YMT Celebrity Golf Day and Dinner 2012 Highlights

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One of the roles we are offering on Youth Sunday is to be a Prayer Partner. When you sign-up to be a Prayer Partner we will make sure you receive on your email our bi-monthly prayer calendar so you can guided on the intentions of each day.

You don’t have to sign-up to be a Prayer Partner to pray for youth ministry, the prayer calendars may be downloaded below.

]]> http://www.ymt.org/events/ymt-prayer-calendar.html/feed/ 0 http://www.ymt.org/the-faith-story-congress/ http://www.ymt.org/the-faith-story-congress/#comments Thu, 28 Mar 2013 14:41:24 +0000 xavier-admin http://www.ymt.org/?p=1047 At the end of an exciting week in the Catholic Church, following the election of Pope Francis, the Catholic Youth Ministry Federation brought its Congress to the North East for the first time in CYMfed’s short history. The Sage, one of the region’s most iconic landmarks, was the setting for the third CYMfed National Congress. 650 young people, youth ministers, teachers, chaplains, clergy, consecrated religious and parishioners from all over the country gathered to gain inspiration and support for their own ministry with young people. The programme included inspiring liturgies with music by young volunteers well worthy of the famed Sage acoustics.

The Congress was a great celebration of faith by inspirational speakers from different generations. Bishop Luc van Looy, the Bishop of Ghent, reminded us of the need for a culture of scripture and the huge power of symbolic acts in our lives. He affirmed the power of stories and reflected upon the number of messages shown through parables and the influence of the Father in all our faith stories.   Bishop Luc spoke of the importance of letting young people know that they are loved; rather than being something which can be taught, “Education is a question of the heart”.

Christopher Pilkington, an Executive Producer for Youth Programming for Endemol and an active volunteer with young people in his own church, inspired everyone to use the art of story as Jesus did and gave an insight into how television programmes ‘hook you in’ with the power of the story. He reminded us of how Jesus’ teaching draws us in: “If you know the resolution, what is the point of engaging?”

Throughout the day there was the opportunity to hear the faith stories of two young people, part of CYMFed’s latest publication, ‘The Story’, which features the faith stories of 53 young people.

Those working at every level within youth ministry felt encouraged and equipped to return home to inspire and affirm the young people with whom they work. Fr Dermott Donnelly, Chair of CYMFed said, “We gathered in a most beautiful venue as people of faith, to share it and celebrate it. It was a truly inspirational day hearing people of all ages and ministries in the church witness and encourage one another”.

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Saturday 16^th March, 5pm
Lizmed Guest House, Makeni

Our time in Makeni is drawing to a close but our final few days have been truly excellent. Please forgive me for being overtly British but we have even been treated to some greatly-appreciated cloud cover and even the Holy Grail itself: rain. Whilst in the moment it was enjoyed by ourselves and the locals (we enjoyed it slightly more), there are likely to be very serious repercussions for farmers and traders as this unanticipated rain in the middle of the dry season may accelerate crop growth and could therefore disrupt natural patterns and ruin their harvest. It will take great care and effort to prevent this. But as I said, we enjoyed it at the time.

This week we have visited some more Caritas projects, which have included fish farms in Mabamba, an HIV-aids clinic in Bambuna and various community-coalition projects around the community of Rofainka.  The range of projects Caritas supports is very impressive as they work in health, education, livelihoods and disaster risk reduction. It seems that whatever project Caritas is implementing, the local community is extremely grateful as we have been given unbelievable welcomes everywhere we have been as representatives of Caritas. This is a sign of their genuine appreciation and it will always remind me just how worthwhile supporting CAFOD is.

Away from work we’ve had a little time to see some of the beautiful surrounding area. On Thursday evening we climbed to the top of Mena hill on the outskirts of the city and at the summit overlooking Makeni is a simple wooden cross: a sign that God is always looking over the people. It boasts an exceptional view of luscious green bush and vast valleys edged by the sloping mountains of Sierra Leone. But to go one better for natural beauty, today we visited the waterfall at Bambuna and sat on the rocks, surrounded by steep banks of green, eating pepper chicken off the bone and drinking local ginger beer (so gingery) whilst the spray from the crashing water misted over us. Though this is a work trip so I won’t go on.

