57:00.000-07:00

At the end of April my niece, Heidi Hoops, came to visit us which motivated us to travel places we had not yet had a chance to visit. It was her first visit to Africa and she really enjoyed it.

Heidi came a few days early so she could get here in time for the Independence Day activities. Sierra Leone became independent April 27, 1961 So the night she arrived, even though she had been traveling straight through from Denver we dropped off her luggage and headed downtown for the “Lantern Parade” at about 10pm. It was difficult to get there due to all the crowds but our taxi driver had arranged for us to meet a policeman who would escort us to a spot near the reviewing stand where the President was also watching the parade. In the end we had several policemen helping us and we finally found a great spot with a few open chairs where we could sit and not have our view obstructed by crowds.

Lanterns are like floats with lights and intricate moving parts manned by people under the float bed. Different neighborhoods build lanterns based on a theme and then drive or roll them though the streets. Everyone that is involved in building the lantern joins the parade so in addition to the float there are lots of chanting, celebrating people surrounding it. Because of that the parade route got very chaotic and even seemed dangerous at times with all the people passing by the reviewing stand. But there were a lot of policemen doing crowd control and so we felt pretty safe.

But as the evening got later and later we were worried about how to get back to our taxi. One man with a radio offered to help us, found us another escort and we barged through the crowd back to our car where our taxi driver was waiting for us. The policemen who had helped us earlier joined our escort and so we were well protected. Then Bob had to tip everyone who had helped us! That’s how they earn some extra money. In our case we were very glad to have their help because crowds here, as everywhere, can be dangerous or at best unpredictable.

So we truly had an amazing experience; one that few international visitors have as you can see from the photos. And fortunately Heidi was ready for an unusual experience.

And it didn’t end there because the next day there were also lots of other independence day activities and again she agreed to come along. We visited a trade fair and did some shopping. Here is Heidi in her very stylish Nigerian headdress. Too bad she didn't buy it!

Then we found a safe place to watch the traditional “devils” parade through the city and traditional dancing.

After a day of rest in Freetown we went off to visit a nature preserve called Tiwai Island, which is inhabited, by lots of varieties of monkeys and chimpanzees in the wild as well pygmy hippos. Unfortunately they are hard to see and I didn’t get any pictures. We just got glimpses of the Red Colobus monkeys flying through the trees. The setting of this island rainforest surrounded by the river is fairly pristine for the moment. But it will only survive if the camp has good relations with the nearby villages and where the local community sees some benefit from the people who visit.

On the way back we visited a school and dropped off some school supplies that Heidi (along with her family) had brought along to distribute to the school children here. Heidi was a big hit when she was teaching the children how to throw a Frisbee.

Human Rights Speaking Tour

2009-05-12T05:24:00.000-07:00

We finally got out of Freetown for an upcountry tour organized by the American Embassy and using me as a Fulbright scholar to speak on human rights and alternatives to violence. This gave us only our second good look at the rest of this country (we had taken a quick trip to the second largest city, Bo, earlier). With us from the embassy, organizing the trip, was Amy Challe who added a lot to the meetings.

On our way we discovered that roads ranged from paved and smooth to unpaved, dusty and rocky, but with some new road work evident. When good roads reach more interior cities and towns, it will boost commerce and farming. But we were in an air-conditioned, four wheel drive Embassy vehicle so it was generally comfortable.

In the villages we saw lots of thatched roofs mixed with zinc roofs, walls typically of mud bricks, and plenty of empty, unfarmed land along the way, and in many villages, not much activity. The quietness compared to the noise and bustle of Freetown might be a welcome change but to my eyes life looked rather boring (but then I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago and St. Louis). On a separate trip, Betty saw more activity in villages around Bo, especially. This is also the reason why a lot of young people leave the villages for the cities.

But the main features of our trip were the meetings with hundreds of secondary school students, teachers and community leaders who came to our 2-3 hour sessions.

The sessions mainly focused on Human Rights. In Port Loko town we expected dozens of high school students but some 100 showed up. Even so I divided them into groups of 10 (Betty had to step outside because the noise of moving that many metal chairs and desks was ear splitting) and asked them to consider human rights questions then report back to the whole: alternating between male and female student ‘reporters.’

In Makeni, we met with secondary school student and teachers.

In Bo, and Kenema, we met with varying size groups of students and faculty.

And in Bo, one of the more interesting sessions was with key community leaders, including the mayor, an army chaplain, the head of the police, a woman judge, and NGO leaders.

Among questions the participants examined in their groups were these:
You notice the son of your neighbor is going to school but not the daughters. What do you say or do?

You hear screams from your neighbor’s house and realize the man is beating a women (whether his wife or not). What do you do? [Domestic abuse, spouse abuse, was outlawed more clearly in recent legislation]

Preparations are underway for a girl 12 to be circumcised despite her strong protests. The grandmother insists this is the only way for her to become a true woman. You are a member of the girl’s family: what do you do? [Most females in SL undergo circumcision, often at a very young age: even infants have been circumcised. A new law prohibits it for anyone under 18 and then only with the subject’s consent. Chiefs in one area recently supported this limitation. Traditionalists consider it a rite of passage accompanied by cultural training to become a (traditional) woman.]

The local chief (45 years of age) intends to marry a girl 14 whose parents have consented. What do you do? [Early marriages are not uncommon; many young participants during our presentations spoke against it.]

The other main theme focused on was Alternatives to violence. Borrowing a few pages from the Alternatives to Violence Projects started by Quakers for prisons, I asked those in attendance to try a stand-up exercise on violence:

Stand facing someone palm to palm with them. On the count of three, one person pushes the palms of the other. The person on the receiving end usually pushes back, but this doubles the level of violence present. Other options are to hold firm, or avoid (step aside). Leads to lively discussions.

At Bo’s Njala University campus one female student quietly said she never (later she said ‘rarely’) gets mad. And when someone pushes her (is angry) she says “I’m sorry” rather than trying defend herself and cause more anger.

Like students in my university class here (the course this spring has about 60 students – so far), many young Sierra Leoneans are serious about becoming ‘peacemakers’ and helping make their country a good place to live.

Schools For Salone (donations)

2009-04-18T06:21:00.000-07:00

As some of you know through the help of many friends we raised enough money to sponsor four children at Cardiff Preparatory School. I could only do this for one year as I will not be here to give out the money next year. So I hope those of you who would still like to help children in SL get an education would donate to Schools for Salone. Because SFS is a non-profit organization people in the US can sponsor a child and receive a tax deduction for it. And you know the money will be used for a good cause and in an accountable way. Please look at the following post documenting my trip with them to visit the schools that they built.

School For Salone

2009-04-18T05:16:00.000-07:00

It’s interesting how people make connections but when it happens it can be very special. That is how I would describe my getting to know about Cindy Notziger and her organization “Schools for Salone”. Cindy, a former Peace Corps volunteer posted to Masanga in the 80’s, found out about a need for schools in remote villages and decided to respond by raising money to build schools. And since they started they have been involved in building nine schools. Cindy does this on top of being a mother and holding down a full time position with Seattle Public Schools.

Please check out her website for more information. www.schoolsforsalone.org

Cindy is welcomed with open arms by some students where a school as been built.

Cindy and her son Michael, who accompanied her on the trip, are meeting with the chief of the village where a school has been built.

In SL she partners with Joseph Lamin, on left, who is Executive Director of Masanga Children's Fund. This year they are sponsoring over 300 children with school fees, small money for living allowances, etc. He supports the destitute of the destitute in SL. He is a social worker by training, has a graduate degree in Community Development from a University in London. He was also a partner in a construction firm in SL for about 10 years which means he knows a lot about getting schools built. Here he is meeting with some school teachers.

Together they make an amazing team that gives children in remote areas more opportunities to go to school.

Cindy came in March to attend the Opening Ceremony of a newly built school and to visit all the other schools that have built or are in the process of being built. I was invited to go along on this trip and here are some of the pictures that I took. I am making my pictures available to her to use in whatever way will promote her organization.

At the opening ceremony you can see how the community welcomed us. The women made food and sang for us. The children also performed. And at the end the plaque bearing the name of the school was unveiled. This school was paid for by an NFL player, Madieu Williams, whose family is from SL.

Another program that SFS has is school sponsorships. Cindy is showing the young girl who is being sponsored her picture.

The picture shows two students who have qualified to go on to Secondary School. As you can see few students make it past 6 years of primary school!

When we got to this school the children were waiting for us. It was nice to be able to show the faces of the children. Supplies were delivered along with a new soccer ball.

This village is getting a new school and you can see how the old school was not very good. On our visit we were able to collect some books from another organization which is shipping books to Africa www.booksforafrica.org. The children and teachers were so excited to get some books as they have few books in the school.

This is the last school that we visited. It is located in a rutile mining area. There are lots of problems due to this, such as pollution of water, devastation of the countryside and the company giving little back to the local community. The kids met us on the road and paraded to the school compound where they lined up to greet us. ( Note the sign about heavy traffic due to use of the road by trucks.) Supplies were delivered and meetings with the teachers were held. As we left the children showed how excited they were to have had our visit.

Kadija's Birthday Party

2009-04-18T04:29:00.000-07:00

We were invited to Kadija’s birthday party. Kadija, who just turned 7, is the daughter of Gladys Conteh, the woman who works for us. We were a little worried about Kadija because she had just had a bad bout of malaria the week before. But, on the day of her party, she was fine and very excited about her party. She had a lot new dresses to wear for the party. So every so often Kadija would appear in a new outfit. Maybe you can count all the different ones. Tailoring is very cheap here and they do amazing work.

When we arrived at 4pm, the scheduled time, everyone in the compound was still getting ready. Gladys lives in one of the old wooden Creole cottages that were built in the early 1900’s and gives Freetown its distinctive historic feel. Her father was given this house by his employer, a Krio woman, also named Gladys. Her picture, an old framed b&W photograph, hangs prominently in the living room.

Meanwhile in the small compound chairs had been set out. Another room had a sound system operated by a DJ and this was where the main party was held. It turned out to be way too small for all the people who came. As Gladys said more people came then she expected. She lives in a very crowded area and when there is a party in the neighborhood lots of people just show up. She also said that when they see white people coming they know it is going to be a good party with lots to eat, etc. So we added to her party in unexpected ways.

The party room, which was quite small, was festively decorated with balloons. Fortunately the DJ adjusted the speakers so the sound system didn’t blow us away. The party was officially started by Gladys’ minister who blessed Kadija and her mother and her father. Kadija’s father is from a very strict Muslim family. He and Gladys were never able to get together due to religious differences. There are other families who do work out these problems but it is more difficult when the families are more conservative.

After the blessing the children played musical chairs which they had great fun with. But it was sort of expected that Kadija would win and she did!

Kadija's Birthday Party Continued

2009-04-18T03:53:00.000-07:00

After that food and drinks were served. We were amazed at the food that came out of Gladys kitchen and wondered how she could afford this. But, as Gladys(wearing yellow and green top) later explained, a lot of the food, drinks, birthday cake, music were donated by her friends. She has a lot of good friends as she is the kind of person who, in return, is very generous. We are very lucky to have met her and that she agreed to come work for us.

The last highlight was the birthday cake. Each of the seven candles was lit by a special person. And then Kadija was joined by her father and mother to blow them out! A perfect ending to a very special party for a very special, and much loved girl!

Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary

2009-03-26T03:58:00.000-07:00

Though we had visited the Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary back in November we decided to come back for another visit, this time to spend a night at one of the eco lodges in the forest sanctuary. This way we could go on the tour to see the chimpanzees and walk some of the surrounding nature trails.

“The purpose of the sanctuary is to provide a home for confiscated, orphaned chimpanzees. It plays a vital role as part of a larger countrywide program in stopping the pet trade and hunting of wild chimps through education and legal enforcement.”

The sanctuary is located in the Western Area Forest Reserve only a few miles from Freetown. They are trying to halt the deforestation of this area, which is good habitat for rare animals, including wild chimpanzees. It also serves as an important catchment area for fresh water for Freetown. Since the sanctuary is so close to the city developers are already starting to build out their direction. Unfortunately I believe this trend was encouraged by the building of the American Embassy in the hills near the reserve. Soon the European Commission will be there as well. And with this comes a lot of residential building.

The sanctuary consists of seven forested enclosures on 30 acres where over 90 chimpanzees are fed and cared for. More than 4km of electric fence protects them. When the chimpanzees first arrive at the sanctuary they are put in quarantine where they are brought back to good health and then socialized to live with a group. When they are ready they are slowly moved to another enclosure where they live with other chimps, always being observed to make sure that they can get along with the others. Most of the chimps in the sanctuary were former pets or were in the process of being sold. This practice is becoming more rare because it is now illegal to keep chimps as pets and this is being enforced more and more fortunately.

