Page 46 - Phonebox Magazine June 2006

Newton Revisited 2006
It has been fascinating to return to Newton, three years after my last visit. Everywhere are signs of the hard work going on to rebuild the country, after those ten years of civil war which culminated in the terror of the ‘rebel incursion’ that burnt down so many homes in the village. Now, thanks to Olney, sixty of those homes have been rebuilt and, as I write, they are celebrating the hand-over to their owners of the last twenty houses.
The country is still at the bottom of the league of the poorest in the world – but everyone is working so hard to change things. Just keeping up with the business of living takes many hours of fetching water and firewood, cooking over an open fire with the pot supported on three stones and attending to the washing and ironing without our modern facilities. Every spare minute goes on ‘gardening’ to produce food for the family and the little extra which will be traded in the market to raise money to send the children to school.
Government and foreign money have gone into making a really good road which leads out of Freetown and thirty miles on towards the provinces. Beyond that, it is all bumps and potholes – but somehow the cars and lorries race on. Newton Secondary School has been rebuilt, and last term was the first intake to change it from a junior to a
senior secondary. They have been so grateful for furniture bought with money from the ‘Lions’ here, and for books and laboratory equipment we’ve sent out. A government-funded community centre is due to open next month. A Christian NGO has helped provide a small youth centre with a satellite dish so it can show TV football. But it still lacks a roof and many other facilities. There are still promises that a big inland hydroelectric scheme will deliver power by 2008. Perhaps. Meanwhile candles and hurricane lamps provide light after sunset and it’s very hard to do your homework in such darkness. There are a good number of people on better salaries who have bought diesel generators – and among other things these provide power to recharge the ubiquitous mobile phones.
Meanwhile the port of Freetown remains a congested bottleneck where you can never guarantee to be anywhere at a specified time, and where electricity is only occasionally provided by the municipal authority. Many of the burnt-down houses have been repaired – but many haven’t, perhaps because their owners are still abroad. Even water supply is intermittent. I was much impressed by the courtesy and patience of the drivers who just wait till the road obstruction clears. It’s not surprising that many of the educated Sierra Leoneans are hesitant to return home when they have
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46 Phonebox Magazine