The past two and a half weeks with Caritas Makeni have been truly excellent and we owe a lot to our hosts, especially Thomas (our driver), Polo and Marvel (who have escorted us to the project sites), Barbara (who made sure we never went hungry) and Joe, the Director, who has been a superb host. Last night Joe invited us along with the entire staff to his house for a farewell celebration. We were treated to an African banquet, a few local beverages and even some goodbye gifts. We were truly honoured and moved by their generosity though any tears were masked by the aforementioned rain as we danced the night away in the downpour.

Thank you to everyone here, it’s back to Freetown for us tomorrow to meet up with our friends in Kenema and the CAFOD staff.

Stay tuned,

Peter. (The Africans don’t seem to understand ‘Pete’ so I’ve been going by ‘Peter’ and I’m quite liking it)

Hi all, Joe here again giving Pete some time off the old blog so I will fill you in for the last few days.

Thursday was our last full day in Kamakwie and we used this time to visit a few of the local schools, we first visited the local Catholic Primary school (St Peters). This was Polo’s, one of our guides, old school and also happened to be placed pretty much in what was his family home’s back garden. We were welcomed once again with the usual warm welcome. The children were on a break as we arrived so once again the oporto’s (the local term for white people) were mobbed with hi-5s and handshakes. We were then shown in to the Head’s office that was through the back of one of the class rooms and he talked to us about the school, the students and the struggles they face in just trying to give the young people here a basic education. However, Caritas Makeni had a few years previously supplied them with some teaching resources such as text books for the children but he did say they still had to pay for their exercise books. We then had a quick tour of the school and were invited to see the nursery school for the children aged 3-5. They were doing some maths, practising counting from 1-30.

We then headed off to the second school of the day. This was the Muslim Brotherhood Junior and Senior Secondary School and this school had two of its three buildings constructed with support from Caritas Makeni. The Head, after welcoming us in to his office, explained that although they were a Muslim school, he had a great respect for Caritas Makeni and CAFOD as even though they are Catholic agencies they still help support other causes if they can. The Head told us that a lot of the staff in the school were in fact Christians, and this can be a problem as the school works on a week from Sunday – Thursday but that as some teachers are Christians they ask for Sundays off to go to masses and this can leave the school understaffed.

Our third and final stop of the day was to the local Government school, B.D.C Primary School. When we first arrived here we noticed that there were two buildings, one of which looked like it could fall down at any moment. When we met the senior teachers from the school they explained that the original building was built back in 1950 and that over the years this building had been worn down to its current state. This old building is still used for lessons. The new building was again built with the help of Caritas Makeni even though the school is a Government funded school.

All three of these schools have benefitted from Caritas Makeni and CAFOD support and all had different constraints and would all like certain things. They did however all say that the main thing they needed would be more teaching resources such as books and classroom furniture.

We then once again returned to our guest house to enjoy our last evening in the peace that Kamakwie had to offer. We had a special guest on our last evening, our new American friend John, who is over here working in the Hospital, joined us and he had borrowed a guitar from a local and we spent the evening relaxing with some musical entertainment.

Friday – Travelling back to Makeni

So our time in Kamakwie had come to an end as Friday morning came around, so once again we loaded up the car and set off along the bumpy potholed road back to Makeni. We got back to the Caritas Makeni office where our friends from CAFOD Freetown were running a meeting with various Caritas offices from both Sierra Leone and Liberia. we got to catch up with Helen and some of the other guys and got to see a little of what they were doing.

That evening we were invited out for dinner as it was Sam from the CAFOD Freetown office leaving do; this was being held at a local reggae bar. We were treated to some good food, good company and some live reggae, Including a special performance by Joe Turay the Director of Caritas Makeni.

Saturday 9^th & Sunday 10^th March

So Saturday rolled around and as we didn’t have anything planned for the day we had a nice chilled out day and settled in to our nice guest house the Lizmed Guest House 2. It is a lovely little spot just out of the main Makeni town and so it’s a little quieter out here.

