Having lots of fun playing with my new photo editing software.. this is going to take me months to get the hang of!
Gemma Stephens
Thursday, 26 December 2013
Monday, 23 December 2013
Sunday, 22 December 2013
Christmas
Before I left to come back to the UK for christmas we had a christmas party at the Academy for the staff and the boys. Some of us made christmas hats beforehand to really get into the spirit. The boys loved the party and would have carried on dancing until the early hours if they'd have been allowed.
An afternoon on the Moors at Haytor
Friday, 20 December 2013
What a term..
I promised to keep this updated so family and friends could hear all about my adventures without me repeating myself all the time and boring people with the same story so firstly I'll apologise for breaking my promise. Unfortunately the heat in Sierra Leone fried my laptop and I was unable to use it so initially blogging was difficult anyway and could only upload photos on my mobile and then Tumblr decided to log me out and refuse to log me back in. So new look blog with all the old posts on it and I hope I do better with my promise next term!
So its now December and I've been back in the UK for about a week now and it still feels very strange to me. I've missed the end of summer, autumn has passed me by completely and without the run up to Christmas I am struggling to get excited now I am back. If we had some snow I think I would be better prepared but the wet, cold, windy and miserable weather is just annoying.
I'll try and write about two things that stand out the most from my first term to give you an idea of what I have been up to over the last few months but I'm sure I will probably forget something else important so I may do another recap at a later date.
Dentist Day
My first term out in Sierra Leone was pretty eventful to be honest. The first major event has got to be the dentists day held at the Academy. This in itself would have been pretty hectic but when you add a medical emergency it becomes pretty terrifying, particularly for someone new to the country with very limited knowledge of local hospitals or medical centres!
I'll try and write about two things that stand out the most from my first term to give you an idea of what I have been up to over the last few months but I'm sure I will probably forget something else important so I may do another recap at a later date.
Dentist Day
My first term out in Sierra Leone was pretty eventful to be honest. The first major event has got to be the dentists day held at the Academy. This in itself would have been pretty hectic but when you add a medical emergency it becomes pretty terrifying, particularly for someone new to the country with very limited knowledge of local hospitals or medical centres!
Thursday, 19 December 2013
Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary
On Wednesday I went with the older boys to visit the chimp sanctuary high up in the hills above Freetown.
The chimp sanctuary started with just one chimp - Bruno.
Bruno was spotted by the founder of Tacugama in a village having been taken from his mother. Bruno was tied to a post and was starving to death. Bala realised Bruno would not live much longer and he rescued him.
Bruno came to live with Bala and his family and was much loved. People heard about Bruno’s rescue and brought more chimps to Bala that needed help.
Soon enough Bala had 8 chimps living in his house and garden. The chimps would get bored and break out, causing havoc in the neighbourhood. The government linked up with Bala to create Tacugama for the 8 chimps already rescued and for all the future chimps Bala would save.
Sierra Leone has less than 5500 chimps living in the wild currently so the work Tacugama does in educating people about the endangerment of chimpanzees worldwide is very important.
Sadly Bruno and several of his chums escaped in 2006. Of the 36 escapees 4 have not been recovered and only 2 have been seen since. Hopefully Bruno and his friends are alive and well having joined a wild group of chimps somewhere in the huge expanse of forest on the peninsula.
Early morning wake up calls
This morning at 5.20am I was woken up by a knock at my door to come see a boy in pain from the dentist. So 5.30am found me looking after a small upset boy by the light of my mobile phone in my pyjamas whispering so as not to wake the other 24 boys that were still asleep. I especially enjoyed the walk across the pitch black compound to the kitchen for ice (twice as I forgot it would be locked the first time and did not have the keys!) - but you know what? I love my new job!
One poorly boy feeling much better and one contented Gemma going back to sleep :)
Dentist Visit - Smiling World Foundation
This Saturday the Smiling World Foundation is coming to visit the Academy. They have very kindly agreed to come and treat the boys here at the Academy as well as the local school children. The plan I action is oral health seminars teaching the kids how to look after their teeth and providing free toothbrushes and then moving on to treating any tooth issues.
