Day 6: New Year's Day

Ishmael, Aminata, and I walking through Bo

Before the walking tour 

Family's old house

House the CRC children built

CKC Crocodile

Little boy from the walk

 This morning I woke up to go to Centenary Methodist Church with Paul, Les, Nicky, Darlene and Deb. I wanted to go here because I was hoping to walk to the original CRC building, as that was where it all started and I wanted to tell my Dad I'd seen it. The service was nice because the minister spoke in English and was slow enough to understand everything. Since it was New Year's day, they had a lot of special events take place. For instance, there were five different offerings. Five. At first, I was irritated because we'd been in church for three hours and I didn't understand the point of doing a fourth and fifth offering. But as I sat there, staring down the clock and most everyone walk up time after time to drop another Leone into the collection plate, I felt God call me out. I don't tithe. These people were dancing up their offering for the fifth time in a row and I don't tithe. Yikes. A lot of the older kids sing in the choir at Cetenary so it was cool to watch them. I also learned that my grandparent's church, and the church my dad grew up in, paid for the Pastor's tuition to seminary. Small world! Auntie Hannah sat behind us and she is the most passionate worshiper. She dances and sings so happily. I told her that she was an inspiration to worship with. She gave me a hug and said "I am happiest when I am singing the praises of my King." Faith is so real and authentic there. Church ended after 4 and a half hours and I didn't get to see the original CRC. Looking back, it wasn't a big deal but I may have been a little bitter by the time we returned to the MTC. And I am definitely never complaining about a service at Floris being over an hour and fifteen minutes again. Ever. After a much needed lunch, we went on a walking tour of Bo. Our first stop was the old forest house, which is where the mission teams stayed before the MTC was built. Ganda showed me the screen porch and said "Kathryn Berlin, this is where your father slept." I remembered all the apologies my dad has made- leaving us when we were really little on his 3 week long trips to Sierra Leone, us girls complaining that he had another meeting, missing my birthday twice in a row. I actually teared up imagining him sleeping on the floor of the porch. I couldn't be prouder of him. Next, they showed us the house they'd built for a family who lived by the forest house. I thought it was amazing that these kids were being taught to give back to their community with such a large scale service project. That is the most important thing the CRC can teach them as these kids are the future leaders of their country. Abdulai told me about his housing project. He doesn't eat lunch and saves that money to build houses for people. He talked about how important it is for him to give back because there are so many people who didn't get the chance he did. I was speechless. Then we went to Christ the King College and saw their notorious mascot- a 54 year old crocodile. If the boys get punished there, they have to clean out the crocodile cage and feed it. Only in Sierra Leone. I spent the walk talking with Ishmael. He mentioned he was a fast runner so I challenged him to a race the next day. We spent the rest of the walk jokingly trash talking each other. I really liked hanging out with him and Ganda on the walk because they were so real with me and it was a change of pace from playing with the little kids. It was cool to hang out and really talk with someone my own age- not just have surface conversations. We also had a competition of who could balance a water bottle on our heads the longest. I really hung in there and the kids were going crazy for it- "Kathryn Berlin is from Africa!" Regina and Veronica also taught me some words in Creole. I learned that "I love you" in Creole is "I like you." Talk about a disappointment. I was wearing this dumb shirt I got at a track meet that says "Pizza is the best". Ganda and I were talking when he said, "Kathryn, I must ask you. What is pizza? And why is it the best?" That killed me. He wasn't that impressed when I told him it was bread, tomato sauce, and cheese with toppings. The walk opened my eyes to the poverty outside the CRC. The compound is so warm and happy that you often forget you are in a third world country. One boy from town walked up beside me and kept gazing up at me and smiling shyly. I kept asking him if he knew how to get home, where his family was, but he would nod and smile, clearly not understanding my English. We stopped to have snack, and Ganda handed the little boy one. There were a couple kids who attended VBS but lived in town, so I thought maybe this child knew us and when he reached to hold my hand, I let him. Another 10 minutes passed when Ganda asked me if I knew him. I said that he'd been following me and that he stayed with me after snack. I felt horrible when Ganda said that it was against policy and that we could get in trouble since we didn't know him. He told the boy in creole to go home. The little boy looked scared and squeezed my arm, not letting go. This time, Ganda raised his voice and pointed for him to leave. His lip started to quiver and Ganda broke his grasp from my arm. I had to tell myself not to look back, feeling guilty tears well up in my eyes. I wish every child could live at the CRC. The 4 mile walk was tiring, but the kids never run out of energy. We played with them the rest of the afternoon and had a dance party after dinner. Aminata has become my special girl and loves teaching me her moves. That night, the kids had their election speeches. I was so tired I dozed off with little Kemoh asleep in my lap. We all returned to the MTC and I had my devotion. I was really nervous about it because I am bad at talking in front of people so I had written a devotional about sky diving while I was still home. I ended up throwing it out because of the conviction I'd felt at church. I was unprepared, but ended up talking about New Year's resolutions that had been brought to our attention since coming to Sierra Leone- mine being to tithe. I realized how silly it is to save up for expensive, leisure experiences like skydiving and not give 10% a month to the church. It took me coming all the way to Sierra Leone to figure that one out. And what's more, I want to dance my offering up- to be joyful about giving my money up to God instead of doing it because I feel like I have to. As we went around the room and talked about our resolutions, I found myself nodding along with what everyone was saying. There are a lot of things I want to improve on this year. To name a few, I need to start going to church at school, having more intentional conversations with friends, praying, being more loving, not taking things for granted, and reading my Bible. It is amazing how much these kids have taught us about ourselves and given us a new perspective.