We heard there was a launch event for the Makeni Marathon that is organised by Street Child Sierra Leone and so we headed off to The Clubhouse, a local bar run by Street Child Sierra Leone with all the profits going to the charity. While there we met up with quite a lot of other NGO workers and spoke to them about the different things they were out here doing. Once again we met up with Helen and a few other colleagues from CAFOD, Louise and Sarah, before they headed back to Freetown and then back home.

While at The Clubhouse we were told there was a football tournament on Sunday, again to raise funds for the marathon and so they invited us along to watch, and so after Mass on Sunday morning, leaving Denise in the Caritas Makeni office to do some work, Iona, Carmel, Pete and I headed up to the stadium to watch some football. There were 3 teams competing; Street Child Sierra Leone, the Craig Bellamy Foundation and a team from a local mining company. After a few hours in the sun watching the football and with nothing else on till Monday morning, we went back to our guest house and given the chance we all jumped at the opportunity to get and early night.

Monday 11^th March

The start of week 3 came around and it is one of those strange feelings when time seems to have flown but it also feels like we have been here much longer than that. Today was used to evaluate our trip to Kamakwie, so with our guides and Mr Jalloh (the programme director) we talked through our time away and what we had enjoyed and what we had learned from the experience. They also wanted to know what else we would like to see and do with the rest of our time so we could make the most of our time here. It was a good day to sit and look back at just what we had seen and done. It however has dawned on me just how little time we have left here and that I will be sad to go and I will miss Makeni life!

Well I’ll leave you here and I will apologise now for this blog being a slightly longer one but that just about sums up our last few days.  I hope none of you have missed Pete too much. I’m sure he’ll be back with a new blog soon enough.

Joe.

Village: Makassa
Project Type: Livelihoods/Disaster Risk Reduction
Date of Visit: Wednesday 6th March

Caritas began working in the village of Makassa five years ago. Deeply affected by the war, redevelopment was barely existent until Caritas funded the construction of a borehole and water well. The well is still producing safe and clean water for washing, laundry and most importantly, drinking. This has greatly improved the health and sanitation of the village and provided the cornerstone for future work.

Makassa has a large village population of 650, which means it has a greater potential workforce than most so Caritas were able to provide a wider range of crops and seeds for them to farm. These include cashews, cassava, potatoes, groundnuts and their staple food, rice. The men work in the rice and potato fields whist the women work with the fruits and nuts. Because of Caritas’ agricultural training and regular monitoring of the project, the villagers have learned how to prevent bushfire damage, read the weather and store the crops so they can farm efficiently and reduce the risk of famine, drought or damage. What they don’t consume themselves they sell to traders with the profit made going into education. Three years ago, Caritas funded the building of a primary school, which is accessible to all of the young people in the village community. However, there are a few problems. Firstly, they are in the middle of the West African bush so struggle to get resources and materials for teaching. They also struggle to get teachers with only one of the current staff of seven actually getting paid for their services due to problems in the bureaucracy of having teaching qualifications approved by the government. A third problem is that once they finish at primary school the nearest secondary school is five miles away in Kamaranka. This leads to high levels of dropout amongst students who can’t walk three hours a day in the blazing heat to get to and from school. Kamaranka also has the nearest health outpost, which is too far for a pregnant woman or seriously ill person to travel to receive treatment.

We were again greeted magnificently by the villagers who clearly appreciate all the help Caritas provide them with. In our opening exchanges with the elders, every sentence about CAFOD or Caritas was greeted with rich applause by the villagers present. In fact, Caritas’ reputation clearly precedes them as we were joined in Makassa by the elders from the neighbouring small village of Makabaloko who have seen the work in Makassa and had heard of our arrival. They appealed to Polo, the Caritas project manager, for assistance and Polo duly arranged for an assessment of the village so work could begin. Not that work is finished here in Makassa. The village chief, Mr Anthony Kamara told us that the village desperately needs a health outpost and also a secondary school. This is the problem for Caritas Makeni; there are so many small communities that still need assistance and so many that have received assistance and need more.

Makassa is just one village within a vast area served by Caritas Makeni. Caritas Makeni is just one of four Caritas offices in this country. Caritas is just one of the partners CAFOD has in this country. CAFOD has partners in 40 countries worldwide. It really does show the incomprehendable scale of the challenge that faces us as a world. And we ARE just one world.

