Kabala.

Without losing anyone’s attention, I promise to include only the MOST interesting! It’s worth reading, I promise….

Kabala is in the North and is the main area in Sierra Leone that CAUSE is working in. They are working in 3 schools, helping to provide uniforms, food, school supplies and covering various school fees.

THE TRIP

We arrived in Kabala after 10 hours, eventhough I was told it would be 5...in the hot sun and bumpy roads. It was truly beautiful though. The landscape is unreal and I kept having to reminding myself that I was driving in rural Sierra Leone and not watching a National Geographic movie about West Africa! Kabala itself is a small, very basic, very poor little village full of the kindest, warmest people I have ever met. The house we stayed in was simple, but charming in its own way, and much more glamorous then any of the surrounding homes. (see photos) I think the biggest adjustment that I had to make was the lack of food variety (rice, couscous, cabbage, bananas, ground nut, banana leaf, and a few oranges/guavas) and of course the bugs! As I have been reminded many times over....things are just generally bigger in Africa! Ummmmm, understatement! It really started to become somewhat humorous as every morning around 3am I would fumble around looking for my head lamp to make my way to the washroom, careful to look in every corner/crevasse before entering....or sitting down. And of course I learned to do this the hard way after finding a giant cockroach sitting next to me early one morning! I believe I dealt with it quite well though, as I fell off the toilet onto the 'very clean' bathroom floor screaming! One very special evening I discover a little RATatouille having a leisurely swim in the toilet. My leg muscles are already starting to look more toned, as I now REFUSE to sit down. And of course, no matter how many times I remind myself of the beautiful story of Charlotte's web, I experienced no moral reservations in watching those awful things crumple up slowly as the poisonous bug spray extracted its last breaths! ! CHARLOTTE was NOT THAT BIG! Very quickly though, word got around and the little **insert bad word here**called their millions of family members and planned various strategic attacks...in my backpack, under my bed, over my bed, under the sick...you get the picture! I did get to see a few monkeys though...mostly tied up outside people’s homes...Barb said they eat them and harassed them for entertainment...nice. And I won't even talk about the dogs!

The LIFE CHANGING WORK

I could go on and on about the inspiring conversations I had with some of the students in Kabala. We travelled to remote area where their are schools set up for surrounding villages and participated in some of their HIV/AIDS awareness programs (administered by UNICEF) and talked to some of the students about their struggles and life experiences. I had the honour of travelling to one of these schools on the back of motorbike (IN A SKIRT...very nice!) to speak to 20+ girls about the importance of women’s education and the UN's Millennium Development Goals. Initially I was very nervous (not a big fan of public speaking) but the girls and teachers made me feel so welcome and I felt very much at peace about being there! Unlike my situation growing up, these girls don't have very many people telling them how important they are, how beautiful they are, and how capable they are of achieving their dreams. After I spoke, we sat together and I asked them questions about their life, their goals and their struggles. Some wanted to be lawyers, so they could speak on behalf of people who are to impoverished to speak for themselves. Some wanted to study medicine to help heal their friends and family and earn enough money support their family and send their children to school. One girl told me that she had experienced first hand how important education is. She described how her house was attacked by the rebels during the war and her father lost his hand and foot to a machete. Lucky he was able to get another job that didn’t involve hard labour (like most people) because he had been university educated. Another few girls lost their fathers and mothers during the war and realized that now, the only way to improve their lives was to become educated. “You never know what will happen tomorrow.” They reminded me, not that I was able to completely understand. Another girl of 14 told me that she wanted to be educated so that instead of her husband picking her, she could pick him instead! These women want so badly to be leaders and yet so many factors work against them daily. They walk 5 miles or more to and from school daily, they have very limited food, no clean water, no electricity, lack of equality and respect, cultural expectations and pressures. I had a very difficult time holding myself together while I tried to write down some of their responses. Wow. They also asked me some tough questions about myself….Why aren’t you married? Why don’t you have children? What are you going to do to help us? Does Canada know how we suffer? Do they care about us? Before I left, I asked permission to share their stories with Canada and they had only one condition.....

“Don’t forget about us!”

Powerful stuff. I really am humbled by the lives that people lead here and am inspired daily by the work that NGOs, the UN and others do. It is truly a life commitment, something that Barb (my supervisor demonstrates to me all the time).

So there you go...all is going very well.

Parting comment: One of the male staff members told me before I left Kabala that when he first met me he was worried; "Oh no…here’s a North American princess that won’t be able to look after herself"…Barbie does Africa…I suppose the biggest compliment I have received so far is that he admitted that I had proven him wrong….so far anyways.

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