Week 2 - Lifestyle and Culture

Folks, I'm happy to report that we've had another great week in Salone.  The lifestyle here is far better than we expected and I think we've adapted well to the West African way of doing things.  The food is tasty but a little predictable due to the restricted selection at local markets.  If Fat Marta doesn't get to the market by 8am, there is no cow meat (aka beef!) available.  Whether we eat in or out, the food choices are similar.  Every dish is a mammoth portion of carbs, either rice, couscous or pasta, coupled with a slender serving of either chicken or beef.  Fish is available but having walked the local markets and seen the state of the full-body, fly attracting, sun dried catch, we have been put off.  Occasionally we get fried plantain which is excellent, though deep fried in cholesterol rich palm oil.  The meats are well spiced with red chillies, with a kick that's rich in flavour.  The beverage selection is equally limited.  Star beer isn't always available, isn't always the same strength and doesn't always taste the same - sometimes it's brim-full of hops, other times it tastes fruity and sometimes it’s just stale.  The Guinness here, at 7.5%, is rocket fuel.  A half dozen and you'll forget what part of the world you're in, which for an Irishman in Salone should be quite difficult!  Import Heino and Carlsberg are available but they are more expensive for takeout than they are at home, so we only drink import when there's no alternative.

Appointments here are hysterical.  Meeting times are, at best aspirational.  When I go to the bank I settle in and watch an hour of Al Jazeera. When I go to the phone shop I bring a book.  Being on time is a moral hazard as you know you'll end up waiting for your counterpart to show.  We've made four trips to meet the mayor but still haven't pressed the flesh.  We've been two minutes from going on national radio twice, and each time the DJ hasn't shown up for work! Having some African friends, I was expecting this - the culture is so ridiculously relaxed I've decided to roll with the punches rather than get frustrated by it.  A new friend that we've met here, Fatima, said she'd meet us at Mems bar on Friday night about 7.  At 8 she text to say that her radio show was running late.  At 9 she text to say she was almost there. At 10 I text back "No rush Fatima, This Is Africa!"  If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. 

                           A picture of Joe, Will and I after playing soccer with some Bellamy League Kids

After two weeks of meeting stakeholders, our daily schedule has now become settled.  We wake at 8am and go for a 5k run.  Three of the four of us have run marathons in similar times so we're good running partners.  We have breakfast at 8.30, then have cold-water bucket showers and head for our office at 9.30.  Our office is modest but comfortable.  No AC, but a bombing diesel generator provides electricity which is quite a novelty.  We share the office with youth workers at Restless Development, who are full of energy and great company.  Lunch tends to be a bread roll, some Laughing Cow cheese and packet water.  The packet water is a 500ml plastic bag that is cheap (circa 7p), well chilled and available at any store, keeping us hydrated through the midday heat (mostly >35 degrees).  In the afternoon we'll have meetings with coaches, managers, other NGO's or public officials.  I try to get home for 5pm to listen to BBC World Service on local radio - without internet, TV or newspapers, it's the only source of news.  Dinner is at 6 and after we read, play cards, watch football in a local cinema (they usually play two games at the same time and the entrance is only 16p!) or go for a beer.  We've recently turned our kitchen table into a table tennis table, so beer pong is only around the corner!  All in all, we've found Makeni to be a very liveable place and when you adapt to the culture, obstacles such as no internet, no running water, little electricity and no public transport become but minor annoyances.  

One of the reasons Sierra Leone appealed to me for a volunteer placement was because of its low ranking in several standard of living type indices.  If you're going to volunteer, you might as well do it where it's most needed.  And in Salone, it is needed.  In three of the last four years it has been ranked last on the UN Human Development Index - sharing this dubious honour with Afghanistan.  Coming from the West, it's easy to fall into the trap of thinking that aid and / or economic growth can fix many of these problems. But several experiences in the last week have altered my thinking on this.  So many of the issues that impact Salone's ranking are cultural or traditional and I'm not sure there is any amount of money that would address the root causes.

On Tuesday morning, at the invitation of the head of the local Welfare and Equality ministry, I attended a meeting on child welfare in the local district.  It was a chance for all of the hard working NGOs in the region to give updates on progress, identify common issues and organise themselves in the most effective manner. Though organised and effective were not words one would use to describe how the meeting was run.  Scheduled for an hour, we were 50 mins in before everyone arrived and it ran for two and a half hours.  For the first half an hour, the participants argued about grammatical errors in the minutes of the last meeting.  I'm sure abused kids in the Bombali district appreciate the effort it took to correct "giving" to "given".  The action list was equally disappointing.  With rumours of child slave labour, it was agreed at the last meeting  that the local mining companies should attend.  But only one letter was sent to one company and it was never followed up on because the Minister "doesn't have the resources for that kinda thing".  After 20 minutes, they agreed to the delegation of a single phone call.  While everyone clearly had good intentions, the most commonly used phrase in the meeting was "we have to be seen to do something" and the pre-eminence of optics over action would seem to be the hallmark of this committee.  

But the updates were horrific.  In December in the local region 4 children were kidnapped, there were 56 cases of domestic violence involving kids, two cases of unlawful carnal knowledge and unknown but substantial numbers of child sexual abuse, child prostitution, slave labour and street children.  There were numerous cases of state teachers getting young teenage girls pregnant.  And when perpetrators for these crimes were identified, the powerful village chief's would give them protection and not hand them over to the police.  Most disturbingly, a recent survey indicated that 94% of teenage girls in the district had been genitally mutilated.  When one NGO asked the police representative to intervene he replied that there is no law in Sierra Leone that makes FGM illegal!  

The common thread and root cause of many of Salone's problems is the role of Secret Societies - Voodoo type quasi-religious organisations that are pervasive throughout the country.  At young ages, local girls are forced to join and the initiation ceremony requires FGM, branding and “education”.  The latter is bothersome, telling girls that condoms cause health issues and that leaving school, getting pregnant and being a good wife are a 14 year olds obligations.  The Secret Societies are immensely powerful and shape Salone's culture outside of its big cities.  A UN report on teenage pregnancy here found that archaic gender roles mean that women are seen as little more than sex objects and a contrived lack of female education (coupled with young pregnancies) mean that the women of Salone are deprived of dignity, opportunity, education and equality.  This is the primary reason that Salone ranks so lowly in terms of human development and human rights and it is not a problem that can be solved by aid, economic growth or FDI.  

This really focused our minds on our work here.  We have the opportunity to reach out to about 2,000 boys and girls and give them strong messages about gender issues, human rights, the importance of education and sexual health.  We can help to make them ambassadors amongst their peers, giving them fact rather than fiction as a tool for life.  It's not a lot, but it's a start.  And if we can demonstrate the impact of our balanced approach to football and social education, then it could be the start of something much bigger.  That can't be said of the local child welfare committee.  The meeting ended without one firm action.  But it gave us focus on what we need to do.