Village: Gbang Fulleh (pronounced ‘Barn-ay/Fool-ah’)
Project Type: Livelihoods
Date of Visit: Tuesday 5^th March

Caritas is one of the few charities that continued operating in Sierra Leone after the end of the civil war ten years ago. Even fewer operate in the more rural areas of the country, especially in the northern districts. However, Caritas Makeni still reach out to these isolated communities and are attempting to improve their livelihoods. We had the pleasure of being welcomed into the community to see and hear about the difference Caritas involvement has made. We were graciously welcomed by the villagers and when everyone had gathered, Chief Saidu thanked God for Caritas’ involvement in their lives.

In Gbang Fulleh, Caritas have supplied the village with potato vines and cashew seeds. The entire adult community (about 70-80 people) is involved in the planting, cultivating and harvesting processes. The potato vines begin life in the swamp areas a few miles away so they can grow their roots before being replanted in the soil to develop further. Once they are ready, traders from larger cities and towns like Freetown and Makeni make the drive up here to buy directly from the community. However, Sierra Leone has two very distinct seasons and potatoes only grow in the wet season so to insure constant income for the community, Caritas have also supplied cashew seeds to grow cashew trees. These trees grow all year round and produce a red-orange fruit with the shelled nut attached to it. They use the fruit to feed their children and sell the nuts, which are then exported to be processed as Sierra Leone does not have a processing plant. The income generated by the community’s trading is largely used to send their youth to school, which is three miles away.

A strength of this project is that it is self-sustaining as the seeds of the current crop can be used for planting the next crop. This project also empowers them to control their own future, which is very important in maintaining sustainability and dignity.  We were all very impressed with the project and sensed great solidarity and hope in the future amongst the people of Gbang Fullah. It was great to see where CAFOD money ends up and how the various partnerships come together: between parishes in the UK and CAFOD, CAFOD and Caritas and then finally Caritas and the communities out here. Having seen what it can do for a community out here, I urge you all: please show compassion and support CAFOD in whatever way you can as we are all stewards of the planet wherever we are.

Sunday 3^rd March, 5pm
Makeni Diocesan Pastoral Centre

What a few days we’ve had so far in glorious Makeni! Our hosts have treated us to a whole range of experiences that have given us a great insight into Sierra Leonean life.

Thursday

We’ve been taken to a variety of projects and institutions by our excellent Caritas host, Polo and our driver, Thomas, the youngest looking 50 year old you will ever meet. On Thursday we visited street projects that are run in partnership between Caritas and Irish Aid, who have been a supporter of Sierra Leonean development both during and most importantly, after the civil war. Currently, they provide 150 street children in local districts with vocational training such as catering, welding, masonry and tailoring. We visited a couple of these projects where we learned that they house and train street children whilst training them over an 18-month period in order for them to have the skills to handle a trade of their own. The teenagers we met were happy, busy and positive about their futures. Currently 70% of the population here live below the poverty line and this was our first exposure to how it is possible for charitable organisations to empower the locals to reduce poverty themselves; a key principle in ensuring sustainability.

Friday

Friday saw us visiting two Catholic organisations that hold great power in changing Sierra Leone’s future in the fields of education and health. Firstly we visited the country’s third university, the newly accredited University of Makeni, which is largely funded by the Catholic Church. The buildings of the university are actually the former Northern headquarters of the Rebel Army used during the civil war. The rebirth of the buildings demonstrates Sierra Leone’s intention to make something positive out of a dark time in its history. With 1000 students, seven faculties, two campuses and construction of a brand new auditorium that will be the country’s third largest single room (after Parliament and the airport departure lounge), the university is a fast growing institution of high importance to Sierra Leone’s future. Whilst the students we met were all admittedly of the wealthy minority; higher level education of these people is vital in addressing the social, political and developmental problems that affect the poorer majority.

We then visited the impressive Holy Spirit hospital where we received some startling information about healthcare in the country: there are only 200 doctors serving a population of 6 million, which is one doctor for every 30,000 people. HIV aids is only slightly above the international average but the high level of infant mortality and regular cholera outbreaks show that healthcare here requires attention. This private hospital has three doctors, 20 nurses, two surgical theatres, numerous wards, a trauma unit and 500-600 patients treated every month. However, it only has 20 hours of electricity every day. It manages to run as a self-sufficient institution as patients pay for their treatments. All of this combines to result in the fact that many people cannot receive healthcare.

