The 2024 Immersion Retreat, our first for 4 years, set out for Freetown via Brussels on Monday 12th February. We reached Brussels safely, staying overnight, but encountered frustration the following day when our flight to Freetown was cancelled. The next available one was not until Thursday morning, so having had a wasted day at the airport on Tuesday we attended Mass at the medieval gothic Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudule on Ash Wednesday, receiving our ashes in somewhat different circumstances than originally anticipated! The boys made good use of a wet afternoon in Brussels. Our flight departed on Thursday morning with long waits at Lisbon and Banjul airports. The latter will never figure on my bucket list of exotic destinations! We finally arrived in Freetown at 8am on Friday 16th February and immediately set out for St. Ambrose Academy in blazing heat with much time to make up!
St. Ambrose Academy is under the trusteeship of the Christian Brothers and we received a warm welcome, Meeting Br. Paul who has helped organise our visit, and the Headmaster Br. Leo, whom Tom and I met at the CB Global Principals Conference in Dublin in May. We enjoyed meeting the boys and girls, many of whom walk miles daily to attend school, finishing with a climb up a steep hill. We joined in the activities afternoon at the school, including football, and lost 4-2 to a St. Ambrose select team, despite the heroic goalkeeping of Hugh Grealis, before an excited crowd! On departure we headed into the reality of life on the margins, visiting the friendly fishing community at Old Wharf, which we have met before, where most of the residents live in shacks and rubbish and dust abounds, and the Christian Brothers have long been active in the community. We then drove across Freetown, stopping at Kissy Road Cemetery to visit the grave of Br. Kerrigan, who was Headmaster of the College when Mr Duggan was a pupil. He was killed by rebels, apparently accidentally, in 1995 during the Civil War, having refused to return home to safety in favour of remaining with the Brothers’ mission. This is, therefore, sacred ground for Anselmians. After suitable reflection we continued through the clogged Freetown rush hour traffic to Hamilton, close to the coast, and the Christian Brothers’ Spirituality Centre where we stayed for the next 3 nights. Br. John Holden ensured that we were well looked after and we were well fed and enjoyed the quiet serenity of the surroundings, as well as a decent night’s sleep.
We awoke on Saturday to a beautiful African sunrise with the coastal breeze keeping the temperature under control until after breakfast. On our way into Freetown, we availed ourselves of the opportunity to visit unspoilt Lumley beach, sited on a beautiful bay, despite the litter and debris, and mingle with the locals, some of whom were intrigued by our rugby ball and joined in our game. We did some souvenir shopping and bartering in a local craft market before travelling into Freetown for lunch at the Christian Brother community in Tenby Town, with good views over the city and coast. Br. Abu gave us an insightful talk into the historical, social and political context of Sierra Leone where elections are being held, which helped us make sense of some of the sights we saw!
During the rest of the day we were confronted with some of the harsh realities of life in one of the poorest countries in the world at the Susan’s Bay fishing community. The residents live in shacks, often connected by fetid, dark, alleyways leading to the rubbish-strewn coast where animals root in the dirt. On the way we encountered shoeless and naked children, and adults having an impromptu shower in open spaces.The locals were again friendly and welcoming, especially the young children who took a shine to us and adopted us as our guides, rejoicing in being photographed and demonstrating such interest in our rugby ball that inevitably Dylan and Pad were moved to let them keep it! They have no electricity or running water and the reality of living on the equivalent of $1 a day or less was shockingly obvious. such was the interest that our visit aroused it was difficult getting away.
We began Sunday by attending Mass at Our Lady Star of The Sea Church in Lumley, conveniently close to the beach, with Br. John who was acting as a Eucharistic Minister. We received a personalised welcome from the pulpit and enjoyed explaining to parishoners that we also have a SVP Conference. It was a typical African Mass with many opportunities for singing hymns, and even some dancing! We made our escape after 2 hours and some generous donations to parish funds! After refreshments and lunch at the beach we headed to the Tagacuma Chimpanzee sanctuary. The chimpanzee is the national animal of Sierra Leone, flourishing in its extensive forests. Most of the inmates are former domestic pets who have been abandoned and would struggle to survive in the wild. The infant and teenage chimps were highly amusing in their antics, playing fighting and feeding and appeared well cared for. We finished our day with a pre-dinner stroll to Hamilton Beach, via a rubbish-strewn path through a shanty town and back yards. This is largely unspoilt, except for alterations to the coastline caused by illegal sand mining. We enjoyed a paddle and a vivid sunset before preparing to depart to Makeni the following morning.
