Stories from Magbeni

My name is James Burnford, I'm a friend of Luke's out here in Sierra Leone. Luke and I started the trip together in Freetown but after one and a half weeks I was sent to a tiny jungle village to the south of Freetown where EducAid has another school. The village was called Magbeni.
As far as comfort and technology goes, Magbeni is in the Ice Age! There's no mobile or internet signal whatsoever and the nearest town is a 40 minute motorbike ride down a dirt track. However, after an initial few days of getting used to the hole-in-the-floor-toilet and showering by dumping a bucket of cold river water on your head, you begin to appreciate the amazing qualities of the people there. They live in total harmony with each other - all chipping in to make the community work. They were only to happy to get us (for there where three other English students in Magbeni) involved; teaching me to chop wood in the proper Sierra Leonean fashion and how to cook their favourite fish stew.
The main reason for us being in Magbeni though was to teach, and within two days I had been assigned my class (an intermediate class of about 20 which I shared with another boy) and was teaching them English language in the morning and maths in the evening. The students were very commited but it was difficult occasionally for them to fully understand my instructions, just as it is extremely difficult for me to understand Kryol.
Our task was made even more difficult when, after the first day on the job, our class was merged with a neighbouring primary school's class of Intermediate students which brought the total up to 45!
It wasn't all work though and the people of Magbeni are football crazy, especially the head teacher AA who is a huge Manchester Utd fan. In fact there was an EducAid vs the next village (I can't remember the name) and George and I were honourary players for 20 minutes of the second half after we were losing 3-0! I think we did ok, they certainly seemed pleased with us and we didn't concede any more goals.
Magbeni is an amazing place and I really enjoyed my time there.