Post Trip Assessment
I have to say that I was feeling really guilty coming into this
trip I figured it would be all sunshine and beaches and I felt
like it wasn’t really appropriate, but Tom and Karen said that
sometimes you just have to get out in order to not explode or
some worse fate. (exaggeration of course) but meeting so
many kids and seeing so many needs and being able to help
with some showed me that even a break can have a purpose.
On this three day excursion to Freetown I’ve seen so much
need that it breaks my heart, kids who don’t have money to
eat, kids who don’t have money for school. Things you would
almost never see in America come to you in the form of tens
of children coming to you asking you for help, asking you for
money or food or books. But one thing that I’ve learned and
take from this trip is hope. Let me explain. I met a boy named
Tamba at the beach with some of his friends. They were
shoveling sand into bags for one of the boy’s families. They
were doing so with no real expectation of getting anything for
it. I imagine they were hoping that by helping they might get
some food or money for food. Working with no promise of
anything is not something many people will do, and when
they do it’s after they’ve done their regular work for money.
These kids could chose to not do it and try to find some work
to do that promised them money but because it was for a
friend’s family they choose to do it anyway. My friend George
who I met at the Hard Rock had worked there from the time
he was 6 and didn’t start getting paid until three years ago,
he is now 17. He did the work he had to in the hopes that one
day they would pay him. I would call that working sacrificially.
He didn’t have much choice, his father died when he was
young, his mother ran off and he lived alone with his
grandmother (whose husband ran off). She couldn’t support
him alone. While he does get paid now he gets paid 20,000
Leones for two weeks. That’s less than 50 cents a day. 50 cents
would buy him two pieces of bread (not exactly big pieces) or
a cup of rice some pepper and a flavoring called Maggie (similar
to Ramen flavoring). Could you imagine living on that? He
fishes in the ocean and he likes to fish, which is good because
that’s his only other source of food, and often he sells the fish
to earn more money. He can get 500 Leones (12.5 cents) for
two fish. He said often he gets few fish, sometimes even none.
On top of providing for himself he has to provide for his
grandmother who is too old to work. Emmanuel, the owner
of the Compañero is a Sierra Leonean who lived in America for
11 years, he could easily have stayed there and continued to
work for more and live a more comfortable life in America
but he felt compelled to return to his country of birth to put
in his efforts here. There are so many people without enough
here. But there are people like Tamba and his friends who are
willing to work for each other. There are people like George
who have such enormous potential and such an outstanding
work ethic but don’t have the resources to capitalize on it.
There are people like Emmanuel who have advantages and
could use them elsewhere and instead come back here and
stay in Sierra Leone. His hotel may not be practical for many
Sierra Leoneans, but it draws the foreign nationals and their
money provides jobs for Sierra Leoneans. There is such abject
poverty here, and great suffering, but there is true potential
in the people of Sierra Leone. With the proper education and
given the right assistance the people of this country could do
great things.