Beautiful Country

 

This truly is a beautiful country. People keep telling me it’s the dry season, but everything is still so green here! I couldn’t help but admire the surrounding landscape as I took my walk yesterday. The mango trees and flowers and the hills surrounding the city are so lovely! This time I was able to have a real, honest to goodness walk. I went all the way to the University of Makeni because I wanted to return a plate to the canteen on campus. Now that I’m no longer getting my meals from there, I wanted to make sure they got everything back. I was able to walk there and back without getting too exhausted. Though, I still got very sweaty and tired. I was grateful when a girl my age and her two brothers offered to have me sit on their porch. Everyone always wants me to come and sit on their porches and talk, or listen to me, or watch a TikTok video on their phone. They sometimes ask me to sing with them, which I love!

I got to see where Auntie P lives. She saw me on my walk and had me come and talk with her and her two sons. Their names are James and Peter. She is so proud of them. She tells me how smart they are and how she hopes they will go to university one day. They all live with her mother-in-law. Her husband is a pharmacist in Freetown. He’s only able to visit occasionally. It seems that most jobs are in Freetown and families get separated by the need and the distance. I really love Auntie P’s cooking. After having so much spicy, fried food, I asked her to make food without too many spices. Having bland, plain food has really helped my stomach to finally settle. She also does such a good job with the cooking and the cleaning and the laundry (or brookin as they say in Krio). She even gave me some mangos and avocados as a gift! I got to have avocado toast for breakfast!

Today I went to Holy Spirit Church for mass. Everyone in Sierra Leone dresses in such bright colors for mass. For people here, mass is when everyone wears their best outfits and accessories. It’s like my mom taught me when I was a little girl, “You dress in your best for church because you are going to worship the King of kings.” I can’t help but feel that the outfits they wear here would look ridiculous in the States. But here, they look so sharp! Here a man can wear a button up shirt the same color as a traffic cone and black and white checkered dress pants sporting neon pink suspenders and a gold watch chain and he looks fabulous! Today I really admired one woman in the choir wearing an ice blue mermaid gown with a matching headband tied over her forehead. She looked like she was about to perform an 80s ballad

I couldn’t go to choir practice yesterday because I couldn’t find a driver, but the choir leader said it didn’t matter, and I could sing with the choir anyway. Some songs I can catch on to quickly because they repeat phrases so often. But other songs I could only just clap to because I had no idea what the lyrics were. If you want a mental image of what I looked like up there with the choir, I encourage you to watch the movie Forrest Gump and find the scene with him in the Gospel Church choir (although I didn’t have a Lieutenant Dan watching me from the back in his wheelchair). We did sing “I’ve Got Peace Like a River” and “The Servant Song”. I know those songs very well and was happy to sing them.

After mass, one of the choir members took me aside and said on Good Friday they are putting on a play of The Crucifixion and she wanted me to be in it as the part of Mary. I told her I would love to! I love acting. But I told her I’ve been having trouble finding a driver to take me to church and other places. We told Sister Peace about it, and she said we could ask Father Agustus (who works at the hospital), if he can help. Honestly, I’d love to play Mary, but I don’t think it’s a good idea to give me such a big part since there’s no guarantee I’ll be able to make it to any of the practices. I’d be fine with a smaller part, like one of the weeping women or something.

I feel so frustrated that I can’t go places without a driver. I know Conforti Church is closer, and I can always join their choir, but Holy Spirit seems to have more things going on with their young adults and I want to make friends and get involved there. I’m tempted to just walk over there by myself. I’m not going to do that, it’s too far. But I’m still tempted. I couldn’t even stay for a Young Adult meeting after mass because the Sisters drove me to the church, and they had to leave right after. I don’t want to be separated from everything while I’m here. For the first time in my life, I want to be involved in something. I’m usually the person who must be encouraged to get involved in things. But here, I want to do that on my own!

Time Skip

So I was able to get to the play practice today! Sheku, Janice’s friend, came to visit me and he offered to drive me to play practice! I got there just in time. I found out it’s not The Crucifixion we’re doing; it’s The Last Supper and The Trial put together. And I wouldn’t be playing Mother Mary, I would be playing Mary Magdalene who only has one line, which makes me feel so much better about participating.

We all read through the script twice. The first time in English, the second time in Krio. I hope I can make it to more play practices somehow. I can’t rely on Sheku every time. Jesus is going to be played by a young man named Cornelious. He is also a missionary except he is from Nigeria. I don’t think we have a solid idea who is going to play everyone else yet. They had me read for the servant girl who confronts Peter (saying the lines in Krio was hard). Mary Magdalene just says “Jesus! Jesus! Jesus!” at the end of the play, so I think I got this! I’m so glad I got to go to practice!