From the balcony of the library you can watch one enclosure, nicely designed with trees, ropes, wooden platforms, old tires… all there to give the chimps something to do. This is also the best place for visitors to watch the chimps who like to climb up the trees, swing on the ropes and old tires. They also seem to like to watch the visitors as much as we enjoy watching them though sometimes they will throw stones at them because as one staff member said “they want to show you who is boss.” But it also may have something to do with the fact that even though the rehabilitated chimps have a good life in their enclosures, they know they are not free to move around in the wild.

It is hoped that some day some of them can be returned to the wild but this is a long process, as safe areas need to be identified in the country. At this time a countrywide survey is going on to identify how many chimps are living in the wild and in what areas.

new photos by betty

2009-03-07T04:17:00.000-08:00

See February entries for new photos by Betty of Sierra Leone school children.

running in sierra leone

2009-03-07T04:15:00.000-08:00

Its known as the “Hash.” Every Monday a group of Sierra Leoneans and international folks jog or walk along narrow rocky footpaths that meander among mostly low-income neighborhoods. So many of the city’s modest homes, of cement blocks or tin panels, are located in an un-zoned pattern that paths snake by front porches, along side homes, through compounds.

The amazing thing is that no one seems to mind about runners suddenly dashing by; in fact, there is a genuine good spirited reaction and lot of greetings exchanged. And if you get separated from the group, people point out the way, even guide you on the path. I once got behind and was led past some barking dogs by a child no more than five years of age.

The hash works this way: ‘hares” set a trail dropping bitts of shredded paper to mark it. False trails are marked too, with an X at some short distance down the wrong way. Fast runners get to intersections first and often go down the wrong way, only to turn back. By then, slow joggers have caught up. So you go from being in front to being last. Walkers take a shorter route. Afterwards, the group sings some silly songs and ‘names’ a few runners with a hash name. [I’ve escaped that so far as a relative newcomer.]

But I run several times a week by myself, mostly on both sides of a steep valley that leads to the American Embassy at the high point. Because Obama is so popular here, and perhaps because I wore an Obama t-shirt before the election on some runs, I’ve gotten tagged with the nickname “Obama.” People who see me in my red running shirt call out ‘Obama’ from both sides of the valley. It energizes me on days when I’m tired. I think people just like to exchange greetings; and using the name ‘Obama’ is a nice way to do it.

The other day I ran up a mountain peak behind the Embassy, only about a 12-minute jog, but enough to be a workout. On top the clouds came in and the valley below disappeared from view. It was a quiet moment. I stood there for a while, just enjoying the scene, then jogged back home.

Justice in Sierra Leone

2009-03-07T04:12:00.001-08:00

In February 2009, a Special Court with United Nations funding found three former rebel leaders of Sierra Leone’s 10-year civil war guilty on multiple counts of crimes against humanity. I sat in the courtroom as the convictions were announced by a three-judge panel.

It was the first time any court had ever convinced someone of forced marriage, a widespread practice during Sierra Leone’s civil war. And this is the first court to ever convict anyone of recruiting child soldiers. The rebels also engaged in mass amputations, seen briefly in the movie “Blood Diamonds.”

The courtroom spectators, separated from the defendants and their lawyers by a thick glass wall, were silent as the convictions were read out. Among the audience were a few victims of rebel amputations, a few members of the military, some international press, and others. The courtroom is in a compound which includes a prison where defendants have been held for – six years, as the trial dragged on. Justice comes, but it comes slowly and at great cost. UN and other workers are highly-paid compared to most people in the world’s poorest country.

But what has happened here, combined with similar results from Rwanda, Bosnia, and now the indictment of Sudan’s President for genocide are sending a message to would-be tyrants: you can run but you cannot hide. We will eventually bring you to justice.

classroom notes: research

2009-03-07T04:11:00.000-08:00

Assigning the 155 first-year students to do their first-ever research paper was easy; grading that many papers was not. I asked for 7 pages “double-spaced,” but somewhere that detail got lost: most of the papers were 7-10 pages single-spaced. Topics included child labor, child trafficking, early pregnancies, genocide, the right to be educated, women’s rights, etc.

For the most part they did pretty well. My co-teacher and I spent a lot of time going over research methods, including basics such as abstracts, bibliographies, sourcing, etc. When I required 12 sources (only a few from the internet), there was a wave of protest; but I pointed out they could interview people, including some of the many non-government organizations here dealing with human rights issues. Many did interviews. The best did good sourcing and were analytical; the worst amassed information and stapled it together.

Overall, 90 percent completed the assignment.

classroom notes: community service

2009-03-07T04:08:00.000-08:00

When I assigned my 155 first-year students in human rights to do ten hours of community service teaching human rights in local secondary schools, I broke the rules.

In an ideal situation, teachers give a small number of students an ‘option’ to do what is known as service learning. Advance contact with the learning site supervisors, periodic contact during the service, and plenty of time for ‘reflective’ writing by the students: that’s the norm.

But in a country which has been through hell – ten years of civil war that saw massive rape, amputations, civilian massacres, child soldiers, forced marriages, you are not working in a ‘norm'. Also, the students in their required personal statements to me about their life in war and peace (and educational and employment goals) said they wanted to be “human rights activists.” They wanted to make a difference in their own country.

So I gave them a chance.

Despite a flurry of doubts and questions from students, I sent them out to teach human rights. They had to find a school, get permission, prepare their presentations without guidance, and teach basic points about human rights. “When do we go,” some asked? “Whenever you’ve learned enough in our class to go teach it.”

The results: amazing. With just a letter of introduction in hand from our department (which served as a signed verification later from principals that they had done the teaching), they located schools, overcame nervousness, and taught in front of classes as large as 100. Even my blind student completed the assignment. And many, many students said they really loved the opportunity to help their country.

Here are some of the comments from their reports:

(from Mohamed Kabba, who is blind): “…all the children gave one way or the other meaningful contributions…I learned that children of developing African countries should be given utmost attention as they are the future leaders for tomorrow.”

(from Margaret Murray, who also had students complete a questionnaire on human rights knowledge): “…The welcoming was not very good because the children thought I was too young to teach them. The classroom was full of tension but when I started relaxing, they relaxed too. My lesson started with the definition of Child Trafficking…The class was turning into fun, because I have the attention of each and every one of my students…what I found out is this: that most people do not know about child trafficking, which is one serious crime in the whole world.”

(from Sallieu Sesay) “…It was quite challenging, as that was my first time to stand in front of a large class that is over hundred pupils to educate about the doctrine of human rights…”

(from Fatmata A. Alghali), who focused on the right of education for children): “I started and asked them if they have ever heard about “Human Rights” some of them said yes and others say no.” [She went on to engage students in discussions in which emphasis was put on the importance of educating girls and not just boys.]

Scholarships for Cardiff children updated

2009-02-26T07:27:00.001-08:00

While I was home in Hattiesburg in January, a former student of Bob’s, Raven Wilkes Tynes, offered to put on a fundraiser for the children who needed scholarships to continue going to school at the Cardiff Preparatory School. A few years ago Raven, along with her husband Paul, formed an organization called Six Mile Drought to raise money for water projects in Kenya. So when she saw my request for scholarships on this blog she offered her help. At the same time a high school student from Petal, Mississippi, Zach Martin, came to her wanting to do something for his senior project. She suggested our project and so in late January Zach organized a Coffee House evening for young people to learn about human rights and raise money to help support the children. I was able to attend and brought some information with me about Sierra Leone. Zach put up a great display with pictures of the children and their school. Mostly young people attended. There was music, dancing, food, and other displays on general human rights issues. In the end they were able to raise enough money to keep the four children in school for another year. I am so proud of these young people as it shows a real commitment to the needs of people in underdeveloped countries. Other friends made contributions as well and to all of you I thank you on behalf of the children.

This week I met with the parents of the children who are receiving scholarships and the deputy headmistress, Florence Kamara. The parents were so appreciative of the funds we were able to raise for the children as you can see through the photos. Paul Tynes designed the T-shirts, showing the silhouetted faces of the children against the background of the Sierra Leoneon flag, which were given to the children and their parents.

Isata with her father Sanussie Kamara

2009-02-26T07:04:00.001-08:00

Ista came with her father Sanussie Kamara.who obviously cares a lot about his daughter and wants her to succeed in school. Isata is in 5th grade. Next year when she finishes elementary school she will sit for a test to enter secondary school. Her father makes a very meager living breaking larger stones into small ones for construction contractors.. His calloused, bruised hands show how hard this work is as he only uses hand tools and physical strength for this process.

Jestina with her mother Mariama Koroma

2009-02-26T06:57:00.000-08:00

Jestina's father died leaving her mother Mariamu Koroma to raise her family on her own. Mariamu sells roasted cassava at a small roadside stand.

Minkialu and his mother Rebecca Koroma

2009-02-26T06:50:00.000-08:00

Minkialu is being cared for by his mother Rebecca Koroma alone since his father died last year. She makes a very small living selling goods in the downtown market for other people.

Sarah with her grandmother Kaday Mansaray

2009-02-26T06:44:00.000-08:00

Sarah is being taken care of by her grandmother Kaday Mansaray since her mother died giving birth to a younger sibling. Her father is trying to support the family the best that he can since his wife's death.

2009-01-28T09:58:00.002-08:00

Seeking alternatives to campus violence
Recently a student was killed and several others hospitalized as the result of a campus club initiation at Fourah Bay College, where I teach human rights as a Fulbright fellow (2008=-2009). Turns out beatings, and rape of females, is a fairly regular part of campus club initiations, at least in recent years. And last year students destroyed their dormitories in a rampage that followed disputes between the rival ‘blacks’ and ‘whites’ over campus elections. (The faction names do not designate ethnicity.)
I usually don’t voice my opinion on issues in the classroom, but in my large (130 enrolled) freshman class on human rights, I spoke out strongly to condemn the violence in club initiations and suggested an alternative barrier to club membership: 25 hours of community service. Would graduates prefer to look back one day and tell their children ‘I beat up guys and raped women initiates,’ or say ‘I helped build a school?’
The general sentiment (I hope) in the classroom was against the violence. In the next class I challenged students to consider public statements against it. Several said privately (and one said in class) they were afraid of being beaten if they opposed this ugly norm.
So I have spoken to some of the campus elected leaders and we plan to meet soon to map out public ways to oppose violence and propose a difficult, but non-violent requirement for club initiation, such as community service. Stay tuned.

Obama; schools for Sierra Leone; research; Saharan dust

2009-01-28T09:51:00.000-08:00

• Obama. Everyone I know in Freetown was scrambling around to find where to watch the inauguration on TV. The American Embassy provided live coverage in about ten locations; local restaurants featured it. I watched eight hours of live coverage with neighbors in a very modern, three-story house next door. It’s an exciting time for the U.S. – and the world.
The sentiment here is that Obama does not just belong to the Americans; he belongs to the world. And many people in our neighborhood still call out “Obama” when they see me. He is inspiring a lot of people at home and abroad. One commentator in the U.S., a Republican speech writer, suggested Obama’s ‘honeymoon’ might be a long one because the problems he faces are so big and everyone wants him – needs him – to succeed. McCain has said some supportive things recently about his ending torture and plans to close Guantanamo. Image shows children in Bo reading an Obama poster which is being sold in the market.

• Schools for Sierra Leone. Some ex-Peace Corps volunteers to Sierra Leone continue to stay abreast of developments in this country – and help when they can. A group of them have been raising funds for and building schools. Cindy Nofziger is Executive Director of a program called Schools for Salone (www.schoolsforsalone.org ) and has an on-going fund-raising and construction effort underway supported by ex PC volunteers and others.

• Research. I am moving ahead on my research, tracking down former human rights activists and democracy advocates about what they did and how from 1977-2003. It is not always easy to find them, but once I get a cell no. I’m on their trail. And everyone has been most receptive. I use a digital recorder and upload it onto my computer then start the long process of transcribing them.

• Dust. They call it harmattan; the dust that blows in off the Sahara desert. It is so thick that it has obscured the ocean a few miles below our apartment, and even part of the nearer valley. The dust slips in and makes you cough a lot, covering anything left out with a thin, almost invisible coating. But it doesn’t last forever, fortunately.

