Diary of My Trip to Sierra Leone Part II

Tuesday, Oct. 28th 2008

I woke up this morning at 7 am and I wished that I was dead. You couldn’t peel my eyelids apart with a pair of pliers, so I just went back to sleep. I woke up again at 7:30 and got out of my, surprisingly, comfortable bed. And if you’re an mk or have been on the mission field don’t pretend that you don’t have pre-conceived notions of what missionary guest-housing beds feel like. Well, I felt kinda king like last night as I slept in under a mosquito net for the first time in over a decade. This wasn’t just any mosquito net it was a purple net and on a bed covered in purple sheets. This was about as close as I’ll probably ever get to my royal 4 poster bed covered in royal linens. I finally got ready and went and really didn’t do much so I decided to join the others in their apartment and I waited for them as they all got ready for the day. Oh, might I mention as well, we had electricity, something of which I was not expecting. We never had 24 hour electricity when I lived here so this was truly a surprise. We’ll see if it lasts… I hope so boy I would die of dehydration in my sleep if I didn’t have a fan at night. They are all finally ready and we went over to Hans and Isha’s for breakfast. It was a fantastic European/African style breakfast. Bread w/ toppings, cereal, oatmeal, juice, and coffee or tea. We ate and till we were full and went back to our apartments to enjoy the peace and quiet for a while before the mayhem begins.
So we got up and finally got our butts in gear and moving and left to walk down the street to the Bank Complex a place “supposedly” right down the street. Now right down the street could be anywhere from right down the street to 15 miles away so I don’t know what were in for but we will see. Well, along the way we passed a road work crew…lol…Now, I know most people right now would be thinking; the stinky smell of tar, orange cones, amazingly weird looking machines, and perfectly flat new roads but let me explain here. See we have machines for everything, but that’s not the case here. You have to “work” here and I think this goes all the way back to the biblical meaning of work, you know like the result of sin kind of work. Cause that’s what it would feel like to me, a real punishment for sin. Anyways this crew was chipping away at the pavement with pickaxes to remove it so that they could repave sometime in the future. Ill let you ponder that, but in the meantime, we made it, and it really wasn’t that far or as far as I was dreading it might be. We got there perfectly in time because as we got there Dr. Jallo pulled up in his Infinity vehicle with his personal driver and his ear drum deafening worn break pads. But non-the less a perfect vehicle for transportation, mind you a 3 seater that 4 of us had to squeeze into. Well, its Africa right, we would be doing this country injustice to not be getting “very” acquainted with each other while we were here. Well, we are heading to the office of the Minister of Social welfare, gender and children’s services. Now that’s a long professional sounding name. I mean, I work for Texas steam so what would I be labeled minister of steam, and I have no office. Geez. Well, we made it and the drive was amazing. I got to see a lot of the city and what a blessing. Guess what we had to do once we got to the minister’s office? Wait! Surprise surprise. We decided to use the time talking about what our plans would be on the trip. The room we were in was very small with no moving air and some leather. Awesome, pleather, in 95 degree weather with 95% humidity… fun fun! Well, we waited for about an hour I would guess until we were finally called back into the office for the meeting. Ok, so get this. We went back to the office/conference room and they opened the door for us to go in and it was like a fridge in there. Yes they had like 3 air conditioners running for the space. Its amazing how nice an air-conditioner feels right now. I won’t bore you with the details of the meeting but I will say that there was something that we have felt might be a leading in our purpose here on this trip. We have been introduced to the extreme intervention needed on behalf of street kids in SL. The need is a simple one, yet very complicated in method, and involves working with neglected youth, disadvantaged children, war orphans and maybe even their immediate families. Wow, we’ve only been here for a day and we all felt encouraged by this meeting and are feeling like we might actually have a purpose beginning to unfold. We are off to lunch now and guess where we are going? Lumli Beach. Wooohoooo! I only spent like 95% of my childhood on those beaches, I’m so excited. Boy, and I have to tell you, we got there and nothing had changed, well, ok that’s a lie there’s a lot of construction on the opposite side of the road from the beach and the restaurants like Patties, and the Venue and all those are not on the beach any more, but it sure looks the same. The sand is as white as ever and there is no place on earth like this where you can see rainforest covered mountains that run right into the sea and frame white palm-tree covered beaches.. Amazing! The other thing too is if you look back towards lower pipe-line and the houses there, there is a huge number of houses more than used to be there. Of course this seems to be a common new thread in Free Town. It’s amazing though how all this rebuilding gives me such a positive feeling about the position of Sierra Leone and the attitudes of its inhabitants. I can’t wait for God to reveal to me the purpose he has for me on this trip. Well we found this little restaurant down at the very end of the beach towards the Mamioko Hotel and right next to the Animal Kingdom Hotel and small amusement park that go together, but for the life of me, I can’t remember the name of the place. Of course you can imagine to that I’m not going to order anything normal off this menu that I could get anywhere in the world. So what do I get, the groundnut stew of course, with lots of pepper. Oh, it was so good. I was sweating like a madman but I didn’t care. The pain was like a reality check to remind me of the trueness of where I was, to remind me this all wasn’t a dream but real, and I was here, eating pepper, chatting with friends, looking out at the sun setting over the Atlantic and just plain, enjoying life. It couldn’t get any better than this. Well, its back home to reflect on the meetings we’ve had today. Its been an amazingly good day, and a hot one too but I can live with that. We had so much that was said to us today that we need to have some time to meet together share our thoughts, pray and just talk through some of this stuff. God is good, and He is really preparing us for something big here, I can feel it, and I am truly excited.

