On…living as a westerner in Sierra Leone

We start with the obligatory photo, this time of the people Robin, John and I were staying with. On the left is Matthew who works for Truth Mission.

Matthew, John, Aziz, Robin and Emmanuel

I should say also that I have edited yesterday’s post to add another concluding point!

This may feel like a strange topic to reflect upon, but I think it is important. The question I want to address is, on the basis of three weeks in the third world, is it much of a sacrifice to live there permanently? Not to say I have definite plans to do so, but something surely that any Christian should think about in relation to serving God overseas.

It should be said from the start that in a sense my experience is limited due to the (hopeful) certainty of my return to the UK. These reflections could have been different had someone left me there without a ticket home.

The conclusion then from the trip is that it is much less of a sacrifice than I thought. Indeed it could be said that it is no sacrifice at all, but I wouldn’t go that far. I think there are two areas in which things change: quality of life and adapting to culture and local practice.

Firstly, quality of life. What strikes me here is that the western life is one of great luxury. When you consider things that we actually need – warmth, shelter, food, clothing, water, and many other things, and compare them to what we have, the difference is huge. It is a reminder to be thankful for the things that we take for granted, but are actually provisions of God that not everybody has.

Things like hot water: in Sierra Leone you really don’t need it! Electricity: you can happily get by without it, and for a treat you can start a generator and watch a film. Bottled water is easily available and is little hassle to use. Cooking can be trying, and mosquitoes are certainly annoying. But overall African life is surprisingly manageable and rich in its simplicity and comfort.

Secondly then, local culture and practices. It can be hard for a Western person to negotiate the interactions in daily life, such as obtaining information, using public transport etc. This can be due to the language barrier (not everyone in SL speaks English; the main language is Krio which is a mixture of English and other West African languages), the prevalence of corruption and the exploitation of Western-looking people by the locals. I was often thankful for the presence of a local in our group, which on occasions probably stopped us from getting ripped off.

It is sad that this practice is so widespread. It has been known for Westerners to be charged several orders of magnitude more than the real price of an item. And however long you live in the country, you will always look like a tourist. In time you’d know what constitutes a ‘good price’ for things and be able to argue your way out of prices, hopefully without offending anyone.

The message therefore to anyone reading this who just assumes that they couldn’t deal with life outside of our Western bubble – it’s not as bad as you might think!