Scholarships needed for these children

2009-01-28T09:41:00.001-08:00

• On a very modest scale, Betty Press (bettypress@gmail.com) had a few readers of this blog respond to her notice that $60 pays for one term of education for children at the Cardiff Preparatory school near our apartment. She has in mind families the principal has identified whose parents have died and who are being raised by their grandparents or whose income is limited. Raven Wilke, back in our U.S. hometown of Hattiesburg, MS. has taken this to another level, raising funds for these children with local fundraiser. A big thank you to Raven for doing this. But more help is always needed. Image shows Sarah and Jestina who are in need of scholarships.

Electric ‘marathon’

2009-01-28T09:17:00.000-08:00

In the West, news after storms usually notes how many people are without electricity for a few days. Here the country’s power supply is so limited that most sections of the capital city (Freetown) get only sporadic electricity. Sometimes we go two or even three days (and nights) without it. You develop a rhythm around the power supply: when it comes, you plug in cell phones and computers to recharge them. And you are tempted to keep working on your computer, which I did recently.
The power came on late Saturday night (shortly after I had run our generator for a couple of hours and treated myself to a video on computer screen: Men in Black II. So I stayed up till about 2 a.m. then got up at 7 a.m. Sunday and worked straight for about eight hours on the computer, making ‘final’ changes on an edited proof of an article on Liberian human rights activism scheduled for publication in an academic journal soon.
Still the power continued – all day Sunday, all evening. And I found myself wandering around the empty apartment (Betty was temporarily in the U.S.) not wanting to go to bed while the electricity was still going. It’s a weird feeling. About 2 a.m. I finally succumbed. But at 7 the next morning the power was still on, so back to the computer for email. I was relieved when it finally went off: free at last.
(I’m writing this on battery power)

2009-01-24T15:45:00.000-08:00

We finally got out of Freetown! Our first upcountry visit was to Bo, the second largest town in Sierra Leone. A friend offered to take us but the visit almost didn't happen because the gas stations were not selling fuel due to a dispute over lowering the price of gas. We went to bed disappointed but awoke to our friend waking us the next morning saying he had managed to get gas. So off we went. It was a grueling almost 5 hour trip over some pretty bad roads. The road is being rebuilt but large parts consisted of either mostly potholes or roughly graded dusty stretches.

Bo was a very friendly place to visit. I liked it because people didn't mind having their pictures taken. Bob liked it because he met some Human Rights activists and so he got a better pictures of what had happened outside of Freetown. We walked around the center of town, stopping to talk to people in the busy market. I bought an Obama poster for Bob at one of the stands. Even here Obama is popular. A lot of the shops advertised that they were in the diamond trade which made think of the infamous role that diamonds have played in Sierra Leone's war.

Since there were few car taxis the only way to get around was to take motorcycles, which we did. We tried to find drivers who had helmuts until we realized that most helmuts did not have straps and were mostly worn for show.

We only stayed one night but it was great to get out of Freetown and see a bit more of the countryside. The only bad thing was the long return trip.

Our apartment in Freetown and living without power

2008-12-26T10:28:00.001-08:00

We were lucky to find a nice clean, modern two bedroom apartment in a nice neighborhood. It only has the very basic furniture but it is enough. So far the only piece we have added is a desk for Bob. You can see though that it looks like we camping out as the only decoration so far is some of my pictures on the wall. Somehow I just have not had the energy to do anymore decorating. Unfortunately there are not a lot of beautiful things, other than cloth, to buy like you find in other African countries. Or maybe I have just not found the right places to shop. But the best thing is still watching the sunsets from our balcony!

One thing we still miss living here is not having reliable power. It seems to be a pattern that we have lights from about 7pm to 7am three nights a week. On those nights we run our AC and we sleep really well. On the nights that we do not have power we run our generator until the fuel runs out and that lasts about two hours, if we don’t run too many things, like the A/C or hot water heater. It is time enough to get our computers and cell phones recharged and if we are lucky enough, time to watch a movie. I have found some rechargeable lights that work pretty well to help provide light. But mostly we live by candlelight and have romantic dinners every night.

The other day I returned to the apartment and found only half of the lights. The first time that happened I thought it was a problem with the fuses and called the landlord to fix the electrical problem. Later the staff carefully explained to me that, yes, the national power company sometimes is only on “half” or phased power. The problem with that is that the refrigerator now didn’t work. And I have had enough problems already with food spoiling. It took another day, and it was a suggestion from one of our amazing taxi drivers, to figure out that we needed to move the refrigerator to another power outlet. Fortunately we just needed to move it across the room to work. But actually the fridge is pretty useless when it is only on, maybe 12 hours out of 48 as I have learned the hard way. Now we only cook enough for 1 or two days but that also means I need to shop almost every day. And I can’t buy any refrigerated items that I can’t finish in a day or two. This has not been easy for me to learn and so I have thrown out a lot of good food due to spoiling… and in a country where many people do not have enough to eat. Now today we learned that it was really an electrical problem within the building. So much for blaming everything on the national power company!!

Scholarships needed for these children

2008-12-26T09:13:00.000-08:00

If any of you would like to help, these four children need scholarships in order for them to continue going to Cardiff Preparatory School. Each term costs about $60 and there are three terms. So I am trying to raise some money to keep these children in school. They really love going to school. Anything that you contribute would go directly to paying their school fees. The headmistress is a lovely person and she really tries to keep her students in school if at all possible.

Sarah (4) lost her mother and is now being cared for by her elderly her grandmother

Sarah playing with Jestina.

Jestina (4) lost her father and her mother has a hard time supporting the family.

Top: Isata Kamara (fifth grade) comes from a very poor family where here parents break stones for a very meager living.

Bottom: Minkiale Barrie (5) lost his father and his mother has a hard time paying school fees.

Christmas program at Cardiff Preparatory School

2008-12-19T00:09:00.001-08:00

As I wrote earlier I took pictures at a private school nearby called Cardiff Preparatory School. Since it so nearby I sometimes just stop by to say hello to Florence Kamara, the head mistress. She is really loving, caring person and so energetic. And the kids are always great. They come up to shake my hand or to give me a hug. They call me “auntie Betty”.

Today was their Christmas program. Christmas is a big holiday in Sierra Leone. People started wishing me Happy Christmas back mid-November. There are lots of carnivals and parties being advertised.

The program was supposed to start at noon. And I kind of thought that it would start late but then I thought if the parents were invited it might actually start on time. So I arrived at about 12:20 to find everyone still setting up. It was obvious it wouldn’t start for a while but I didn’t feel like climbing back up the hill to our apartment. And it was fun watching the kids run around waiting for the program to get organized. The ice cream man arrived and he must have sold a hundred or so small ice cream cones to the kids. That made for good pictures as you will see. So even though the program started late everyone was enjoying them selves and no one really minded.

All the desks from the classrooms were brought out into the schoolyard. A bamboo structure was partially built to give the audience some shade but it didn’t get finished. Parents, mostly mothers, started to arrive and still the program seemed a long way from starting. I got a typed program so I could see that a lot of thought and preparation had been made. There was a very scratchy, loud sound system with a DJ that played local pop music while things were getting ready. Finally around 2:30 it got started.

The program consisted of singing some very familiar carols, at least the words were familiar, but the tunes were not. The keyboard that accompanied the singing was hooked up to the sound system. So what would have been some lovely singing to listen to, because the students obviously loved to sing, was masked by a lot of static. The Christmas story was acted out and narrated by older students, all of whom performed with great confidence shouting into the microphone. The baby Jesus was a two-year-old boy who let himself be wrapped up into a white sheet and held by a young girl, playing Mary. The angel walked around in a blue choir robe waving his arms. But the most unusual part of the skit was the narration of Herod telling his soldiers to kill all the children less than two years of age. To act this out several girls were sitting on the ground with some dolls and some boys as soldiers attacked the girls snatching the dolls and acting like they were killing them. I know that is part of the Christmas story but I have never seen it acted out in our Christmas programs. So that took me by surprise.

All in all it was a very lively program, with all the students really participating with singing, acting and narrating. And they loved using the microphone, which was passed around to each performer.

The cutest part of the program, of course like all children’s programs, was when the nursery students sang and danced. Even two year old “Jesus” was up there holding the microphone and dancing.

And for the audience to show their appreciation for various performances there was a box placed on a small table in front of the “stage” where people could come up and throw in money. Mothers were especially appreciative when their children performed well. This is a way for the school to raise extra funds.

All in all this event seemed to really tell me a lot about Sierra Leonean culture and to note the differences to the way we do things. In this school many of the students are Muslim yet they were acting out a Christian story and for the most part Christians and Muslims are very tolerant of each other here. Also, though what I saw seemed to be total chaos, in terms of getting the program started, it was well planned out judging by the printed program and later the program itself. And everyone really enjoyed themselves in ways I don’t think you really see in our Christmas programs. The programs here are definitely livelier for both the students and the audience. And the acting out of the King Herod story, though very violent in my way of looking at it, is part of the story and it isn’t ignored.

So four hours later I was back home in our quiet apartment ready to watch another beautiful sunset. It’s hard to get the Christmas spirit without some cold weather. But we are heading to London soon and I am sure then we will wish we were back here!!!!

Getting a mosquito net

2008-12-18T09:14:00.000-08:00

Getting a mosquito net and frame for our bed turned into a major project taking about 10 days to get in place. And though it seemed really tedious and frustrating if I tried to do this in the USA it would also not have been that easy and would been a lot more expensive. It’s like you can do most anything you want here but you just have to be a little more creative.

Even though we live on top of a hill and we get some good breezes we still have been having a lot of mosquitoes. It got really tiresome to always burn coils and after awhile the fumes were starting to get to us. Our neighbor has a really good design for a canopy frame around his bed and a mosquito net to fit over it. So we decided to copy his design. So off we went to a nearby carpenter to have the frame made. The carpenter did not understand what we wanted, even with the drawing that I had made. He said he understood but he really didn't. Finally I made a model of the frame from rolled up paper, which helped him visualize it, and he started getting together the poles to make the frame. It took several trips to finally get what we wanted. And the last time I went back I found that he had actually made almost enough pieces to fit frames for 3-4 beds all in different stages of completion.

Communication is really difficult especially since we don’t know Krio. Fortunately the carpenter was nearby so I could get there with a local taxi and even walk if I had to. This last trip I could see that he finally had something that we could work with and so I just stayed there until it was finished. Then the pieces of the frame were too big to load into a taxi so I hired two young boys to walk them to our place, about a mile. On the way with the boys a policeman started hollering at us from the security gate of the Presidential Lodge (like our White House) because I had walked on the road leading to the gate. It seems that this is the Procession Road that only the President’s motorcade can drive on but there wasn’t any sign to inform me of this. I had to go up to the guard's gate to see what was the matter. He was really angry with me and I was pretty uncomfortable as he harangued me for several minutes, suggesting that he could arrest me. I kept saying I was sorry and I didn’t know that I couldn’t walk on that road. So I was kind of shaky as I left to finish the walk home. I also didn’t want to get the two boys into trouble because they had followed me. Anyway we got back to the apartment without further incident and we were able to get the pieces of the frame inside. Fortunately we were able to fit the frame back together around the bed.

Now we had to get a mosquito net to fit the around the frame. Farah, our taxi driver (or our personal assistant as I like to call him as he does so much more than just drive us around), took us to a place to have a mosquito net made. Unfortunately though the tailor was cheap he got the dimensions wrong and made it too small. Also his shop was in the market area where we had to park a long way away and walk to it. At that time that was very tiring for me. Fortunately I had Farah go back and pick it up by himself so I didn’t have to go again. So now we were ready to put it over the frame and though it fit the frame the net was not long enough. The idea is to make the net so long it that it bunches up on the floor and prevents from mosquitoes from coming in under the bed into the enclosure. So we had to go back to the shop downtown and go through this whole thing again but, at least this time, he only had to add some additional cloth to the bottom to make it long enough. And each time I had to pay a bit more for the guy to buy more material and also pay Farah for his time to take me there and pick it up when finished. So what was only going to cost about $8 ended up costing several times more in money and time. But now that it is finished it is so nice! Well, but it wouldn’t win any interior decorating awards! When we crawl into bed it’s like entering a safe cocoon of white gauze. Fortunately we live on top of a hill where we get some good breezes because, though a net is safe and cozy, it can also be oppressively hot. And that’s why a lot of people here don’t use them and risk having malaria frequently.

Now I think I will have a canopy cover and matching bedspread made from some the beautiful tye and dye fabric that they make here. Explaining the canopy top to a tailor might take some time but it would look really nice. Maybe that would win me some interior design awards as well!!!!!

