Bridging Culture. Working Together.

Last weekend, I took a day trip to Makeni, about two to three hours from Kabala, to go to the supermarket and to visit a friend.  I left Kabala early in the morning and went to the station where I took a taxi to Makeni.  The first unfortunate part about this trip was that the taxi did not have breaks.  The second part was that I had to sit in the front seat with another man.  Half of my body was hanging off of the seat and anytime the driver wanted to change gear, I had to lift up my whole body.  The third unfortunate part I did not find out until we stopped at a village along the way.   As we stopped at this village, an older woman came out of the car and immediately fell onto the ground and began wailing.   I was so confused at what was going on.   As I listened to her and the members of the village who had gathered around her, I realized that her son was about to die.   I had not noticed until then, but he had been in the back of the ...

I had my first run in with the Sierra Leonean police.  A neighbor friend and I went to her village overnight.  My friend offered to drive us on his motorbike to the village of Musaya.  We arrived close to the first police checkpoint and my friend Serah got down from the bike to walk across the checkpoint because you are technically not allowed to ride with three people on a bike.  As the driver and I approached the checkpoint they told us we had to pay 4,000 leones.  I was thinking they just wanted my money so I begged them to not make us pay because they probably just eat the money anyways.  They let us pass without paying and we were on our way. Making pancakes in the village, Musaia My friend and I had a lovely time in Musaya.  I got to meet many of her family members.  We also got to go swimming in the river there which was wonderful because there is no river in Kabala to swim in.  We also make pancakes over a fire the next morning ...