Clickbait: Four Inescapable Observations on Life in Sierra Leone

Ann and I have been living in Sierra Leone for over seven months now and in less than four months we will be leaving. It is a time to be more reflective about life in Kenema.  Here are four general observations that anyone from the American Midwest would not fail to notice.

Life is Lived Outside

Not surprisingly, life in Salone is spent mostly outside.  Cooking, bathing, laundry, eating, peeing by men (and on occasion by some women) are done in the open air and publicly.  There are many good reasons for this, not the least of which it is dark inside most of the houses, even in the daytime, since most living quarters are without electricity for light and windows are shuttered and locked to deter thieves.  Every house has a stoop, porch or veranda and they are always full of folks hanging out, discussing politics, listening to music on their tinny radios, watching the neighborhood doings as children run from compound to compound or play soccer in the street.  Everyone knows everyone’s business and the noise of life stays pretty loud until about midnight.  A Sierra  Leonean coming to the US would be dumbfounded by our empty streets and people shut up inside their homes.

Trash is Everywhere

With most of the living done outside one would expect that the people of this country to be more conscientious about keeping their environment neat and tidy.  This is definitely not the case as trash and litter cover the landscape. There is no notion of littering.  When a person is finished with a bag of water, bread wrapped in paper, food like fish, peanuts or oranges, the packaging or inedible parts are thrown on the ground even inside houses and classrooms.  It is somewhat paradoxical that every morning someone is put in charge of sweeping the dirt in front of our house (mostly dead mango leaves), but a few steps away empty plastic water bags dot the grassy area that extends to the compound wall.  One day while I was helping some students on our veranda, I asked them about this conundrum.  Their simple answer was that it was easier to sweep the dirt than pick up the trash in the yard.  There are very few trash receptacles in the city though there must be some system for garbage disposal as we have seen the occasional garbage truck.  On campus there was a campaign to place wire trash barrels about the grounds, but they stand empty while the litter swirls around them.  There are many more important things for the typical Sierra Leonean to worry about so picking up the trash is not high on their list, but the natural beauty of the area is destroyed by the litter.

Open sewers line the main roads of Kenema.  They are about 2 feet wide and vary from 2 feet to 4 feet in depth. Everything from the street gets swept into them waiting for the rain to wash it away.  Of course this is problematic during the dry season.  Once the debris of the day is swept into the sewers, the chickens and dogs have a go at cleaning up anything edible.  Sometimes children will see something useful (a plastic bottle or bag, a sturdy stick, a broken toy) and do the Salone version of a dumpster dive.   Occasionally an energetic street vendor will clean up the sewer in front of his/her stand (equivalent to our mowing that little strip of grass between the sidewalk and the curb), but what that means is simply that the garbage is heaped up on the street to wait for some miracle to take it away.  The pile of rubbish filled dirt is gradually trod into a compact little mound of refuse that the wind and rain very gradually erode away mostly back into the gutter from which it came.    

Religion Pervades

Mosque near the Peace Corps regional office.

From the Muslim call to prayer at 5:00 in the morning to the one in the evening at 7:00, religion is ever-present in everyday life here.  The Muslim influence is most noticeable with the five calls to prayer every day.  When the 1:00 prayer meeting lets out at the central mosque downtown, the neighboring street is so crowded with people that traffic comes to a halt for five minutes.  The typical response to my morning greeting of “How are you?” is “God willing,” or “I tell God Tenki,” Allah is in control of everything.  Maybe all of the trials and tribulations of civil war, poverty, and Ebola, have led most Leoneans to adopt a fatalistic attitude toward life.  So many things can go wrong in daily living here that it is hard to think of what the future will bring.  The tendency is to take one day at a time and not worry too much about tomorrow.

Then there are the Christians.  One doesn’t hear the measured tones of Lutheran minister in Kenema. The Bible-thumping orations of a Southern Baptist preacher are more likely.  The louder the better seems to be the theme of Christian preaching here.  Both Muslims and Christians hold giant rallies at the football stadium next to our campus.  These usually are night-time affairs – Friday and Saturday, advertised with large posters a month in advance.  On the night of the rally there is usually popular Christian or Islamic music to draw the crowd in.  Then the haranguing begins.  Sometimes the shouts into the microphones are so unintelligible that a preacher assistant has to calmly repeat the words for the audience to understand.  These performances go on well into the wee hours of the morning.  Praise the Lord, hallelujah!

Every meeting at our public college, from lowly department to all-school, begins with both a Muslim and a Christian prayer and some students attend a Christian morning meeting on campus before classes begin (which to Ann’s annoyance often delays the start of her 8:00 class by 15 minutes). There are plenty of proselytizers in town also.  The Mormons seem to be leading in this category.  Only Mormon men are allowed to come to Sierra Leone to spread the good word.  Usually an African man from another West African country will accompany a Mormon elder from America.  Each pair has a specific sector of the city to work.  Their main headquarters is very welcoming with African beat music playing to invite people in to find out what is going on. Religion gives structure and support to life in a poor country that the government cannot afford to offer.

Discussion Entertains

Having lived in the upper Midwest for over half of my life, I am used to the general reserved nature of the Northerner, so it definitely is different when I hear and see discussions, generally loud ones, going on all about me in Kenema.  I have mentioned before the ataya base hangouts where groups of men, usually older ones, get together much like the retirees at the South Fork, Econofoods, or the Dish and Spoon carry on back in River Falls.  The only difference is that the strong tea replaces coffee as the drink that stimulates the conversations.                                                                                         

Can you spot a couple of mangoes?

Around campus I have heard talk about American politics, especially during the election season and Trump’s first days in office.  They will often know more about American politics than I do.  For example, recently I found out from colleagues that the Donald didn’t get his way on affordable health care. When the weather is stifling hot in the afternoon, some campus workers gather together under the giant mango tree shading our front steps.  There they will hold court, tell stories, and pass the afternoon engaged in conversation (instead of working?).  Often there will more formal meetings with larger groups of people who give speeches, much like a Toastmasters meeting.  The talk is in Mende so I don’t understand, but I can tell when the words are said with passion.  Polite applause ends each speech.  Also, I can tell when there is a good story-teller in the group as there will be laughter filling the air.  Sierra Leoneans  love to talk and laugh.