Economic Benefits
Saturday, 2 June
On Saturday we waited around in morning, but there was not much activity at the center. We went over to Marianella, a restaurant nearby that serves both Sierra Leonean and Western food, and ate Foo Foo, which is is made from mashed leaves of some sort - it looks and tastes like play-doh! One dips bits of Foo Foo in a sauce - we had it with fish sauce, which seems to be the typical meat in Salone (Krio for Sierra Leone).
We came back to the center and participated in a debate about drug abuse with the youth - they asked us many questions about drug use in the US, although I certainly wasn't qualified to answer most of them. Marijuana and brown-brown (some form of cocaine) seem to be the prevailing street drugs; the iEARN youth claimed that between 60 and 80% of the youth use drugs as a result of unemployment - there is nothing else for them to do. Sara and I tried to get the girls to participate as well, but it was rather difficult, as they are often shy and unwilling to talk in a group of boys who dominate the discussion.
We talked with Jas Kamara who asked us "What economic benefit will we derive from you?" He can't be more than 14 years old, but has a mouth that never stops moving and a vocabulary to back it up with. He drew Sara a picture that I'll try to post in a few days.
That afternoon I met Samuel Dixon, who is a young filmmaker from Freetown who has worked with iEARN in the past. He has spent time in London and even had a short film aired by the BBC; he hopes to go to London to study communications and video for a year and then establish a media school here in Freetown. We went to the market together and purchased a SIM card for my phone so I now have a local phone number.
Sara and I then went to dinner with Mammadu Bah, a part-time student who works in his father's bakery and in his spare time he writes and records music, mainly rap. He promised to take us to the mosque some Friday - I can't wait.
That evening we walked around the National Stadium area with Moses and then went to bed - thankfully Musa, the hostel manager, had installed mosquito nets, as it looks like we have chicken pox due to the mosquito bites.
On Saturday we waited around in morning, but there was not much activity at the center. We went over to Marianella, a restaurant nearby that serves both Sierra Leonean and Western food, and ate Foo Foo, which is is made from mashed leaves of some sort - it looks and tastes like play-doh! One dips bits of Foo Foo in a sauce - we had it with fish sauce, which seems to be the typical meat in Salone (Krio for Sierra Leone).
We came back to the center and participated in a debate about drug abuse with the youth - they asked us many questions about drug use in the US, although I certainly wasn't qualified to answer most of them. Marijuana and brown-brown (some form of cocaine) seem to be the prevailing street drugs; the iEARN youth claimed that between 60 and 80% of the youth use drugs as a result of unemployment - there is nothing else for them to do. Sara and I tried to get the girls to participate as well, but it was rather difficult, as they are often shy and unwilling to talk in a group of boys who dominate the discussion.
We talked with Jas Kamara who asked us "What economic benefit will we derive from you?" He can't be more than 14 years old, but has a mouth that never stops moving and a vocabulary to back it up with. He drew Sara a picture that I'll try to post in a few days.
That afternoon I met Samuel Dixon, who is a young filmmaker from Freetown who has worked with iEARN in the past. He has spent time in London and even had a short film aired by the BBC; he hopes to go to London to study communications and video for a year and then establish a media school here in Freetown. We went to the market together and purchased a SIM card for my phone so I now have a local phone number.
Sara and I then went to dinner with Mammadu Bah, a part-time student who works in his father's bakery and in his spare time he writes and records music, mainly rap. He promised to take us to the mosque some Friday - I can't wait.
That evening we walked around the National Stadium area with Moses and then went to bed - thankfully Musa, the hostel manager, had installed mosquito nets, as it looks like we have chicken pox due to the mosquito bites.
posted by Paul at
6:03 PM
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