We left Freetown after breakfast on Monday 19th February, collecting Br. Pious en route and arriving in a baking hot Makeni in time for lunch, after a 3 hour drive mostly on public highways not dissimilar to A-roads.
It was a school holiday so we went for a stroll. St. Joseph’s is the only boarding school for Hearing Impaired children in Sierra Leone. Most of its pupils are day boys and girls but about 80 board. Such children are in danger of being abused and even accused of witchcraft in rural villages, so the school is a haven for them and the only boarding school of its kind in Sierra Leone. We were able to spend some time with them, risking a near riot by offering them sweets, bubbles and balloons! The simple joy and excitement of children who have very few treats, despite being well nurtured, was a joy to behold and our boys soon began to make new friends.
The next morning we saw the wonderful sight of children flocking to the school, some after long walks. Their enthusiastic participation in assemblies and registration was inspiring and set the tone for the day and we received a friendly and warm welcome from them, enjoying our novelty value! That morning we drove into the hinterland to the village of Maburreh, where the Christian Brothers maintain a village school. Although the facilities are basic, this primary school is orderly and purposeful and the children are enthusiastic and well-behaved. There are 3 trainee Christian Brothers on the staff. They were delighted to see visitors and gave us a warm welcome. I suspect that there is not much excitement in Maburreh! After break on another sweltering day, the boys went into lessons and provided literacy and numeracy support and the children demonstrated good understanding and a desire to participate. Mark Seston proved a relentless and demanding taskmaster, teaching all lesson! We had brought charitable donations of dresses and football kit with us and were able to present them to the school, for them to decide distribution. This included junior team kits donated by Tranmere Rovers FC which caused much excitement. We also visited the village and saw the locals harvesting and processing palm nuts for oil.
On our way back to Makeni we stopped at the Christian Brothers House for a welcome cold drink with Br. Melvin who is assisting us in gathering estimates for the sinking of a bore hole and well at the school. We have already raised more than half of the costs from recent Br. Kerrigan Sponsored Walks.
We spent the afternoon at St. Joseph’s playing with the boarders. They had great fun teaching us signing and practising with us. Our lessons with Miss Baines had given us an ability to communicate with them, although they all agreed that Mr Duggan was an unpromising student! Later that evening the inevitable football challenge emerged and our entire Retreat party took on the might of St. Joseph’s School, winning a competitive match 6-3 on a bumpy pitch. Hugh Grealis was again heroic in goal, Pad Ibrahim scored a record 5 goals and Josh Adesina proved a tenacious tackler. Several of us had commissioned shirts tailored by Bobson, a former student who now works as a tailor there and we were very pleased with the results! During the evening we visited the Wusum Hotel, where we have stayed on past retreats, for a break by the pool. St. Joseph’s has installed air conditioning in its guest rooms so the nights there are much more comfortable and we were very well fed!
The day of our return flight dawned all too soon! We decided to make the best use of our time by visiting our twin school, St. Francis in Makeni. Although founded by the Christian Brothers it is no longer under their trusteeship. I had last visited 12 years ago and found the school much-improved. The site is well-maintained, classrooms are clean, painted and equipped with good furniture and the boys were lively and engaged in their studies, from age 13-18. Some older boys remain there until they complete their Leaving Certificate and look like they are in their 20s! Some travel by motor bike, scooter and bicycles and all wear their uniform with pride! We visited a range of lessons and had good chats with students and staff. We were delighted to be able to present our twin school with more Tranmere team kits and Anselmian souvenirs and were treated to a melodious, and enthusiastic, rendition of the school song “Keep the banner high”. We would have liked to have spent longer there and are confident that our partnership with St. Francis can be revived and strengthened, now that they have strong and purposeful leadership and a much closer relationship with the local Christian Brothers. Br. Pious, an old boy of the school, joined us and Stephen, the Headteacher was his sponsor at his Confirmation.
After an early lunch we bade goodbye to the wonderful St. Joseph’s community. They treated us to a farewell of songs and greetings and we presented Sr. Amala, the Headteacher, an Indian Cluny sister, with Tranmere team kits for both boys and girls. St. Joseph’s School has some of the best school football teams in Makeni! We were also able to present the school with a large kitbag full of football shirts collected by our families for the St. Joseph’s pupils, as well as girls’ clothes, which aroused inevitable interest and delight! Several of our party were now sporting colourful shirts tailored by Bobson! After saying goodbye to Br. Pious, we embarked upon the 2-hour drive back to Lunghi Airport, avoiding the traffic of Freetown and passing through numerous rural villages and communities, where dwellings are similar to those in pre-industrial revolution rural Britain and Ireland, with children in bright uniforms streaming along the roadside on the long, hot walk home.
Freetown now has an impressive modern, air-conditioned, airport, which appears to cater for very few flights at present! There were no delays, so our flight to Brussels via Monrovia took off and landed on time. We killed a few hours in Brussels, including time for breakfast, and arrived back at Heathrow on Thursday morning, to be met by our driver Mr Cook. By 4pm we were home and our great African adventure was over….for the time being!
I would like to take this opportunity to extend my thanks to my colleague and fellow traveller, Tom Murray, our Lay Chaplain, for his ever-patient and dedicated company on the trip, our hosts in Freetown and Makeni, to Miss Baines for her continued leadership of our Sierra Leone Immersion programme and detailed planning of the retreat, our administrative staff Miss Tara Carrington, Mrs Sally Burrows and Mrs Alison Cook for their help in arranging logistics, not least as a result of our delayed flights and our indefatigable and resilient tourists Josh, Hugh, Pad, Dylan, Mark and Sean for their company, good humour and kindness. The highest praise I can give them is that they proved themselves to be true Anselmians and worthy ambassadors for the College. Finally I would like to thank all our sponsors and donors, including Tranmere Rovers FC and all those families who donated clothes, football shirts and gifts for the Retreat.
Students and staff from St. Anselm’s will return to Sierra Leone! Our Immersion Retreat is back!
Simon Duggan
Headmaster
March 2024
