MPs, Movies and the Mongoose

It has been a while since I have given an update. This is largely due to the fact that I have been incredibly busy lately, my days are usually completely full. Its nice to have my motivation back.

I spend nearly every morning at the Fatima Institute, where I am trying to co-ordinate every project they have (there are many). I am trying to make sure that funding proposals are of good quality, and projects go ahead successfully. There is a lot of work. I have also had exams to mark so I can finally be free of my teaching responsibility!

In the afternoons I head to the city council where I have taken the difficult decision to start the development plan once again. From scratch. All the work we did last year will come to nothing, but I didn't have enough control over the process and I want to start over with a “bottom-up” approach to community development. So that is keeping me (and one or two others) occupied everyday.

Last weekend I spent in Port Loko, which is around an hour away from Makeni. I was there to give a presentation to members of parliament at their two day training seminar. It was really interesting meeting the country's leaders, many of which had spent considerable time in the UK or the US. My topic was Poverty, Inequality and Development, and my presentation was broadcast live on the radio. I then had a question and answer session with the MPs, which threw up a few 'interesting' questions, showing that some of the parliamentarians have a poor grasp on major issues. (my favourites include “why should we encourage breastfeeding? I thought you said we should have less children, not more!” and “where did AIDS start?”). I went down a storm, as shown by the feedback forms from the seminar, and I did enjoy myself.

I have been helping Tyson, a Salonean friend who has a drama group. He has written the script of a movie aimed at HIV/AIDS sensitisation, and I am going to play role of producer to get funding and equipment that he will need to do it. Tyson is a 21 year old guy, who is still trying to graduate high school, but he is really talented and imaginative, and he is a great organiser. I enjoy working with him, and developing a friendship with someone so different from myself, who grew up with nothing during a war.

I have been playing lots of football as usual, which is great. I am always constantly aware that I am in Africa when I play. Everything, from the style of play to the crazy stuff that happens. For example, in training, our 'goalposts' (made from sticks) collapsed, and we couldn't get them to stand on their own. So, a small boy was enlisted to stand and hold the goalpost for the whole training session. He actually seemed happy that he was involved in some capacity! That incident was bettered by the time we were training and a sudden commotion made everyone run off the field to where one of our boys was carrying something big and hairy. It turned out that it was a dead mongoose. Training stopped, a fire was lit and a mongoose was cooked and eaten right there and then. Its not every day these guys get to eat meat, especially something as substantial as Rikki-Tikki-Tavi!