first impressions
David and I had to wake up for morning praises at 5 AM. After morning praises, we went back to sleep to wake up again at 8 AM and prepare for Sunday Service. We were asked to testify. There was a translator to translated into Krio - the local language. It's a derivitive of English - quite broken up and with mangled grammar. Bro. Edward preached from 10:45 AM to 11:30 AM, and was led to lead the congregation into a 30 min praising session. He then began preaching again until 1 PM. Bro. Augustine is down with malaria, and Sis. Doris just came out of her seventh attack of malaria.I was very impressed with the ushering ministry in church because the ushers in Yonkers are absolutely useless. The ushers here guide you to your seats, and they make you sit in each consecutive chair not skipping any chairs. During the message, if they see you nodding off, they will come to your seat and gently wake you up. If you continue to sleep, they will ask you to go wash you face. No, I was not the lucky candidate for this demonstration though I very well might have been!
After lunch, David and I were asked to join Bro. Godwill on his trip to Waterloo to pick up the ministers and some families. The Faith Home's very reliable TATA Mini Bus was our mode of transportation on this trek. The bus does not have a starter. In order to get it started, you have to get a group of people to push the bus, and the driver has to use the clutch to start the bus. To get to Waterloo, you have to drive up the mountain. On our way there, the clutch sprung a leak and began leaking fluid into the bus. Bro. Godwill pulled over and found a twig large enough to plug the hole and continue on our journey. The bus stopped three time on our way to Waterloo, and each time, we had to get out and push the bus to get it started. On our way back, the clutch rubber broke and we had to push the bus off the road. None of us had a mobile phone to call for help. We were to return back by 5 PM to watch the Christian School closing program.
While the rest of us got out the bus and watched the vendors - seems every single Sierra Leonean is a vendor of some sort. Peanuts, water in plastic bags tied at one end, fried goods, bread (Bro. John Noel said he witnessed one vendor scrape mold off a bread, wipe the bread on his shirt, and display the bread for sale), cigarettes, candy, hats, used socks, etc. All balanced on their head in baskets overflowing with these goods. The humidity not helping the people or the food in any way, these hawkers walk for miles selling their goods, clad in torn and tattered clothes with barely any fabric to hide anything.
Bro. Godwill and Bro. Jones went to find a phone to call Bro. John Samuel for help. We waited for about an hour, and David and I were sent with another brother by taxi. We boarded what they call a Poda-Poda. It's an outfitted van where all the passenger seats are removed and replaced with metal and wodden benches to allow seating for many more passengers. It's a shared taxi so you can squeeze in about 18 people. You're squished up against a random local - and you better believe they don't use deodorant. There are no signs indicating destination. You have to ask for it, or hear the conductor repeatedly yell out to the passers-by.
We were headed to a place called PZ (that's Pee-Zed). From there we had to head to a place called "Girls School" (because there is a girls High School there), and from there, walk to church. By the time we arrived, we only got to see 30 mins of the program. When Bro. John arrived at the site of the breakdown, since all the clutch fluid had drained, he used soap water as a substitute, and drove the bus back to Freetown.
I must expound on lunch. We had what the locals call "Fufu". It's Cassava - cooked VERY slimy. They eat this with an Okra sauce with is also cooked to be unusually slimy, and eaten with the hand - as all food here is. We were served Breadfruit chips on the side. I managed to grin and finish lunch, and vowed never to eat Fufu again (I will try anything ONCE). I understand they eat cat (called "Pus"), snake, and monkey.
At nights, the room is sprayed with mosquito repellent. Once sprayed, you have to stay out of the room for about an hour as the smell of the chemical is rather strong and lethal. I then sleep under a mosquito net as I had decided not to take any prophylaxis pills for malaria. At nights, sleep is sweet. I listen to FM 102.4. It's VOA (Voice of America). News and music. Of course there are not enough hours in the day to sleep. Seems David finds plenty of time though. Off to bed!!
posted by bthomas24 @ 6:45 PM
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