a coup! hooray!

Sierra Leone is facing a crossroads this upcoming year – it’s slated to have elections this coming July.  The government in power right now, the SLPP (Sierra Leone Progressive Party), has run the country for 12 years, and its rule has been marred by inefficiency, bad choices, corruption and waste.  During its rain, it has stopped delivering power, cut off all waste management, pushed away foreign investors (by taxing them before they enter the country), and made a very few people here very very rich.  Most people are sick of the government and want a change.

Politics here is far different from the complex and hairy political system we have in the States.  There, the issues have no clear-cut answer – how do you solve Social Security? Curb illegal immigration? Fight the War on Terror? Here in Sierra Leone, however, people are voting based on “Which political party will give us the most electricity?” or maybe, “Will this presidential candidate clean up the trash in the country?”  Right now, this country has very basic needs that can be solved relatively simply.

Of course, with all elections, there’s no promise that the elected leaders will live up to their campaign promises.  Here, though, the temptation to be corrupt is very very great.  It takes a very strong-willed man (or at least a man with a highly developed sense of right and wrong) to stand up to the systemic and social evils in this society.  Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely.  Perhaps only the people who answer to a higher mr

Beyond that issue is the question of whether the elections will be run fairly – after all, all of the election officers were put in place by the ruling party – why would they want to let another party win, when they know they’d lose their jobs.  International organizations are watching this election closely, but there is always the threat of wrongdoing…

It’s funny, but of the people I’ve talked politics with, a large amount of them absolutely enjoyed their time under military rule in the late 1990s.  Yes, they had an illegitimate government, they say, but also, they were ruled with discipline order, efficiency and precision.  They imposed national cleaning days, 1 Saturday a month, in which every person was required to stay at home and clean their compound – rich or poor, foreign or native-born.  If you were caught on the streets, they’d beat you or put you to work.  At that time, the country was spotless.  They had consistent (but not quite constant) electricity.  There was little corruption.  And people were relatively happy.

We Americans love freedom so much – we see it as the best form of government and every people worldwide should reap its benefits.  It’s hard for me to understand that people would love a military government that denies political rights, but when the current implementation of democracy is riddled with corruption, waste and injustice, it might just be the better alternative.

education

The Lighthouse kids have now begun school, which means we had a change in our schedule.  Instead of meeting them in the afternoons, we now head into town in the morning so the kids can get off to school by 12:30.  Also, with school, comes homework, and with homework, comes tutoring.

Tutoring is fun, provided you have patience.  But, in Sierra Leone, patience is tested greatly by the fact that often, these kids have learned very little.  Kids are taught to memorize, memorize, memorize, and when they’ve finished trying that, memorize some more.  Thus, the schools don’t teach phonics, they teach kids to recognize the words and memorize how to pronounce them.  Without the basic foundation of how to read, they then teach extremely difficult works – they may be at Cat in the Hat reading level, but they’ve been assigned to read Julius Caesar.  Likewise, they may be attempting long division without knowing exactly what division is in the first place.
The kids are extremely bright- they learn well, and some of them are doing well in their classes.  I’ve been able to read & have great discussions about Bible passages with some of the kids, and they have sharp analytical minds.  If only they were allowed to use them for their full potential.

Corruption Corruption

It’s been an interesting week.  School started this week for most of the kids, so now the team’s trying to figure out the best time of day to have Lighthouse.  School is a half-day adventure here, and some of them have morning, some have afternoon. 

Monday was the first day of school for many people, and, unfortunately, they had to deal with an issue greater than collecting: all transportation in Freetown – the taxi and podapoda (one-way travel of ’80s vans crammed full of people) drivers –  all decided to strike in protest against police harassment.  They extort money from them, levy ridiculous fines, and are a pain to deal with for people barely scraping by (Gas is over $4 a gallon – when you charge people around 27 cents for a ride, you know you’re not making much).  They wanted to get the government to crack down on such petty corruption.  But, when the government itself is rife with bribes, kickbacks and theft, I wonder how effective it will be. 

