I had dreamed of hearing REAL African drumming and of seeing jubilant African-style celebrations and to be part of those and thought the little video I had was gone forever. But I dug deep into the nooks and crannies of my laptop and lo and behold, I found some of my very own!!!
That's great! Can't wait to see them!
It also means that I can now, with a LOT more enthusiasm, share by far the best day of our time in Sierra Leone.
Yay!
The plan (if you already see a problem here, raise your hand.)
Hmmm... no?
Is it that it's already getting late in the day and you have 5 hours of teaching? Or just the fact that you had a "plan". Something that seems to be a (really) foreign concept in Sierra Leone.
I’d been told they could read and write English, but that, as you may have suspected, was not the case.
Uh, oh. Gonna make using those training booklets a bit problematic. Hopefully the illustrations will be enough.
Our teaching would be translated adding a LOT of time that we frankly didn’t have. In hindsight, we should have stayed there 2 days, so we could do a more thorough job.
Whoa. Five hours... plus
more (a lot more, you say) added on for translation. That will make for a
very long day.
"Excuse me. But when ya gotta burp, ya gotta burp."
Really like this photo. Shows how you taught and where.
Awww... cute mom/daughter pic.
What is the significance of the scale?
What was in the caps? Looks like dirt in one, possibly salt in another?
Gentleman far right, front row: "When will this end???"
Third from right... Couldn't go the distance.
One slightly embarrassing moment was about 20 minutes into the teaching when the older gentleman there in the front row that you’ll see in the photos, raised his hand and very humbly and politely explained that every meeting of any kind should start with asking God’s blessing.
Whoops. But pretty understandable considering you'd been working for months for this moment.
I was irritated with myself that I’d forgotten. I profusely apologized and quickly asked for volunteers to pray- one in the Muslim way, and another in the Christian way. It was the right thing to do. It only takes a minute or two sometimes to make others feel comfortable and included.
See? That was easily remedied. Nice recovery.
All was going along swimmingly until this happened:
Well... poop. I can't see any of your videos because I'm at work. It's going to have to wait til later.
We had zero idea what was going on, but that’s all part of the adventure, no?
Each one of us had a person or two to fan us nearby.
Holy smokes! You must have felt like royaly!
To be the center of attention of 1,000 people is just… weird. And uncomfortable.
Revel in it. It ain't gonna happen when you get back to the States!
But I was soon so enraptured and emotionally swept up in what was going on, that I soon forgot all of that and began to just enjoy what was going on around me.
Good! Enjoy it! It was for you (collective you) after all.
This my friends, is the real deal. It just doesn’t get any more authentic or raw than this.
Man, I cannot
wait to see those videos!
It soon became clear that there were some not so subtle sexual elements to what was going on.
It was, for me, part of the climax of my time in Sierra Leone.
Umm.... well! I'm certainly glad you enjoyed yourself!!
If you are wondering about the scarring on her face, yes, scarification is still practiced in much of W. Africa. Less so now, so you will see very few children with the lines of scarring on their faces and arms. But the 30’s age set and up all had 3-4 parallel lines about 2 inches long on each upper cheek and upper arm. Once done as a puberty ritual, it is being phased out.
Glad to hear it's been phased out.
There's a
lot of things that can be phased out... but I won't get on my pulpit.
The crowd, as with most large groups, had a range of those who were content to sit and watch quietly, and those who chose to be more animated.
Which one were
you???
While not unruly in a violent way, he was like a toddler on caffeine in the Candy Cauldron.
Good imagery!
Those lasted approximately 19 hours.
Florida in August has NOTHING on Equatorial Africa. I will never complain of Disney in summer again. Ever.
I wonder if that will really happen?
I think you're going in the fall, so it's not likely to. But... I do wonder!
It's so easy to forget... until you're smacked in the face with high heat and humidity again.
As usual, as soon as the microphone was shoved in my face, my tongue became a 2 X 4. Few, if any intelligent words made it out of my face. Which is okay, I think the interpreter faked a few and only a small handful spoke English.
Good thing the interpreter had your back! Or.... did he/she?
Liesa: "Um... uh.... er..... thanks... uh.... yeah... uh... okay!"
Interpreter: "She says she will take give you medical supplies if two people fan her and each of her guests."
