Conversations...

https://picasaweb.google.com/memandmac/InteractionsWithCRCChildren?authkey=Gv1sRgCN7E_6yw4rL27AE#

Check out pictures...

My time here in Bo is coming to a close and I have mixed feelings. I have to confess that I've been counting down the days for about 2 weeks - simply because I'm SO tired of being hot which then makes me tired. It really is a struggle to just survive here and get through the day; I realize even as I write it that that sounds awfully melodramatic. In a sense it is. But in a sense it is part of the reality of living in Africa. While I have it easy in comparison to some people around me, it is more difficult than being probably most anywhere in the West. Small things become worthy of much contemplation - for example, how much lukewarm water should I drink out of this bottle to maximize the amount that might chill a bit if I'm going to run the generator for a couple of hours? Or, at what time in the night can I bear to turn off the fan (to conserve batteries) to be able to sleep and minimize being drenched in sweat? It is in moments like these (for me, practically every moment here!) that one really comes in contact with one's base nature and learns to draw on God's grace - and practice it! All to say, I can practically feel the cool air gusting out of the plane air vent in a week's time...

But, there are more important things to reflect on than my creature comforts, and what's on my mind right now is reflecting on the mundane parts of life here - because it is in these moments that I think significance lies. So in no particular order, I will attempt to verbalize (writalize?) what some of these pictures capture.

Once a week (for a total of 6 meetings) I have met with a group of kids on Saturday and Sunday afternoons to discuss, respectively, Lois Lowry's The Giver and Jacqueline Woodson's Miracle's Boys. While reunified kids (those now living outside the CRC due to their over 18 yrs. status) were also supposed to be a part, it is a small core group or resident kids that have been a part of every week's meeting (with the exception of Ibrahim about whom I wrote last time). Anyway, we meet for about an hour and discuss the reading that was assigned. It has been quite frustrating actually b/c sometimes they haven't done the reading, often they don't understand what they read, and heaven forbid we actually DISCUSS any issues. To give them a little bit of a break, discussing literature is something they've never done in their lives! In school, they memorize what the teacher tells them and that's that. For the exams on the texts, if they're lucky they read Cliff's Notes and then memorize that. I don't even think they know what it means to write a discussion question (which is their assignment every week). I get "discussion" questions like "What does P.J. stand for?" or "Why does Lafayette think the family is poor?" I've taken to passing out stickers and/or pencils if someone has actually read and I can tell or if someone talks a lot during our time together. But, on the positive side, we've taken votes on whether it's better to live in a world where everything is the same and there's no pain or whether it's better to feel pain. I've had to try to explain why I teared up when talking about missing my cat but didn't do the same when I thought about my mother (seeing as they all expressed that cat meat is "sweet" this one took a while to explain and I'm not sure I did a satisfactory job) - and this got into a brief conversation about the nature of love and missing things. There was a moment of thought about which 3 books the world simply could not be without if one was forming a new world, and we've pondered whether one's career path should be fixed at the age of 12. Tomorrow and Sunday are our last meetings and late this afternoon I was hounding a few boys to make sure they do their reading. I'm not holding out much hope. Perhaps this is planting some seeds and those who come after me will continue the "book club" trend.