Organising this found me spending two and a half hours in the pouring rain walking round the schools of Tombo chatting to the headmasters and head mistresses organising their visit to the Academy with their kids.
It looks likely that over 300 children will be treated by the team of dentists in the morning with an adults session in the afternoon for the community of Tombo. For a community with no dental care available this is great news. Children in particular here love all things sweet. The fanta here is so full of the sugar syrup it’s a very dark orange in colour and the babies are given sugar syrup powder sachets mixed with water before they even have teeth!
My trio round Tombo also provided me with an opportunity to see parts of the village I haven’t yet got to see. The Oportos here (white men) do head down into Tombo pretty regularly to pick up sodas or snacks and they also take the academy boys down to the ‘cinema’ to watch the football sometimes too. What we dot normally get to see are the back alleys and the market that’s off the main high street. There’s a simple reason for this - Tombo is like a maze and you’d easily get lost walking round by yourself. Luckily I had Uncle Sammy with me who is one of the teachers at St Peters Primary school that I did a lot of work with in my last visit to Salone so I couldn’t get lost!
It was very interesting to see the residential side of Tombo. Although I was not surprised at some of the living conditions of the community it was still pretty heart wrenching to see first hand. The people were very surprised to see me walking through their back streets as well and said they had not had a white person walking through there before - bit sure if it was a good thing or a bad thing but everyone seemed very friendly.
The market place was crazy today. It’s technically undercover but the plastic on the roof leaks so in the torrential rain today the floor would be more accurately described as several fast flowing rivers converging into one large lagoon in the centre - thank god for my Crocs (and my sister who said they were a good idea!)
I was very surprised at the level of fresh produce available at the market place - especially seeing as there is a distinct lack of fresh veg at the academy! I’ve already re-vamped the menu once but having seen the type of veg you can get in Tombo I may be having another look at it!
First game of the season for both the generations.
Second Gen played their first 11 a side match and sadly lost 2-0. The boys played really well though and should definitely be hot contenders once they get used to the 11 a side bit!
First Gen won 3-2 with 2 of the goals being scored by one of the goalkeepers, John Fillie, who was playing upfront in place of Mus who is suffering from Malaria. Zidan (Mohammed) scored a cracker of a goal to make it 3-2. The most remarkable part of this is that the opponents looked like they were about 5-10 years older!
Start of the dry season, dodgy drugs, sex ed and beggars in the streets
I’ve been a bit absent the last few weeks with everything being so busy so will take this opportunity to catch up on the last few days. I apologise in advance for this post being a bit random!
The rain finally stops and the dry season begins.. we hope!
Monday is the weekly shopping trip to Freetown. This is normally a particularly long day with you not returning to the academy until after dinner but it was made even more so with a banging headache all day! I must be the only person to move to Africa and to catch a cold in my first few weeks! I am assuming this is the result of me ‘letting go’ and relaxing now I’m actually here rather than a sign of things to come - particularly as so far I am proving to have a stomach of steel now - and yes I have even eaten road meat from a street seller with no ill effects!
Monday was also the day the rain decided to finally stop so here I am bumping around the pot-holed streets of Freetown on the busiest day of the week in a scorching hot van with a splitting headache.. brilliant.. Only one thing for it really and that was to stop at a ‘pharmacy’ in Freetown to pick up some paracetamol. Now I must clarify that although the packet advertises it as paracetamol you literally have no idea what it contains so I was a bit dubious. Tom assured me it was fine though so down the hatch it went and nervously I waited. Luckily for Tom and Mr K, and me, it didnt seem to do any damage - didnt really help the headache either though so who knows what it was!
Freetown is definitely an experience. Compared to the peacefulness of the peninsula where the academy is Freetown is manic! Street sellers everywhere you look reducing sizeable two lane roads to one lane (at best) tracks - causing traffic to come to a stop in every direction. People shouting and calling, selling their wares or merely saying hello. Colours, patterns, various fruits and vegetables. Children walking around selling packs of crisps or biscuits. A trip into Freetown means being switched on constantly. No wonder you are exhausted at the end of the day!
