Christmas in Sierra Leone is All I Know…

Ebola stole my Christmas and I want it back!

I want my Christmas back!

‘’Are you coming this year’’
‘’Of course’’
‘’When are you arriving?’’
‘’Oh the 15th of December, I can’t wait!’’
‘’Why did you leave it so late, make it a bit earlier, we have a party on the 11th and I would hate for you to miss it.’’
‘’Oh I wish I could but I can’t make earlier because of work. I’ll make up for lost time when I get there’’
‘’Okay just hurry up and get here’’


Jin jin!!

Oh the memories….

Look Ebola, i do not want any trouble. I just want to claim my Christmas back!


The above is normally the way conversation goes as soon as Christmas starts peeping. We plan long before we get there and without much ado we execute the moment my plane arrives at Lungi airport. The excitement starts building up and all my party bones that have been stiffened over the past months start to come alive.


I left Sierra Leone long ago but the truth is my heart never really left. It's like an unfinished love affair.


Sounds crazy right? Yea I know but I don’t expect everyone to understand. For you to understand you must be in my shoe, laced up like how I tie my laces and step just like I do.


However fret not, you’ll be in the know soon, maybe just maybe I’ll managed to capture an insight for you of what I mean when I say Christmas in sierra Leone is all I know.


With my people, when the Christmas season starts approaching we all get tuned into the same wavelength and frequency. Even though Sometimes we don’t talk all year through, other times, we send the odd text messages here and there but when December slams, we all know what time is it. It’s like the unspoken rule, December is just that time and you do not need to be reminded. We live for Christmas in Sierra Leone.


One our side of the pond, Some may have deposited or bought their ticket long in advance but for me the search for ticket begins because last minute.com is engraved in my DNA, even though this has done me no favours in the past (need to break that habit). Not forgetting the flimsy excuses we carefully and so craftily weave for our employers. Hey don’t judge me.  My aunt once said ‘’You got to do what you got to do’’ and I tell ya, she haven’t lied.

Shhh...

Ooh the things I’ll do and the things I’ll give for my Christmas in Sierra Leone.



In Sierra Leone however is where the real planning gets down. The list of parties, chilling, and beach outings all set up so by the time I get there…everything is sorted and I am spoilt for choice. At home I am spoilt for choice with all sorts of African food and snacks which I have so been deprived of over the past months and the pampering, I dare not go into it. Waking up to the ever smiling and happy faces of my cousins alone is enough reason for me to claim my Christmas back.


Ebola I want my Christmas back!


Freetown city is home. Freetown is where I come alive. Wind sweeping across my face and the smell of street food that is oh so familiar glazed with the whistling and screeching sound of car horns and the odd vulgar blasts from drivers and okadas, the city always welcomes me with open arms. What’s more welcoming than that.

The tantalizing smell of street food - Fry fry

The ever joyful Okada Drivers with that glorious potty mouth!

With series of sleepless nights and nonstop raving, when I say I’ll make up for lost time, believe me, I’m not kidding.  My Christmas holiday starts the day, the hour and the minute I arrive. No time to waste, I waited all year for this moment. All I need to do is drop my baggage home, ferociously squander my aunt’s freshly prepared cassava leaves with ample fresh fish on a bed of rice and I’m ready for the night.


Christmas in Sierra Leone is all i know!


Happy as a lark. Free as a bird. Without a care in this world. The motto for the holidays is fun. No matter how the night pan out, no matter what happens, we just make sure we’re having fun.

We party like its 99’

My friends all come from different countries and occupational backgrounds, we all come from different tribes and clans but When we meet it’s like we never left, it’s like we sprung from the same stem and frankly speaking we do. We have a full year’s catch up, reminisce, relish every passing minute and make some more sweet memories that will take us through the next 12 months.


When we meet we party like its 99’. We raise hell and roofs and paint the city red. We forget what sleep is and throw all rules through the window. We just party like there’s no tomorrow and we are damn good at it. We make sure we are in the know of every party and get together, every beach chilling and every street carnival. Sometimes we manage to double book ourselves just like the fable spider.


