The Kid Life

The children in Mokanji are very friendly and many of them remember Josiah from when we were here back in September. While everybody is still trying to remember our names, they shout Josiah’s name from their houses as we walk down the road. Many kids do not go to school because of the lack of school fees and even if they are in school, I’m not sure how long they are there every day because I often see kids in their school uniforms outside our house well before lunch time.

The boys love to come over and kick the soccer ball around with Josiah and he is also tries to play cricket with them (not that he really knows how to play). He will go out and just hang out on a cut down tree with them throwing stones or use sticks to make some pipe scraps lying around into a drum circle. Lydia is our dirt magnet; she will go outside and play in the dirt for hours if we let her. She also likes torturing all the grasshoppers with sticks and climbing on the cut down trees that are in the compound. She seems to enjoy playing with the boys more than the girls because the girls are seem to be a little more aggressive while the boys are a little more gentle and helpful with her. She is very adventurous and has many a scrapped knee already. Sofia is our social butterfly. She loves using the Mende phrases that the other kids have taught her to make the adults chuckle and has no reservations about the locals picking her up and toting her around. Sofia gleefully pats us on the leg or arm and tells us about every bug, goat, dog, and chicken she sees and also enjoys roaring like a lion at the grasshoppers.

The kid life in Mokanji is not all fun and games. They have work to do; they often help with gathering the wood for cooking, preparing the meals, hauling the water, walking around the village selling food items, and watching over younger siblings. On one hand, they don’t have an easy life, they have to work hard; they have many struggles to stay healthy and get an education. On the other hand, they often seem so carefree and enjoy the simple pleasures of life like playing soccer and throwing stones at the trees.

The Mokanji Life

Really I am enjoying it. The people are friendly and Sierra Leone is a very social culture of greeting everybody and just sitting around and talking. Since there are only 6 North Americans in Mokanji and we are the newest transplants and the only ones with kids we seem to get our fair share of visitors, although most of our visitors are kids. They eagerly wait for the kids to come out and play with them and during the afternoon while the kids are taking their afternoon quiet time/nap, they will hang around our porch and just watch Jeneson and I read or be on the computer. When they aren’t being social they are working. They have to work to get water from a hand pumped well every day, they have to gather wood to cook over a 3 stone fire or use coal in a coal pot, they do their laundry by hand; almost every task that Americans use a machine or appliance to do, the people in Mokanji do it the ‘old fashioned way’, by hand.

We are only about 150 yards away from one of the two hand pumped wells in the village, so during the day we get to hear a lot of talking, a lot of hand clapping and singing as the girls wait their turn in line, and the occasional fight. We also get the frequent visitors of ladies and kids selling various food stuffs out of buckets precariously balanced in their heads. There is even this sweet girl who walks from the next village over to sell me woven baskets that her Daddy weaves. These are great, quality baskets and she sells them for 1000 Leones ($1 ~ 4300 Leones). I usually give her 2000 Leones and don’t ask for change in addition to giving her a cup of water and a muffin if I have one around.

Less than 300 yards from our house is the Old Skool Nite Klub (yes, that is how it is spelled!). There may be no village electricity in Mokanji, but at least 3 or 4 times a week we hear the generator get fired up at about 8pm and instead of hearing native African drumming in the distance, we get to hear the latest in popular music in Sierra Leone.

Our evenings, after the kids are in bed, are often spent out on our front porch enjoying the cool, breezy Mokanji evening. Here we can process any events of the day, evaluate how we are adjusting, or just enjoy each other’s company. I usually get my chocolate fix in the evenings with a nice cup of hot chocolate.

Our first week

     Not quite sure how to sum this all up in one blog post that doesn't go on and on. We arrived safely in Freetown on Friday, Feb 24th and spent the next several days gathering supplies and getting some paperwork stuff done. We stayed at a family resort that was right on the beach, had free internet, free breakfast, and free laundry. While this was a little more than we planned on spending, it did allow us to get quite a bit accomplished since we didn't have to worry about those things. We were very thankful for our Sunday day of rest and the kids enjoyed playing at the little playground and splashing in the pool.

     Tuesday morning we set out for the drive to Mokanji. Thankfully it is the dry season and some of the local mining companies had graded the roads, so what was a 7 hour drive in September was now a 5 hour drive.

     Our house looks beautiful! It is roomy enough for all of us and quite functional. We are lacking in some furniture/shelving so unpacking was basically  reorganizing into specific suitcases. We are waiting on getting some shelves/bookcases built so that we can get a little more settled. Our furniture now consists of a nice table and 6 chairs, a bed frame and mattress for Jeneson and I, a bed frame and mattress for Josiah and a mattress on the floor for Sofia. Hopefully by the end of the month we will have steel bunk beds made for Josiah and Lydia and some shelving put up. Right now all of Josiah's clothes are in one suitcase, my clothes in another, etc...

     My pressure cooker from Freetown is my new best friend and I hope to be start blogging about some of the meals that we are eating. Right now it is quite basic, but nutritious and filling. Even Lydia, my picky eater, says "Mommy this is sooooo good" at almost every meal. I think that she realizes that her options are limited.

     I do laundry by hand every morning; clothes one morning, diapers the next and hand them to dry on our porch. The kids are always out playing and there is usually no shortage of playmates.

     Jeneson and I have been able to see a few patients in an unofficial capacity and have, unfortunately, witnessed the cold, hard, reality of the poor health statistics in Sierra Leone and Mokanji.

     There is a short-term team arriving tomorrow that includes 2 pediatricians that we will be able to work with. We are also hoping to meet with the District Medical Officer, the President and Director of Development for Global (they are coming with the team), and the local Community Health Officer to discuss the start of our medical services and how that is going to look. Please pray for these meetings, that all will go well with them.