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:
