Blogs from Sierra Leone, Africa - page 4

Week 2 has been interesting. It started with a drive round the marathon course – it is pretty amazing. Everyone in the villages had big smiles for us and waved. They were happy to hear the marathon would be returning. A Red Cross vehicle drove us around, with three seats in the front where I was making notes and taking photos furiously. Ibrahim from the Red Cross was driving and Mark was reading directions from the laptop. Emma was in the back of the truck in charge of mile photos. The course is amazing and it is making the marathon seem even more real. The following day, I went to one of the mining camps to ... read more

I have now visited all of the seven Chiefdoms that border Gola Rainforest National Park. I have driven through countless villages, have discovered that all of the roads are a varying degree of terrible, and have met hundreds of students who have all been very excited to see a white person turning up at their school. Each of the 34 schools that we are working with has a teacher who attended the training workshop who will run the Nature Club using a Teacher’s Guide which we have produced. One school from each Chiefdom has also been provided with 20 Student Workbooks, these schools are our pilot schools and if successful all the Nature Clubs will get the Workbooks next year. Eddie and I have now visited two schools in each Chiefdoms – one pilot school and ... read more

‘In the end we will conserve only what we love, we will love only what we understand and we will understand only what we are taught.’’ Baba Dioum, Senegalese poet The words of this quote really ring true to me and it’s because of this message that I find myself volunteering in Sierra Leone. Many local and international organisations are working in various countries all over the world trying to conserve our remaining natural resources, areas of outstanding beauty, habitats that are biologically diverse and land that is home to threatened species. The work that they’re doing is brilliant; however I believe that this alone will never be enough. Unless the communities living alongside or even within these areas understand the importa... read more

In some ways it feels like I have been here forever, and in other ways it is all still so new.One of the other volunteers asked me if Makeni was what I expected. I realised then that I had not had any expectations – and I was therefore not surprised by what it is like. It seems so similar to other places I have been, A real mixture of Vietnam and the beeping bikes (although not nearly so many!) and Barbados when the locals stare at you and the children shout 'opodo' (white person) and wave frantically! So we land around 5am and between four of us we had around 15 pieces of luggage! Martyn and Megan tool around 6 to Freetown and luckily for us, Mark and I had a car pick us up with ... read more

This Sunday I took my first trip out of Kenema since I arrived 2 ½ weeks ago (unless you count walking out from the city into the hills which I do as often as I can). I travelled together with Frans who is a German based out here working on a Cocoa and Coffee project, and Frazer who is another Gola Rainforest NP volunteer from the UK working on Park Operations. Our journey took us only 30 minutes away from the centre of Kenema but the destination felt a complete world away. We drove out of the city along the same road which I will travel when I make my way out to the forest edge communities we will be working with. This area of Kenema has no tarmac and the roads are very uneven so ... read more