Diary of my Sierra Leone Trip

Sunday, Oct. 26th 2008

Today we have started the incredible journey back to Sierra Leone. Its already been quite an emotional day. Wow, its been so long time since I have been “HOME,” yet it seems like just yesterday I was playing soccer with kids down the street. Big Joe and Mumadu, man I wonder what happened to those guys. Well, I couldn’t sleep last night at all and felt like I was going to explode with anticipation of today and now its here, I’m gonna explode with anticipation of tomorrow. Tomorrow starts a new era in my life and represents the faithfulness of God in so much. He is so good and His love endures forever. It has been one answer to prayer after another but I am still amazed every time at His faithfulness in answering still more of the things I ask. I had an incredible time today at Church but especially catching up with Ron and Sharron Hill and just enjoying the time I had with fellow friends who have the same love for Sierra Leone that I have. We’re on the plane now headed for London Heathrow so the anticipation grows with every hour I spend sitting here. It’s almost as if the years have reversed and I’m sitting here a seventh grader itching to see the place I once held so dear to my heart. One of the amazing things is how much I have wanted to come back and the way I have been given the opportunity to do so. I am bringing with me a love that has spent years maturing through the roller coaster ride of life and is backed with the new found degrees that I have, that I will hopefully be able to use to help in any way that I can within the country. There was really a lot of things that we were supposed to fulfill on this trip but I have come to realize that we have one purpose on this trip and that is to hear. Hear what God has to say to us, and hear what the people have to say to us. Hear where we will be needed the most, and to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit as it whispers to us throughout this trip. Sharron brought up such a great point that I would like to make my prayer tonight. She was saying that she hoped that the needs that I’m sure will present themselves everywhere and will be distracting and could even become a tactic of the devil to lead us astray from the good and strong goals and purposes that God might be calling us to do there. So I’m praying that I will have the discernment to know what God wants me to see from what is a distraction to our purpose for being there. Everyone is falling to sleep right now around me and I am getting a little sleepy and wanting for tomorrow to come. So until tomorrow… We will see what the night brings.