Cardiff Preparatory School Visit

2008-12-18T09:03:00.000-08:00

Cardiff Preparatory School
As I started to get back into the world of photography I decided to start with a local school, the Cardiff Preparatory School that we drive or walk by every day. The children’s school uniform is hot pink shirts with black slacks or skirts. And most of the school’s buildings are painted pink. The head mistress said I could take pictures but since it is a private school she also hoped I could help with some assistance for the school. The school consists of a nursery and six years of elementary school. Though the nursery is very crowded and confining for the little ones with more than 40 students aged 3-6 the other classes are relatively small in size. They go to school from 8 to about 2:30 with the nursery ones leaving at 12:30. This is in comparison to most government schools which have class sizes of 40 or more and either go in the morning or afternoon for about 4 hours a day. And since for very little money you can send a child to school I said I would try to help. So I am hoping I can interest some of you in helping to sponsor some of these children…but more about that later. I had a great time taking pictures and fortunately all my back pains seemed insignificant. The light was really lovely and the children seemed to be eager learners. Several days later I took my computer back to the school to show what I had taken. The students had a great time seeing themselves in the pictures as you can see.

Obama fascination continues

2008-12-18T08:54:00.000-08:00

Meanwhile the Obama fascination goes on. Lots of people are buying Obama T-shirts, you see lots of car stickers, and you can buy Obama posters like the one shown. I bought one for Bob and he loves it. It is very amusing because of all the mistakes on it, i.e. McCain is spelled Mac Caine and Harvard is spelled Harvald. People still yell Obama to us as we walk through out neighborhood. Today I found a shop selling Obama t-shirts. The women are from Sierra Leone but they live in the USA. They had a good idea to buy all sorts of Obama items to sell in Sierra Leone and they are doing a very good business here.

Former Sierra Leone Child Soldier tells his story

2008-12-14T11:54:00.000-08:00

Former boy soldier in Sierra Leone tells of ravages of war
Samara Kalk Derby
December 9, 2008
After escaping the war zone that was his country, former child soldier Ishmael Beah, now a best-selling author, had forgotten many simple things.
"I had forgotten how to sleep. I had forgotten how to trust people. I had forgotten how to be happy. I had forgotten how to sit in one place more than a few seconds. I was very restless," the Sierra Leone native told a near-capacity crowd of more than 1,000 people Monday night in the Wisconsin Union Theater during his Distinguished Lecture Series talk.
Adding to the problem, he said, was that he was withdrawing from the drugs that he was forced to use -- marijuana, amphetamines and a mix of cocaine and gunpowder, according to published accounts.
Sierra Leone's civil war lasted between 1991 and 2000. Beah lost all four members of his immediate family, his mother and father and both his older and younger brothers. He was conscripted into the war at age 13.
Beah, now 28, fought for almost three years before being rescued by UNICEF. Originally from the countryside, in 1998 he fled the capital, Freetown, and made his way to New York City, where he lived with Laura Simms, a Brooklyn-born white Jewish-American who became his foster mother.
In New York, Beah did two years of high school at the United Nations International School. He went to Oberlin College and graduated in 2004 with a degree in politics.
In 2007, he wrote "A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier," which Time magazine described as a "breathtaking and unself-pitying account of how a gentle spirit survives a childhood from which all innocence has suddenly been sucked out. It's a truly riveting memoir."
Scott Straus, an African international relations and human rights professor at UW-Madison, who introduced Beah Monday night, called "A Long Way Gone" an "absolutely fascinating and important book about his experiences in a civil war that destroyed Sierra Leone."
Straus said that in a decade that saw many civil wars around the world, the war in Sierra Leone and its neighbor, Liberia, was one of the worst.
It's "a war that defies our imagination as we sit here in this room in Madison," Straus said, adding that "ordinary people can come to do horrible things to each other."
When he first learned about the war in 1991, Beah said he couldn't believe what he was hearing from people in the eastern part of his country: How their families had been killed, their houses burned, and their children dragged into the fighting.
"We couldn't believe it because we grew up in a society that had such a respect for human life. And we couldn't believe that this was possible until the war actually reached us," he said.
He began to see women carrying their dead children on their backs, he said. He began seeing people who had been struck by stray bullets on various parts of the body. The river where he used to swim had dead bodies floating in it and was filled with blood.
Before the war, the innocence of children was celebrated, Beah said. But after the war started, children became deeply feared. Children were sometimes forced to kill their own family members as a way of indoctrinating them to the violence, he said.
"Once the war reached us, we went straight from being children to being adults. We had to determine which way to run and how to save our own lives."
Beah said he learned to go hungry from days without eating.
He and some friends went to a military base, thinking it would be the safest place to go. But instead it was where they were forced to become soldiers. They were trained in less than a week and learned how to shoot AK-47s, he said.
Besides the coercion and the drugs that were forced upon him, there was also the rhetoric of revenge, Beah said. He was told that the rebels were responsible for what had happened to him and that by going after them and killing them it would prevent what happened to him from happening to other children.
"At that point I believed this tremendously," he said.
In the beginning it was difficult to function as a soldier, Beah said. But as time went on it became normalized. He and his fellow child soldiers lost the ability to experience human emotions, he said.
"It was either kill or be killed, even by your own commanders," he said.
One of the things he wanted to do with the book was write about how he felt while he was in the war, not how he felt about it afterward.
"Because I wanted people to come to this landscape to see, hear, smell and be a part of the experience," he said.
Return to story

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U.S. Ambassador to Sierra Leone on HIV & AIDS

2008-12-14T11:49:00.000-08:00

Dec 12, 2008 Freetown — United States ambassador to Sierra Leone has said that HIV status is not a stigma.
June Carter Perry made this statement whilst pledging her country's support to the fight against HIV/AIDS in the world in commemoration of world AIDS day.
She said: "We should ensure that those with HIV/AIDS are respected for their courage to be open about their status rather than been shunned by their communities"
She said the nation should be gratified by what they have accomplished, but to also acknowledge that they are nowhere near where they want to be in terms of protecting young and old, treating those who need it.
"I am convinced that with their commitment and the support of the international community, they can eliminate stigma, treat those individuals already affected by HIV, and decrease in the number of people with AIDS in Sierra Leone."
June Carter Perry said despite the progress that has been made, the latest statistics from the United Nations and World Health Organization suggest that the overall rate of infection has been climbing continuously since 1990.
"As much as HIV/AIDS is an issue that evokes compassion and empathy, we must also look at the issue as it relates to more pragmatic concerns about national reconstruction and economic growth," said Perry.
Relevant Links
• West Africa
• HIV-Aids and STDs
• Health and Medicine
• Sierra Leone
• United States, Canada and Africa
She said US Congress has authorized up to $48 billion to combat HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria over the next five years. Through that legislation, US will be able to increase the number of individuals being treated from 1.7 to 3 million people worldwide, and provide care for 12 million others.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation alone has given over 17 billion dollars to fight AIDS through education, provision of basic health services, sanitation, and other projects through local NGO partners.
Copyright © 2008 Concord Times. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com).

sad postlude to a wedding

2008-12-14T11:29:00.000-08:00

The brother of the bride whose wedding we attended recently was killed the same day, accused by a mob of being a thief. He was, according to a close friend of the bride, seized, beaten, and injected with acid. His funeral is today (Dec. 8, 2008). Apparently this happens with some regularity: vigilantism by citizens who have little faith in official justice. The use of acid is something I have not heard of before. That, too, is not so unusual, according to the same source. The police did arrive, but too late. The man died at the hospital.

In Bo, the country’s second largest town, a resident says that vigilantism after the long civil war (1991-2002) was widespread. Civilians targeted those they felt betrayed them during the conflict. Some of that continues today, he said.

Meat, music and other events just outside our wall

2008-12-14T11:16:00.000-08:00

Just a few yards from our apartment balcony, on the grass in the adjacent apartment, several men are cutting open the neck of a small brown cow they are holding down. A small crowd is watching, including Betty and I, while a woman in a full dress and head scarf is shouting into a hand-held megaphone. It is a Moslem holiday today (Dec 8, 2008) and this is part of the celebration for the family.

The cow has stopped its quivering. Now a man with a machete is very neatly cutting it up into pieces. The intestines have been removed and placed in a plastic bucket; a small section of the ground is soaked in blood. Most of the small crowd has dispersed. We’ve gone back to work: (Betty) editing photographs from our recent trip to Bo (Sierra Leone’s second largest city) and (Bob) transcribing an interview as part of research on human rights in this country.

I’ve never visited a slaughter house in the U.S., though I have watched butchers neatly cutting up cows parts in super markets.
...
A few days later, also just behind our apartment complex wall, in front of a tin shack on a grassy slope, a crowd gathered for the newly-appointed local chief to address people in the area. Several women with singers and dancers and a man with a drum provided music and earned tips. I enjoyed sitting among the crowd for a while and meeting a few people. The lead singer, using a hand held loud speaker, led a short song for me when I donated 2,000 Leones, about 65 cents.
….
A Christian revivalist further down the hill has been filling the whole area with songs and sermons shouted out over a loud speaker. It’s been going on for a week. I’d like to pull the plug on their speaker system. I’m not sure why religious groups have to be so loud. One Moslem sitting at the gathering for the chief said he didn’t like the noise.
...
Holiday moment
Two doors away from our apartment in Freetown, a large house is being constructed. The roof is still not finished, but the massive cement bloc walls stand out like a fort overlooking the valley below. In the backyard, under a tin roof, a family who works as guard for the construction eat around a wood cook fire most nights. A woman prepares cassava leaves daily, pounding them in a wooden mortar with a tall wooden pounding stick. You can hear the sounds before dawn. They live in a tin shack just behind the new house.
Today, a Moslem holiday (Dec 8, 2008), dressed in a long skirt and a white bra for the top, one of the women, barefoot, is pounding. A second woman, also barefoot, sings a repetitive (I think) song with a high-pitched voice in a popular West African traditional style, swaying to the rhythm of the cassava leaf pounding. Then the first woman stops her chore and joins in the singing and dancing. For a moment they dance together, then the first woman returns to her pounding, laughing. Suddenly the songs and dances are over and both women go back to work, preparing the evening meal.
...

Locked toilets on a college campus

2008-12-01T15:05:00.000-08:00

At Fourah Bay College here, one of the most guarded sites are toilets. It took me a while to locate them and then a while longer to discover who had the keys. There is one in my office, though it doesn’t work. There’s another one in the basement of the library and a longtime staff person showed me where the key is kept. When the electric power is off, which happens frequently, you reach that one through a darkened storage room.

There’s yet another toilet in an Administrative/classroom building. The custodian has a key; so does at least one of the Administration officials. None of these appear to be available to students who would normally have access to the hostels, but they were damaged during violence following student elections earlier this year (2008).

Remembering John F. Kennedy in Sierra Leone

2008-12-01T15:04:00.000-08:00

One of the most prominent buildings on the skyline overlooking the capitol of Freetown is an eight-story building on the Fourah Bay College campus, a campus beautifully situated on a mountain ridge at the edge of the city. It was built with U.S. funding some 40 years ago and named after the late President. His bust appears in a small patio just outside the structure. But over the years the building became run down. Recently the building was rededicated after the U.S. government paid for its renovation. After the ceremony, we got to the second floor for a reception. The Department of Social Sciences and Law which I teach in is supposed to occupy the building.

But there’s a catch. There’s no furniture or functioning elevator in the building. So far none of the officials on campus I’ve spoken with know what the plan is to furnish the building. And no one mentions any contract to get the elevator operating. Let’s hope both these issues are addressed. More on this later, I hope.

Thanksgiving in Africa - SUVs and plenty of food

2008-12-01T14:59:00.001-08:00

Thanksgiving was approaching and we had no invitations to join anyone in the small American community here to celebrate – until an email notice came about a Thanksgiving gathering sponsored by the International Visitors Council, a program of Sierra Leoneans started with the encouragement of the American Embassy. Betty and I have been hosts numerous times over the years to international visitors in the United States; now we were the recipients of such hospitality.

We saw a side of Sierra Leone we had only caught glimpses of. It wasn’t just the SUVs in the spacious parking area around the large two-story home with its very nice, large outdoor balcony where we ate. It was the good food piled high on large plates on a dining table (various kinds of fresh fish, meat and vegetables); it was also the titles of the individuals who were our hosts, including the manager of a large bank. Another runs a care facility. Another woman had just come back from a trip abroad. When the national power cut off, which is a frequent happening here, the family’s large generator kicked in, illuminating the house and attractive garden. The talk was almost all in Krio (the local language based on English). We’ve taken some lessons, but we could only catch some of it. Our hosts were most gracious and friendly and made our Thanksgiving away from home special.