Other evenings or days are spent by the seaside, just in case you haven’t heard, Sierra Leone is home of some of the finest and most beautiful beaches you will need to put on your bucket list. Blue sea and golden sand, other places, you’ll see white sand and most beautiful view. Yea our beaches got swag like that. Imagine spending time there with friends, music, food, games, good conversation and all the essentials in the red cup. Your day is made!

....friends, music, food, games, good conversation
& all the essentials in the cup. 

There are places waiting for me to explore and experience.


....I want my Christmas back!


It’s not always about the big night outs. Some nights you will catch us in one of our friends’ houses, eating in the kitchen from their mum’s pot some solid cassava leaves with our five fingers and when that is done we move to the ‘’krawo’’. Now that is where all goodness is at and that’s a whole new party right there washed down with several bottles of the great cousin Heineken.


And you truly and really haven’t experienced true friendship till you’ve scraped the bottom of a pot together with people who you party and have a good time with. I am grateful for people like these.


True and real Friendship…. We do not need a lot, just the right people at the right spot.
For all the simple pleasures and all those treasured nights….

I am claiming my Christmas back.



Other times we will start off the night at a nice chilled out spot and slowly and surely with the ever trusted help of Uncle Jackie and his nephew Mr Henny and the rest of the family we arrive! Soul, body and spirit. When I say we arrive, we arrive in full force and fully ready for whatever the night throws at us and where we end up sometimes I can’t even say because we do not have a set plan but when we are together, things happen, elements fall into place and life is just uber beautiful.

Christmas in Sierra Leone is all i know!

The sight of familiar places and faces, warm hugs and smiles, cheers and laughter are all the elements of Christmas for me. The nights that ends in jaw-aching laughter, the loud mornings from music blaring from the sitting room or from the CD sellers and okada (commercial motorcycles) drivers opposite my house, the afternoons spent buying all sorts of street food from smoke fish to jelly to oontoo…from the comfort of my veranda. The nights that end on the kankankan stand (Roasted meat) and the nights that are sealed with plates of fried rice and chicken…

The nights that are sealed with plates of fried rice and chicken…

The Sunday church service that is ever so blessed with carols and sermons, giving me a blast from my childhood. All dressed in the night’s gear, we do our little marathon to our local church on new year’s eve just before the clock strikes 12, thinking our little sins will be washed away for the new year…yea right!!

The Sunday Church Service...

Then the church bells and whistles and horns and chanting of ‘’Happy New Year’’ begins, sweeping little rays of happiness in the air. These are all the things that oozes Christmas for me. These are the times I live for and that is the Christmas I know.

 Give me back my Christmas! 

Christmas this year is going to be spent somewhere that is not home, somewhere that I can’t call my own, somewhere I’ll forever be a foreigner. This was not the dream. Christmas is going to be bitterly cold, possibly white and definitely not my Christmas that I am used to.

The turkey, the chicken, the holly, the lights, the white Christmas, the scarves and the gloves and the knee length boots was never my idea of Christmas. Neither was the dark, cold and gloomy weather a part of my description of Christmas.

The lights, the white Christmas, the scarves and the gloves...
not my idea of Christmas!

Ebola crippled my Christmas. I want my Christmas back!



For the longest of time, I have a description of Christmas in my head and in my mind but Ebola took that away from me.

 Ebola ripped me off my Christmas.

 Ebola stole my Christmas one-handedly.

 Ebola left me with no choice.

Sierra Leone - Sussex Beach!

When I say Christmas in Sierra Leone is all I know, please understand.

This is all i know...Lumley Beach!  -Sierra Leone

Because of the times we chose to make memories with the fun times we’ve had, the beautiful moments filled with laughter and endless joy I am able to write this article and walk down memory lane. Imagine if I didn’t have any memories to look back on, or moments of laughter to put a smile on my face or that pang of excitement to fuel my zeal for this walk….imagine.

I think I would have found it very difficult and then I would have realised something bitter and painful.