Monday, Oct. 27th 2008

A couple of things that were brought to light tonight. Well, I got up to stretch a while and was confronted by a man who is sitting behind me and we struck up conversation about where we were each going and why we were going there. I was reminded of the lack of love in general for West Africa and its remoteness by the look on his face when I told him we were on a missions trip to Sierra Leone and that I had grown up there. The other thing I was reminded of while reading tonight on the plane was Luke 10:2. We are to pray for more workers but we, I think sometimes forget of the importance of that prayer because we ourselves are trying to be faithful to that role. But I was convicted of that while reading and will try and make it a point to pray for that as we are in Sierra Leone. When I opened my Bible a few min. ago I opened to the passage in Matthew which talks of us being the light of the world and how you are to use that light. You aren’t supposed to hide the light but let it shine. What’s interesting is in biblical times the layout of their homes was very simple. There was a central room where they ate, gathered and did everything. Then there were several small rooms off that central room but they would put one main lamp in the center of that main room and raise it up either on a stand or hung from the ceiling. But its interesting when your reading this passage. The meaning of this is so simple yet very important. The higher you raise the light the more its going to spread through the space. I think as Christians the analogy rings just as true. The higher you live your life, the more you show your Christianity, the more people will be illuminated by Christ in you.
So we made it to London with no problems at all, praise God! We had a couple of hours to kill so we went for breakfast and I had a cappuccino, then we just walked around the airport until we felt ready to move on to the gate. What a treat! We made it to the gate and I heard Krio for the first time in years. Man o man!! I wish it would all come back one hundred percent. But even that would be too much to ask at once. Please God, use me as a tool to further your kingdom and give me the knowledge and memory to recall all that God has given me already. When we got all settled into our seats and were waiting for them to start seating us, I started talking to man that has 2 kids and owns a nightclub/restaurant in Freetown. He said that he is also looking to start a recording studio. During our chat, a woman in the crowd of people started ranting and raving about all kinds of things but was really peeved that a white man had passed her in a line earlier in the day. This one incident to her was enough to get her irate for the rest of the day, and the other thing was that the mistake of one man in her mind was the sin of the people/culture. Makes me wonder, what are the attitudes of the people of SL really going to be like since I left so many years ago, for a war that had no point. That is unless you were seeking power and greed. Will their hearts be hard to our being there, the foreigners that just stood around while their people and their country were destroyed, but claimed love for it in the calm of the storm. We hypocrites! Or are we going to be widely excepted with joy as a new prospect of furthering themselves awaits. I’m really curious to know. We are somewhere over Africa, I think. I just looked out the window and the scene before me was one of mountains and no vegetation, so I must say seems a lot like North Africa. Who knows maybe there is somewhere in Europe that looks this way as well, but I highly doubt it. A few more hours and the hectic airport and we are off on our journey. The real one, where God is going to reveal the secrets that he has for us!I’m so excited!!!!!!
We are here! Ok, oh my gosh, I walked out of the plane and melted. Metaphorically speaking, yes but that’s not what I’m saying. I melted literally. I could feel the beads of sweat joining ranks on my forehead as I walked out of that God-forsaken white bellied beast that had held me captive for probably the longest 6 hours of my life. Now if anyone knows Africa you will totally understand when I say that as the breath from a decade away was taken away from me and I paused at the top of the stairs to survey what was once my most favorite place on earth, I nearly lost my life. Yes, a lady carrying probably 3 times her allowed carry on limit plowed through me like I had somehow mysteriously blended in to the lush green foliage behind me. Well, I slowly made my way down the stairs and across the tarmac to the, emphasis on, “infamous” airport. Carla, you of all people know what I mean about that. Well, I have to say, I was blown away when I walked into the, what seems like at the moment the coldest room I have ever been in. At that moment I could envision the sweat and salt stains somehow beginning to run their courses on my shirt, and for one “brief” moment, I sickly and morbidly wanted to be back outside where the immediate nature inspired sweat would wipe away all that evidence. Oh, geeez what had the States done to me? Well, whatever it had done to me I know now for sure at that moment, that it would all be cruelly undone in the next two weeks in this amazing country. Well, we filled out our immigration cards and went to stand in the foreigners line. I suddenly felt like I was in a cattle chute. So I’m standing there waiting for the stern faced, I hate life, looking fellow sitting in his little white box, they call a booth, to call me up. When I finally got there he started packing up all his stuff. Oh I could feel the fire coming out of my ears, which all to often comes with the battling of lines in Africa. So what do I say? “Do ya Pappa,” “I dun te since ah bin na mi country” He stopped, eyes wide open and jaw dropped as he slowly sits back down looking at me like I’m a weird side show freak. Well, finally he talks and I explain to him that I used to live in Africa. I will say this, that this hard stern faced man was transformed to smile as he heard me struggle my way through this explanation in his native tongue, of which I haven’t spoken in over a decade mind you. So nobody likes the baggage claim part of trips to Africa. The hours of waiting and broken air conditioners, and confusion and lines that would cause a saint