Aunt Jennie's Front Porch
Monday, 12 June
There are so many wonderful children here! Amadu Sannoh and Abdulie Kamara are nearly inseparable eight-years-old who live in the two neighboring houses and come to play on the front porch every night. Today Abdulie took one of the plastic water bags and blew it up into a balloon. He then tied a knot in the corner Sara had bit open to drink out of and popped the plastic bag against his knee for quite the loud "pop"- they are so cute! They both like to ride bicycles and go to school; Amadu had his math exam today. They will spontaneously leap onto one another and wrestle to the ground, just like any pair of youthful boys. Abdulie doesn't know much English or might just be too shy to speak it, so Amadu translates everything for us as our Krio is still quite lacking. They love saying our names and simply watching us and the world around them.
Other than Abudulie popping his homemade balloon, today was wonderfully uneventful. After struggling to wake up after a very late night at Paddy's, Sara and I tried to hail a taxi to the Stadium, but were standing on the wrong side of the road. Thankfully Moses wandered by and assisted us in finding a taxi. We went with Moses to the internet cafe and then to iEARN. Amanda, from Miracle Corners of the World, and her local director Charles had stopped by before a meeting at the Ministry of Youth and Sports next door, so we went downstairs for a cassava leaf and rice lunch. Coca-Cola tastes so much better out of a glass bottle!
Sara prepared a new project she's going to do with the youth tomorrow about their perceptions of identity, both of themselves and of their country. It'll tie in nicely with my photography project and should be quite exciting. She also did another jump-rope session with the students; I taught the intro photo class for the students who missed it last week; it was my biggest class yet at 10 students, with seven boys and three girls ranging from 12 to 22 years in age. I've shortened the class to 45 minutes (from over an hour and half last week) and actually enjoyed teaching, although the larger size and age distribution was bit intimidating at first.
Sara and I bartered a taxi driver down to 4000 Le for the ride back to Wilberforce, but only after continuing our sampling of the vast selection of imported cookie packages. Tonight's cookies, from Turkey, appeared to be somewhat Oreo-like, but were rather disappointing as we are both fans of massive quantities of icing.
We sat on the porch talking to Auntie Jennifer while Ola brought out some fantastic crin-crin sauce and rice. Auntie Jennifer trained as a nurse at Connaught hospital in Freetown in the mid-70's, married in 1984, and began working at a military hospital soon after. She rose through the ranks and is currently the matron, or head nurse / administrator, at the hospital, and as a Lieutenant Colonel oversees the entire health division at the barracks. After we finished eating, our two friends Amadu and Abdulie wandered over to play and talk. We're going to bed early, although Moses, Ola and a few friends are still out on the porch, talking and thinking in the darkness. People love to spend time together.
There are so many wonderful children here! Amadu Sannoh and Abdulie Kamara are nearly inseparable eight-years-old who live in the two neighboring houses and come to play on the front porch every night. Today Abdulie took one of the plastic water bags and blew it up into a balloon. He then tied a knot in the corner Sara had bit open to drink out of and popped the plastic bag against his knee for quite the loud "pop"- they are so cute! They both like to ride bicycles and go to school; Amadu had his math exam today. They will spontaneously leap onto one another and wrestle to the ground, just like any pair of youthful boys. Abdulie doesn't know much English or might just be too shy to speak it, so Amadu translates everything for us as our Krio is still quite lacking. They love saying our names and simply watching us and the world around them.
Other than Abudulie popping his homemade balloon, today was wonderfully uneventful. After struggling to wake up after a very late night at Paddy's, Sara and I tried to hail a taxi to the Stadium, but were standing on the wrong side of the road. Thankfully Moses wandered by and assisted us in finding a taxi. We went with Moses to the internet cafe and then to iEARN. Amanda, from Miracle Corners of the World, and her local director Charles had stopped by before a meeting at the Ministry of Youth and Sports next door, so we went downstairs for a cassava leaf and rice lunch. Coca-Cola tastes so much better out of a glass bottle!
Sara prepared a new project she's going to do with the youth tomorrow about their perceptions of identity, both of themselves and of their country. It'll tie in nicely with my photography project and should be quite exciting. She also did another jump-rope session with the students; I taught the intro photo class for the students who missed it last week; it was my biggest class yet at 10 students, with seven boys and three girls ranging from 12 to 22 years in age. I've shortened the class to 45 minutes (from over an hour and half last week) and actually enjoyed teaching, although the larger size and age distribution was bit intimidating at first.
Sara and I bartered a taxi driver down to 4000 Le for the ride back to Wilberforce, but only after continuing our sampling of the vast selection of imported cookie packages. Tonight's cookies, from Turkey, appeared to be somewhat Oreo-like, but were rather disappointing as we are both fans of massive quantities of icing.
We sat on the porch talking to Auntie Jennifer while Ola brought out some fantastic crin-crin sauce and rice. Auntie Jennifer trained as a nurse at Connaught hospital in Freetown in the mid-70's, married in 1984, and began working at a military hospital soon after. She rose through the ranks and is currently the matron, or head nurse / administrator, at the hospital, and as a Lieutenant Colonel oversees the entire health division at the barracks. After we finished eating, our two friends Amadu and Abdulie wandered over to play and talk. We're going to bed early, although Moses, Ola and a few friends are still out on the porch, talking and thinking in the darkness. People love to spend time together.
posted by Paul at
12:03 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home