Reflections from Sierra Leone

So I have been trying to make time to write out my reflections on my time in Sierra Leone, but I have not yet been successful in achieving this goal. I have a lot to share about how the trip impacted me spiritually, but until I can get my thoughts down to that end, I have decided to share my academic reflections which I wrote as a part of a scholarship requirement. More will come. Enjoy!

Traveling to a nontraditional study abroad destination provides the opportunity for a nontraditional study abroad experience. Although I only spent 17 days in Sierra Leone, the experiences I had and the people I met have impacted my life in amazing ways, all for the better. Unlike other study abroad programs in which I have participated, this course was shaped with the intention of completing a professional consulting project and required a business oriented mindset in preparation for travel. The opportunity to gain first-hand experience in a professional atmosphere in regards to development work was undoubtedly the academic highlight of the course. Minoring in International Development Economics, in applying for the course, it was my hope to gain deeper insight and experience in the field which I have long had the desire to pursue as a career. The design of the course, in which students arrange meeting with Ministry leaders and Non-governmental organizations located in Sierra Leone, places the onus on students to take initiative in the project work. The project thrusts students into the professional developmental landscape and provides a small taste of the tasks and challenges of development work, from a plethora of perspectives.

            In conducting a rapid assessment of Agricultural Information Communication Technology, I was able to not only discuss the strengths and weaknesses of current practices with those implementing them, but I also was able to visit the rural farmers for whom programs were being developed and garner their perspective of the effectiveness of current programs and what gaps they wanted to see filled. The greatest lesson from this experience was the importance of development work being a give and take of ideas between those with the resources to implement programs and those for whom the programs will be implemented. Too often in development, people with well-intentioned ideas create programs based on their perception of a need, but fail to consult the people for whom the program is to be implemented to find out if they truly view the perceived problem as an issue and if so, how they would like to receive assistance in its alleviation. My experience in Sierra Leone demonstrated that people in developing nations are extremely innovative and often have their own ideas of how to effectively alleviate issues they are facing, and are only hindered by lack of access to resources to carry out their ideas. In seeing the innovative genius of many of the people who have used the few resources they have to create tools to assist them in their daily living that were not only effective, but also environmentally sustainable, I came to deeply appreciate the farmer inclusive approach with which we moved forward in our research.

            Being the only African American member participating in the research, the most difficult aspect of my time in Sierra Leone was the vastly different experience I had in the country in comparison with my colleagues.  In traveling to villages and speaking with farmers it was often assumed that I was a native of the country and people would speak to me in their native language, to which I could only respond with a smile and a shake of my head to indicate I did not understand. One moment in a small village in the southern region of Pujehun during farmer visits deeply impacted my perspective of the experience. We arrived in a small village where a group of about 10 women emerged from the fields dancing and singing in their native language and walked up to each of us individually to shake our hands and welcome us to their home. After one of the warmest welcome gestures I experienced in the country, we, the researchers, sat down with about 50 members of the village and commenced in introducing ourselves to one another via a translator from the local World Vision office who was the extension agent for the village. After the village leaders introduced themselves, we followed. When I ended our introduction by introducing myself, the villagers asked the translator to find out what tribe I was from. For my colleagues this was nothing major, merely an interesting if not entertaining inquiry based on the misconception that I was from the nation. However, for me this moment spoke of thousands of years of history and of the set of circumstances that left me unaware of my ancestral roots. It put into perspective the idea that had things in history been only slightly different, I could have been sitting on the other side of the mud brick building being interviewed rather than interviewing.

For a nation devastated by a 10 year civil war ending only 11 years ago, Sierra Leone has come a long way. The people I met in the country had all, in some way, been affected by the war, many losing close relatives to the fighting. However, the nation did not stagnate after the war, but moved forward with purpose in beginning again. As I considered my own life circumstances in light of those with whom I spoke in Sierra Leone, I was reminded of my privilege stemming from simply having been born in the United States, and I was reinvigorated with a resolve to acknowledge my responsibility to others in the world in challenging the established inequalities.

Although too often presented as impoverished and in need of outside assistance, my experience with the people of Sierra Leone was not one dimensional, but filled with interactions of a multi-dimensionality. People in the nation have hopes, dreams, and aspirations, but they are also acutely aware of the limits placed on them by lack of opportunity and resources. A phrase I heard quite often was “I would like to do that, but I do not have the opportunity.”  However this statement was never made as an indication of the end of a dream, but a simple acknowledgement of barriers, accompanied by a statement regarding another course of action which was instead followed as a means to another end.

Through the work in which I engaged through this program, I discovered a passion for agricultural development which I had never before had the opportunity to explore. Since beginning in the College of ACES four years ago, I have held that although I am studying agricultural economics, after graduating I have no intention in doing anything remotely agriculturally related. Working with farmers in Sierra Leone has turned my future career plans upside down and provided a different perspective of agriculture. My previous thoughts about agriculture centered on the large commercial farms so common in America and I did not understand how such concepts tied in with my desire to work in international development. My time in Sierra Leone provided a clear picture and understanding of the importance of agricultural development in bettering the quality of life in a nation for both rural and the urban communities. I was able to hear directly from farmers about the challenges of marketing crops and the importance of storage facilities in order to effectively wait for prime market conditions just as farmers in other nations so easily do. I saw my textbook material come to life and the ideas were no longer just theories on a page, but they had names and faces, stories which I now have that transcend the anonymity of economics and numbers and have sweat, flesh, and blood. In Sierra Leone I found my passion, and although I am uncertain in what way I will pursue this passion and turn it into a career in the future, I am confident that this experience has opened my eyes to opportunities and needs, of which I would have otherwise been unaware.