 The government has been in power for about 12 years.  During that time, the country has fallen into greater poverty, lost consistent electricity, and watched its education system teeter on the edge of collapse.  I guess that’s why there’s a measured hope about the upcoming elections in 2007, where 2 of the major candidates are clearly against the ruling party (at least, for now – corruption has a way of spreading everywhere here).   Sierra Leone possesses ample resources to begin recovering, but until the government helps in that process – it is notorious for attempting to levy taxes on investors before entering the country and forcing consumers to buy imported and not local-grown foods – very little development will occur.  Foreign aid that arrives here – aid that doesn’t fall into someone’s pockets on its way, that is – often does too little to remedy this problem.  If anything, too much aid creates unhealthy dependency on it, and when these organizations leave, they haven’t taught the people how to fend for themselves and run and sustain their own businesses.  Back to square one.

I have seen the hope that many here have for this country – Sierra Leone has ample resources – in precious stones, minerals, farmland, fishing.  It has the ability to produce its way out of its impoverished state, industrialize, and grow.  There remains hope here, and people are constantly praying that God would move in the government, clear out the corruption, and put in morally upright people who are willing to put the people and the country (not their bank account) first.

Music Fiesta

So last night some of the Lighthouse boys wanted us to go to a special music service at Roberts Street Baptist. The church is celebrating its 85th anniversary by having a week full of special nights – Family Night, Music Night, a football (um, soccer) match with a local church.

The evening was divided into 2 parts: Choral and Gospel music. Choral music comprises of what we’d call “Traditional” – hymns, 4-part choirs singing classic English poems. Many of the men in the choir sing Alto (even when there are plenty of women to balance the sound), so seeing tall African men singing in falsetto was interesting.
The Gospel music was great – people were dancing in the aisles, standing, clapping and having a great time. It was fun to be a part of such a joyous occasion.

And today is my 21st birthday. I’ve been celebrating it by catching up with people at home, hearing previews of the Colts’ football season, and recharging. Tonight, we’re going to eat at Mamba Point, which apparnetly is the most Western restaurant in the Freetown area. Part of me is thrilled to be able to enjoy familiar tastes & experiences, but another part worrries that we’re going too early – will this be a lingering temptation to go there and retreat into it’s comfortable, T.G.I. Fridays-like atmosphere? We’ll see, but I definitely enjoy the attention. It’ll be a fun night.

Schedule

We’ve all noticed here that it seemsforever ago that we left the States, but at the end of each day, we are amazed at how fast it went. Again, in another paradox, our weeks are filled with meetings, responsibilities and dinners, but we have plenty of time to ourselves.

Our weekly schedule, at least so far, goes like this:

Monday mornings we have a book discussion. We’re reading through a few books together, and we share about what we’re learning and experiencing in reading them. This week, I felt challenged from From Brokenness to Community, a book exploring the wonderful insights service, brokenness, and love has for developing true community, with all its vulnerabilities, difficulties, and challenges – I heartily recommend it. This next week, we’re reading Compassion.

After the book discussion, we head into town for Lighthouse. When we arrive, a lot of the kids are already there, playing draft, reading or napping (after all, they’re teenagers). It’s a goal of many of us to be good enough at draft to beat the lighthouse kids, but I’m still far from it. But it’s good to set goals. After a while, we gather and pray for the meal that the kids eat, and then there’s worship and discussion & reflection. It’s still hard to follow the conversations in Krio, but I’m getting there. I hear that it usually takes about a month and a half for the language to click, so hopefully I’ll be all set to go. By around 3, things wrap up, but it’s another hour or so of hanging around, playing and talking.

We then return to Faye’s for Krio lesssons. The textbook we have is a great tool – Krio’s a fairly simple language with simple grammatical rules. It’s fast to learn (no conjugation, few prepositions), but speaking it quickly comes much slower. Education is a big problem in Sierra Leone: besides being prohibitively expensive, teachers don’t know the right way to teach kids other than by rote memorization. In our very basic experience with teachers here, I can see how frustrating learning that way can be.