to curse, but, I went in and this is not what happened to us. Our bags were already out and I grabbed them and went straight through customs. Which, no lie is what actually happened. We stopped for Cindy to change money, which some guy mysteriously appeared to whisper in our ears that he would give us a good deal. Ok, come on. Do I honestly look green? You give good deals to tourist on trinkets not on an exchange rate. Whatever you guys get my point. Finally we made it outside where I immediately dreamed of the air conditioning. What am I coming to? I was immediately snapped out of my dream at the site of such an amazing friend, Sam Sesay! He was standing right in front of me. Well, the shook my hand and moved on to the next person. So once again to get past the mundane whitiness of my skin, I stopped him and using the rough language I could remember I explained to him who I was. Now, that brought the big smile and hand shake I was truly expecting. We jumped in the vehicle, and by jump I mean the long 30 min process of beating off the baggage carriers, stuffing the bags in an un-thought of and probably not space saving manner, then piling ourselves into this vehicle that was to get us from Lungi to Freetown.
Praise God! We made it to the ferry. Now, I was hoping that there would be some daylight along the way to treat me to a glimpse of my long lost home, Freetown. But the last bit of daylight had faded given way to the sporadic high-low-high-low beams of the vehicle as we fled the airport and made our way to the ferry. Well, the ferry is here! So that is a good thing. We don’t have to wait for it but apparently we still have to wait to go because its not leaving till 9:00 pm and its only 7:30. So on queue from the whiff of the smell coming from my arm pits as I was sitting cramped up in car, I reached over and released the hatch of my door and fell out where everyone quickly followed. Oh, nothing has changed here, save the dress that they wearing, which is way more western. And I guess the guys selling phone-cards. Wow, how are they getting sucked into the technology world? I don’t know but its apparent the flood is coming. Well, we got to sit on the dock and hold it up for 2 hours as we talked. God has some big plans and we all know it and can feel his presence. I was again reminded of Luke 10:2. I see it from a different perspective now. I know its weird but God is speaking to me as were chatting waiting to get on this ferry. We are going to have to entrust our lives to the captain of this ship for a while. See he says, “the harvest is plenty..” not to discourage us from all the work but to encourage us. If you know anything about farming you know the harvest is the point of reward for a years worth of hard work. Farming is not an easy thing and sometimes there is a small or no harvest at all, so I see it as a promise. He is already working in these people and our role is to do the harvesting. Boy I am so excited this revelation. I feel so much more adequate to do what God is calling me to do. Well, their finally letting people on! Yay, now comes the fun part of the trip. More waiting! Brings back memories of the first time that we made this trek across the bay so many years ago.
We had never set foot in this country before in our lives and here we were following our parents who in turn were blindly following the call of Christ in their lives. Here we were sitting on a God-forsaken boat that was only staying afloat by the true grace of God. Well, if the fact that we weren’t taking on water wasn’t miracle enough this is. A SL thunder storm had been brewing while we were crossing the bay and half way through that journey across decided to drop on us. Well, we were tossed back and forth like rag dolls and the crew was forced to drop anchor to keep from having us blown out into the open ocean, of which this boat was definitely not designed. Now, first the rust on the anchor had to be broken loose because it had never been used before and never been broken free of its natural bondage. Gee what a great metaphor this is. Satan always comes as storms in our lives but the ones who are in the boat with Christ can be anchored safely so as not to drift into the unsafe seas of life. Those who don’t believe can through faith break the seams of corrosion to allow Christ to also anchor their own lives in safety. Ok, so that was my first experience in SL on the ferry, and since nothing major happened I leave you with that story of the ferry. Wait maybe I won’t… We did actually have a weird experience. For the first time, while sitting in the crows nest we got to listen to a SL comedian. It said, it was very difficult to listen to because like my American culture, humor almost always has to pick on religion and that’s part of what he was doing. Cindy was baffled by the whole experience and I have to say I was exposed again to the incredibly strong traditional Krio. Hope I’ll be picking it up again, soon! I’m exhausted right now. Two days of travel and I have to say, I’m ready to sleep. Well, were getting ready to land and leave this rust heap and get to where were staying! Gotta go!
Ok, I’m back, so the trip here was not as exciting as I had hoped for. Unlike my black brothers and sisters I’m truly blind in the dark. No street lamps make for some quick sightseeing at night. Oh, I did see the cotton tree though. Odd how pot holed roads and guttered walks are cast in a darkness but the historical tree down town is lit and can be seen from far away. Welcome back! Ok so the European guest-house is where were staying and Hanz and Isha Oosterlo live here. They are so nice….and Scandinavian. He is truly a funny guy and at 11:30 insisted on talking to us in our zombie state before allowing us to retire for the night…. Can you blame them, I mean how much company do you think they really get from overseas. I can’t blame them, I love Africa, but if I were to get visitors I’d follow them right to bed talking their ear off. But that would be weird I guess. Oh, before I forget, and this is probably the most random thing to write about right now but, Hans unearthed two 1800’s canons while building this place. In perfect condition. I have got to see what they could be worth when I get back. How neat is that? Ok on that note, I’m going to bed. I’m about to fall to sleep standing up so I better go, now. Night!