 I would have realised that Ebola have won.


While you’re here, soak up every ounce of beautiful, joy and laughter while you can. Bask in every ray of sunshine and happiness. Dance in the rain and enjoy the small moment. No matter how little and simple things and situation may seem, find time to be grateful because one day, what we took for granted, What was looked upon as nothing will become a daily prayer request.

Without memories like this...Ebola would have won! 

Soak up every ounce of beautiful!

Refuse to leave this world unhappy and unfulfilled. Refuse to drown in fear, pain and illness OR any financial constraints. Refuse to be labelled and defined by your scars. Live so well that death will know you have no interest in dying!

2015 we’re coming!

Ebola you have to find a new home. We’ve had it with you. We are claiming our Christmas back.


We are claiming our lives back, our families and our country back. We will fight you with every ounce of strength left in us. Some of us, Sierra Leone was all we had but you ruthlessly took it away from us….and left us crying.

Ebola you ripped us off our festive season, birthdays and anniversaries, businesses and livelihood. Why? You snatched our whole lives right in front of our eyes.



I want my Christmas back. 



Ebola I am claiming my Christmas back. Sierra Leoneans and all our neighbouring countries that have been deprived of the festive season and so many other things, lets hang on to the good times. Let’s remember what it once used to be. Let’s allow those memory to propel us into a better 2015.

Let’s allow these memories to propel us into a better 2015.

 ~Sierra Leone, Lumley Beach

Let’s pray hard and never lose hope. Let’s change our attitude and act like Ebola is real and out to kill. Let’s not be foolish but conscious, conscious enough to know that with God all things are possible but God helps those who helps themselves.

Africa shall rise again. West Africa shall thrive again. Our lives and losses shall be restored in thousand folds because Our God is not dead.

Let’s just use this time to thank God for our lives and praise Him for what he is yet to do. In all situation be grateful.

Christmas in Sierra Leone is all I know and now I am claiming my Christmas back!












We are done feeling sorry for ourselves, 
we are done crying.
It's time to wipe our tears 
and take action!

Plausible action to claim and restore our Christmas back!

Merry christmas & 

a Prosperous New Year

Till then



Xoxo

OPEN LETTER TO H.E. DR ERNEST BAI KOROMA

Hello AGAIN,

Before I go any further let me just start by reassuring you that I bring nothing short of excellence to you. 

So I came across this piece of excellence and I thought to share.  I will be very selfish not to share such a gem with you guys. It got me thinking and it was a wakeup call, even to a commoner like me. Maybe just maybe, it’ll do something for you too.

Let me just quickly add that it hits all the right spot the only thing missing is the arm for it to reach out to the right people concerned. The people who are in charge, the people who can trigger massive change in our Beloved Sierra Leone.

Our Beloved Sierra Leone
~Number 2 Beach

It has been too long, it has been way too long that the people have been crying. The Ebola Virus outbreak just showed how much of a lack we were living in as a country especially the big hole in education and healthcare. 

This is not to bash anyone but to wake up our leaders to the real issues, the real problems that is hindering our development as a whole. How can a country so blessed with such rich mineral resources be one of the poorest?!

This is a question we must ponder on. 

Below is the article from http://thenetworkforchange.wordpress.com/

H.E Dr Ernest Bai Koroma
~President Of Sierra Leone

“I am disappointed at the international community in their delay in responding towards the fight against the deadly Ebola virus in Sierra Leone,” the President said. “We have not been provided with enough equipment, resources, qualified health officers, and we have lost the only expert we had in the country to the disease amidst the declaration of the international health emergency on Ebola” (http://news.yahoo.com/sierra-leone-appeals-18m-plug-ebola-funding-gap-220451048.html)

Reply:  Mr. President, we are disappointed in your government.  We are disappointed in the response or non-thereof, of your government towards the fight against the deadly Ebola virus.

Let’s start from the very beginning Sir. You have been in power for about 7 years. Your election campaign contained several promises which included tackling corruption, upgrading education, providing electricity and clean water etc.

