Things We Didn’t Know...

                Despite our efforts on being on time this past week, we have been unsuccessful mainly because of miscommunication between us and our ride to school. However, Friday was different. We woke up earlier than usual so we were ready and waiting with plenty of time to spare. After three attempts of calling and getting the wrong person, we finally got through on the fourth time. Our friend told us that he was on his way so we waited patiently for his arrival. We waited for 45 minutes and still no ride. Megan was a little worried because she was supposed to teach at 9:00am and it was already 8:45am. We gave our friend another call and he told us that he had been stopped by the police because no vehicles were supposed to be running until 10:00am. This was because it was...General Cleaning Day! We had no idea. On these days the town must stop and clean the streets or their compounds or else they would be arrested. They had this cleaning day because on April 27, 2011, Sierra Leone will be celebrating their 50^th anniversary! All across the country they decorate with flags and painted rocks and walls with the colours of their national flag- green, white and blue! The centre of the town looks beautiful!

                Since there was this cleaning day, our schools were closed in the morning as well. We decided to go back to our house and work on some teaching aids until 10am and then wait by the office for our ride again. We watched the time go by- 10:15am...10:45am...11:00am. By then we assumed that our ride was not coming and that our schools most likely stayed closed (based on what happened on Wednesday and Thursday).  We ended up going back to the house and had a very productive day of making more teacher aids and other assignments.  It was a very nice afternoon, especially with the visits from a couple of friends and some local children!

                Saturday was our market day! We walked around town with two of our friends having our hearts set on buying some beautiful African cloth. What we did not know was the difference between cheap cloth and quality cloth. To us, they feel and look the same, but one type will last a week while the other will last years. We also did not know about the quick tailoring system here! It was very exciting to hear that we could pick up our outfits on Monday already! So excited! A third thing we did not know was how difficult it would be to teach two adults to ride a bicycle, without the use of training wheels.  We attempted to teach two of our friends, but it is a lot more difficult than we thought!  

                 Sunday was a beautiful day where we had the privilege to join the CRC church again in worship. We attended a pre-service and the regular service. Every Sunday, there is a time to give a contribution through song and every time the youth and children and sometimes the women and men of the church prepare something for the congregation. What we did not know was that WE would have to prepare a contribution! One of our friends talked to us on Thursday and said that we should sing something and she would inform the pastor of our contribution. We thought she was joking, but we decided that we should practice just in case. It is a good thing we did because Sunday came and we were asked to sing our songs! We sang “ Humble Thyself/ Our God is an Awesome God” and “ Lord I Lift Your Name on High” in front of 200+ people! It was a little out of our comfort zone, but it was well received and we have been asked to sing again this Sunday for Easter...we will see! Also, the youth have asked us to join them which we are very excited about, especially since the sing a lot better than we do!

                Monday morning was spent working on teacher aids and other planning again. The afternoon we spent in the market, picking up some food and our African outfits. They are so beautiful! In the evening we had a meeting with the headmaster of CRC and then relaxed and played some games for the rest of the night.

                Today, Tuesday, has been a pretty relaxed morning and should be like that the rest of the day. We plan on doing some more preparations for our classroom and that is about it!

We hope that all things are going well at home! Take care and Lata!

Jan and Meg