Pondering in a pia tree

Being ill gives you time to think. Especially when you’re ill in a house with no electricity and a hammock. My time being ill led to me spending many hours in the hammock on my balcony, watching the pia tree and the birds, listening to the hustle and bustle of life on Byrne Lane and thinking. Thinking about all kinds of things, from how to get the pias down from the tree (I’m going to climb it!) to how I ended up living in a house with a pia tree anyway.

Before I came here, VSO sent me on various training courses to prepare me for life in the developing world. Unsurprisingly, one of them was about development. Now, on the YfD scheme, there are a lot of people who had studied development academically. I felt a little bit out of my depth at times, having never done that kind of academic study. Looking back, I think that gave me something of an advantage. I didn’t have expectations or preconceptions. I was ready to just take Sierra Leone as I found it.

What it did do though, was make me really think about what development means. It also made me question whether I should come here at all.

I never answered that question.

I came anyway.

I don’t regret that for one second.

But I still haven’t answered that question…

I sat on the beach a couple of weeks ago with a good friend of mine, eating grilled fish and looking out at a starry sky over the Atlantic Ocean. “How can this be the least developed country in the world?” we said.

I think this everyday. I’m here to help Salone develop. But develop into what?

Right now, I spend my weekends on beautiful, empty, unspoiled beaches. I met a man recently who had come to investigate the possibilities of building a hotel resort up the peninsula. Simon and I lied. We told him that the best beaches were before York. We don’t want tourists coming to invade our relaxed weekends. But maybe Salone needs it.

I spend my days and nights talking and laughing with an assortment of people. In the absence of TV, it’s amazing the hours you can spend discussing all number of things. As a result my friendships here are richer and deeper. But maybe Salone needs TV, electricity, improved communications methods.

Children can’t all go to school, and the ones who do go, no one can guarantee what they will be taught. People don’t have enough to eat, 75% live below the $2 per day threshold. In the UK we complain about having to wait to see a doctor, but we have 230 physicians to every 100,000 people. In Sierra Leone, we have 3. Running water, electricity and shelter are taken for granted back home. Here they are luxuries.

Sierra Leone needs to develop. That is true. Sierra Leone needs people, like me, to come here and help it to develop? For me, the answer to that changes everyday.

I doubt I will see much obvious change in the development of Sierra Leone in my remaining 7 months here. I am certain that should I come back in 7 years, I will see some. In 27 years, hopefully more.

Maybe they will ruin the isolated beaches, and everyone will be watching TV and, God forbid, there might even be a McDonalds or a Starbucks.

But does it matter, so long as the sick can get well, the children can learn and people have enough to eat and drink?

If development means that people start to have more access to essential services, that they live longer, eat healthier and have the freedom to pursue their dreams, then that is why I’m here. But sadly, everyday working in development, I see the rich getting richer and the poor staying exactly where they are.

My view is a simplistic one, based on just a few months of experience in this field. It will be interesting to see how my views themselves develop too…