And their professional work is helping this nation grow.

Strikes on a college campus

2008-12-01T14:57:00.000-08:00

Strike at Fourah Bay
The staff went on a strike a few weeks ago to demand back pay, settling recently for part of what they sought, to be paid over a period of time. Then the faculty went on strike for non-payment and benefits. One university official says the state has not only been slow to pay employees at the university, but also to pay students their scholarships, which dragged out enrollment for weeks, causing many students to miss the start of classes.

To honor the strike but still honor students’ need for education, I offered to show up at our regular times for a free “tutorial” and not a class. I announced attendance would not be taken, nor tests given until regular classes resumed. Roughly 20-50 percent of my students have continued coming to these informal sessions at which we have been having good discussions. In my large (130+) freshman class we have spent a good deal of time discussing research methods since they have to complete a research paper (the first ever for most of them) and do ten hours community service (teaching human rights in local schools and other institutions).

One student in that class asked a very basic and important question: “How do I learn.” So I spent some time with him suggesting ways to get more out of the assigned readings. It has made me rethink how I present materials. My students have gotten me to shift my approach slightly to first preview readings before holding them responsible for knowing the material. It gives them some study questions and points to ponder, which I hope will help address that question: how do I learn?

Class update: in a recent session of my freshman class on human rights, where we focused on civil rights, including the life of Malcom X, two female and one male student presented the topic in such marvelous detail and context that I applauded their example. In my third year class, student teams have been presenting the week’s theme with great skill and fielding touch questions from the class. These students are not only eager but very capable.

Church visits -African flavor

2008-12-01T14:55:00.000-08:00

We were invited to a wedding here that opened another window on local culture. Held in a Methodist church in downtown Freetown, it looked like most American weddings – until the pastor pronounced the couple man and wife. Then the music picked up; a chorus sang, and people got up and danced in the aisles in a long line toward the newlyweds who stood at the front of the church. Each person got a big hug from the bride and the groom, then danced or walked back to their seats. I joined in the routine. Men wore suits or sport shirts, but women wore full length, brightly colored dresses of local designs, many with large head scarves. The godmother of the bride purchased the expensive dresses of the bride and her entourage in the U.S. Weddings here, as in many countries, are expensive. Never mind that this is the poorest country in Africa, and perhaps the world.

Church in an historic village for freed slaves.
St. Andrews Anglican church in the village of Gloucester near the capitol of Freetown held its annual celebration of the founding of the church (1820). Gloucester is one of five villages behind the tall mountain/hills of Freetown; a place for slaves recaptured at sea and freed here. According to local explanations, the villages offered some protection from the raids of other Africans living in this area and of those returning from Jamaica, the U.K. or Nova Scotia.
Their church, according to program notes at the service, was founded as a modest wooden building in 1820, nearly destroyed by a fierce storm in 1975, but quickly rebuilt with contributions. Today it has a pipe organ and large stained glass window, a balcony, and small adjoining rooms for the pastor and another for the choir changing room.
At the three-hour service we attended, a chorus in red gowns, and joined by the congregation, sang their way through many hymns. The sermon was on being “Awake,” so no parishioner dared slip into slumber, though some of the very patient children did just that. There were three offerings, with separate collections for men and women each time: donations were announced by gender (the men only slightly out gave the women).
We hope to revisit this village and get to know the other four settler settlements.

Positive news article on Sierra Leone and Liberia

2008-11-16T05:38:00.000-08:00

The following is written by a longtime observer and activist on African issues, John Prendergast, and included in a publication new to me. It highlights positive progress in Sierra Leone and Liberia in terms of recent Presidential elections and the ending of civil wars (2001 in Sierra Leone; 2003 in Liberia). Bob Press

http://www.morungexpress.com/morung_express_faith_leaf/7838.html?print accessed nov 16, 2008
Morung Express | Home | FaithLeaf | Continent of Hope
Continent of Hope
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John Prendergast November 16, 2008 09:26:00

Forgive a typical American if she were to pay a visit to the West African nation of Sierra Leone and be confused by her surroundings. If she had ever heard of Sierra Leone before, it might have been while watching the movie Blood Diamond, which graphically depicted some of the worst depredations of the conflict there, such as the rebel group RUF’s amputation of limbs, the drug-crazed child soldiers, and the links between criminal diamond-dealing mafias and the war economy.
If this visitor to Sierra Leone had been reading occasional international news missives over the years, she might have remembered something about a rebel group that hacked the limbs off civilians to punish them for voting, or perhaps might have remembered that al Qaeda laundered money in the Sierra Leone diamond market before and after 9/11 to hide its assets.
Given that context, she certainly would have been quite astounded to have joined me on my visit to Tongo Fields in eastern Sierra Leone, the heart of the diamond-producing area and the site of some of the most intense fighting and horrific atrocities in the last century in Africa. What she would have seen in fact defied all expectations—the kind of low expectations that have come to mark international attitudes toward Africa in general.
Tongo Fields is a place crawling with former child soldiers, heavily contested by three political parties in last year’s election, and placed at further risk by a winner-take-all electoral process that dictates access to diamond profits as a result of victory at the polls. Before Sierra Leone’s historic 2007 election, every conflict indicator was flashing a red alert. Africa “experts” around the world were predicting that Sierra Leone, only half a decade after the end of its brutal civil war, was perhaps heading back down an inevitable road toward a return to war.
So in the context of all that Afro-pessimism—the legacy of war thick as the rainy season clouds lacing the Sierra Leonean skies—what happened?
I’VE OBSERVED elections in a number of African countries over the past 25 years, and this election in Sierra Leone may have been the most efficient, transparent and peaceful procedure I have ever witnessed, run by some of the most conscientious and earnest polling officials I have ever met. The army stayed in the barracks and didn’t improperly intervene, while the police contributed to the security of elections throughout the country on election day. The runoff among the two highest vote-getters led to a victory by the opposition party, and the ruling party gracefully and peacefully turned over the reins of power. In a grand affirmation of their country’s future, the people of Sierra Leone are defying both historical legacies and pundits’ low expectations.
An appropriately named former child soldier, Elijah, told me, “It’s a brand-new day for Sierra Leone.” Every one of the ex-combatants that I met in Tongo Fields and Freetown said in no uncertain terms that they would never again be lured back to a life of war in the bush. “We fought for nothing,” another former child soldier told me. “We are so tired of war. We don’t want to be used for fighting and end up with nothing.” A third former combatant, who divulged that he had committed “terrible atrocities” while he was in the bush, concluded, “This vote signals the end of jungle justice.”
Why Africa is a land of endless possibilitiy -- and how that should guide U.S. relations with the continent
The similarities are striking to another African country that also was written off by Africa “experts”: Liberia. Much like Blood Diamond, movies such as Lord of War with Nicolas Cage leave a hopeless impression of Liberia, referred to in the film as “that country which God seemed to have forsaken,” with Cage’s character describing the outskirts of Monrovia as “the edge of hell.” Yet in late 2005, Liberians marched to the polls and elected the first female head of state in Africa, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, and more than 100,000 soldiers have demobilized as the country works diligently to erase the legacies of war. President Johnson-Sirleaf’s policies in a number of sectors have become models for other countries, and she is regularly invited to Europe and America to share her lessons learned and insights into how to heal societies and countries believed to have been “broken.”
I was there for that election too. The stories of the former child soldiers in Liberia were hauntingly similar to those of Sierra Leone. A 14-year-old named David told me, “We were used, fooled, and forced” by their former warlords; now he wants to farm if he can be given a little land and some capital. Others want to go to school or get job training. The last thing they want is to be dragged back to a world where the rule of law is abandoned and the gun talks loudest of all.
MOST AMERICANS view Africa as a place ripped apart by war, famine, anarchy, and HIV/AIDS. They often view Africans as people who need to be helped and “saved.” The truth is that there are indeed a few countries that are trapped in cycles of conflict, such as Sudan, Somalia, and Congo. But they are the exceptions. Liberia and Sierra Leone tell a different story of Africa—that of a continent of hope, of transformation.
The evidence goes far beyond those two West African nations. Everyone knows the story of South Africa, which up until the early 1990s was ruled by a system that codified racial discrimination against black Africans. Today, South Africa is preparing for its fourth democratic elections since the fall of that apartheid system. At the time Nelson Mandela was being elected South Africa’s first democratic president in 1994, Africa’s fastest genocide was occurring in Rwanda, where almost one million people were eliminated from the face of the earth in 100 days. Today, Rwandans are working hard to heal the wounds of the recent past, the country has a significant economic growth rate, and the likelihood of a return to conflict diminishes with each passing year. Neighboring Burundi and southern Sudan—themselves ripped apart by genocide and conflict, killing millions—have forged peace deals laying the groundwork for future peace and security.
In all of these countries, there are political and security problems, but the grassroots demand for peace has resulted in fundamental transformations that, if they had occurred in Europe, would be hailed as nothing short of miraculous.
What I have found in my travels in each of these success stories is an unparalleled assertion of rights and responsibilities by people from all walks of life throughout Africa, and especially by young people. There is a demand that their voices be heard, through the ballot box, through civil society organizations, through news media, through new and renewed political parties, and through burgeoning cultures of accountability. Part of what had fueled recruitment of young people during these various wars was disempowerment and victimization. Electoral processes, education, and development initiatives allow for a revaluation of the importance of the individual within the community, thus beginning a process of vesting citizens in the governance of their own countries.
ALL THIS IS just intellectual fodder unless it provides lessons for what we can do now for the biggest crises on the African continent: Darfur and Congo (see sidebar). The difference between Darfur and other cases such as Sierra Leone is that this time Americans are not looking away, and are asserting that our government has an important role to play in ending the crisis. With the exception of the smaller but effective anti-apartheid movement for South Africa in the 1980s, the outpouring of American activism in support of a more robust U.S. response to Darfur has been unparalleled. It is the first time there has been a mass-based political movement created to confront genocide or civil war in Africa. We need to raise our voices even louder for Darfur and find room in our advocacy for the people of Congo as well.
Failure in Darfur would likely mean that hundreds of thousands of Americans would once again turn away from the hard issues still confronting Africa as it tries to shake off its legacies of slavery, colonialism, and conflict to create a new future. Success in Darfur, however, will ensure that a whole generation of newly politically active Americans will redouble their efforts to ensure that a permanent constituency is created that will not stand idly by in the face of future war or genocide in Africa.
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Teaching 129 students human rights

2008-11-15T15:55:00.000-08:00

With now 129 students in my Human Rights and Democracy class, I’ve adopted a few necessary techniques to keep discipline while still encouraging discussions: even low-voiced talk from that many students becomes a roar that drowns out any speaker, including me. (My co-teacher, Ibrahim Bangura, is off to the Democratic Republic of Congo with a non-government organization for about ten days. I'm impressed with his teaching skills.)
We’ve reached an agreement that when I raise my hand, everyone stops talking. I don’t do it a lot because for the most part students are respectful of each other and of me. But one of my arguments to help keep the noise down is to suggest that those talking over the recognized speaker of the moment are robbing students of an educational moment to learn. Still, it’s a constant effort. Though the other day when I gave a rare full-hour lecture, students were pretty quiet.
They’re getting a lot of new challenges. They now realize I’m serious about their doing ten hours of community service, teaching human rights in local schools or organizations. They chose their topics; they now have a letter of introduction from the department, and have clustered with others choosing similar topics. Their choices include: children in war; sexual abuse of children; the right to education; early marriage issues; genocide; various women’s issues.
They also have to do a research paper, something most of these recent high school graduates have not done before. We hold periodic workshops in class on research methodologies.

American Government class reminds me of the British Parliament. I was impressed with my class (now up from 10 to about 50) in their first presentation. I have divided the class into teams to present the week’s readings. The first team, on the constitution, had done the readings and not only reviewed the key points but explained their significance.

Post election Obama euphoria

2008-11-15T15:54:00.000-08:00

This city is still alive with excitement over Obama’s victory. Neighbors call out “Obama” when I walk or run by; the internet carries stories of Obama supporters expressing their joy at his election. My Obama t-shirt brings shouts of approval. And when I bought cooking gas at a Lebanese grocery store, the Lebanese man I spoke with was introduced as “Barak Obama.” (His actual name is Bahrat.)
Those fortunate enough to have access to television speak of staying up till near dawn here to see the results and listen to Obama’s victory speech (and McCain’s gracious concession remarks). Many have expressed the feeling that Obama as President will not only help bring more peace to the world but will change the image of America in the world.

