Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Dear Friends!
 
I'm back at Caleb's school today after a 3 day weekend! In this country with 2 major religions, all Christian, Muslim and historical holidays are officially national holidays! Yesterday was off for the Prophet Mohammed's birthday. The Moslem's celebrate it with a day of prayer. The rest of the population enjoys an extra day of family and rest! Many of the internationals I know spent the morning sleeping after watching the Super Bowl much of the night!

I had the opportunity to spend the morning with one close friend visiting on Caleb's balcony, which is a pleasant place! In the afternoon, I braved the public transport to spend a few hours with another friend, his wife and their new baby! (Some of you may remember my descriptions of poda poda rides!)  I returned to Caleb's hot and covered with sweat and dust. After a shower, we treated ourselves to dinner in a quiet restaurant where we were the only customers! (Quiet is a rare commodity here!) 

From there we went to an extremely congested and chaotic area for Caleb to get a hair cut. I so wish I'd had the video camera for this! The "barbing shop" was a chair on a busy spot beside the street, where there was an old blue tarp set up to separate a small space from the crowd. After having his hair cut as close to his head as possible with fabric scissors--in clumps, Caleb then had his hair shaved to about 1/16 of an inch with only a comb and a razor blade. (No razor--just the blade!) It is an amazing art. After doing his head, the barber decided to shape Caleb's 5 day old beard growth and used only the razor held at the proper angle in his hand to shave the beard shape he wanted! As far as I know, there were no nicks! (Yes, they use new blades, or 2, for each new person!)
I never know what new experience I'll have here!
 
We spent Saturday morning with Caleb playing Ultimate Frisbee on the beach with the Lighthouse guys and me getting to spend the whole morning walking the beach alone with Joseph. For those of you who have been praying for him, please continue. He looks good and is healthy... and from what he tells me, he's doing great with worthy goals, etc. Unfortunately, I hear otherwise from some of the Lighthouse leaders. As a former street kids, with lying, drugs, promiscuity, stealing just to get food, etc., as a major part of life, it is extremely hard for the Lighthouse kids to consistently move into the new lives and opportunities Lighthouse offers them. Joseph seems to find it hard to consistently go to work, clean up after himself in the room he shares with 2 other men, and stay away from, at least, marijuana. Please pray for this young man of intense faith and great musical gifts who I have grown to love in the past 3 years!  Anyway, I was delighted to get the whole morning with him! He considers me his Mommy Jenny and keeps up with our family news and shares news of his family with me via letters that someone else emails for him. When I am with him (and he has often "accompanied" me on public transport to places I could have never found alone!) he protects me as though I was a treasure made of breakable glass!
 
Caleb and I left Saturday afternoon to sleep out again at River No. 2 Beach! Getting gas on the way was another one of those experiences that one would not have at home! It took us 1/2 hour to get the gas. There were 12 pump nozzles at this large gas station... with only 1 of them working! In addition to cars trying to access the pump from different directions, there was a line of men with gas cans buying gas for generators which are used most evenings by people with money because the public electricity is often off!

When we got to the beach, I was surprised to see that there were 3-4" long tightly folded leaves already formed on the tree that had been shedding all its large leaves the last few weeks. (Even in tropical climates, deciduous trees drop their leaves--just not at the same time.) I had expected that it would take a long time for the new leaves to come.
We had our usual barracuda and rice dinner then talked til we were sleepy enough to go to bed. Laying on the sand looking along the beach was amazing. The full moon was so bright that the white-caps were a brilliant white as though there was a search light on them!
 
I woke up to the calls of pied crows (black with a bright white "tank top") and voices of the villagers who were walking by and then waiting on the beach for the fishing boats to come in so they could buy their fish for the day! My blanket was covered with little 1/2 flowers from the tree above me!   The big surprise was that the leaf starts on the tree I'd noticed Saturday evening, had opened into full leaves! If we could only teach our Ohio trees to do that!
 
Sunday evening, we went to the International Church and potluck. It was good to worship in that community. I was happy to realize that I knew about 1/2 of the people there and the potluck was a great chance to visit!
 
I got some questions in response to my last email that may be of general interest:

--The official language of SL is English because SL was an English colony. That means that in the capital city, most adults range from total fluency to at least being able to exchange greetings and sell things if they are vendors in English, depending on their educational level. Unfortunately, there was no opportunity to attend school during the war. The children are usually quite fluent in English. The local language in Freetown is Krio, which is its own very simple language that the English slaves developed derived from English as Creole is derived from French. When the slaves in England were freed in 1787, they were brought here and started their own settlement.  There are many ethnic/tribal languages spoken in SL and most people, even those who are illiterate, are fluent in several languages!  Out in the rural districts with HI, I have several times been in welcoming meetings when we arrive in a village, that are translated 2x...meaning 3 languages!  Often English is not one of them, but I know enough Krio to catch the general meaning!

--I do not feel any racial tensions at all, but that does not mean that there are not racial expectations!  Being White attracts a lot of attention! It is also often assumed that Whites are lucrative to beg from. SL's with money are also constantly asked for money. That gets very tedious and one can not give anything to one person w/o having 3 to 20 more people appear from nowhere with hands out! It is quite intimidating. Before the 1st time I arrived, Caleb told me to decide what I would do in response then to do it consistently without rethinking it. My decision was to give only to organizations here--never to individuals. That is always hard, but I haven't regretted the decision because there is no stopping it once you hand 1 person 1 thing!    The other racial reality is that whites are just plain a curiosity!  This is very open. As a greeting, people will often call out their tribal word for white man and wave! I think it's both a friendly gesture and a brush with perceived power. For the most part, SL are a very friendly people!
 
--How is the decision made about what village will receive funding to dig the next well?  That is very hard! Several factors come into play. This year the process is (1) the HI staff person in each district takes me to the HI villages that have the most desperate water needs. I have prioritized them as some are not as desperate as the ones in the other districts. (2) John Campbell, the water engineer, will visit many of them and give input such as whether the terrain is suitable to do a bore hole well (which is quicker and less expensive), whether there are pumps that can be repaired of replaced over wells that will then be functional, etc. (3) The number of water projects we have already funded in that district will also be considered! It is not a simple process!  We are hoping to prioritize villages early in the rainy season, as soon as John's work is slow enough for him to visit. That way we will get into his work schedule early enough for the wells to be done as efficiently as possible as soon as funds are available!
 
I'm sorry about the length of this email! Thanks to all who have stayed with it to the end!
God Bless You!
Jenny