Gold

My parents had given me a beautiful ring as I was entering my freshman year at Calvin but, unfortunately I lost the ring.  When I first came to Sierra Leone, they had given me some money to buy a ring here, seeing as I lost my last one.  Up until this past weekend, I had done nothing with the money.

I was telling a friend here that I wanted to make a ring so he offered to go and buy the gold for me.  Because I trust this friend here, I agreed and gave him the money.  I was explaining to him the different between here and the U.S when it comes to friendships.  In the U.S, we build our friendships off of trust.  If you cannot trust the person, then it will create a barrier in your relationship.  If you can trust the person, you will build a strong relationship.  Here, relationships come first.  If it means you must lie to your best friend then you will do that to hold onto that relationship.  As I asked him to do this for me, I explained how it is because I trust him that is why I am willing to give him this task.

He went to a village and bought the gold from a man who sold gold.  We then took the gold to a goldsmith here in Kabala this last Sunday.  We sat and watched the man do his work, partially because I did not want him to walk away with any of the gold but also because I was very curious about the process.  The goldsmith began by cleaning the gold with a chemical.  After he cleaned the gold, he put it inside a small cup and placed it inside the coal. He continued to add air to the fire as the gold began to glow.  After the gold was melted, he pulled it from the fire and began to mold it into a ring using different tools.  As the ring was completed, he smoothed the edges, and cleaned the gold.  As he was molding the gold, occasionally he would heat it back up using a makeshift blow torch so that it would continue to be malleable.



What an incredible process to watch.  The way in which the man used all these different tools and instruments to make something beautiful, something so pure.

As I was watching him create the ring, I was thinking about how resourceful people are in this country.  If you give someone some scrap metal, they can create something completely useful.  Sometimes, it blows my mind how people can take something used and make something completely new from it.  It blows my mind how this man used a tiny contraption that he had made from scrap metal to push air through a pipe to fan the fire.  What an incredible skill this man has been given.


As I have now become a consumer of the gold industry, I have thought a lot about this industry in Sierra Leone.  Unfortunately, the country's gold industry is controlled mainly by African Minerals and other mining companies.  They are using the countries resources to benefit themselves, while the country itself is benefiting very little from their gold mining industry.  

I am thankful that I had the privilege to support gold miners who are not working for a large corporation but who are gold mining on a local scale.  I have seen those working in the gold mining industry and it is not easy work.  One time, I went to a village called Yarra where I met a man and his son who were mining for gold.  They had been using a pan to wash away the stones and dirt from the river, hoping to find gold at the bottom.  What tiresome work, with very little reward.  I cannot imagine how much time and effort it must have taken, to find that small little pile of gold in which I had bought. As I think about this industry, I continue to wonder how the gold mining industry can be used to economically support the Sierra Leonean economy in a positive way.