SIERRA LEONE

Greetings WACCO Fans

When people hear “Sierra Leone” they instantly think of “Blood Diamonds”, the movie starring Leonardo Di Cappucino… well, we set out to test that stereotype and were pleasantly surprised…

This email comes to you from Conakry, the Capital of the country of “Guinea" but more on this in WACCO 3.

Our driver Abu and guide Ousman were there waiting for us at the Liberia-Sierra border and we drove a gruelling but very scenic 5hrs to Kenema for our overnight before our assault on the diamond mines the next day in a region known as Kono - made famous in the movie. The late nineties was a terrible time for Sierra with a 12 year Civil War killing over half a million people out of a total population at that time of 5 million - it was not genocide like Rwanda but fuelled by the greed of the malicia who overthrew the government and recruited child soldiers to guard captive locals as they paned for pink diamonds to fund weapons and ammo for the malicia. We experienced this first hand… our guide Ousman was a local in this area who fled the carnage with his parents and 6 month year old sister who got shot in the back - thank God it was a low calibre weapon and the bullets lodged themselves in her spine and were able to be removed all except one which meant her spending the rest of her life in a wheel chair - she is still alive today !!! The diamond mines are still going but this time owned by the locals and funding their community projects. Each year the amount of diamonds reduces but there are still enough to create a living for the peoples of Kono.

Freetown is tough. In the 1990’s it was in the top ten most dangerous cities in the world. During the civil war everyone fled to Freetown to escape the malicia and as a consequence the population is now well over 3 million in a country of only 7 million now. It is crowded, congested, noisy, polluted and suffers slums and mountains of garbage. It is also oppressively hot and steamy and the only upside is loosing 2kg every day!!! The best thing about Freetown are the people - extremely friendly and keen to put the past behind them and focus on making tourism a centre piece of economic growth - this was the surprise - Leonians want to shake the stigma of Blood Diamond and portray it in a positive and community building way - we experienced this first hand by visiting a small village in Kono and near the town of Koidu called Bonoflor of 300 people and lots of kids next to one of the left over diamond mines that incidentally was featured in the film.We were surrounded by a flood of screaming kids and the Chief of the village asked us to help them build a school… we are now planning to help. Diamonds for education instead of weapons - this is the turnaround that surprised and impressed us. The Leonians celebrate Boxing Day with a huge road parade in honour of “our lads of the mask”, a mother figure that protects the town.

The final jewel in the crown of our visit to Freetown was meeting Greet Orthodox Monk Fr Themi Athamopoulos and his sister Deaconess Mary and their local right hand man “King David”. What a trio. In 12 years they have built two schools, two churches, an orphanage and college to train teachers. They have these facilities in three locations, two in the centre of the city (Tower Hill and Syke St) and one 30km out (Waterloo) and we spent much time in the city locations - very impressive. We attended the liturgy in the church of St Eleftherios in Syke St led by Fr Themi and 3 other local priests - once again very impressive for 12 years on the ground. Fr Themi, Deaconess Mary and King David gave us plenty of great advice about the school we want to help build in Bonoflor having completed two and now a third one in a huge slum next tot he city centre which we visited - this is the worst slum I have seen and I have seen many in Asia and Brasil. Many children die here of malaria, typhoid and cholera and aside from a new school we discussed plans to help with fresh water tanks to avoid kids bathing in the sewer waters and catching these diseases. On a brighter side, running beside the Atlantic along elongated Lumley Beach was terrific with a huge red African morning sun rising above the waters…

Enjoy the paronamas of a slowly rising Sierra Leone…

Next report from Guinea-Bissau and until then we wish you all a terrific New Year’s Eve and a great 2020 !!!

John WACCO Golfin