A Day trip in to Yagala

Just wanted to describe in a little more detail the pictures that were posted below about my trip to a near by village. It turned out to be a pretty cool cultural experience. As we mentioned earlier, we have become close with our nieghbour kids and their families. I have become particularly good friends with one of the daughters, Hawah. She’s 19 years old and works as a petty-trader in the market selling things like maggi, onions, sugar, salt, etc. – the same things all the other women sell. Hawah has never gone to school, so unlike most educated teenagers, her English is very limited. This is good because it forces me to try and talk Krio, but it is also so frustrating at times when you know the conversation would flow so much better if only we spoke the same language. (Hawah is the woman carrying Mariama on her back).

 

Hawah asked me to come with her to her family’s village, Yagala, so she could show me her family’s farm and introduce me to her even greater extended family. Besides just being really curious as to what even more rural life in Sierra Leone could look like, I wanted to go because I knew I would see Mariama there (Mariama is the orphan baby I wrote about in a past email. Although her health and growth has much been improving now that she is receiving formula, I have recently been worried that she is not developing cognitively as she should be – very flat affect, difficult to get to smile, looks dazed, etc.). Over the last month and a half, Mariama has been passed back and forth between family here and there, but is now spending most her time in Yagala being cared for by her father’s sister.

 

 Anyway, we set out walking the next morning at 7:30 with Asha and Sheku (3 and 5 years of age), Hawah, and myself. By 8:00 a.m I found myself eating rice with potatoe leaf sauce from a vender on the side of lonely dirt road. I told Hawah that I had already eaten breakfast, but she insisted I eat. So we shared this dish, eating with our hands – I tried to act natural without a spoon, mimicking her smush the rice and sauce into balls before lifting them to my mouth. The people around were laughing… The walk was beautiful – a windy dirt road surrounded by rice fields and dense forest and mountains on either side. The scenery here never fails to amaze me…

 

When we entered into the village our greeting was overwhelming. We almost immediately saw Mariama and her aunty who looked quite old and tired. Everyone kept saying “ten key ten key” (thank you) to me, which I’m not sure if it was just because a white person came to visit or because I had helped Mariama. I was shown all around the village including their school, medical center, community hall, and taken on a special tour of the family’s rice farm. Afterwards, we went and sat on the porch of someone’s house/hut and ate oranges and bananas. The women were all talking in Koronko which I didn’t understand a word of. Some village kids came and had an Atlas of SL and the world. I pointed out China and told them that the government there encourages families to have only one child each. They thought this was pretty crazy... Meanwhile people kept stopping by the house bringing more and more gifts for us/me in the means of papaya, cabbage, potatoes, oranges, bananas, etc. It wondered how we would carry all this back with two small kids, but quickly reminded myself that they would find a way… there is always a way.

 

After much visiting and “snapping” of photos by request, we decided to head back. We loaded our gifts into some bags and a plastic crate. I soon realized that I was a big part of the plan on getting our gifts home – I would have to “tote” (carry stuff on my head African style). Of course, Hawah took the heavy load and I only had to tote a big bag of cassava and cabbage. However, it was actually quite heavy and we had to walk back three miles. By the way, I learned that toting is definitely the most efficient way to carry heavy loads for a long distance. The combined sight of me toting and my newly planted (braided) hair proved to be quite entertaining for the villagers as we walked out of town. Even 3 and 5 year old Asha and Sheku were given something to tote, although they quickly tired and soon were bawling their eyes out because of fatigue. About half way, I ended up making an emergency call to Joe to come pick them up on the bike.

 

That’s all really. Nothing too crazy happened. It was just a really fun and interesting day in which I got a glimpse into village life and it’s friendly community vibe. Very cool.

 

 

Talk to you later, and happy holidays!!!!

 

Love,

Adrienne