Buckets of Fun

Yes, I've opted to pun this week. Deal with it.
From Monday morning through late Wednesday night, I lived the dream of aging hippies and crunch types everywhere and went off the grid. To be fair, this was not a spurt of environmentalism brought on by the recent oil spill (which is the only international news we get consistent coverage of), but rather a trip to Kambia District in the northwest corner of Sierra Leone. I spent nearly a week in Kambia in March, through the Leitner Human Rights Clinic, which is how I connected with Sierra Leone in the first place.
To back up slightly, I should provide some details about my work this summer. As I've mentioned previously, I am in Sierra Leone working with the Centre for Safe Motherhood, Youth, and Child Outreach (CESMYCO). During the Spring semester, we conducted fieldwork and research aimed at beginning the process of eradicating female circumcision/female genital mutilation (FC/FGM) through community by-laws. My work this summer will pick up and expand on our recommendations from that project. I am in the process of conducting research to put together a publication on the status of women and children's rights through the customary law system, targeting the operational areas of CESMYCO-- Kambia District, Moyamba District, and Freetown/Western Area. If this project seems overly expansive and untenable, it's because it most likely is. At this point, my objective is to put together as much information as I can and then draw upon the expertise of others in completing my report. As is common with international work, and specifically with local NGOs, everything is subject to & likely to change. The trip to Kambia was my initial research trip, which allowed me to assess the viability of my methodology and adjust accordingly. Since we worked in Kambia in the spring, I already have considerable information about the existing community laws, so I wasn't completely devastated when some of my interviews were less than helpful.
Within Kambia District, we visited three different chiefdoms: Magbema (Kambia Town), Brimaia (Kukuna Town), and Tonko-Limba (Madina Town). CESMYCO was visiting to provide the women with seed rice as part of an alternative employment program. The women have formed into collectives, who will harvest the rice 3-4 times a year and return the loan to CESMYCO, who will establish a seed bank to extend the program. When we talked with women in March, many of them repeated their desire to end the practice of FGM, but the need to continue in order to keep their income. The average income in Sierra Leone is $100/month, with many in the rural areas living on $1-2/day. In contrast, the cost of initiation can be from $100-200 for each girl, which has given the soweis (initiators) considerable power within the community. As the women become economically independent, and more involved with alternative employment, we hope they will end the harmful practice of cutting. Over time, the bondo society could be restructured to train women and girls in skills and to establish these collective groups to provide income.
It is nearly impossible to describe life in Kambia District and the pictures I took hardly do justice. The town of Kambia lies very near the border with Guinea and is reached by a very long poda-poda ride, mostly on bumpy dirt roads-- with even the light rain we had en route, we drove through mini-lakes and rivers formed in the grooves. Everything is swathes of green and red-- fields of grass, crops, and palm trees, contrasted with the reddish brown dust that coats everything. Within minutes of arriving, I felt my skin coat with a layer of the dust, giving me a false sense of suntan that washed off when I finally showered. Kambia is fully "off the grid"-- following the war, there is no national power and no water, so everyone relies on generators and what can be fetched from the well. This meant that there were three hours of electricity each evening, and both showers and toilets were operated by bucket (hence the pun of the title). Once you adjust to the process, it's not too bad, but over three days I managed to get dirtier than I've been in a very long time. When I finally returned to Freetown, I was thrilled to see that we had power (which means hot water and decent pressure) and scrubbed myself clean.
In the next few weeks, I will be going on a similar trip to Moyamba District in the south, and will be excited to compare the landscape to the north. In spite of the dust and the heat, I really enjoyed my time in Kambia-- it's a quieter and slower life. Away from the noise and traffic of Freetown, you can enjoy the millions of stars, children playing football outside, and walking nearly everywhere you need to go. Pictures willl be posted within the next week (hopefully) so you can start to see everything I've been describing.