On Thursday, 23rd April, a few days after the schools in Sierra Leone were officially reopened, I went to visit the school in Karifaia. I was looking forward to seeing cheerful pupils with their teachers, but I was shocked to find no one there. As I drove slowly through the town, I met Hawa Koroma, a young lad who sat his BECE exams this month, and Mary Kabba, who has just been promoted to class six, and they told me that the school would start on the following day, Friday.
I then met Mr. Sendeka, the former regent section chief, and he told me that many students and parents were still afraid to go to school. Unfortunately, I didn’t meet the acting head teacher because he was not in the town, but had gone to his farm. When I asked if there were any teachers in the town, Hawa and Mary told me that all teachers were at their farm.
Many children were in the town, but the teachers were still at their farm!
I continued my journey to Walia, hoping to find a different atmosphere in the school. Surprisingly, on the way there, I met Mr. Mohamed Marah, a community teacher, with his wife, who were toting a bunch of locust (a kind of fruit). They asked me to take them and the locust to the town. I did so with some reluctance. When we reached the school compound, I was startled to see there was no one there and that all the doors were locked. So I went straight to the town and stopped near the house of the head teacher, looking for a place to rest under a mango tree because I was tired. When the town chief came to meet me, some children came too.
They brought benches and a chair for me, then we sat down together under the mango tree.
When I asked where the head teacher was, the town chief, a very simple man, told me that he was in Kabala for a HTC distant course. Where were the other teachers? One of them was in Farana, Guinea, repairing his motorbike. They were unable to say where another one was. The town chief then promised to talk with the people in the community who would come to the town on Friday (the following day) to send their children back to school on the following Monday.
As in Karifaia, I saw children were around the town, though not many. While they gathered around me, sitting down on the benches, I started singing some Koranko songs with them. “Dinimbo kinambo ma ala bato...” “I kana wasu, mba fe mbi bolo...” “Mo wal ming ke la i wole sara sorna...” Then counting... 1, 2, 3, ... then spelling the alphabet... a, b , c... They were all happy. My acceptance of the situation, and the hope that things would be better the following week, lifted my drooping spirits. These children should be back in the class rooms again.
As we were singing, counting and spelling, the town chief asked a big boy to climb the mango tree to pick some for me. The other two boys helped to collect the mangos, they put them in a bag and gave them to me. I knew that they were grateful for my visit and they were expressing this gratitude through the gift of the mangos. What made me really smile, however, was their motivation and determination to get the community to cooperate in the reopening of the schools by sending their children back to the class rooms.
On my way back to Mongo, I met some children in the bush, shouting, “Father... Father...” I stopped to greet them. They approached me and gave me some mangos, and I said to them, “I will come back next week... You must go to school... See you in school!” Then I continued my journey back to Mongo, praying for these children.
This morning, Mr. Foday Kamara, the head teacher of RC Walia, popped in to the mission in Mongo, to apologize for the fact that the school of Walia has not yet opened because of his absence. I told him that words of apology were not enough, that the next step is to ensure that school begins next week. As is common among the people here, the head teacher answered: “Yes, Father, by God power!” This answer reminded me of the words of St. Peter in today’s first reading: The God of all grace who called you to eternal glory in Christ will see that all is well again: he will confirm, strengthen and support you.” (1Pt 5:10). May the reopening of the schools truly pave the way to healing our young people, pupils and students in Sierra Leone.
We must encourage them. It is through us that “God power” will confirm, strengthen and support the people of Sierra Leone.
- FRANCISCUS XAVERIUS SUDARMANTO.
- Mongo, may 2015.