Running in Sierra Leone (Bob)

2008-11-15T15:52:00.000-08:00

In Mississippi it was hard to find hills to train on; here it’s hard to find a flat area. One of my runs is from our home in Hill Station (a residential ridge high above the central part of the city) through a valley and up a mountain peak (Leicester) behind the U.S. Embassy, and back home. It’s a run of about an hour, much of it on rocky, dirt paths. Usually young children shout out a welcome along the way. Adults give encouragement with a smile or greeting, or return a wave.

My track workouts are at the national stadium where I run with members of various clubs who are currently training for a national meet in December. The other day we did 600 meters/500/400/300/200/100 then repeated it. I was far behind the first set but keeping up with the end runners the last set. The coach is an enthusiastic former national sprint champion who yells encouragement to me from time to time.

The crazy runs are with the “Hash,” a weekly event for walkers and runners up and down steep dirt trails through mostly low income residential areas. As we run, people give friendly greetings and finger-pointing directions to those who lag behind the group. Because the trail setters intentionally put markers that lead to some dead ends or turnaround markers, the slow runners usually catch up to the faster ones doubling back. Betty, well on the road to her recovery from her back injury, walked with the Hash recently.

“Don’t eat your flashlight” (Bob)

2008-11-15T15:49:00.000-08:00

Since we get electricity only about one night out of three, we use the generator we purchased to give us a couple hours of light most other nights. But we have a lot of hours with just candles or rechargable Chinese-made hand held lights. I had not realized how accustomed we were to having electricity routinely available back home.

To keep track of fuel use on the generator, our landlord suggested writing down the amount on hand and the hours it is turned on. So on generator nights I go out into the unlit parking lot inside the compound (which itself is surrounded by a high wall and has a tall metal gate). Alpha, one of the security guards, and I sit down on the steps to fill out the fuel book (we have duplicate copies). To write, we each put our narrow flashlights in our mouth to free our hands and shine on the books. Our mutual joke has become: “Don’t eat your flashlight.”

Pushing the refrigerator across the kitchen. More recently the periodic electricity has powered only half our outlets, a phased power plan that I suppose saves even more on the nation’s fuel costs (the power company is running a daily deficit at present). Sometimes this means we have to push our small refrigerator across the kitchen to the powered outlet. It also means sometimes we don’t get power for the water heater but do get it for the wall unit air conditioner in our bedroom. Those are special nights when we lie inside our mosquito net-covered double bed and have to pull a sheet over us because it’s chilly.

Romantic candle-lit dinners. On the brighter side of this darkness, Betty and I have been reacquainted with the charm of dinners by candlelight. We often eat on the balcony from which we can see barely visible lights of distant fishing boats on the ocean.

Images from Freetown (Betty)

2008-11-14T00:08:00.000-08:00

Here are some images from Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone. In recent years people have flooded to it from the countryside, mainly because of all the unrest during the war. And once people get there they discover the excitement of city life and they don’t want to go back to the village. It is an old city as you see from the mixture of old and new buildings, the streets are narrow and filled with cars, the sidewalks have been taken over by vendors forcing the pedestrians to walk in the streets with the cars. Still I find it exciting, in the sense that you always see something new or different, frustrating when you are in a taxi trying to get somewhere, the traffic is backed up, and you are smelling noxious fumes, scary as the taxi is always close to hitting either people walking along side the streets or the approaching cars.

Images from Charlotte village (Betty)

2008-11-13T23:14:00.000-08:00

I am finally posting images from an earlier visit to Charlotte, which is an amazing village! Small old wooden houses, often called Creole cottages, probably built in the 1800’s or early 1900’, dotted the lush hillside, many surrounded by flowering shrubs. Some were in relatively good shape and even painted and others were falling down but still lived in. A guide appeared and invited us to walk through the village and up to St. John’s Anglican Church built in 1847. The notice board listed the names of some of the members who had made financial pledges. Near the stone built church were the ruins of an even older girl’s school started in 1816. Along the way we were warmly greeted by the villagers, especially the children, and allowed to take photos. Sierra Leoneans have had a really long history of interacting with Westerners and more evidence remains from those days than I have seen in many other African countries.

"We defeated the British"

2008-11-10T07:34:00.000-08:00

I am teaching a section of the third year contemporary politics course (British politics) on American politics, with some history (including the defeat of the British). The class started at 10 but reached an enrollment of 40+ quickly. Most students seem used to lectures and feedback on the all-important final exam worth 70 percent of their grade. That’s fairly typical in the U.S., too, though the final is usually worth less.

But my style is different. I use debates, role playing, lots of discussions, and quizzes to keep students focused on the readings they need to have intelligent discussions. So when I divided up the class into teams to be in charge of presenting the next week’s readings in some interesting form, they were surprised. When I sent the first team out of the room to prepare, I had to ask several times for them to stand up, move out, and prepare. Outside the door they began talking in loud voices about their topic: the U. S. Constitution. So I asked one of our two class representatives to ask tell them to move down the hall - and not shout. My other class rep told me quietly: the students are not used to this kind of teaching, but they like it. We’ll see; I hope so.

My third class (comparative politics) is with graduate students: a grand total of three, when they all come. We had no classroom assigned, so we meet on the shaded balcony of one of the buildings. So far we’ve focused mostly on how to do research. I’m just glad classes finally started (early November); a Fulbright fellow in Mali says classes there won’t start till December.

Research isn’t easy in a country where almost all students can not afford books; and where book are mostly unavailable anyway. The internet cafes charge about $1 to $1.30 an hour with slow downloading. Campus computers (there are about 80) often have waiting lines formed behind the users. The university library suffers from students cutting out pages or even throwing books out the window because there is no copying facility available before the checkout and because copying costs money (though not much: about 3 cents a page). Still there is a reserve section (no check outs allowed). And the librarian, Mr. Oliver L. T. Harding, is enthusiastic and experienced.

100 + eager students in an unlit hall

2008-11-10T07:31:00.000-08:00

Registration for the freshman human rights and democracy class kept growing. It quickly reached 50, then more than doubled by the time classes finally started. We meet in a large unlit hallway with no equipment, not even a blackboard. Students squeeze in five or six to a bench – wooden benches, no backs; narrow wooden desks. But students show every sign of being eager to learn. For them it’s a step toward a profession, a career.

I read before coming about a lecturer (as they call university-level teachers here) who had to practice speaking in a loud voice to be heard by a large class here. Speaking isn’t the problem; listening is. Even minimal conversation in low voices among 100 students creates a rumble that can quickly drown out a voice at one end of the class from being heard at the other. But so far, its not bad. My co-teacher, Ibrahim Bangura, insists on discipline and expelled one noisy student from class the first day. I’ve made an agreement with the students that is holding pretty well: whenever I raise my hand, the class should become quiet. I don’t do it very often, but when I do they are pretty respectful and quiet down.

In fact I’m proud of their behavior so far. We had a research workshop the other day. One class requirement is to do a 7-page research paper on a human rights topic of their choice. Another requirement is to do ten hours of community service: teaching human rights in a local school or other institution. They had many questions because they had not done either kind of assignment. But when I asked them to sit in groups of about ten and quietly (indoor voices; no shouts) discuss their planned topics, they were very quiet. And their proposals are sound.

But more than half flunked the first quiz. They’re not used to quizzes; I said one was coming, but the non-note takers apparently didn’t heed the warning. There will be more.

I’ve read their personal statements, including experiences in war and peace (more on that in a separate posting on this blog) and they have seen hell during the civil war which ended only a few years ago. They want to be peacemakers and human rights activists, lawyers, judges, etc. They also want to help promote peace. Community service in this class offers them a chance. And it reinforces what they learn in class and reflect on.

Gladys; home life; shopping on foot

2008-10-28T23:20:00.000-07:00

Gladys – future caterer or secretary; (from Betty)
A few new people have become part of our life. One is a really pleasant and helpful young woman, Gladys, whom we have hired to work for us in the apartment. We met her at the guesthouse where we were staying. She said that she had been to catering school and was trying to start a catering business after she earned enough money. So we decided to hire her and after we leave we hope to help her achieve some of her goals.
I feel a little bad about how she came to work for us but, not too bad, because she has really been a “godsend”. I was worried about finding someone I would like, and trust, and also someone who could help me with the cooking. The other new people have been the staff at our apartment complex.

The new apartment
The 8 unit apartment building is surrounded by a high cement block fence, topped with barbed wire. You enter the compound, which also has a very nice garden, through a huge metal gate. Over to one side is a shed where all the individual generators sit. We thought we were very lucky to not have our apt on that side until we had to deal with our neighbors’ huge generator on the other side. At night there are, at least, two security guards who are also in charge of turning on the generators.
At first everything was going well but then one night when we asked one of the security guys to turn on the generator, the tank that was supposed to be full was instead empty and since the extra fuel containers were locked up we couldn’t turn it on. We had planned to charge up our computers and phones for the next day in case we didn’t have power. Now we could not do neither and we had to deal with someone taking the fuel. And since there are several people working here you don’t know who took it. Petty theft is a big problem here. Mostly likely the people who work here are not well paid by our landlord. Also we did not have a system in place to keep everyone honest.
Now we have started a system of signing for all fuel used and hopefully this won’t happen again. It is a little uncomfortable knowing that someone has not been honest with us but we have decided to build a relationship of trust and respect with them, the latter is really important in the culture here, rather than trying to punish them for a theft of less than $10. We will also try to reward them when they do their work well or are helpful.

Shopping on foot
There are always people who need jobs here and most of the menial jobs are long hours for very low pay. We usually try to be generous with the people who help us in some way and we try to support small local businesses around where we live. So we always giving out small amounts of money. I tell Bob that we are running our own NGO (non-governmental organization) here. We have 3 small kiosks nearby where we can get bread, toilet paper, fruit, soft drinks, etc. which is very convenient. They make really good bread here and now a young man who is trying earn money for school fees stops by every day with fresh bread. These are all the little things here that we would never have in Hattiesburg, where if you don’t have bread you have to get into your car and drive to the nearest store.

ocean view; new apartment

2008-10-28T23:19:00.000-07:00

Ocean view and sunsets on walks in ‘our village’ (from Betty)
One of our daily pleasures comes at the end of the day as the sun become less intense. Then is when we usually go for a walk around our neighborhood which is called Hill Station. I have already described some of the details of this truly unique and historic neighborhood. I can’t wait to try and document it with photos so you will be able to visualize this place. Fortunately we can walk here without a lot of traffic congestion. The only cars that come up this rutted, dirt road are going to a small hotel called Country Lodge as most people who live here don’t have cars. So it’s very easy to safely walk around.
There are always people around, some are sitting outside of their house enjoying the cooler air, and others are walking home or going to one of the small kiosks that act like convenience stores and also social points. We, too, stop at the kiosks to buy soft drinks and chat, trying to use the Krio we are learning with from our Krio teacher.
One of the big old houses has been turned into an elementary school so there are always students in their blue gingham checked uniforms in the school yard getting ready to go home for the day. Most schools here have two tracks, one in the morning and the other in the afternoon. The students are always curious to talk to us and find out our names. And when I tell them mine, they all light up because Betty is a very popular name here and also because they recognize it.
And lastly on our walk we make our way to an open area on the road where we can see the sun set in the ocean and watch the sky turn pink. On each walk we are trying to learn people’s names and explore new paths. Sometimes we end up chatting too much and we miss the sunset. Actually the neighborhood is very small, with maybe only about 20 old wooden homes and then a few apartment complexes clustered like ours on the side of the hill facing the ocean. There is only one main road if you stay on the top of the hill. At first we thought that the only way down to the bottom of the hill to catch a taxi was walking the road but then we found all sorts of shortcuts going between the houses. They are kind of steep and rocky but still better than walking the long windy dirt road.

.

settling in; setback

2008-10-28T23:17:00.000-07:00

Settling in; and a setback (from Betty)
I am sorry this journal is all about our settling in here and very little about the country and the people. So please forgive me because I am still not getting out that much. I have spent most days for last month, now in our new apartment and before in the guesthouse, so my contact with the real world has been limited. And when I do go out it is with one of the taxi drivers who we have gotten to know quite well now. I try not to walk too much because for one thing the roads are so narrow and congested with people and cars that I am afraid of falling again and second I get tired really easy. So mostly I go shopping at the supermarket to buy food and or on other errands to buy necessary items for the apartment. Or we go to an internet café. So I mostly see the world from my taxi seat. But there are lots of things to observe and I long for the day when I will be able to get out and photograph some of these amazing scenes. I love observing life that is so present and in your face. It makes feel alive. Of course, at the end of the day, I am happy to retire to the privacy of my apartment with “most” of the normal amenities present.