Tuesday mornings we have a WMF Bible study and worship time in the morning. We’ve been getting into lectio divina and simply being silent before the Lord – a discipline that I have little practice. I guess it’s good to have this practice now, since it really is nice to be able to sit still and simply listen for a little while. We then have the afternoon and evening to ourselves, and we’re free to do whatever and go wherever we want.

Wednesdays, we have Krio classes at 9, then head to Lighthouse at noon. In the evenings, we have dinner at the girls’ host family’s house, the Zizers.

Thursdays are totally free days for us – we can do whatever we want. So far, it’s been a rest day for me – resting either from malaria, catching up on reading, or napping. Eventually, I’d like to go into town and spend the whole day simply shadowing the kids in the program, staying in Kroo Bay, or doing something else like that, but for now, I’m still getting oriented.

Fridays have Krio in the morning, Lighthouse at noon, and then dinner/WMF Community Night where every one here in Word Made Flesh does something together. This week, we’re heading to a “revival” being put on by some local churches in Freetown, so we’ll head there for a brief part of it – as tempting as it is, I don’t think we’ll be there for all 5 hours of it.

Saturdays we play basketball. The WMF house is in a compound with a small basketball court, so the Lighthouse boys come over and, after they’ve washed their clothes, they play basketball. They’re good dribblers, but they lack team concepts like passing, setting picks, and other fundamentals. So, they enjoy playing with Jeremy and I. After that, we shower and head into town for the Kroo Bay Good News Club (which I had described in a previous post).

Sunday mornings, we head to church. We’re free to go to any church we choose, but we’ve been heading to Roberts Street Baptist recently, since most of the Lighthouse boys and WMF staff head there. We return home for lunch with the Zizers, and then we’re off for the rest of the day.

There are still many gaps in my schedule as I figure out where I’m being called to go and serve – do I spend more time with the Lighthouse kids, hang out in Kroo Bay, or find another NGO or service organization with which to volunteer? Part of me worries about being overcommitted to too many things, so I’m trying to really watch where I’m spending my time.

But that’s our typical week – for now. Who knows how things may change when the kids start school – they may have classes during our apportioned Lighthouse time, and then we may have to move times and shuffle things around.

Disappointment

Earlier on this week David (one of the Lighthouse boys) decided to take us to a soccer game, Sierra Leone v. Mali.  We were all stoked – how often do you have the opportunity to see international soccer, anyway? We agree to hurry up after church and meet him by the stadium.

We head home for our usual Sunday post-church tradition – lunch at the Zizers house.  Every morning, before church, Marvel (the mom) cooks lunch, and we return and eat it together.  Today was no different, so we had to tell David to wait for us and we’d hurry up and eat lunch and get back to the stadium.

An hour and a half later, the Zizers come back to the house.  We enjoy the lunch (fried rice), chat for a little bit, wash the dishes, and get ready to go.  We finally live around 3 – still an hour and a half before the game – plenty of time, right?  We get tickets relatively easy, meet up with the other Lighthouse kids, and head towards the stadium.

Throngs, hordes, hosts of people are at the stadium.  Yelling, shouting, selling things, pushing, shoving.  Fights to get past the guards.  Dozens upon dozens of people climbing the stadium lights, hanging out over thin air just to get a view of the action.  Every stairwell was clogged with people trying to push into view; people standing on handrails to look over the crowd.  And all these people had bought tickets.

I was tempted to try and fight my way through – after all, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience.  But, in the end, my lack of Krio, fear for the phone in my pocket, and my conspicuous whiteness (which, try as I might, I won’t be able to hide), made us all turn back.  We simply came too late.  David and the Lighthouse boys told us we came too late – had we been there earlier, we could have made it comfortably.