Watch out for the duck!

So much less productive day in terms of school visits, but productive in life learning!! So up and out, on the bikes, but almost to first school... Flat tire. Got to there and then Lindsay and the local coordinator left and headed to the next school (where she was again the first white person). JMK, the director went to go fix the tire, and I sat there - random white guy sitting on a wooden chair in front of the school with class and lunch breaks going on around. I sat there writing in my journal about feeling like an exhibit at the museum...

Tire haunted us as we tried to move on, but ended up back in Samaya and spent two hours as the whole village fixed the flat. It was so sureal. There sit Lindsay and I, with women and children all around, half watching us and half watching the group of men/boys working on the tire. They wouldn't let us help, so we sat... half there, half untouchable. Seemed quite odd indeed. Ended up it took too long to change, so we aborted the school hopping and headed back to Makeni with a brief stop back in Kamakwie for a few things. The few things of course were about 250 pounds of rice, a couple chairs, a table, some wood, three goats just stuffed in the back, and four chickens with their legs all tied together... Both Lindsay and I were terrified at the animal scenario. But animals here are not treated with a great deal of compassion, different world...

Then on the way back we hit a goat... and I learned it is all far more complex than that!! The goat was already hurt, broken leg of some sort. So as the other's moved it didn't. We tried to stop but got it somewhere - I couldn't tell how, but it was still alive. JMK and the owner exchanged contact info and on we went.

So here is the system: if you hit and kill a goat it is 100,000 Le for the driver to pay ($25). That is a lot of money here - 20 days pay for the average worker. The driver is always seen as at fault rather than the animal. But there are of course different values for different animals. The hurt goat would be about 70k. A sheep is more than the goat as it has better meat and some intriguing superstitious value . A chicken is worth about 50. A dog is worth nothing, nor is a cat - no food value. But the most important one of all not to hit is a duck! Yes, I've been wondering why Kap's family has a duck in the back yard (with no water), and that I see ducks all over here.  Intriguing!! Lol.  The duck as the most sacred animal....

First White Men Ever...

Four people, two motorcycles, four chickens, a goat, 6 schools (if they could qualify as that), over twenty villages, and a whole lot of smiles...

So we started the day in Kamakwie. Its the second largest city/town in Bombali District. I am tagging along with the aid group Street child/hanci. This part of their program is to bring proper schools to the remotest of remotest places in Sierra Leone. And when I say remote, I mean remote. Firstly, we made the 55 mile journey from Makeni in 3 hours yesterday by 4x4. Today we got up and out at 8.30. We jumped on a couple of Honda enduro motorcycles and got after it. Probably 45 minutes later we came to a river with no bridge, and the ferry was out. So we put the two bikes and the four of us in a wooden canoe (plus an oarsmen) and went on upsteam and then across and back down. Yes, not the safest or sturdiest way to cross a river.

Then we proceeded to get back on the bikes and spent the next 6 hours driving through villages and stopping at schools. Of course, a school in these areas is nothing of the sort. An open thatched hut with benches (if they're lucky) and a blackboard. Actually, one school was just benches under a tree.

It was really sad to see. The kids want to learn, the teachers volunteer time in exchange for food, and there are no books or supplies, but they show up and they try to learn things. But then what?? The secondary school is ten miles away via mere paths through the woods. No one has transportation, no one has a job. How do they enter into modern society with no money? How do they get money living in an unconnected society where the only profession is subsistence farming? There is then no education really, and no way to make money to get out even if they wanted to. I was at a loss. I have no logical/practical solution, or possibility.

It was an incredible day though. In two villages Lindsay (the Scottish aid worker I'm tagging along with) and I were the FIRST white people to be in that village, EVER!!! Possibly other villages as well, but those told us that we were. We were in and around Samaya, isolated... It is also custom here to give a gift of appreciation when strangers or important people come to the village. Of the six schools we visited we were given four chickens and A GOAT!! Imagine the look of intrigued surprise that developed on my face when the head master sent all the boys running. My first thought was of the track and that a couple had good form!! Then I realized they were all chasing a goat, and I knew it right then they were going to give it to us. Amazing. Luckily we didn't have to get it back on our bikes. I can't say the same for the chickens. They tied the legs together and just hung them upside down - alive - on the handle bars... and off we went!!

So hear I am, on the back of an enduro motorcycle, flying down an overgrown path in the ruralist of ruralist areas of Africa with a chicken on the side of each handle bar!! Lol. Priceless.

Anyway, very educational day, but also VERY tiring. Problem is that one day is now going to be two as we're headed back out tomorrow. Yapo has set up a meeting with the regional people from the Ministry of Finance for Saturday about funding our little venture here. Huge deal, and we need to have literature for them. I NEED Friday to put it together, but if we now come back Friday morning... :-/ Could be tough...

Anyway, rewarding day... Again tomorrow!!