<Wild cheering ensues>
Just about the time I was feeling a bit faint (no, really)
Every box, bag and, parcel was taken out and stacked in the middle of the big circle for everyone to see. They are a collective culture and this gift was for everyone. It had to be given to everyone in a very tangible and concrete way.
I like that. I really do.
And this is when Steppe lost it.
Every minute of my hours and hours, all the months and months of work for this trip, were realized in that moment and it was an overwhelmingly emotional scene for me. I burst into tears of thankfulness and relief that I was lucky enough to be part of this…. Thing. All the phone calls, emails, hours spent researching in Starbucks, meetings, cold calls to doctors to sign off for us to get the donation in place, the fundraising, all of it, was for this day.
Awww... but you had every reason to be proud of yourself (yourselves).
Ya done good.
Please excuse the hot mess...
Nah. You look adorable.
I joke about my camera a lot and it's whereabouts and mishaps, but this time, when I handed my camera off to a perfect stranger I was sure glad I did.
Sure! If you can't lose it yourself, just give it to someone to take away for you!
Ahmed's grandmother:
Love that photo. Love what she's wearing too.
After another hour or so of speeches, I became antsy and felt I needed to head back to the Clinic and, right or wrong, before things were quite over, I told Ahmed I’d like the group of students to join me again there for the rest of the teaching.
I guess! 5+ hours of teaching ain't gonna just happen, ya know!
By now, the sun was at its zenith and people were getting ready for their afternoon pool break back at the res… OH! Sorry, wrong TR!
I know I’m boring, and I was just no competition for local siesta time,
Nah. It's not you.
No one can compete with siesta time.
I offered to give them a break and finish up later. They politely chose to stick it out and finish,
Very kind of them.
but mostly because many of them had come from miles away by foot to be there and needed to set out before dark and just wanted to finish up.
Ah. Still... nice of them to not just say "Sorry. Can't stay. Gotta go."
The ultimate goal was to bring everyone they knew up to speed on healthier hygiene practices and equip them with knowledge in basic first aid. Sometimes we may never know the long-term impact or results of our work.
I'm hopeful that your work had an impact and will continue to do so.
You can look up your own statistics, but the CDC and other orgs have estimated that over a million deaths a year can be prevented by using soap and water after using the bathroom, eating, cooking, etc….
Wow.
We came ready to demonstrate a no tech construction of a hand washing station that every family, no matter how poor, could set up at their home using a 2-liter pop bottle and some string. One of my more enthusiastic participants piped up and told us they know about a better design. Um, ok. LOL! They sent out a few people to gather the materials for that and within and hour, yep, a much better design, using local materials (still a bottle and string) was set up and ready for handwashing.
They showed you!
So... not quite sure... a pop bottle and a string? What?
Is it something like this? (thanks Google)
“Well, now you, as their Community Health Workers, can go out and teach your villages about how important it is and you can set goals on making sure every family has one of these within 6 months. I’d be very interested in finding out whether that has gone anywhere or not.
Perhaps if/when you go back, you can see? And... hopefully you'll see that your advice was taken to heart.
Dusk quickly set in, as it does at Equatorial Latitudes,
Remember that vividly from Hawaii.
No dinner was offered that night,
Man, you must've been hungry!
so I was mighty thankful for my Clif Bar that I ate in secret sharing a crumb or two with the cockroaches in room.
To which the cockroaches are forever in your debt.
Sometime, during the deluge, one of the gals from our office told us there was some water over at the Main Clinic Building we could use for a bucket bath. I ran through the pouring rain, splashing red mud all over my skirt and boots, but was ecstatic that I could wash the salt an stink from my body.
Wait.... you ran through the rain to go get wet? Why not just stand there?
I won’t lie and say that intruding on a lady in active labor to use the toilet off of the delivery room wasn’t awkward.
This day is just
full of surprises!
So skating was my extracurricular activity, along with snacks & naps.
And you took it all to the next level and did auditioned groups. You gals are amazing!
I've always found that being a part of these types of groups gives back more than it takes. Especially with choirs. There's something very special about singing with other people, no matter what the skill level or the repertoire.
You're too kind! We had the most wonderful time with this show. 
It is ice cream!! To me it looked like some buckwheat pancakes with nori (the stuff that is around the sushi) stripes: dry, boring and a little fishy... The umbrella puzzled me. I guess that was the clue that I missed. 