Regarding corruption: Despite being one of the government’s central policy initiatives, fighting Sierra Leone’s endemic problem with corruption appears, in practice, to have become an increasingly marginalized objective.  Although the powers of the country’s Anti-Corruption Commission have been strengthened and some high-level prosecutions have raised its profile, it has failed to ensure convictions and has remained selective with its investigations; causing disappointment among the general public. As a result, corruption remains a serious concern and affects people’s trust in the state bureaucracy, as well as the functioning of the government.  Reducing it by about 5% is not good enough Sir. It is an insult to every Sierra Leonean that in 2014, you still allow members of your government to blatantly engage in corrupt practices.

We are not fools and we clearly see how you and yours suck Sierra Leone dry. The consequences of your government’s corrupt practices are children dying, children malnourished, children going to bed hungry, families starving and living in deplorable conditions and the majority of Sierra Leoneans living in abject poverty.  The UN human development index not only ranks Sierra Leone amongst the poorest countries in the world, life expectancy is below 35 years. Plus the high cost of living makes Sierra Leone hell for most of its citizens. The inflation rate is steadily rising every year and was recorded at 10% (Country Report by Economist Intelligence Unit, London July 2014) at the start of this year.  For a man who was dubbed “the world’s best” when you assumed office, you have not lived up to that title and Sierra Leoneans now hold a different perception of you and your government.

Mr. President, take a moment and look into the eyes of a dying child, a hungry child or a poor mother who cannot provide for her family and allow yourself to do the right thing.  Remember you were elected to serve the people. What could you possible need tens of millions of dollars for? What do you need several cars for?  How many houses do you need?  Do you realize how ridiculous it makes us look to the rest of the world?  The average reasonable man cannot wrap his head around such gross selfishness. Frankly speaking the money is not even yours. Give it back.

Sir, Sierra Leone is not as poor as you make us look, though you and your government officials are far from poor. Personally you are worth more than most western presidents (http://www.thenewpeople.com/national-news/item/2190-ernest-koroma-now-4th-richest-president-in-africa); how come you still go begging to people you are richer than?  It was reported by the World Bank that for 2013, Sierra Leone’s income was nearly $5billion, (http://data.worldbank.org/country/sierra-leone) an all-time high.  What happened to all that money? It certainly did not trickle down to the masses.  I am quite puzzled that considering we mine several minerals (diamond, bauxite, iron ore, rutile etc.), we fish, and we export agricultural goods, the average Sierra Leonean does not benefit from the country’s wealth.  I am no economist, in fact I have zero knowledge of this subject, but I and many other Sierra Leoneans possess common sense. Sense enough to see that you are failing us.

Regarding education: Sir, about 65% of Sierra Leoneans are illiterate(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_literacy_rate). Considering we have a population of six million people. That is three million nine hundred thousand citizens. Why is that? Sierra Leone had the first university in West Africa; Sierra Leone was called the ‘Athens of West Africa’.  Where did it go wrong?  Between 2007 to the present day, can your government boast of any major achievement in education?  Take into consideration the deplorable state of the Fourah Bay College, the plight of teachers and the conditions that children are expected to learn in before you answer the question.

Let’s take a little peek at the Supplementary Appropriation Act 2014.  The Supplementary Act approved by Parliament on the 10th July 2014 provides revisions to the existing 2014 budget.  The supplementary budget in total was Le266billion. It allocates Le7billion to education whilst the military spending budget is nearly Le50billion (http://awoko.org/2014/07/11/sierra-leone-news-coopers-eyes-4/). This means that the military budget is more than 7 times the education budget. The military officer’s uniforms allocation (Le10billion) alone is more than the education budget. Why is that Sir?  I understand how important security is but for a country not at war, this disparity is hard to understand.  Is it a deliberate ploy by every government we have had in Sierra Leone to keep the people in the dark so they can get away with corruption? I also noticed that ‘Teenage Pregnancy’ in the budget is allocated Le2.2billion (http://awoko.org/2014/07/11/sierra-leone-news-coopers-eyes-4/) I don’t quite understand what ‘Teenage Pregnancy’ means in this context and why it needs Le2.2billion. Is the money going to be distributed to young mothers to help them raise the children? Is it to educate young girls on safe sex? If so, don’t you think Le2.2billion is a bit excessive? I am yet to see any billboards or programs on TV and radio addressing this issue.