Last week there were a number of days off from school as there was break after exams. I was asked to conduct Life Skills training. Life Skills is a curriculum that teaches, well, life skills! There are 10 topics which range from Topic no. 1: Christian Life and Behavior to Topic no. 6: Personal Hygiene or Topic no. 10: Ability to Provide Shelter. I was asked to teach on Topic 1 or 4 (Christian Ethics). I decided to teach on the power of the tongue and broke it down into 3 different sessions according to age. The littlest ones got a lesson on Esther and the wisdom with which she spoke. We learned about TALK (to be Truthful, to Aid others, to Love others in our speech and to ask/talk to the King - whether it be Xerxes or Jesus). I had a very fun time with crayons in the creation of my visuals. I had movable plot elements and I moved my characters around as I told the story. Esther had a removable crown and there were big black X's when people got hanged or when Haman came up with his scheme to kill the Jews. There was even a golden scepter! The little ones were into it & we had quite a good time. They have posted the TALK acrostic in the dining hall and Mother Appia has absconded with all my visuals. The middle-school kids got the same gist but we took turns reading verses from Proverbs, Psalms and James about the power of the tongue and the life/death that it wields. Our acrostic was THINK (True, Helpful, Inspired, Necessary, Kind) - thanks to a magnet on Mom's fridge for that one! While most of the excitement was over the reading of the verses, I think the point was made. With the oldest kids, we read a lot of the same verses but then really got into the idea of calling forth identity with the words we say over other people. We looked at Jabez in Chronicles & pondered why we get information about him - is it because he changed his destiny (he had a horrible name!) by appealing to God? We talked about other people in the Bible whose names were changed b/c of an encounter with God and I got a bit emotional when I spoke to them about the incredible responsibility they have as role models here; the other kids are constantly watching these older ones and, therefore, what they say is incredibly important. If they flippantly call someone "stupid" they speak that identity over another. I referred back to God speaking forth creation and Adam NAMING the animals - calling forth their identities. And then mention was made of the Word become flesh - Jesus. I think they really got the concept - it got really quiet and a couple of the girls who can be quite girly quite often were really taking it in (or else they were trying to figure out why I was getting so worked up about it). Then I got asked a couple of interesting questions: What is your advice/thoughts about someone who changes his or her name? What should I do (this was from sweet Mohamed W. - my library buddy) when a girl won't quit calling me a name even though I've asked her to stop? (it's not a bad name but she's teasing him a bit and he doesn't like it - I think she's calling him "gracious" or something like that). It kind of degenerated into a "why is it such a big deal anyway?" conversation and they then were trying to work out "discipline" for the one who won't do as she is asked. But at least they were thinking about it and I hope they will take the issue seriously. Names are uber-important in African culture as it is - so they understand the implications of names and how they are related to identity. I hope they will make the leap to language in general.

Other casual conversation has happened while I've been working in the library. My routine is usually that I work there all morning and then a couple hours in the afternoon depending on tutoring schedules. Mohamed Woyeh joins me every afternoon when he gets home from school. He has about an hour before he has to go for tutoring so once he changes out of his school uniform and eats something, he's there. Sometimes I wish he wasn't because I just want to be quiet and he usually wants to talk, but sometimes we'll sit in companionable silence because he also likes to read and he'll pick up a random book and get engrossed in it. Recent favorites have been one on primates, a sex book for boys (written in 1938 and, therefore, in my "let's discard this immediately" pile), an atlas, and a Questions/Answers book on Biology (which he thinks may prove useful for his studies in school). The most tiresome day was when he came across a joke book and had to ask me every single one. One of the sweetest was when he asked my advice about a girl who was bugging him at school; just being "silly" as he put it. We've also talked a lot about riding a plane to America. Done for today....will check back in tomorrow....

I'm back and the last discussion has taken place on The Giver. A few kids actually finished the book! Yahoo! Mohamed has also spent more time with me in the library and has decided that Treasure Island is his next read. Blango and Johanese and I have had a conversation about how it's impossible to ride a Honda from America to Sierra Leone with Johanese insisting that someone has done this. Blango dragged the atlas out to make his point and then Blango took it upon himself to prove to Johanese that the world is spherical. Johanese was more concerned with how Magellan sailed for 3 years just in the ocean. I informed him that he probably stopped at various land points to pick up food and fresh water. It's been really enjoyable to just hang out with the older boys; they're full of questions and they like to take long rambly conversations - one never knows where we'll end up (these are the same boys who got into the conversation about green blood a few blogs back...). I'll miss them.

With the younger ones there has been less talk and more just spending some time. They do crafts Saturday mornings and I've helped cut, tie and design (I'm not a very good kite maker I found out). During evening study hall I've helped with multiplication tables memorization (this is a huge complaint by the tutors). One of the favorite manipulative methods is using bottle caps. Ingenious, really, and fun to look at, too!

If one wants to bond with the girls, one can spend countless hours plaiting hair. I have to confess this doesn't hold much appeal; I've gravitated toward the boys this time around.

