We've Been Adopted!

Ann and I have been in Salone for four days now and of course a lot has happened during that time.  The travel here was fatiguing, but rather uneventful.  Lee “ubered” us to MSP Terminal 1 Sunday morning and we landed in Lungi Monday afternoon thanks to the admirable services of Delta and Kenya Airlines.  We left the relative luxury of Lungi’s airport hotel Tuesday morning and were greeted at the Port Loko Training Center with song from the instructors and 15 regular Peace Corps volunteers. These PCVs have already finished two of their ten weeks of training in preparation for two years of service.

Peace Corps – Sierra Leone policy is to place each volunteer in a home stay, the idea being to immerse the volunteer into the local culture as quickly as possible.  Ann and I are currently up to our armpits in Salone life.  The ceremony used to introduce the volunteers to their host families is lengthy.  The chief district officer presiding over the meeting admirably kept the speeches by local dignitaries in check.  A bit of local color was added to the affair when one of the numerous free-roaming chickens of Port Loko strolled through an open door and commenced to pick off bugs on the floor in front of the stage. 

The Peace Corps likes to call the assignment of host families to volunteers an “adoption”.  Ann and I were adopted by Zainab, an engaging, 35-year-old, single mom who lost her father to Ebola.  She promised to provide us with breakfast, dinner, and a secure room furnished with a bed, mosquito netting, toilet and shower area (where we take bracing bucket baths).  In return Peace Corps offered her a huge bag of rice and money to help defray the cost of housing and feeding us for 11 days.  The adoption ceremony concluded with us sharing a communal meal of rice and chicken with Zainab and her younger brother, Amara.  During the meal I got my first exposure to “water in a bag” an ecologically efficient, if not slightly awkward, way for distributing potable water.  One just bites off a small corner of the plastic baggie and carefully sips.

When Ann and I did our training in Zaire, we were housed in a dorm-like situation with other volunteers, separated from the rest of the people of Bukavu.  My contact with local culture more often than not took place at local bars. The way of doing things now seems to make a lot more sense, even if it cuts down on the rambunctious partying that Ann and I had planned to do.  We have been introduced to many members of Zainab’s very extended family and have sampled meals that Sierra Leonians customarily eat.  For example, for breakfast this morning we were treated to a spaghetti, mayonnaise, sardines, and hard-boiled egg mélange.  Tomorrow, she promises to serve us fufu (manioc) with granut (peanut) sauce for dinner.  

Our house does not have electricity, so the most challenging thing to do in our living situation so far is to get used to working in dim light.  Our solar lanterns and headlamps have been put to good use already.  It is taking me awhile to get used to the more natural rhythms of the day.  The daylight begins around 6:30 and ends about 7:30 right now. At night we are finding that people mostly sit and talk.  A revival moved into the Wesleyan church across the street, so we have been treated to music and sermons for the last couple of nights.  Who knows what other evening entertainments await us?

That's me watching the world go by from Zainab's front porch.  Our bedroom is the room at left.