Back to education; the Ebola outbreak has further strengthened the case for more spending on education. It has spread like wildfire and the main reason is because the masses cannot grasp the importance of the message that Ebola is highly infectious.   How do you expect uneducated people to act responsibly when you have not shown them how to be responsible?  Now we are dying. Good people are dying, young people are dying, and babies are dying mostly because of the negligence of your government.  Forget conspiracy theories on how Ebola got to West Africa.  Let’s concentrate on post Ebola and your government’s response to it.  It took you several months to make a statement on this issue. In a publication dated 22nd July 2014, the Minister of Health is said to have told Umaru Fofanah that your government had the Ebola virus under control.  Her exact words were “We are at a serious point but I will not say it is out of control” (http://politicosl.com/2014/07/interview-sierra-leone-health-minister-on-ebola/).  Umaru Fofanah, being an international journalist communicated to the world what your Minister told him.  Even though hundreds had died by then it was still not considered an ‘emergency’.  I would think one dead Sierra Leonean is one too many.  Fast forward a month later, hundreds more dead and very obvious that the government does not (or ever did) have the Ebola outbreak under control, you choose to shift blame unto the international community, even though a month earlier you were telling the world your government had the outbreak under control.

There were calls to close the border with Guinea and put health officials around every border town as a preventive measure.  That did not happen and now Sierra Leone is at risk of being shut off by the world. Your government is now scrambling.  An Ebola task force was only created four months after the outbreak hit Sierra Leone.  Please outline exactly what measures or strategies were put in place by the Ministry of Health during the first four months of the outbreak or what preventive steps were taken even before the Ebola outbreak spread to Sierra Leone.  Some days I wish someone could wave a magic wand and make Ebola go away but considering Ebola is resistant to magic we’ve got to find other ways to fight it.  I’m aware that the current magnitude of this disease is now beyond the capability of Sierra Leone and we desperately need help, but trying to shift all the blame to the international community? No Sir it doesn’t work that way.  Stop politicizing the situation.  Accept fault and your people will appreciate you for your honesty.  Take the Liberian President for example; she apologized to her nation. You have hardly made more than 3 speeches to Sierra Leoneans.  Why can’t we take care of our own?  Members of your government are worth in total over a billion dollars.  Why couldn’t you give back some of what you’ve made from Sierra Leone?   Again I stress, that money is not yours. Give it back.

Mr. President, like every man I’m sure you want to be respected. Well understand this too, Sierra Leoneans want to be respected. We are tired of being considered amongst the poorest countries or the most corrupt or the country with the highest infant mortality rate. What we all fail to realize however is that we will not be respected if we don’t take care of our own; we will not be respected if we do not stop being selfish; we will not be respected if we do not respect Sierra Leone. Respect is earned Sir.  The international community owes us nothing.  It is not their duty to ‘fix’ Sierra Leone.  It is our duty as Sierra Leoneans to do so ourselves.

You have three more years of your presidential term remaining.  I charge you Sir, start the change.  We voted you in because we saw you as the best candidate to move Sierra Leone forward.  We all know you can do more.  You know you can do more.  Think of your legacy; it’s not too late but it needs to start now.  Be a ‘hard man’ if you must.  Let heads roll if they must.  All we ask is that you love Sierra Leone like a father would love his home and his children.  Our forefathers set the foundation for greatness. Let’s stop settling for mediocrity.

 PS:  The author of this letter has voted once in his life, in 2007, for H E Ernest Bai Koroma.

http://thenetworkforchange.wordpress.com/2014/08/16/open-letter-to-h-e-dr-ernest-bai

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