I have divided my stay here into before my fall and after my fall. Also sometimes I go over and over that scene as I felt myself falling. One event can so drastically change your life and you can’t undo it much as you would want to. Now I have been recuperating for 4 weeks and I keep wondering why I don’t really feel well yet. I realize that I have been very unlucky when it comes to medicine. I don’t tolerate it well at all. First the pain medicine didn’t agree with me and so I stopped taking it except for when I was desperate. Then I decided that I was also getting side effects from the malaria medicine I was taking and so I decided to try another one that most people were taking here and seemed to tolerate well.
Before I started taking it I was actually doing much better judging by the outing we made to the village of Charlotte that I described in an earlier entry. Well today I went on the internet and looked for the side effects of doxycycline, and a lot of the ones that I have been having, are listed on the site. So no more doxycyline!! I got really upset with Bob yesterday about nothing and I realize now that I was having an anxiety attack, one of the side effects listed.
But the main serious effect has been pain in my throat so that it is hard to swallow anything. I hoped it would go away quickly but it is persisting. As I don’t really feel comfortable with the doctors here I finally remembered that my niece is married to a doctor. So I emailed him to find out what might be the problem and what to do about it. He explained what I had which made me better just knowing the problem and also some remedies but the unfortunate news is that it could take awhile to heal. So now each day is even more of a struggle. It’s an accomplishment to be able to eat something each meal. The good thing is that I should lose some weight because I am eating very small amounts.

However, to look on the bright side, because I haven’t felt well enough to do much, it has kept me from over straining my back. Also I have used the time to move into the new apartment and really enjoy it. When we have power we watch a movie on my computer. We have a pretty good video store but we can’t be too choosy about we watch. And I have found time to read some of the books, especially the ones on Sierra Leone, that I brought with me. And slowly we have dealt with all the problems that we had the first night. Burning mosquito coils has helped us sleep better, (fortunately I don’t mind the smell), the evenings have been relatively cool even when we haven’t had AC, and the huge generator next door has been on less because we have had more power. Also I think they have soundproofed it more as it is less noisy and there are fewer vibrations in our building. That is a real blessing!

Our new home

2008-10-28T23:15:00.000-07:00

October 13, 2008
Our New Home (from Betty)
Well I am sitting on our veranda watching the sun set over the ocean. The clouds are a pale pink and probably there will more rain tonight. It is still the rainy season as I found out when the clothes we put out to dry came back wet from a sudden storm. I also finally got our battery operated radio going and got it tuned to something called Capitol Radio but it also had news from BBC. In the guesthouse I mainly watched CNN to keep up with the news but in our new place we don’t have a TV so I am glad to have this radio and to get some good reception. Their choice of music has ranged from “Material Girl” by Madonna to Paul Simon’s South African CD Graceland. But I was happy to get the news at the top of the hour and to hear that the US market has rebounded somewhat. Who knows if that will hold as it seems to be acting more like a seesaw.
I love our new apartment. It’s big, airy, and has a wonderful view which I am enjoying this evening by myself as Bob has gone running with a local group, called the Hash Harriers, and won’t be back until after dark. It only has some very basic furniture but it’s something I can live with and build on with local craft materials, I hope. But we had some very rude shocks as we settled in. And after our first night in the apartment I wasn’t sure if I could survive another night.
This is a country with a generator culture because the govt can’t provide power on a daily basis. As you know to get this apartment we had to buy our own generator. The first night we did not have power and so we happily turned on the generator when it got dark at 7pm. And we had our first dinner that I cooked, spaghetti, not very exciting but it tasted wonderful after eating local food with rice or badly prepared restaurant food for over a month. Actually I do like the local food just not every night. Everything was going pretty well. We turned on the hot water heater but not the AC as we didn’t buy a big enough generator to do both at the same time thinking we would cool down the bedroom later.
The evening was going nicely but as I settled in to read a book on the couch I began to feel like my head was throbbing. We realized that the generator next door was producing not only noise but vibrations which I felt through out my whole body. Since my back injury my body has become more sensitive. Then our whole apartment went dark and we scrambled to find some flashlights, which in our hurried move here we had not really unpacked properly. Finally we found them and went outside to talk to the security guy at the gate. Well, the generator had run out of fuel. So we asked the guard to put more fuel in the tank, which he did, and this time it only lasted 2 hours only time enough to barely cool off the bedroom and get to sleep.
We woke a few hours later, all sweaty and to the sound of mosquitoes buzzing our ears. We found our insect repellant, applied it best we could and covered up, sweating out the rest of the night. Needless to say we did not sleep very well. And along with that the bed was very soft which didn’t help my back at all. We were both pretty miserable. But when we woke up the view was there to greet us, the generator noise had stopped, and the birds were singing. We actually had a nice breakfast with the granola that I had baked the night before and tried to decide what we would do next.
Then the national power came on and we were able to work on our computers for most of the day and life seemed back to normal. It’s amazing how things looked so much better with a bit of power and no noise. Some friends stopped by and we had drinks on the veranda watching the sunset. We even had power that evening when we came home from eating out and we didn’t have to turn on our generator. Stupid us we didn’t really understand how much fuel a generator uses. So this has been a very expensive shock…one hour of lights, etc. will cost us about $5.00. So now when the lights come on, and we never know when or how long they will stay on, we let out a sigh of relief and a cry for joy.

Obama fans in Sierra Leone

2008-10-27T04:06:00.000-07:00

The other day I walked through our hilltop 'village' of old colonial era wooden houses set high on steel stilts (the British attempt to get cooler breezes and fewer mosquitoes). Actually we are told the houses are pre-fabs sold through Harrods Department store in London and shipped then assembled here.
As I walked along the single paved road and several dirt paths, wearing my Obama for President t-shirt, Sierra Leonians called out from tiny storefronts, homes, and elsewhere in support of Obama. One day I ran with the same shirt and from the crowded sidewalks and small stores, even balconies, came cries of Obama; Obama. "We love Obama." Even scowling faces shifted to big smiles; people waved.
If folks here could vote, Barak would sweep the country - and no doubt the rest of Africa.
Bob

please share this blog; and send your comments and news

2008-10-12T16:46:00.000-07:00

Hi, everyone. Now that Betty is blogging and I will be posting more regularly, please share this with friends. Also ask them to send an email request to be added to our blog alert list. I really appreciate the comments so far; share your thoughts, and how you're doing wherever you are.
I am very glad Betty is back on her feet, though still in some daily pain. We had a nice stroll today through the hilltop 'village' where we moved in this past week.

Betty will respond to requests for photos before long.
Bob

from Betty:Taxi drivers are our friends

2008-10-12T16:44:00.001-07:00

Taxi drivers are our friends
We get around here by hiring taxi drivers. We have about 3 names of good, reliable drivers and whenever we need to do something we book them for several hours. They are more than taxi drivers; they are the ones who inform us about the town, teach us some Krio and are ready to help solve any problem we might have. Almost like a personal assistant in the US but doesn’t cost as much. Today I booked Farah and my goal was to check out the apt and decide what else we needed in the way of furniture. We plan to live with very little but one necessary thing, so Bob could do his work, was a desk. Farah took me to the carpenter who made some furniture for him but the guy was not at his workshop if you could call it that. All I saw was a very crudely built worktable and some rough wood stacked in a corner. Somehow that did not give me a lot of confidence though Farah assured me that he made very good, and cheap, furniture and I would not be disappointed. I decided I wanted to look further. There are lots of local carpenters and so it wasn’t hard to find someone else. And I realized again how basic these workshops are and it’s a wonder how they turn out anything decent at all. I am sure these guys could have made me something nice but I still wanted to look further.
So we drove to another place where they were supposed to be some carpenters. The first place we saw was too hard to park at. The next place we saw was a commercial place, owned probably by a Lebanese, with some imported and locally made desks…nice stuff but too expensive. And I really wanted to support the local crafts people so we drove on. I was not expecting to see a desk because most carpenters if they have any things on display, its usually beds, tables and chairs, not desks. Then out of the corner of my eye I saw a DESK on the side of the road. I told Farah to stop but there was nowhere for him to park. So I just got out and told Farah to find me, as I wanted to see this desk. Later Farah did manage to get turned around and found a place to park near this guy’s workshop. I tried not to show too much interest in the desk and so walked around admiring the other pieces because I knew that I would have to bargain hard for it. We did come to a deal pretty fast with Farah helping me. But then we had another problem how would we get this desk back to the apt. It looked pretty big to fit in the taxi. And I didn’t know anyone with who could transport it for me. So Farah opened the trunk and they started to try to fit it in. At first, it didn’t look like it would work but then Farah proceeded to put his back seats down and with just a little maneuvering we managed to get it in and the trunk closed.
Still Farah said that we might be stopped by the police and that could cause a lot of problems. So to avoid the police he turned off on a side road, which was ok except it, was the worst road that I had ever seen and it got worse as we climbed up the hill. At one point the road deteriorated to only sharp, pointed rocks on a steep incline. I was a basket case by the time we made it to the top where the road, at least, looked like what I would call a road. To celebrate we stopped a vendor who was selling bread. A popular snack here is freshly baked baguette, split in half, with carnation sweet milk dribbled on. I bought two. Farah ate one long loaf in no time. I decided that wasn’t my idea of a treat, so he had another one to eat later. But I did admire the vendor’s t-shirt, which had Emimen on it and asked him if I could take his picture. We continued on without incident to our apt and with the help of the staff there had the desk easily moved inside. It took most of the afternoon but, at least, we had accomplished something. And here that is itself something to feel good about!! As Farah wisely told me as we started out on this mission “there is a solution to every problem”.

Shopping with a Prince in Freetown
The next day I booked another taxi driver, whose name is Prince, and told him that I needed to buy some cheap house wares for the apartment. Without him I would have gone to one of the Lebanese owned supermarkets where everything is really expensive, but it is, at least, a place that I can walk down aisles and pick and choose what I might want. Prince took me downtown to a market area in the heart of the old city. A good area to shop but not an easy place to find a parking place.
Freetown is an old city with narrow streets that is slowly filling up with cars. There is no planning for widening streets, parking, there are no street lights, no stop signs and it can only get worse as people get more cars. It’s amazing that the city works as well as it does. You would have to learn a whole different way of driving here. Cars meet with inches to spare, weave around pedestrians who have to walk along the road as there are no sidewalks or they have been destroyed or blocked by street vendors.
This market area was located on a narrow, unpaved, rocky street lined with shops that had seen better days and also local street vendors. How these shops got their goods delivered was a mystery to me, I can only guess in the very early morning. There was one truck delivering goods and it completely blocked the road. Most of the shops sold cheap house wares and it was perfect for what I wanted. The shop we chose was piled high, floor to ceiling, with goods and only a small space was left for a counter behind which was the owner, maybe Lebanese, and two Sierra Leonean employees stood. I was at a loss to even decide what I wanted but slowly I started mentioning stuff or pointing to stuff and we ended up with a large pile of stuff. Prince was really helpful advising me what I might need and between the two of us we did really well. I got a lot of stuff at a very reasonable price. Then I also wanted towels which we harder to find. We walked a long way down this rutted street, crowded with shoppers and vendors. At one point we had to crawl up a low wall to get around this delivery truck blocking the road. I was getting really tired as I still don’t have a lot of stamina and my back was really starting to hurt. So when we finally found a woman selling a few towels I bought what she had so we could go back to the taxi. We collected the other stuff that I had bought and made our way back to the taxi. So much for my first major shopping trip. Later I found out that we had left the handle to the broom we bought so I guess we will be back for more stuff.

from Betty: renting an apartment? Bring your own generator...

2008-10-12T16:40:00.000-07:00

Betty (October 8)
We finally found a place to live. We have been living in a guesthouse for the last month. And though we get along really well it has been a bit tiresome living in one room. Also as I was recuperating from my accident I was basically here 24/7. The guesthouse is run by a family, the father who is fairly high up in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, his wife, a true Krio, who basically runs the place, their two children, Jack, a teenager, and bouncy Martha who is three and loves Bob because he chases her around the compound. Also there is the staff of about 8 people, cleaning, hauling water, cooking, washing clothes, of course all my hand, etc. So I was never alone and could watch the daily activities from my room. I usually kept the door open just to feel like I was part of the outside world. One amazing sight every day was to watch Elmamy string 20 plus yellow 10-gallon plastic containers together and then carry them on his head out of the compound. He carries them down the hill and to a place where they are filled. Later in the day a truck brings them back and all the guys in the compound carry them down a stairs to the cistern. But it is still not finished because each container has to be lifted and poured into the cistern. Back breaking work, or you could say it in a more positive sense, muscle building. The guys do look pretty well built. With all that I feel guilty every time I flush the toilet.

