A day off...
Wednesday, 13 June
After a quick bucket bath followed by hot tea, we left Wilberforce, stopped by the internet cafe, and bought a few loaves of bread, which came wrapped in a student's math notes about fractions. Andrew had given us permission to take a break from work to visit Dabo, one of the iEARN staffers who is currently attending Fouray Bay Collage. We took a taxi across town to Fourah Bay Collage, the main university in Sierra Leone. The collage is on a very steep hill overlooking central Freetown. Our taxi stalled out so many times on the way up that we started walking instead; thankfully, the driver fiddled with something under the hood and picked us up for the rest of the ride up the hill. (It costs 800 Le to go up the hill on a taxi, but only 700 Le to go down.)
Dabo is studying Political Science and History with the ultimate goal of working for the United Nations here in Sierra Leone. While 3000 attend the collage, the lack of job opportunities for graduates force most to compete for scholarships for more education abroad or they simply hang around an NGO in Freetown after graduation, with the eventual hope of obtaining the status that comes with riding in a white NGO vehicle. Others will try to establish their own NGO, but this is becoming more difficult as grant money from the donor community moves elsewhere in the world as Sierra Leone's war (thankfully) fades into the past and no longer makes the evening news.
After a quick lunch of rice and extra-spicy sauce - the pepper apparently warms you during the cold rainy season - we went on a tour of the campus. FBC is like any university - there are academic and administrative buildings, libraries, dining halls, dormitories, fraternities, campus organizations and chapels. Various student branches of the major political parties had posters up about their candidate and meetings to coordinate campaigns. We found an interesting sign, which we obeyed:
After leaving FBC, we took a puda-puda to the American Express office in Murraytown and enjoyed a fresh coconut before visiting an internet cafe and heading back up to Wilberforce. The trip from Murraytown to Wilberforce usually requires two taxis - from Murraytown to Congo Cross and Congo Cross to Wilberforce. Our first taxi driver was quite nice - he even summoned me back to the car to give some change. We then tried to find a taxi from Congo Cross to Wilberforce, but the first driver we asked demanded 15000 Le for the two minute ride to Wilberforce, so I told him he was crazy and found a wonderful driver who only charged 800 Le for each of us. Some people are incredibly helpful; others I simply can't stand. At the same time, you can't really blame them, as when you have no idea where - or when - your next meal will be, you have be desperate.
After a relaxing mid-week break from the center, we met Dara at Mamba Point Restaurant in Wilberforce for a very nice dinner. She is a Stanford graduate student researching the political motivations for sexual violence during civil war, both in Sierra Leone and elsewhere Her experiences were riveting as she has spent several months here and an extensive amount of time in the provinces. After leaving the almost exclusively expat crowd at Mamba Point, we returned to Aunt Jennie's house and worked on a lesson plan for Thursday. Moses, Joshua and the rest of the iEARN staff had planned for us to go to Paddy's, as every Wednesday is Ladies Night. That's about the only thing that stays on schedule in this country: every Wednesday, music performances at 10, dancing at 2 until dawn. Thankfully, Sara and I managed to convince Moses that we needed some extra sleep, so we stayed at home and went to bed.
More pictures from our visit to FBC can be found here:
After a quick bucket bath followed by hot tea, we left Wilberforce, stopped by the internet cafe, and bought a few loaves of bread, which came wrapped in a student's math notes about fractions. Andrew had given us permission to take a break from work to visit Dabo, one of the iEARN staffers who is currently attending Fouray Bay Collage. We took a taxi across town to Fourah Bay Collage, the main university in Sierra Leone. The collage is on a very steep hill overlooking central Freetown. Our taxi stalled out so many times on the way up that we started walking instead; thankfully, the driver fiddled with something under the hood and picked us up for the rest of the ride up the hill. (It costs 800 Le to go up the hill on a taxi, but only 700 Le to go down.)
Dabo is studying Political Science and History with the ultimate goal of working for the United Nations here in Sierra Leone. While 3000 attend the collage, the lack of job opportunities for graduates force most to compete for scholarships for more education abroad or they simply hang around an NGO in Freetown after graduation, with the eventual hope of obtaining the status that comes with riding in a white NGO vehicle. Others will try to establish their own NGO, but this is becoming more difficult as grant money from the donor community moves elsewhere in the world as Sierra Leone's war (thankfully) fades into the past and no longer makes the evening news.
After a quick lunch of rice and extra-spicy sauce - the pepper apparently warms you during the cold rainy season - we went on a tour of the campus. FBC is like any university - there are academic and administrative buildings, libraries, dining halls, dormitories, fraternities, campus organizations and chapels. Various student branches of the major political parties had posters up about their candidate and meetings to coordinate campaigns. We found an interesting sign, which we obeyed:
After a relaxing mid-week break from the center, we met Dara at Mamba Point Restaurant in Wilberforce for a very nice dinner. She is a Stanford graduate student researching the political motivations for sexual violence during civil war, both in Sierra Leone and elsewhere Her experiences were riveting as she has spent several months here and an extensive amount of time in the provinces. After leaving the almost exclusively expat crowd at Mamba Point, we returned to Aunt Jennie's house and worked on a lesson plan for Thursday. Moses, Joshua and the rest of the iEARN staff had planned for us to go to Paddy's, as every Wednesday is Ladies Night. That's about the only thing that stays on schedule in this country: every Wednesday, music performances at 10, dancing at 2 until dawn. Thankfully, Sara and I managed to convince Moses that we needed some extra sleep, so we stayed at home and went to bed.
More pictures from our visit to FBC can be found here:
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| Fouray Bay Collage |
posted by Paul at
3:46 PM
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