2nd Trip to Sierra Leone #7: Upcountry to meet President Koroma

Una Kushe, John, Farah and I got an early start that morning from Freetown all the way North to Koinadugu district and the town of Fadugu (the green dotted line if you can see it). We were curious about so many aspects of the journey. I first and foremost, was overwhelmed with glee that I would not be confronted with a constant pounding from a face full of iron dust as it was the rainy season. The con-side of this equation left older roads susceptible to potholes that quickly turned into impassable mudslides. But on the whole, we were all excited to see our old friends from Fadugu, \YS Mansaray, AK Bangura and Dennis Koroma who had played instrumental parts in John’s life as a volunteer and were now playing key roles in the nearly finished SLVP Primary School Project Management.

I was especially eager as this was going to be the longest amount of time I would have spent upcountry in one single village. I was looking forward to getting to know people better, having my celebrity wear off with little kids and hopefully getting people, especially women to open up to me a little more, as it turns out I will get my wish.

The trip went well, and we were delighted to see many road improvements (even since my last trip in January). We made a stop in Makeni to visit YS Mansaray, who is the current headmaster of the Fadugu School and is undergoing an intensive 3 week training course. He allowed us to sit in and greet some other teachers. I was happy with what I found, up to date materials on pertinent subjects in what was an effort driven by the Ministry of education and funded in part by Unicef.

We were then on our way, but in the meantime, John had some political landmines to sort out. I think every culture has one or two of these. I’ve found that with the Japanese and many far Eastern Cultures, it is table manners. With Muslim countries that practice Shriria law, one wants to mind their ps and qs very carefully. In West Africa, it is of critical importance to show respect to ones elders.

Our major disconnect came when we took an invitation to stay at the home of Dennis Koroma (not an elder' far left) but a very close friend of John. So the story goes, when John was in the Peace Corps Dennis was the one child that Dennis’ family chose to send to school. But if Dennis were to stay home, he couldn’t study, it was too noisy, there were too many demands placed on him with chores, etc. So John had plenty of room and had Dennis stay with him. John also helped teach Dennis to study. Dennis went on to get his Master’s degree (and marry a woman with her Master’s degree, Margaret, upper right, during the war. No small feat. But, there had been some miscommunication and it was a generally accepted rule that all guests of the town stayed with the retired headmaster (who did have a whole extra house for these purposes) AK Bangura. Luckily, John is a conflict negotiator for a living and settled it with 3 nights at the Koromas and 2 nights at the Banguras. Phew.

So we were welcomed at our first stop the Koromas. Margaret and Dennis, who I would guess are in their late 30s or early 40s have 5 children are the two most well educated people in Fadugu. Their children are just amazing. They have a son Pascal 14, who will be heading to high school, a daughter Bridget, 11, who in addition to keeping up her studies does a heavy amount of housework, a son Christopher, 10, who will go into high school the same year as Brigit, a daughter Evelyne, 7, and the apple of everyone’s eye, 5 year old Henry, or as he soon became known to us, President Henry Koroma (though it should be clear from the photos more on this later).

Also staying with them were their Aunt and Grandmother, 4 puppies and mother, 2 other large dogs (pictured here with Eveylne and Christopher), a pig farm, chickens and chicks, several cats that I thought were kittens based on size, one of which we nicknamed “the beggar.”

After a full day of driving, disarming potential political bombshells and greeting a zillion people (we hadn’t even started on chiefs yet). We went to sleep at a ridiculous 7pm skipping dinner altogether. But I think it was for the best, otherwise we would have gotten sick.

Next Up: Paying our respects to the chiefs.

Safu safu,
Mari

Don’t forget, if in SF on the weekend of Nov 7th; keep Saturday night free for our West African celebration!