Independence day

In honour of Sierra Leone Independence day – April 27, 2006 – the following is a brief history of Sierra Leone courtesy of a source I cannot recount…soon to come will be a more recent history I didn’t entirely plagiarize…following this brief tale I will give a short explanation of the celebrations in Freetown to honour Independence Day.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF SIERRA LEONE – European Contact to Independence
European contacts with Sierra Leone were among the first in West Africa. In 1652, the first slaves in North America were brought from Sierra Leone to the Sea Islands off the coast of the southern United States. During the 1700s there was a thriving trade bringing slaves from Sierra Leone to the plantations of South Carolina and Georgia where their rice-farming skills made them particularly valuable.
In 1787 the British helped 400 freed slaves from the United States, Nova Scotia, and Great Britain return to Sierra Leone to settle in what they called the "Province of Freedom." Disease and hostility from the indigenous people nearly eliminated the first group of returnees. This settlement was joined by other groups of freed slaves and soon became known as Freetown. In 1792, Freetown became one of Britain's first colonies in West Africa.
Thousands of slaves were returned to or liberated in Freetown. Most chose to remain in Sierra Leone. These returned Africans--or Krio as they came to be called--were from all areas of Africa. Cut off from their homes and traditions by the experience of slavery, they assimilated some aspects of British styles of life and built a flourishing trade on the West African coast.
The colonial history of Sierra Leone was not placid. The indigenous people mounted several unsuccessful revolts against British rule and Krio domination. Most of the 20th century history of the colony was peaceful, however, and independence was achieved without violence. Independence came in April 1961.



Celebrating Independence
On the evening before Independence Day thousands, upon thousands, upon thousands of individuals descend upon areas of the city to take part in the Lantern Festival – a parade of floats made by & representing different communities. These Lanterns are then marched to the centre of town in what can only be described as pure chaos…this event is known as being rowdy, rough, and rather unsafe, but a good time if your up for it (kinda like being in a traveling mosh pit). There is no security and it is each man/woman for them self as the Lanterns are paraded all through the night into the morning. For safety reasons I could only sit on my doorstep and watch as primarily youth began their journey to the local meeting point choosing instead to celebrate independence day (during the following day) in the more tame environment of the National Stadium where sports – track & field – took place in the day followed by a football game (Sierra Leone vs. Guinea) in the evening…happily Sierra Leone defeated Guinea 1-0.

45 years and still figuring it out…Happy Independence Sierra Leone!

A Day in the Life – part II

Well we’ve been through traffic and garbage removal here in Freetown, Sierra Leone, now let’s go into the home and discuss two daily duties - cooking and bathing. Cooking here is primarily done by the women...the journey usually begins with a trip to the local market – although for a greater selection one must travel downtown – after acquiring your daily goods (remember no electricity means no fridges means shopping everyday) you return home and start preparing to cook…this includes lighting your stove – a cylinder shaped cement object that you place coals in (unless you haven’t the privilege of affording a stove and coals then you would cook over a wood fire) most people do their cooking outside as their homes do not contain a space to cook indoors - although my family does cook inside where there is space between floors in the stairwell. Once your fire is lit the daily meat/fish is steamed or fried while the rice is sifted through to remove stones then placed on the stove to cook (we have two stoves here – but we also have about 15 mouths to feed). While this is going on the sauce is prepared, this can vary from a sauce made with oil, greens, and spices, to a peanut sauce, to a tomato like gravy with onions – everything spicy hot! The meat/fish that began cooking on its own is then cooked with the daily sauce…once the rice is finished cooking it is then distributed amongst various dishes – each member of the family having their own dish – then the sauce is distributed beginning with the parents getting the majority of the meat/fish followed in order by the eldest getting the next greatest amount of protein down to the youngest who will get maybe one bite sized piece of meat or fish (although no one other than the parents really get much more than that). This repeats each day. In my home the children are lucky… they get rice and sauce (no protein) in the morning, and then once again in the afternoon they are given a meal like what I just described - being fed twice a day makes them better fed then most the children in this neighbourhood, actually in the whole country.

Now let’s discuss bathing…it is a pretty simple ritual here. Being there is no real running water in the homes (most homes here are made out of tin roofs – never mind indoor plumbing – in this case a more communal outhouse-like structure to bathe in would be used) and even in my home made with concrete walls and new plumbing there is not enough water pressure to send the water up to my second floor room…so the ritual begins by filling a bucket with water from a larger tub of water stored in my room (I am being pretty spoiled, no one else in our home has their own washroom other than the parents – and we live well off compared to most people in our community) – everything is room temperature…never hot water, never cold water…using a smaller cup I pour the water over myself, which usually is a welcome relief to my body after being in the hothothot African sun, but not always…then I proceed as usual using soap, shampoo etc. and when I am ready I once again pour water over myself until I am all shiny and new**** Washing has become a ritual I look forward to each day…I don’t quite know if its to get relief from the heat…partially, but there is something peaceful to this quality of washing…maybe it’s the time to myself, maybe its knowing I’m only using a bucket of water to clean and feel good about not being wasteful…no matter - what I do know is that each day I look forward to pouring that cool water over my body…taking some time to be with just me reminding myself to feel thankful for the abundance I have.

