a visit to ngolala...

our first hours in sierra leone were spent getting settled and organized. we ate our first meal provided by COTN…i think it was tuna fish on lebanese bread…i opted for peanut butter! my first night in sierra leone, i slept surprising well! due to the lack of electricity, the air conditioner is leaving your windows open, 24/7. i figured i wouldn’t need any sort of covers, but i ended up pulling sheet and blanket over me at some point in the night.

sunday morning we woke up, had some breakfast, and i took my first bucket bath. this was my first mistake - it was morning!!! i will try to explain how the bucket bath works. first, you use a bowl or cup fill a 5 gallon galvanized bucket with water that has been deposited in a huge plastic container in the bathroom. then, you pour water on you, lather up your soap and shampoo, and then rinse off with the rest of the water in the galvanized bucket. i later learned that my second mistake was not dumping the water on my head first. day 2 of bucket baths went much smoother, being that i showed at night, so it was still warm out, and that i started with my hair…it sort of takes the initial sting out of it being cold water. all in all, the bucket baths weren’t really all that bad. yes, they were cold, but i can see where one could get used to it…sort of. i my mind, it is better than bathing in the river.

so after our group was ready, we walked up the hill to attend “church of the nations”. this is the church that is held on the COTN property. COTN works in four countries: sierra leone, uganda, malawi & the dominican republic, and they have church at each one of the cotn properties in each country. but, only in sierra leone do they have “church of the nations”…churches that meet in several different villages, but all began through people who were involved with COTN. you can think of it as africa’s version of “multi-site”!  what i love about “church of the nations” is that many times, teenagers have a leading role in the church. one of the things that struck me most was the pride the children have for their church, and i’m sure it’s not only the children. each Sunday, it was someone’s “chore” to provide decorations for the church.

flowers picked from teh children's home to decorate church of the nations

i love that their decorations, although simple, were beautiful and showed respect for God and His creation.

after church we took our first trip to ngolala [pronounced: gwala]. this village is located just across the dirt road from cotn, and about a 10 minute walk down a trail. it was during the walk to ngolala that i first realized that there is absolutely no way i can adequately explain the beauty i see, and this experience as a whole. i was surrounded by huge tall trees, waist high grass, and all sorts of sounds. our team did see a monkey on our first trip…can you see it???

monkey in ngolala photo taken by the hensleys

i actually couldn’t ever see it, only the effects of it as the branches moved when it jumped. get excited, because this monkey is the largest animal you’re going to get from this trip.  because ngolala is so close to cotn, the people who live there are quite used to “white people” also known as “pumwi”. word travels fast as the village children learn we are visiting, and several of them met us at the “entrance” of their village. the entrance to ngolala is absolutely breath-taking. as you arrive at the bottom of a hill, you are greeted on the left by a wall of trees split only by a stream flowing through the middle of them. on the right, the same water source is the filled with all sorts of children and their water buckets, busy collecting water for their homes. it is pretty impressive to see 3 year old children carrying buckets of water on their heads!

our team broke up into groups to visit people, and i went up the hill to the left with sarah. the young kids were a little nervous about us at first, but soon warmed up and were hanging all over us. beginning at about three to four years old, the children flock to the camera like a moth to a flame. they love having their picture taken, and then seeing their faces on the screen. meet some of the first children in ngolala who i met…

as i was snapping pictures of kids, the women of the village were sitting on their porches preparing food over fires, braiding hair and visiting. rarely did i see a woman just sitting and lounging…there is always something to do…no idle hands in ngolala.  as we made our way around the village, there was one family who was constantly offering for me to hold their baby boy, i would guess he was about one year old. but, this poor little thing wanted nothing to do with me, or any other pumwi for that matter, as seen by his wailing every few moments! i kept trying to wave mom off, letting her know that i did not want her baby to be scared, but she just kept trying to pass him off to me. i eventually snapped a picture of her holding him.  and here is his sweet little face when he realized i was looking his direction!

it was difficult to leave ngolala…the village life is so intriguing! but, our team needed to head back to the cotn camp to greet the teenagers arriving for a week long youth camp! more adventures to come…