Its a good chance to get out the Academy though and explore. With lots of nice places to eat and little shops and street stalls to view you can definitely keep yourself busy whilst Mr Bah (the Freetown fixer) runs around getting all the shopping done for the Academy.
New Dress ready for teaching:
There is one thing I really cannot bear in Freetown and thats the street beggars. From small children with puppy dog eyes to blind men led by their sons and daughters and elderly women pleading at your car window - prepare for the heart strings to be tugged on a regular basis during your Freetown visit. Many of these cases are genuine and the people are genuinely in need which makes the experience all the more upsetting but you have to accept you cannot help everyone. For every genuine case there are plenty that work the streets in this way as a career. As a white woman in the front seat of a decent van bearing a charity logo on the side you are a prime target and I have swiftly learnt the best thing to do is to turn your head. Everyone that knows me will know this goes against everything I stand for and believe in but you simply have no other option - who would you decide to help and how much? Could you say yes to one and then no to the next?
The good weather has continued and Tuesday was another scorching hot day. I even had a siesta in the afternoon ahead of my lesson with the First Generation. I have somehow managed to volunteer to teach Sex Education to all the boys as a six week course. Now both generations are teenagers and all boys so this is a daunting task anyway, never mind the slight language barriers I am going to face. For this week I decided to ease us in gently and we discussed Relationships and the different kinds of relationships we all have with different people. We then discussed Love and what it is followed by a chat about music and how music portrays love and sex. Thankfully Soph and Dutchy have volunteered to come in to the lessons to make it less formal and I’m trying to rope the male staff members into assisting on some of the more sensitive topics we have to cover. Understandably the boys may feel more comfortable discussing the likes of masturbation and wet dreams with someone who actually knows what they are like first hand (!!) If anyone has any resources they are able to send over the net to help with the sex ed course that would be great - little out of my depth here!!
Now that the weather has improved and the school in Tombo has begun again I hope to be able to get out and about more so keep your eyes peeled for lots more pictures. So far I have mainly been in Freetown or at the Academy. Although to be fair my new office view definitely takes some beating..
The view from my desk:
School trip to the Leone Stars game
Yesterday we took all the boys to watch the Leone Stars game in Freetown. This seemed like a military operation with a total of 40 people going, including all the boys, the staff, our Freetown ‘fixer’ Mr Bah, our driver Mr K and the coach driver.
The Leone Stars are the Sierra Leone National football team and the Academy Manager of the Craig Bellamy Foundation, Johnny, is also the manager for the Leone Stars. Coach Tom from CBF is also the Head of Performance Analysis for the Leone Stars so the boys were all really excited to go and watch the game and see Coach Johnny and Coach Tom on the national pitch.
We woke up to a beautiful bright and sunny morning at the Academy and all the boys were in good spirits. A broken down bus couldn’t dampen them and the boys set to pushing the huge bus along the bumpy ground to give it a jump start to get it going. In typical fashion the driver had casually declared that the bus never starts without a jump start if its been sat still for too long - TIA! The boys travelled in a hired coach with two members of staff and the rest of the staff headed off in the CBF mini bus with the CBF driver Mr K. We had two boys in the mini bus with us so had a great time dancing along to some Afrobeat on the way.
Unfortunately the good mood didnt last long.. About 45 minutes into the journey the heavens opened and torrential rain started! The closer we got to the National Stadium the worse the weather got, and the worse the traffic became too!
We managed to get there about half an hour before kick off so it wasnt too bad - unfortunately it was still tipping it down and the rain lasted for the majority of the match. Only the staff had managed to bring waterproof jackets so being the kind hearted people we all are (!) we soon stripped off and gave the boys our jackets to share amongst them in an attempt to keep the kids warm and dry. The rain itself isnt cold by our standards at all but to the boys its freezing so it wasnt a hard choice really. My only concerns were the money I was carrying on behalf of the Academy in case of emergencies getting wet and my dyed red hair leaking red all down my back!! Fortunately neither happened!
