On Tuesday evening we took a twin mattress back over to the sisters apartment next door.  As soon as we walked out the door we were immediately aware of thousands of flying insects swarming around us as they were attracted by the light on our phone that we were using as a flashlight.  It was extremely annoying.  When … Continue reading Dinner Swarms

Back home in Houston when it would really get hot during August, it was not uncommon for someone to say “it is hot right now, Africa hot”.  I never knew where the saying came from, and from a quick search on the internet, it doesn’t appear anyone else knows either.  There is a clip from “Biloxi Blues” … Continue reading Africa Hot!

This week we made a trip to a village called Dia, about 14 miles on the other side of Kailahun. There are several members who live there, including the Paramount Chief, his wife and one daughter, but because of the distance to the chapel in Kailahun, they have been requesting that a home group be formed … Continue reading Dia

I will be the first to admit that there is nothing really special about driving in Sierra Leone vs. any other third world country.  Lots of motorcycles, old beat up taxis, vans that are tired from carrying too much weight, thrice-owned lorries (British word used here for trucks or rigs that carry goods) that can no … Continue reading Win – Lose

Yesterday we went with President & Sister Clawson and the Zone Leaders to Kailahun and then to Tongo Field.  Since both of these communities were at the forefront of the civil war that started on 23 March 1991, we thought it would be a good time to write about the war, what caused it and some … Continue reading War!

“The chieftaincy in Sierra Leone was established in 1896, when [Britain’s Colonial] Governor [Frederic] Cardew transformed society by empowering a set of Paramount Chiefs as the sole authority of local government in the newly created Sierra Leone Protectorate. The chiefs remained effectively the only institution of local government until the World Bank sponsored creation of … Continue reading Chiefdoms

The history of Sierra Leone began when the land became inhabited by indigenous people some 2,500 years ago. The dense tropical rainforest helped isolate the region from other West African cultures, and it became a refuge for West Africans escaping violence in neighboring kingdoms. Portuguese explorer Pedro de Sintra first mapped the region in 1462 and … Continue reading Chronicles of Salone

A few weeks ago in our post titled “Harmattan”, I mentioned that I had gone over to a tire repair shop to get air in my front left tire.  As I feared, the air was only a temporary fix.  A week later, I was again low on air so I filled it up at a different shop, … Continue reading Fix-a-Flat

Sierra Leone’s equatorial climate tends to be an ideal environment for all types of bugs.  In many ways, it is similar to the Houston’s climate from March to October.  Since there is rarely a deep freeze in Houston, bugs tend to thrive.  And so it is here, except for two things.  First, there is no such thing as a … Continue reading Pest Control

One of the more interesting practices here is the burning of the weeds along the roadside.  During the rainy season, some of these weeds will grow to be over 6’ tall.  Since there are no tractors with mowers here, at some point these weeds begin to encroach onto the side of the road as they “hang over” … Continue reading Fire!