West Africa Journal

CHRISTMAS SARCASM

“WE WISH YOU A MERRY CHRISTMAS, WE WISH YOU A MERRY CHRISTMAS, WE
WISH YOU A MERRY CHRISTMAS, AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!”

Happy Christmas We No Die Oh (Krio version of above meaning, Its a happy day because we didn’t die this year)

“I’M DREAMING OF A WHITE CHRISTMAS. . .FOR EVERYONE ELSE BUT NOT FOR
ME . . .MAY YOUR DAYS BE CHILLY AND WHITE. . .WHILE I BASK IN THE
SUNLIGHT AT THE BEACH”

“I WON’T BE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS. . .THAT WE ALL AGREE. . .BUT PLEASE
HAVE SNOW, AND 20 BELOW. . .”

In the Christmas mood yet? Or should I keep going?

I’ve been listening to Christmas music here, but it really doesn’t
have the same effect when it’s 100 degrees outside, dry, dusty,
humid, and just plain HOT!
I find that the Christmas songs I like the most in the US are not
the ones I like the most here in Sierra Leone. For example, songs
like “I’m dreaming of a white Christmas”, really sounds quite silly
here. “I’m dreaming of a GREEN Christmas” would be much more
appropriate. Or take the song “Let is snow!” for example. . .really,
who wants it to snow anyway? Or “Winter Wonderland”. . .now there’s
a fairy tale song if ever I heard one, and we all know fairy tales
don’t come true.
Then there’s “Frosty the Snowman” . . .are you kidding! We put out a
fake snow man and everyone in the village thinks is a devil-ghost! Our
guards are even afraid to come around here! Could you imagine what
they’d think if the snow man actually woke up one day with an
exclamation of “Happy Birthday!” ?? I think we’d be the only people
left on this side of the mountain.

Then there’s the homesick songs, “I’ll be home for Christmas” and
“I’ll have a blue Christmas without you”. Who writes those songs??
They’re the worst Christmas songs EVER!! Believe me, when any song
even remotely similar to this theme starts playing, I can’t
hit the “skip” button fast enough!

So, Christmas music hasn’t been much of a hit here, either, but I’m
still listening to it, and trying to get in the Christmas spirit.

The lights really help, though. I LOVE Christmas lights! Granted we
only have 3 hours of electricity in a day. . .but the moment the
generator comes on, and I see the tree light up with colorful
blinking lights. . .Ahhh! Yes! THAT makes Christmas for me!!

Filed under: Uncategorized on December 15th, 2009 | No Comments »

*SOMETHING DIFFERENT FOR CHRISTMAS *

We have a container of donated goods sitting in England. There are new beds, mattresses, rat-proof storage containers, desks, stationery, clothing, shoes – and many more badly needed items. It needs to be shipped in December and will arrive in Sierra Leone early January.

Dove’s Village of  Hope for Children sits on the outskirts of a very poor village called Lokko Town.  There are more than 100 children in this village that Dove regularly helps with clothing, food, toys and other basic items.  This container will not only benefit the kids of Dove but also these poor community children.

Would you like to give all these kids a Christmas present by donating towards the shipping costs of this container? We have made it easy! No matter what currency you use, you can donate right here on our website – go to the donations page and follow the instructions. Please mark your donation for CONTAINER.

Filed under: Uncategorized on December 3rd, 2009 | No Comments »

Santigie, Alex, Kadi S and Isatu were helping sort the strings of outdoor Christmas lights to hang in place. The kids faces were shiny with sweat as the temperature peaked just over 100F. Inside the house Silver Bells was blaring out of an IPOD. While the boys hammer nails in place to hold the wire, the girls use rags to dust off the lights. We are quite certain Dove has the only outdoor Christmas lights in Sierra Leone and we want them to look just right for the people who climb over the mountain to gaze in awe. Keep in mind, the lights are only on from 7-10pm when we run the generator.

Harmattan always arrives during the Christmas season. Harmattan is an overwhelming fog of red dust that creeps right across the continent of Africa from the Sahara desert. It invades every nook and cranny. I have never been sure what a cranny is but I do know there is dust there. It hides the mountains opposite Dove and the villages around us. In fact, on heavy days, we can’t see from one side of our compound to the other – everything is completely hidden in the red dust fog. It invades every single space inside the houses as well. It’s a common occurrence to get dressed in the morning, then have one of the kids comment about a dust line down my back from the clothes hanger. Sheets, towels, and even toilet paper all gain a reddish hue. Poor Brima, our housekeeper- 15 minutes after dusting the furniture, I come along and write my name in the dust again. This does not amuse him. In fact, I have to be careful not to hurt his feelings. He takes it as a personal criticism when he sees my shopping list scrawled across the tv cabinet in the dust.

Last year I neglected to dust off the Christmas decorations before I put them away so the girls help me dust candles, bows, and tree ornaments. We all cough a little as we begin setting up the tree and find ourselves caught in a cloud of dust from the branches. We stop frequently for a glass of lukewarm iced tea (no ice here, it’s the thought that counts) in the sweltering dry-season temperature and Celine belts out I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas. I think she should sing – I’m Dreaming of a Dust Free Christmas. We have to wash our hands often so the sweat on our hands and arms don’t turn the dust to mud. We open one Rubbermaid to find the rats have tasted our velvet bows and foil wrapping paper. I apologize to all the Tupperware ladies out there but, in spite of claims to the opposite, rats and mice DO eat through plastic, even Rubbermaid and Tupperware. The containers do, however, help keep the dust out. I can’t decide which is more annoying, having a rat bite in the middle of a poinsettia in my center piece or having ornaments leave a puff of dust behind when we pick them up.

