Rhythm of the Earth

Jokibu, Sierra Leone

Before coming to Sierra Leone, I had read several books on economic development to learn more about the problems faced by the extreme poor. Each of these books agreed that effort, hard work and determination were not the problem.

During our time in the villages here in eastern Sierra Leone, it had become clear that the extreme poor work extremely hard each day in the process of their survival. From a very young age, children help with the work of the family, including farming, carrying water, preparing meals and hauling loads balanced on their heads. The work to be done each day is literally back-breaking. As a middle-aged American, I watch the way people bend over their work cooking, washing clothes, planting, weeding, cutting brush, and I marvel that they don’t have more back problems than they do.

A previous traveler from Plymouth said that life here is in rhythm with the earth, a particularly apt description. The sun rises and sets nearly the same time each day throughout the year, and people in the village begin their day before dusk and wind down after sunset. When it is dark, people will sit on their porches or in their homes and talk by flashlight. Last night, four of our group had dinner with a family in Foindu, and as dinner was ending, the rain came. We sat in near dark listening to the thunderous sound of rain on a zinc roof that the family felt tremendous gratitude for having. Before, they sat under thatch that leaked constantly, or had a tarp that wore out and leaked after a year.

Just as there is no shortage of a willingness to work, there is a constant desire to learn and find ways to improve their lives. They are very smart people, and grasp new concepts very quickly. In fact, the longer I am here, the fewer differences I see between us.

Economists have spent a great deal of time studying poverty in the world and state as fact that the single greatest determinant of your economic status is where you where born. The thought has occurred to me on numerous occasions that the main difference between my life and the lives of my friends Sowah Momoh, Siaka Brima, Karim Abu and others is not a result of me being smarter, harder working or more resourceful, but simply that I was born in the wealthiest country in the world and they were born in the poorest.