My Newest Adventure!

SIERRA LEONE

God is soooo good. I have been asked to join a team going to Sierra Leone that is there to fulfill a number of different things. I have been asked to go along to help re-establish relationships that we once had back in the day in Sierra Leone and to also use my language skills and knowledge of the country to help lead the team where I can. I have also been asked to help in establishing a relationship between the City of arlington, TX and Sierra Leone. This relationship will hopefully be a prosperous one that will lead to future monetary help sent to Sierra Leone and for help in rebuilding. Thats where I come in also. I will hopefully be the one to help design and help structure this relationship so that it will work properly and may possibly making future trips back and forth to oversee future renovation projects. One of the first projects that is supposed to happen is the rebuilding of Victoria Park in Freetown Sierra Leone. The park has a history all the way back tot he 1870's and is well known to the people of Sierra Leone. Pray for guidance in deciding how to go about doing the reconstruction of this park and how to incorporate the locals to give them a true sense of nationalism and pride in their country and their work. Pray that the Lord uses this opportunity for me to shine and reflect him so that they can see His Love through my actions.

Caffeine Illuminations

CAFFEINE ILLUMINATIONS

Now Taking Orders

Price: $40.00-$100.00
Call: (817) 412-0454
Email: moussadjallo@hotmail.com

When you call or email: Please let me know
1. Address for return (if its a gift for someone please list their
name, address and a brief message if you want one in the box)
2. Preferred Size (small, medium, large)
3. Favorite Colors




Ever wonder what tons of coffee, no sleep and little food lead to? Ha, well cool inventions like this if your me. Well, I guess cool is relative to weather or not your a coffee fiend like I am. I was sitting around a few days ago after having drank a huge amount of coffee and had nothing to do so I started thinking. How can I be productive. Well, I'll let you all be the judge of whether or not that was successful. I do know that it has been a hit with friends and I have actually gotten a few orders. So please. If you want one, let me know. The possibilities are endless and cool new addition to your kitchen starts here, with me. Hope to hear from all of you soon!

Home is Where There is One to Love us

Home is Where There is One to Love us

Home is Where There is One to Love Us

Homes not merely four square walls
Though with drawings hung and gilded.

Home is where affection calls,
Where furniture stands alone and builded
Topped with things that have no value,

Home is where someone calls “salute”

Home is quiet and full of peace
But not for one set of keys.

Home is not merely roof or room
It needs something to fill it.

Home is where love can bloom,
Where beauties hands can fill it.

What is home with none to meet,
None to sing and put me to sleep.

Home is sweet and only sweet
When there’s one for us to meet.

On The Move Again

On the move yet again. I don't know if all of you know, but many of you may already know the details to the next few months and years of my life. But in case you don't and to encourage you to pray for me and my endeavors over these next coming months I am about to Inform you. I am actually packing up and leaving on monday to go towards Dallas/Fort Worth, TX to start school in the near future. As most of you already know I do have a degree in architecture and this has nothing to do with that. I have always had a number of loves that I enjoy doing so I am pursuing one of those. I will be attending, if the Lord wills, Southwestern Baptist Theolgoical Seminary to pursue a degree a Masters in Biblical Archeology and possibly a Doctorate in the near future. So I would love to hear from all of you and to have you especially pray for me in this next week as I will be taking care of a number of details that will make it possible to survive. As of yet I don't have a place to call my own so I need some serious praying as to where I will be living. So here's a small list that applies to me

1. Safety on the Road

2. That I would feel less worried about all the details

3. That a place for me to live will open up soon

4. That details with the school will all work out smoothly

5. That I would make good friends and quickly to help make my transition smoother.

6. That my move would be easy as I am leaving the familiar and going to the unfamiliar

Thank you all for keeping up with my blog and I will be posting some new stuff in the next couple of days then it will probably stop for a week or so then I will be back on again. Hope to hear from all of you soon. Take care and God bless you all. Oh if your interested for any reason ill be adding a link to my school if you want to check it out. Feel free to let me know what you think.

Links:

http://www.swbts.edu/

Canyons

Canyons

Rocky ridges, timeless unmovable symbols,
Unchanging records of histories.
Enveloped, engulfed in this liquid metal
I write, waiting for the fate labeled, “mine.”
Thoughts merely flutter by, as if winged in gold.
Childhood memories flicker
On an unchanging movie screen of life.
It was rocks that taught me to fly
That now drag me down to the depths.
Tied tightly around my heart,
An anchor, fastened by some invisible sailor.
I now reside in
Places of darkness where mere glimmers of light
Seep silently in,
Only long enough to grab my attention, and
Disappear in a shadow of helplessness.
It was my mistake to think that this would be different.
That the canyon of what has been and will be
Would change, for me.
Who am I anyways?
It’s not I who was wrong, but the perspective.
In the unchanging resides the changing,
The right, the wrong
In the good, the bad, and
In the silence of my heart words are spoken.
The words I could never think to put together.