You have to understand that out here in Sierra Leone you aren’t going to find a Walmart where you can purchase Christmas supplies. Everything has to be sent out from Canada or England. I beg my friends to buy up at Christmas sales and send me supplies. Therefore, we don’t waste anything in spite of the dust or bite marks. At the ‘big house’ as the kids call our staff house, we go all out with Christmas decorating. We have a 3 foot high snowman that the Canadian Military gave us a few years ago. Instead of being pure white, he has a reddish glow from the harmattan dust. The snowman has two hands sticking out from his body so he looks like he is waving and he has black eyes and nose and a big red smile. We thought it would be a great idea to set it on top of the guard house this year so it looks like it is smiling and waving at people down on the road that passes near our gate. What we didn’t know is that this friendly fellow would be perceived as ju-ju – devil business. People are afraid of him. They think he is guarding the compound. SO, we figured we would leave him up there for awhile, makes our security guard’s job a bit easier knowing no one will be climbing over our gate this Christmas season. Its working like a charm – so to speak.

Dove invites in a lot of people who are homesick and unable to go home to be with their families for this season (Christmas, not harmattan). We have skits by the kids, sing Christmas carols, eat a great dinner and have a wonderful time of being with others. It is a challenge for us to find turkey for our dinner so we try to make chicken extra special. One year we bought some live ducks, with the plan to have them for Christmas dinner. That is a whole other story in itself, for another time.

The Dove kids are learning how to host a dinner properly and they are looking forward to serving and being served. This year we will have mostly British people with us so we look forward to a varied menu and entertainment this year. We never know exactly who will turn up, or what we will end up eating – but its always a pleasant surprise. One thing that we know we WILL have for certain is dust……
JN

Filed under: Uncategorized on December 1st, 2009 | No Comments »

MISSING SUITCASE ADVENTURE
~Kelsey Konrad~

Traveling to Sierra Leone, under the best of circumstances, never fails to be an adventure. But when something goes wrong (such as finding out that your luggage didn’t arrive), the adventure quickly turns into a headache!

Such was the case when I arrived in Sierra Leone earlier this month. After already experiencing several delays with my flights, I was not at all pleased to find that my suitcase was missing.

I was kindly informed by the airline officials that the suitcase would undoubtedly (meaning “maybe”) arrive on a later flight. They weren’t sure which flight, or even which day, but if I would fill out the missing baggage form, and deliver it to the airline office downtown, they would be sure to inform me when the suitcase arrived.

ALMOST A WEEK LATER. . .I received a call from the airline saying that my suitcase had finally arrived and that I should come for it. So I went to the airline office to pick it up. When I arrived, they “regretted to inform me” that they didn’t actually HAVE the suitcase.

I was confused.

They went on to explain that my suitcase was being held by the customs agents AT THE AIRPORT. . .and that I would have to go there personally and fetch it.

In order to understand the absurdness of this request, you have to know that a trip to the airport is quite the undertaking, which usually takes an ENTIRE day to achieve. Freetown is located on a peninsula, so there is a huge body of water to cross in order to get to the airport. Getting across the water always requires a great deal of consideration, since there are four options, with pros and cons to each.

1) The cheapest option is to take the people/car ferry. But there is really no way of knowing what time the ferry will leave, so it usually requires several hours of waiting. Plus, for a young “white girl” it’s not exactly safe, so this was out of the question for me.

2) Option number two would be to take the hovercraft. Very safe, a little pricy, departs on time and arrives at its destination with the fewest complications. Unfortunately it is most often under repairs and out of commission. . .which was the case last Friday.

3) The next option is to take the helicopter. This is actually the fastest way to get to the airport, it is very expensive, but it leaves on schedule and the trip is only 20 minutes. Unfortunately, the helicopters are not well maintained, and you never know when they might fall from the sky. With the risks involved and the fact that I couldn’t afford the huge expense, I didn’t even consider this option.

4) The last remaining option was to take a speedboat. The price is fairly reasonable, and so far I’ve only had the boat catch on fire once when using this service (which is actually very good odds).

I called a contact I have and asked if he would meet me at the airport to help me in dealing with the customs agents. He agreed. So I took a speedboat across the water, then took a shuttle bus from the docks to the airport. When I arrived at the airport I waited for my contact to arrive, but he never showed up. I tried calling him and texting him, but got no response.
By this time I had LOTS of people coming around and offering to help me (for a price), and I found myself in a rather uncomfortable situation. I prayed for wisdom, and tried calling my contact one last time. Still no answer, only a recorded messages suggesting that his phone must be switched off. A security guard came over then, and God showed me that I could trust this man, so I told him my dilemma.

He then took care of EVERYTHING! He tracked down my suitcase and managed to convince the customs officers that I didn’t have to pay the bribe price (which was the ONLY reason they were holding my bags). He then found me a safe place to wait out the next couple hours until the shuttle was ready to leave again.

I took the shuttle back to the boat dock, and arrived just in time to watch the speedboat pulling out — I had JUST missed it! The next boat would be coming in about 3-5 hours.
I was not at all pleased about the thought of being at the docks after dark, and found myself praying most earnestly that God would get me across SOON.

Well, there were two businessmen there who were also very anxious to get across, and really upset about missing the boat. The one man got so impatient that he finally went and hired a speedboat from a private owner. There was room for 3 passengers in the boat, and there were about 20+ people waiting for a ride across. To my relief, they offered me the remaining seat, at no extra expense.

Perfect! I made it across in good time, with plenty of daylight to spare. Of course, after all the trouble trying to get my suitcase, I did not let it out of my sight again.

Unfortunately there were a few items missing from the suitcase, but I was grateful for what did arrive, and have to admit that it was really nice to finally have some clothes to wear again. Kelsey

Filed under: Uncategorized on November 25th, 2009 | No Comments »