JUSTIN WALLEY
  • More than a game
  • One Football No Nets
  • Some thoughts from me
  • My travels in sport
    • Copa America 2015 Chile
    • Sierra Leone 2013
    • Euro 2012 Ukraine
    • Copa2011 Argentina
    • Rugby World Cup 2011
    • Africa 2010
  • About me
    • My life in football
    • My life travelling the world
    • My journalism work
    • My first published book
    • My life philosophy
  • Contact
    • My media pages
  • More than a game
  • One Football No Nets
  • Some thoughts from me
  • My travels in sport
    • Copa America 2015 Chile
    • Sierra Leone 2013
    • Euro 2012 Ukraine
    • Copa2011 Argentina
    • Rugby World Cup 2011
    • Africa 2010
  • About me
    • My life in football
    • My life travelling the world
    • My journalism work
    • My first published book
    • My life philosophy
  • Contact
    • My media pages
Search

Sierra Leone 2013

Making a difference through football

Perspective

4/2/2013

0 Comments

 
Picture
Monday, January 21, 2013 (Day 12)
Makeni

Perspective. I think of my Western life with clean running water, regular refuse collection, a fully functioning sewerage system and 24-7 electricity. Imagine if you never had those things as a given again. Little hope of employment and no national health service. And no petrol at the local BP station. Imagine if you had to queue up for three hours just to get a couple of litres of petrol and those litres of fuel cost the equivalent of a day's salary. And fearing that the ache in your stomach is cholera and, if it is, you cannot afford to do anything about it. How would you feel if you knew that your wife only had a one in seven chance of surviving child birth? Or that your life expectancy is 47. Yes, 47. Or that the unrest in the neighbouring country could lead to unrest in your homeland and civil society might break down and the devil would suddenly be lurking in the bushes; by the roadside; in the street where you live.

Today is the most tired I have felt since my first day in Sierra Leone. The culprit? Last night's football match. Charlie phones me from Freetown and tells me he will be up in Makeni on Wednesday to meet me and discuss how my time here is going.

Africa time has played havoc with my day. Things have been achieved but productivity levels have been low. The kids who presented the anti-violence play in front of school assembly on Sunday put in another brilliant performance in the minutes leading up to the Makeni Senior Secondary cup final. With the two teams lined up in front of the crowd and match officials, the children from the Craig Bellamy Foundation tell the two sets of players that there should be no fighting after the match between the two schools. The way the little boys present this to the two teams reminds me a little of the All Blacks doing the Haka, except these boys are all aged around 11 and the 'boys' playing in the final are nearly all in their early twenties.

The final ends 2-1 to the better team and, mercifully, a mass brawl is avoided despite the best efforts of a bunch of rough-edged girls to incite a fight. The half dozen problem-females remind me of rough UK council estate girls. The efforts of the young CBF boys, their coach and the other local CBF staff involved almost certainly prevented a mass brawl between the two schools. This event proves that involving the boys in community projects often leads to positive change in their local community.
  
Picture
Picture
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.



    Volunteering in Sierra Leone

    More Than a Game joined The Collective and the Craig Bellamy Foundation in Sierra Leone for a two-month voluntary placement in January 2013.
    You can read detailed blogs and photos of this experience below and by clicking on the 'archives' for January, February and March.

    During March and April 2013, we continued to bring you news about More Than a Game's fundraising appeal and posted more photos from our time in Sierra Leone.

    Picture
    Picture

      Contact 
      ​More Than a Game:

    Submit

    Archives

    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013

    Categories

    All
    African Minerals
    African Nations Cup
    Albania
    Bance
    Banjul
    Blood Diamonds
    Bureh
    Burkina Faso
    Civil War
    Craig Bellamy
    David Beckham
    Education
    Family Kingdom Resort
    Fifa
    Football
    Football Coach
    Footbaltic
    Freetown
    Fuel Crisis
    Gambia Bird
    Givengain
    Guinea
    Harmattan
    John Obey
    Junior Fc
    Justin Walley
    Kabala
    Kissy
    Krio
    Linesman
    Lumley Beach
    Lunsar
    Makeni
    Malaria
    More Than A Game
    Murraytown
    Ocada
    Petroipa
    Picket Hill
    Poda Poda
    P Square
    Real Stars Fc
    Religion
    Restless Development
    Revolutionary United Front
    Riga United Fc
    River Number 2
    Salone
    Sawulia Fc
    Sektars Football Club
    Sierra Leone
    Sierra Leone Mission
    Street Child
    Suliaman Samura
    Temne
    The Collective Sierra Leone
    The Craig Bellamy Foundation
    Tombo
    Tourism
    Tribe Wanted
    Unicef
    Volunteer In Africa
    Waterloo
    Witchcraft
    Wusum Stadium

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • More than a game
  • One Football No Nets
  • Some thoughts from me
  • My travels in sport
    • Copa America 2015 Chile
    • Sierra Leone 2013
    • Euro 2012 Ukraine
    • Copa2011 Argentina
    • Rugby World Cup 2011
    • Africa 2010
  • About me
    • My life in football
    • My life travelling the world
    • My journalism work
    • My first published book
    • My life philosophy
  • Contact
    • My media pages