As far as other meaningful moments, it's been the unexpected conversations that have come up, some of which I've mentioned in past writing: hearing Rev. Koroma's conversion story, for example, or Veronica's story of how she came to be in a Baptist church. From Mabel I've learned about how a number of the children came to be at the CRC and I've learned a bit more about their backgrounds. Truly it's a miracle and a sort of "destiny" I think that any of them are here. After the war, the bishop sent people out into the streets and these "agents" would find children that were selling things or wandering about, etc.(clearly not being taken care of) and track them to wherever they were living. There was then inquiry and they were taken in to the CRC if it was indeed a dire situation. These are all kids that were really "rescued". About 7 years later there was then a second wave taken in. The oldest ones are now in university. Mabel has been involved with them from the very beginning - working first at a sort of refugee school that was closed down as peace came and people started moving back to their villages or towns. She has touched me with her dedication and commitment to seeing these kids succeed; and it's a challenging job! There is trauma, varying family backgrounds, lack of schooling and then incorrect grade-level placement (which is now affecting their academic success which in turn affects university placement) in addition to the usual nonsense that kids get themselves up to...

Time for a new paragraph. I've had some fascinating conversations with Fudia about initiation rites, the role of women in SL, and medical health. She could barely believe that Siamese twins could be split apart and survive, for example. Speaking of death, it's just sort of a pragmatic thing here. Someone remarks that he doesn't feel very well and within a couple of hours, he's dead. There have been 3 people that have died since I've been here (that I've heard about). One was the husband of Mother Lucia who died unexpectedly this fall. We often hear loud boisterous music and Fudia recognizes it as a funeral tune. Maybe there's more of a celebration of life here (rather than death being so sad) because it's a common place occurrence. People are also frequently in the hospital for something rather dire. For example, Rev. Koroma's wife just had her appendix out (although they made her wait 5 days to do it which seems quite dangerous to me) and Auntie Martha's sister was admitted to the hospital a couple of days ago with Hepatitis A. Yesterday they also decided she has Tuberculosis. REALLY? Mabel herself has, since I've been here, been treated for malaria, typhoid, and "pressure on the eyes". I'm keeping a careful eye on my paper cut lest it become the Nile virus or bird flu.

But I digress (as I frequently do!). As I think about the various faces of Africa - and Sierra Leone in particular - I think about a conversation with Mohamed Nabieu who is back from university on break. He is passionate about "giving back" to the CRC and passionate about helping other children succeed. He is pursuing studies in community development and wants to work at the CRC for a couple of years after graduation. We mused together about why Africa is in the state it is - why isn't there forward thinking? Why isn't the infrastructure of power, clean water, paved roads, etc. in place? Why is there such poverty and illiteracy? What is the role of the government vs. that of the people themselves? How can Africans learn to help themselves? How are they being self-defeating? (for example, in stealing a garbage can that is put on the street for all to use). On the other hand, what are the positives here? He observes, and rightly so, that Westerners have no time for each other - that we are incredibly self-centered in general, and that "time is money." He also observes that with all our infrastructure and technology, we have pollution problems that don't exist here (although I might argue that burning trash is an unpleasant way to color the air). His "thesis" on the above is that education is the key. He argues that women, especially, need to be educated and given positions of leadership - then they will stop having children at such young ages, literacy rates will improve, and then poverty will improve. All of these things are, of course, intertwined in complex ways - but I'm hopeful that people like Mohamed will make a difference. At least we know that the CRC children are being educated and I hope they will go on to be leaders in their respective fields. I enjoyed talking to him and thinking aloud with him. He is a thoughtful young man.

Some interesting conversations have also come up during Bible Study. We have pretty consistently met Friday afternoons at 2 p.m. (the staff and me). Rev. Gbenday has taken over leading it and since the study is on the power of the blood of Christ, conversations have ranged from "if God means for us to forgive others, why didn't he just forgive Adam & Eve and let them stay in the Garden" to a heated discussion on whether or not Satan has the freedom to act without God's permission. The answer is clearly "no" but since no one had done the study and looked up the relevant verses (they seem to follow the educational model they know which is to just "look over the notes" - which means "read the study for the first time during what is supposed to be discussion time and attempt to answer some of the questions on the spot" ) this took a great deal of time to debate - and I used this time to work really hard at drawing on the power in the Blood to change my judgmental heart attitude. I confess I did not altogether feel its cleansing power. No doubt I will have more opportunity to experience it. Great.

I'm sure there is much that I'm forgetting but I trust it will weave its way into my heart and mind as it is supposed to - a song is being composed and given to me - full of rests, sharps, flats, grace notes, trills, crescendos and arpeggios...all the bits and pieces that have made up my time here.

Bye for now...