Every morning and evening we go up to a 2nd floor terrace, overlooking the hillside, to eat…this house was built on the hillside but somehow turned its back on the view of downtown and the sea which seems odd as it is a much better view. We usually eat with the other Fulbright colleague who is also staying here. Mary usually brings our food. She is very good-natured but only speaks Krio so we laugh and talk but we never really understand each other. I am very spoiled with nothing to do, as my room is cleaned and our meals are served to us every day. I do wash a few clothes by hand but that is about all. But after my fall when I wasn’t supposed to do anything this was the perfect place to be and I was very well cared for. And Bob could keep up with his responsibilities without having to worry about taking care of me.

Another young woman worked here but she was pregnant and about to have her baby so she left. I think she will call us when she has it. But basically she was let go and so has no income while she waits to have the baby. It’s a hard world here and the staff does not make much money (about $75 a month we think).

New lodging
I am getting a little nostalgic for this place as we get ready to leave and move to our new apartment. It’s nice to have people around. In our new place we will be much more isolated from the local people and our neighbors will be mostly Europeans. We looked for a whole month before we found a place that we really liked and were ready to move into. But, as with every place that we looked at, there were problems. The place is expensive. We have to buy a generator so we would have reliable power in the evenings. Bob, who hates to buy things and especially in a place without fixed prices and not always trusted information, bravely bit the bullet and just did it. It seemed like a manly thing to do, I being stuck with all the other tasks of buying stuff to furnish the place. The apt does have basic furniture, but no kitchen or cleaning stuff so there are lots to buy, all of which I hope to get at a decent price.

from Betty: Village visit

2008-10-12T16:39:00.001-07:00

Betty (Saturday, October 4) ecially since we would be in, what I thought, would be a very comfortable SUV. Well, even an SUV is not that comfortable going over seriously eroded pothole
Saturday a newly arrived American embassy employee invited us to join him on a trip to visit historic Charlotte village and a nearby waterfall. I took a risk and said that I thought I could make it esp filled roads so I was glad it wasn’t a long trip. When we got there, like every other place I have seen in so far in Sierra Leone, the village was built on the hillside, which meant that I had to do a bit of climbing to see it.
But what an amazing village! Small old wooden cottages probably built in the 1800’s or early 1900’s dotted the lush hillside many surrounded by flowering shrubs. Some were in relatively good shape and even painted and others were falling down but still lived in. A guide appeared and invited us to walk through the village and up to the church built in 1841. Near the stone built church were the ruins of an even older girl’s school started in 1816 by the Anglicans.
Along the way we were warmly greeted by the villagers and allowed to take photos. After seeing the church we started down a rough dirt path through the other side of the village that would take us to the waterfall. After walking for a while I realized that the waterfall was probably too far away for me to easily walk there. Questioning the locals in English and in our limited Krio elicited various responses from not far, to very far and “small far”. Our friend decided to go on with the guide while Bob and I found a place to sit and wait. By that time we had collected a small crowd of mostly young children. They were very polite and we talked as best we could though most of them did not know much English. They liked having their pictures taken so they could look at themselves on the digital playback screen. The older ones were blowing on some leaves to make sounds so Bob showed how they could make an even louder sound with the same leaves. That kept everyone laughing as many made futile blowing attempts and others surprised themselves when they produced a loud blast. Just as our friend came back from the waterfall it started to rain, this still being the rainy season, and so we quickly got out our rain gear and made our way back to the car. It was the end of a very pleasant morning as we drove back to Freetown. But it made us both aware at how beautiful this country is and how we want to explore it more. Also this country has had a really long history of interacting with Westerners and more evidence remains from those days than I have seen in many other African countries.

from Betty: a bad fall

2008-10-12T16:34:00.000-07:00

Betty’s Blog Entry Sep 28
My stay in Sierra Leone has been colored by a bad fall on the street where I hurt my back (compression fracture in the lower vertebrae), happening after I had only been in the country for 10 days. This meant that I experienced, not by choice, first hand the health care facilities of Sierra Leone. I came through it ok but I would not like to have had a serious life threatening injury. And I received some of the best care you can get. Even then it seemed very pretty haphazard. There are no ambulances or even stretchers at most clinics. So they pick you up and carry you, if necessary, to where you might get some help. I probably should have been lying down after the accident but the best I had was a wheelchair and some strong men half carrying me from the front seat of a car to different places. I did get a quick X Ray done at a radiology clinic with the films being developed in minutes and a diagnosis given by a very experienced radiologist/doctor. At that point it was decided that I needed to be in the hospital in case there were any other injuries. So I was carried back to the car and driven to the hospital. There they wanted a proper ID, which both Bob or I had and they wanted to be paid. An US Embassy doctor was with us but even that didn’t help much. But finally after a long discussion and a promise to pay I was admitted. By now I had been shuttled around for 4 hours, all the time in very serious pain, such that I was crying most of the time.

At the hospital I was finally put on a metal stretcher and given a pain injection. The needle was in a sealed container but somehow I kind of lost track of what was happening since most of my thoughts were on surviving the pain. When the Indian doctor who didn’t speak much English started rudely examining me I insisted that Bob be in the room. He seemed offended at that but I didn’t care. There were nurses there as well but still I just didn’t feel very comfortable with him. Finally he listened to my symptoms, which were mainly pain in the back. The rest of me was still ok fortunately.

Anyway to make a long story short it was a long two-day stay in the hospital. The pain was still pretty intense and I couldn’t sleep so the hours seem to tick by minute by minute. The nights were the longest because I felt very alone. During the first day I was told to stay flat on my back and not move at all. Finally I insisted on getting up to use the toilet, as my only other choice was a bedpan. The next day when Bob came he brought news from an orthopedic specialist in the US saying that it was ok to get up a bit and move around. That was a big relief but it also meant that I didn’t need to stay in the ICU unit any longer. So I was moved to another ward where I was in a room with 3 other women and one bathroom. The room was very hot and stuffy. The bed was quite hard for someone with back pain. My privacy consisted of a curtain around my bed, which made me a bit claustrophobic. I could hear the other women but I couldn’t really see them. One had a radio, which was tuned to an evangelical religious station so I heard a lot praying and singing from her. Another must have had a small TV or computer because I heard snippets of a soap opera drama. I kind of wished I could have joined her as it would have helped the time pass. That night was the worse because I didn’t take the pain medicine, which gave me bad dreams and an upset stomach, and so I was very uncomfortable and couldn’t sleep. The only thing that kept me going was knowing that Bob would be there in the morning to check me out. And I was determined to tell the doctor how much better I was so he would agree to discharge me. The nurses were all very kind and friendly. One thing they did on a regular schedule was taking my blood pressure and temperature and those vital signs were always normal. Also the food amazingly enough was very good.

Since the time went so slowly I really appreciated having visitors. Bob, of course, came several times a day. I didn’t know many other people, only a few at the embassy and our Fulbright colleagues, and so I wasn’t expecting many to come. But surprisingly the only other people who did come to see me were Sierra Leonean from our guesthouse, the owners Mr. and Mrs. Kai Kai and several of the staff people. Usually when you are in a foreign country people realize that such an accident can be quite traumatic and especially when you first arrive and don’t know anyone. Something for me to remember if this kind of thing happens to other people.

Bob did arrive early the next morning but it took him a while to slowly make his way through the bureaucracy to get me discharged. The only good thing about my hospital stay was there were some very kind nurses and it didn’t cost very much (less that $400) compared to a stay in a US hospital. The taxi slowly drove me home and I felt like I was entering paradise as I arrived at the guesthouse.

Now after two weeks of very limited activity I am beginning to go out for short periods of time. I am also trying to do some exercises to keep the muscles strong. Though I still feel a lot of discomfort, and some days I feel worse than others, for the most part I can feel myself returning to a normal life.

Traffic scenes

2008-10-03T16:34:00.000-07:00

As I was riding home today in a group taxi (about 30 U.S. cents), we stalled in a long line of cars on a narrow street. It was raining. The driver pulled a small packet of soap powder out from his dashboard, reached through the open window, and sprinkled some on his windshield. In a few seconds his dirty window was freshly washed and clean. "We do a lot of things in Africa," he said with a laugh.

Traffic gets backed up when it rains; commuters may be in a taxi for an hour or more going just a few miles across this city which, from the point of view of geography, is stunningly beautiful. Streets are narrow and with sidewalks either non-existent or having gaping holes exposing the sewer lines just below, many people, including myself, walk on the edge of the roadsides. Taxies whiz along when they can, missing people by inches. With no stop lights, many roundabouts, and only a few traffic police, you'd think nothing would move at all; but it does.

And taxies, even with four customers (the three-seaters have up to eight or nine; and the mini-buses are packed), can be a good place to practise Krio, the English-based dialect here. "Rain de com plenty" - It's really raining hard.

We've also come to appreciate the driving skills of several taxi drivers we use frequently by the hour for multiple errands and visits around town. They often are just a cell phone call away.

Today in the rain, I jumped into the first available group taxi downtown and only later asked where it was going (they have fixed routes). It was heading to within a mile of our guest house. And I got to see the window washing. On the walk the last mile I bought some fresh bread rolls (15 U.S. cents each), one with condensed milk poured on it; and I purchased a couple of soft drinks at a street side stand from Bob. Police recently tore his stand down - perhaps for lack of permit - but he put it back up the next day.

We had considered buying a car here, but my driving skills don't match those of taxi drivers.

Coming 'home' to Africa: arrival in Sierra Leone

2008-09-16T19:34:00.000-07:00

Dear friends,
You were crazy enough to sign up for our blog, now I hope you will open a dialogue with us and share your thoughts as we launch a very modest blog on - Sierra Leone, West Africa.

Betty and I are here because I received a Fulbright award which is named after the late U.S. Senator who believed that people exchanges enhance peace. We'll be here about ten months. i will be teaching human rights, comparative politics, and participating in peace building workshops at one of the oldest (perhaps the oldest) college in West Africa: Fourah Bay College - plus researching past human rights activism. Betty has already been asked to consider contributing to classes at Fourah Bay and perhaps helping a local ngo train photographers. I've already made lots of contacts for the research and met most of my co-teachers.

Enough of the formal stuff.
Sierra Leone's capital city, Freetown, sits on a penninsula draped with stunning high hills which reminded an early visitor of lions - thus the name of the country: mountains of lions. The beaches are beautiful white sands.

Arrivals are fun...as long as you relax and enjoy the confusion. We were met by someone working for the U.S. Embassy, since my pay this year of Fulbright funds comes from, well - we American taxpayers. The night ferry takes a long time to cross the giant bay; the hovercraft was not working; soe we took a shaky (Russian?) helicopter for a brief flight to the city.

We are staying in a comfortable guest house and looking for lng-term lodging. Electricity is spotty, as the government is running out of money to fund even the limited availability. Sierra Leone didn't have any for more than a decade during the war.

The city's house-covered hills are still full of greenery, among wealthy homes and humble ones. Streets are notoriously crowded, however, due to narrow lanes and lots of vehicles. During a monsoon type rain last week some people sat for three hours in jams due to floods.

People here are so very friendly. We get good vibes daily, whether walking, or on my runs and errands downtown, etc. They set a good example for Americans.

I'm sitting at a small internet cafe that has an internet connection for my laptop. It's exciting to know that two of my former students have reached Africa, too. Jim Mitchell is just back in Arkansas at Bill Clinton's college after an internship in Tanzania; and Jeff Brown is in Bamako, Mali as a Peace Corps volunteer. I just got an email from another former student asking about law internships anywhere in the world and have put her in touch with a local lawyers office that helps the poor.

Sierra Leone ranks near or at the bottom in quality of life indexes, with perhaps the highest child mortality rate in the world [don't hold me to all details being accurate on a blog] and a life expectancy of 42, with many deaths due to malaria and other diseases. (So far we've seen only one mosquitoe and one fly here...really. Breezes and fast moving water after rains down steep hills to the sea may explain that; plus people are really cleaning up trash these days.

Hey - blogs are static unless they involve con-ver-sa-tion. So let's start..
Bob and Betty (Press)