Jenneith's Visit to Sierra Leone & The Gambia
I will breakdown the trip into the 3 main reasons for out visit to Sierra Leone and The Gambia. 1. To attend the Sierra Leone National Methodist Association of Youth Fellowships and make an International Partnership with them and therefore adding them to ABMY (Association of Black Methodist Youth) along with Nigeria and Ghana. 2. To present and give out clothes, shoes and toys, to the youths of Bunmbu 3. To meet, fellowship and make and international partnership with the Methodist youths of The Gambia.
Firstly let me say how much I enjoyed the three weeks, despite of the many travelling mishaps we had along the way. It took a while for the fact that I was in Africa to sink in as on our arrival there were very striking similarities to the Carribean. The views, and the local dialect Krio which I understood to a certain extent as it is very similar to caribbean dialect. There were lots of the same vegetation as the Caribbean as well. The view as we stepped off the ferry was amazing. It was very mountainous and green.
The day after we arrived in Freetown we left to travel to Bo for the conference at Bo teachers college - Torwama. The conference was held from the August 30th - September 4th, but because of the delayed flight from London and subsequent delays there after we didn't get to the conference until the 1st of September. After a talk on Peace building by one of the leaders, we were introduced to the 290 or youths at the conference, who were very welcoming to us.
We attended the conference for the rest of the week and took part in activities planned, such as Talent shows and singing competitions, and attended a cultural evening and a dress festival held by the youths.
On day 5 of the conference it was time to get to serious business such as the bi-ennial general meeting and elections and also to highlight problems affecting the youth in an open forum.
An open forum was then held which gave the youths a chance to speak about issues affecting them. The main complaint was that a group of methodist churches wanted to separate and be independent from the rest. Their elders, parents and leaders of the various churches as well as the youths themselves, face tribalism, sectionalism and adverse politics within the Methodist Church. However, despite all of this, every youth at the conference no matter what tribe, district they were from were unanimous in the fact they did not want the churches to be separate but that they the wanted the church to remain as one body, one people.
The theme of the conference which was "let us unite to praise God" and the anthem "What shall our greeting be" (which was sung no less than 3 times in the space of a few hours on that day) could not have been more appropriate.
My impressions of the youths at the conference were that they were very strong willed, well spoken, determined, courageous, mature, intelligent but most of all very faithful Christians, immensely faithful young Methodist Christians and this was conveyed in the very professional way in which they conducted themselves, the elections and the whole conference.
The last day of the conference was a Sunday, and after the service it was time for them to say their goodbyes, and travel back to their various destinations.
Our group however continued on with our tour of the provinces in Kenema, Bunumbu and Segbwema. We travelled to Kenema, where the youths of that district put on a concert for us on Monday evening. They performed songs, a dramatisation and a cultural dance. (Picture on right.)
On Tuesday we travelled to Bunumbu where the welcome was spectacular as we were greeted with a big welcome parade. (Picture on left.) The youths, children and people came out with singing and dancing, again everybody was very welcoming and warm. It was very much appreciated as these people were some of the worst hit by the war yet they still had hope and faith. A lot of them had lost everything, their homes and parents. Some have no house, nowhere to live, sleep, no clothes and not enough food, yet when we arrived we were generously fed. We visited or should I say strained to see various churches, schools, colleges and hospitals which were burned and damaged during by the rebels during the civil war and are now o vergrown with grass and weed.
It was very disheartening to see so many structures damaged, yet the welcome, the friendliness and the openess of the people showed their faith, strength, and resilience, as we were shown new structures and sites they are now in the process of building and developing.
They thanked the Methodist mission, which has done so much for them, religious and eduction wise as their children, grand children and greatchildren have benefitted from the education brought by the Methodist missions who visited them. They were extremely hospitable to our group of 17 and said that we should come back and bring more people. We went back to the manse where we had lunch earlier, to distribute clothing that was collected and sent ahead.
We travelled to Segbwema in the evening where the youths hosted a concert in our honour. They performed, as did we and everybody enjoyed it.
Read more about Jenneith's trip to Sierra and The Gambia (including The Gambia Youth Fellowship Choir) ... Sierra Leone & The Gambia 2