Comparing notes
on Freetown Blog (Sierra Leone), 12/Nov/2009 11:57, 34 days ago
In my previous experience of VSO in Uganda, the organisation was very strongly British. Almost all of the volunteers were British; the Country Director  was British; as was his Assistant (me). There were Ugandans on the staff, but they worked as secretaries, drivers and junior support staff. Twenty five years on, the staff in the VSO office here are all Sierra Leonian, with the exception of the Country Director, who is Eritrean. But more remarkable is the fact that the British Volunteers are significantly in the minority, as the majority are from other African countries. For me, the presence of 4 Ugandan VSO's here, sharing their very considerable skills, is the most remarkable of all. For some reason I can't quite explain, that makes me want to cheer.One effect of this internationalism is happy events like the one that took place in our house last night. In the picture below, there is (from L-R), a Kenyan VSO who works up-country and was staying with us overnight; my Kenyan VSO housemate, who did his accountancy training in India, and has also worked as a aVSO in Indonesia; our Sierra Leonian nieghbour (and boyfriend of the photographer); me; and a VSO ex-publican and business-woman from North Yorkshire. It was a good reminder for me of thedimensions and diversity of Africa - Freetown is closer to London than to Nairobi.We were discussing and comparing the bizarreness of local cultural practices (and you have to admit, the scenes on St Mary Street on a Saturday night must get a pretty high bizarreness rating as a cultural practice!)During the course of the evening, there was a spectacular rainstorm, and another topic of conversation was the question of just how heavy the rain would have to be before it is reasonable for a Manchester United fan to walk home under an Arsenal umbrella (Answer: there is no rain of sufficient intensity for this even to be considered as an option).