There are many mornings in the last few weeks when I was awakened before dawn by the Imam’s call to prayers and may have been slightly annoyed by this interruption, however, when I think that those praying are Zanaib Jaloh and her family, I can quite easily drift off to sleep knowing that she will be in school in a few hours. One Friday evening I was in town at her father’s shop where I usually trade my US dollars or do some shopping, that Zainab was helping in the store, dressed, not in her pink and blue school uniform but in her lovely black head covering. There are many problems in this small and desperately poor country, but this thing of respect across religious lines, they have gotten right.
I don’t know if it is unique to Sierra Leone but it impresses me every time that I am at the CRC School in Kabala, that about 70% of the children come from Muslim families and they are pleased to have their children attending our school there. This is mostly a function of quality education but it also speaks to something else that is quite wonderful and that is a respect across religious lines; something to be guarded carefully. Maybe it is the result of the fact that civil war is in the remembered history of most adults, 11 years of war ending in 2002, and no wish to return to a state of conflict, and that if there have been attempts at creating a militant edge to Islam or Christianity in the country, so far it seems to have been rejected. People want to live peacefully with one another.
There are many mornings in the last few weeks when I was awakened before dawn by the Imam’s call to prayers and may have been slightly annoyed by this interruption, however, when I think that those praying are Zanaib Jaloh and her family, I can quite easily drift off to sleep knowing that she will be in school in a few hours. One Friday evening I was in town at her father’s shop where I usually trade my US dollars or do some shopping, that Zainab was helping in the store, dressed, not in her pink and blue school uniform but in her lovely black head covering. There are many problems in this small and desperately poor country, but this thing of respect across religious lines, they have gotten right.
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I was trying to think over my last few weeks of travelling if I had any negative people experiences and I couldn’t think of any. I was very blessed to be able to travel to Sierra Leone for almost three weeks and then travel back to Paris and take the high-speed train from Paris to Amsterdam and spend some time with cousins and aunts in the Netherlands. Maybe its just me getting older but there were many times, especially in the last part of my trip that I was rather lost. Getting off of my flight in Paris, taking the Metro from the airport to the Gare du Nord in Central Paris and then on to Amsterdam and then from there to my cousin’s place and all the way back was a series of opportunities to not know where I was and now that I am back it strikes me how helpful everyone wants to be. I should say that I don’t do cell phones that well which might have made a difference but I am glad I didn’t do it that way. When my sweet cousin T. came out to meet me in Amsterdam we spent about 30 minutes missing each other because we didn’t talk about a meeting place and there were many options. One of the security guards made a phone call for me, people pointed out various options and finally my cousin was able to convince the folks in an Information Kiosk to make an intercom announcement for her lost cousin. In Paris there was an interruption of Metro service and travelers had to make bus connections across various Metro lines in order to get back to the airport line. An elderly Danish Iranian man walked me through the various train off and on jumps over the next hour to get back to the main line, all the while telling me about his experience as a political refugee and now volunteer with a lobby group pressing for the release of Iranian political prisoners and for regime change. Moving around in Freetown is all about using various taxi options and again there were always folks willing to go out their way to help with my bags, point me down a different street or make an effort to connect in some way. I met a lot of wonderfully helpful human beings in the last while and I am grateful. It gives me hope. |
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