'The Girls' soggy at the stadium: (Laura, Dutchy, Soph and me)
Everyone still had a great time and it was hilarious watching the players slide around on the disgustingly wet pitch - even the referee took a tumble, much to the amusement of the crowd.
At halftime we caused a bit of a stir by dancing along to the band further round the stadium and some local children took great delight in laughing at the ‘apottos’ in the leone stars shirts soaking wet and dancing away to african rhythms! And of course they were also keen to get their hands on Dutchys M and Ms!
The Leone Stars won the game 3-2 which was great for Johnny and Tom (although it was 3-0 right up until about the 80th minute so that was a bit of a shame!) and we all headed back to the academy.
Whilst at the stadium two boys had said they werent feeling so bright (generally feeling poorly) so I was keen to have another look at them. Both boys said their headaches had improved since taking some paracetamol and were feeling better. I took their temperatures anyway and both boys came in at 37 degrees which is normal. I still wasnt happy though, particularly as one boy had been feeling ill in cycles of 48 hours which, from my last trip out here was ringing a bell, so I did malaria tests on both - both turned out to be positive!
This isnt surprising really as its rainy season here at the moment so its also malaria season. The boys dorm windows have mesh on them to prevent mosquitos but they keep the dorm doors open at night until they go to bed so the mesh isnt very effective!
Malaria is pretty common here, for obvious reasons, and as soon as the medication kicks in the boys feel much better. It astounds me how treatable it really easy - 3 days worth of tablets and thats it.. If it is that simple why do so many people die from malaria every year? Its not even as if the drugs are expensive, one course costs anywhere from £2-3, which is cheap by our standards but a little pricey for over here. Really frustrating!
First positive malaria test:
CBF House Teams
I arrived safely in Salone but its been a hectic week getting everything ready for the boys to arrive back at the Academy and getting set up in my new role.
Already I have conquered my fear of public transport by travelling to Freetown by Poda Poda (kind of like a mini bus but jam packed and def not MOT’d!) with one of the new volunteers Laura. It was kind of scary as we had no idea if we were going the right way but we lucked upon some very nice people that assisted us - one who even accompanied us once we arrived in Freetown to make sure we met up with the others safely! There are some really nice people here!
Since the boys have been back I have been kept busy by various ailments - fevers, conjunctuvitus and rashes I have never seen before! I’ve even picked up a charming cold and a nice heat rash myself! Im hoping its the Doxycycline I’m taking as an anti-malarial as this is known to give you sensitive skin and hopefully it will clear up soon - if not I’ll be switching to Larium. Unfortunately Larium has its own side effects - including potentially sending you loopy!
Other than treating the boys I have been busy organising the team houses at the Academy. There are four houses, each named after four famous historical figures in Sierra Leone. The houses have been set up to encourage a competition for points in things such as a chores rota and the house with the highest number of merits per term. There will also be a forfeit for the house with the highest total number of conduct cards per term too - any suggestions?
My house is Adelaide Heyford House and our colour is blue - bit handy as thats my fabourite colour! I have 8 boys in my house as one is unable to play football at the moment while he awaits a knee operation.
Our team is Mohai (captain) Suli, Rodney, Baillor, Brima, Ozil, Fatta and Joseph Sam.
Today we designed the house flag and sorted our team motto. All the boys came up with suggestions and we voted for the best one. Myself and Dave (the other house leader for the blue team) even joined in and designed our own!
I was very impressed at the final flag and motto so will be making a large flag for us to have up for house meetings and during house tournaments. When I can find a Blue Fabric Pen I’ll make the boys up some t-shirts too
Adelaide Heyford House hard at work:
From left - right: Joseph Sam, Brima, Suli, Mohai, Abu/Ozil, Dave, Fatta and Baillor (Rodney is still in England with his family)
The finished flag and motto designs:
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