July 25, 2008
Hello, everyone! We just got back to Makeni last night after our ten-day stay in Kabala. We fell in love with Kabala from our first drive in. It's surrounded by beautiful mountains (not really mountains compared to Colorado, but pretty good for around here) and completely covered with jungle. The village nearest to our school site welcomed us warmly the first morning we got there with a full ceremony, including dancing by the women's secret society and speeches by the village elders. They are very grateful for our willingness to travel so far to provide education for future generations. We've gotten to do tons of work at the site, as well. We've cleared trees and bushes from the land, marked out the buliding, and dug the trenches for the foundations. It's all hard work under the intense African sun, and we usually had to quit after just three or four hours of work, but we got a lot done. We finished off there with a ground-breaking ceremony where we laid the symbolic cornerstone. Now it's up to the second team to continue the work we started.
We also got to do lots of fun things while we were there. We visited two different villages, Farandugu and Bendugu. Farandugu hadn't seen white people since Hope and Les visited there in 1982, so that was an experience for all of us! We came home from that one with a goat and four chickens, all still alive, tied to the top of our Land Cruiser. Fun! We also got to sit in at the NarSarah Clinic for lots of examinations, go into the market to buy groceries for that night's dinner, and even spend an evening at a local nightclub (supervised by Mama Dorcas, of course). Our last day was one to remember - some local boys led us up to the highest point on the mountain behind Kabala. It was an incredible hike up through dense jungle in the fog, and we got to sit on some rocks at the top while the clouds lifted, giving us a panoramic view of Kabala and all the surrounding villages. After that and a final meal of fresh cookies and roast corn off the street, we said our final farewells to our new home and headed back to Makeni.
We're enjoying our day resting in Makeni and looking forward to our last couple of days here. We leave for Freetown early tomorrow morning, where we will wander the markets making final purchases and spend an entire day at the white sand beaches on Sunday. Everyone is relatively healthy, although possibly in need of some protein and a bed bug-free night of sleep (suggested steak dinner upon arrival, parents). We won't be needing any rice for a while. We're all definitely enjoying ourselves and truly feel like we've found a second home here. We might not have another chance to get on the internet, so our next update will probably be once we get home. We'll try to add pictures and videos at that point, so keep checking! Thanks, and see you all back in the States!
Much love,
The Team