THE CAT WHO CAME INDOORS

Once upon a time, there was a cat, a wild cat, who lived all by herself out in the bush. After a while she got tired of living alone and took herself a husband, another wild cat who she thought was the finest creature in all the jungle.
One day, as they strolled together along the path through the tall grass, swish, out of the grass jumped Leopard, and Cat’s husband was bowled over, all fur and claws, into the dust.
“O-oh!” said Cat. “I see my husband is covered in dust and is not the finest creature in all the jungle. It is Leopard.” So Cat went to live with Leopard.
They lived together very happily until one day, as they were hunting in the bush, suddenly—whoosh—out of the shadows leapt Lion right onto Leopard’s back and ate him all up.
“O-o-oh!” said Cat. “I see Leopard is not the finest creature in all the jungle. It is Lion.”
So Cat went to live with Lion.
They lived together very happily until one day, as they were stalking through the forest, a large shape loomed overhead, and –fu-chu—Elephant put one foot on top of Lion and squashed him flat.
“O-o-o-oh!” said Cat. “I see Lion is not the finest creature in all the jungle. It is Elephant.”
So Cat went to live with Elephant. She climbed up onto his back and sat purring on his neck, right between his two ears.
The lived together happily until one day, as they were moving through the tall reeds down by the river—pa-wa—there was a loud bang, and Elephant sank down onto the ground.
Cat looked around and all she could see was a small man with a gun.
“O-o-o-o-oh!” said Cat. “I see Elephant is not the finest creature in all the jungle. It is Man.”
So Cat walked after Man all the way to his home, and jumped up onto the thatch of his hut.
“At last,” said Cat, “I have found the finest creature in all the jungle.”
She lived up in the thatch of the hut very happily and began to catch the mice and rats that lived in that village. Until one day, as she sat on the roof warming herself in the sun, she heard a noise from inside the hut. The voices of Man and his wife grew louder and louder until—wara-wara-wara…yo-we! —out came Man, tumbling head over heels into the dust.
“Aha!” said Cat. “Now I do know who is truly the finest creature in all the jungle. It is Woman.”
She came down from the thatch, went inside the hut, and sat by the fire.
And that is where she’s been ever since.

A Shona story from Zimbabwe explaining how cats became cherished inhabitants of human homes. - I always knew cats were clever animals! =)

A Day in the Life

As many can tell from my recent entries I am on the mend - body, mind, and soul. I figured this may be a good time to talk about day-to-day life here in the ‘world’s poorest country’. Maybe you have been wondering how a city built for 300, 000 but hosting over one million people functions without electricity, paved roads or even garbage pick up – well to be quite honest the best it can! Traffic is left up to each motor vehicle operator to get where their going - left turns through 2 lanes of traffic and all! (no electricity means no traffic lights)…at a handful of intersections throughout the city there are traffic wardens directing traffic but maneuvering through the hoards – and I mean hoards – of pedestrians makes everyday seem like the most crowded day at Stampede (for those of you familiar with Calgary’s ‘greatest show on earth’) and you have the privilege of driving right through the middle of it…honking your horn as a means of communicating…few rules – no enforcement of them…proceed at your own discretion.
Public transit – although it’s a private industry – consists of two modes of transport: 1. Cars – like taxicabs - but who pick up people along the way, ideally as many as their car will fit, and who go to designate places only not wherever you wish, usually traveling short distances. 2. Vans – like Volkswagen vans – these travel more specific routes, picking up people along the way, but traveling greater distances to key drop off and pick up points. It is common to see as many as 7 people in a small sized economy car and as many as 15 people traveling in a van. A few main roads in the city are paved, but the majority of ‘side roads’ – although one time paved – have degenerated into a condition 4x4 and SUV’s were made for and even then you’d be putting your vehicle through quite a workout.
Garbage is another great problem in this city…there are no city mechanisms in place for garbage collection, so garbage is thrown out into the streets constantly, any time I wish to dispose of something I just throw it off my balcony onto the street below, mind you about a one minute walk away from me (and these are ‘littered’ – don’t mind the pun haha - throughout various communities) is a big burning pile of garbage that burns day and night – when the wind blows from a certain direction I have the privilege of smelling burning garbage right in the comfort of my home – no worries though most garbage is still just thrown in the streets and not on the smoldering pile. About a week ago was national ‘clean up day’…years ago one of the former military governments declared a national clean up day (monthly I think) although this has not been in practice for some time…the current government declared last Saturday to be a ‘clean up day’ all work stopped for the morning the military was out to monitor and enforce the governments declaration – apparently there was an investment forum going on and Freetown was expecting investors from all over to descend upon the city (so the government insisted the city be cleaned up before their arrival – which was a good idea in my opinion cause this city is filthy). However due to the governments lack of resources – or should I say mismanagement of resources – many communities sat with giant piles of garbage on their streets blocking traffic etc. until trucks were able to come and clear away the garbage to a burning pile of trash near you!
I hope this satisfies any curious readers…there are many more ‘day to day’ activities I could speak of but I’ll save those for another entry…please feel free to send me questions or curiosities about any of the daily happenings here in the City of Freetown! Peacelove&cleanstreets