Money, money, money

Money is the root of all evil, I'm convinced of that. People who haven't got money become desperate for it and people who do have money want more!!

A lot of the recent problems I've been having and hearing about in Sierra Leone have been caused by money. People come here wanting to help and one thing they get asked for a lot is financial help. It can be very intense and uncomfortable for the people being asked and I think people sometimes feel like they can't say no, but I think giving money too freely can cause many more problems than it solves.

Some of our students tag onto charity groups and ask for money. Sometimes money is given to these youngsters without their parents knowing - three problem that this can cause spring to mind:

• Firstly it can create a dependency on the foreigners, the kids get used to being given easy money and any little problem and they'll be back asking for more.....they will more than likely expect you to send money once you've returned home too.
• Secondly the young people have no idea how to manage money, they might buy a pair of trainers or a phone while Mum is at home with no food to feed the family.
• Thirdly it can create discipline problems within the family, the kid goes home and mum or dad tells them to fetch water......and get the response, 'you can't tell me what to do, you aren't the one that takes care of me' (some of the parents have told me this happens)

Its great when people come to Sierra Leone to help, and I don't want to put people off from coming......but if you've got teens and younger asking for money stop and think to yourself 'would I want a foreigner I've never met giving my kids money without my knowledge'. If there's a genuine need talk to the families, get advice from people who live in country and understand the culture a little more, try to think of ways to assist that can help the families to become self sufficient.

I'm not criticising anyone, just trying to think of ways we can really help, really make a difference and from what I see and hear daily I really don't think giving money - especially to kids - is the answer.....I've made plenty of mistakes myself and I'm sure I'll make more. I've been ripped off more than once too!!

I know one thing....money alone doesn't solve problems, it creates them.

My Day - Registration

This was my registration day:

3:30 woken by the man who goes around the neighbourhood calling out to wake people for their sokoli meal

4:00 still awake as now the mosque is calling people for prayer

6:00 woken again, this time by the rain coming through the window straight onto my bed

07:45 called Bob then fed the chickens, my favourite way to start the day

8:15 left home to go and register, as every foreigner has to as part of civil registration

9:30 arrived at the school where the registration takes place and joined the queue

12:30 finished registration process (and chatted to some lovely people while I was waiting!!). One of the registration questions was what time was I born, I don't think I've ever been asked that before.

14:15 arrived back in my area and stopped to pick up a MoneyGram. They said the code wasn't recognised so spent a while working that out

16:00 left MoneyGram place after counting all the funds to make sure it was correct. The largest note here is 10,000 leones which is about £1.13. Unfortunately they had run out of 10,000 notes so the whole amount was in 5,000 notes (about 56p).....there were a lot of notes to count!!

16.15 got back home and caught up on a bit of emailing

17:00 started to prepare food for the evening before it gets dark as no electricity

19:10 evening meal of Spanish omelette timed to coincide with the time those fasting for Ramadan could break their fast then spent the rest of the evening catching up with friends and family on social media (WhatsApp has made staying in touch a lot easier). Sent a postcard to Bob from the STANNP application.

11:45 time for bed

So all in all I was out for 8 hours just to register and collect some money. I'm happy to have got the registration done, I only heard about it the day before but it's a legal requirement for all foreigners who are resident in country for more than 90 days. We will be issued with an id card later in the year.

RIP 'M'

Way back in September 2015 I made a couple of posts about a girl I referred to as 'M'. When I first came across her she was in a terrible condition, because of some of her behaviours the home she was living in found it hard to integrate her with the other children. Someone kindly provided funds through Mission Direct (the mission I was with before Transform Salone) and someone was employed to take care of her, which meant her life was much improved and she was allowed to live in the main house alongside the other children.

I was very sad to hear that she passed away last month (May 2017).

RIP you lovely girl xxx