Saturday

The weekend began with us taking a trip to Binkolo parish so we could gain an insight into how church life is integrated into the life of a traditional African village. We were greeted and then entertained in the parochial house by the village elders and parish priests: one called Peter, one called Paul. It was very interesting to learn that even in a traditional African village, getting the young people to be active in the church is a challenging issue. It was refreshing to hear our host’s views on the matter with one stating “We must do something different to integrate them. We must talk with them as young people and then there will be a respect between us. If they want to go to the beach, let us have mass on the beach and then spend the rest of the day there.” The beach is over 60 miles away but I ignored the logistical problems and contemplated the globalism of youth ministry.

Sunday

Our weekend ended with an official introduction to the congregation at Our Lady of Fatima cathedral. At the end of a beautifully celebrated mass we were invited to the front to talk about who we are and why we are here. Our native language skills were greeted well and we now feel very comfortable in the community. However, now we are comfortable it is of course time for us to move on. Tomorrow we will travel to the more rural setting of Kamakwie where we will visit Caritas project sites so to read our field reports, stay tuned.

Pete.

Buwa-bi-sieh,

Firstly, I would like to apologise for my delay in responding to Pete’s flattering blog in which he reassured all ‘Naomi Fans’ that I was – despite the scare – in fact safe, well, and finally here in Sierra Leone! As he mentioned, my travelling plans didn’t remain as scheduled. I was fortunate enough to spend a riveting five hours in Newcastle International Airport’s departure lounge waiting for the first leg of my outbound journey. Eventually I made it to the bright lights of Heathrow, however the delay meant that I had missed my connection which was due to take me to Freetown with the company of my seven fellow gapers and two group leaders. British Airways (other companies are available) were extremely helpful and rearranged flights accordingly!

After a long but exciting journey, flying via France and Guinea, I arrived at Luingi(could spelling be checked on www please) Airport where I was greeted by Carol and Dennis, both who work for CAFOD, Carol in Middleborough Diocese and Dennis for CAFOD Freetown. Following this, we took a water taxi into the City of Freetown; the views were simply amazing with a canvas-like sunset behind the water-taxi jetty, something that after a long day of travelling was nothing short of a serene gift from God! (See photo)

As a group of 10 Step into the Gappers, we spent a few days in Freetown (before entering ‘The Field’, half of the team are travelling to Kenema and the other half to Makeni ) where we were thoroughly educated on the rich and complex history of this beautiful country and balanced this experience with a ‘windows down tour’ of the city itself (see photo) accompanied by the first hand local info of a local and employee of CAFOD Freetown!

After departing Freetown as a team of just 5, our journey started in true Sierra Leonean style with a selection of contemporary African pop/gospel, and classic well-known power-ballads such as ‘I will always love you’ by Whitney Houston, which was appropriately playing as we saw our team-mates (Joe & Pete from our very own YMT, Carmel for Just Youth (Salford) and Iona who works as a Chaplain in St. Mary’s School, Blackpool) drive into the distance (an emotional moment). Dennis from the CAFOD Freetown office accompanied us and ensured our journey eastwards towards the Kenema District was a laugh a minute with his expert ‘shape throwing’. Providing an interesting backdrop to the melodic tones of Celine Dion and Westlife were the views of paddy fields, mud-huts and palm trees. The journey was very smooth and straightforward from the west to the east of the country so much so that many of the team decided to trade the beauty of the landscape for the beauty of a good nap! There is a smoothly paved road that runs right through the heart of Sierra Leone which was finished in 2009.

On arrival in Kenema City we had a series of ‘courtesy calls’ to make in order to raise awareness of our presence in the area. We first met with the Caritas Kenema team, headed up by Patrick the director. He introduced us to many people in the community. We began with Bishop Patrick Koroma, a very humble man with a copious supply of fizzy drinks. Meeting the Bishop of Kenema was a particularly humbling experience. He welcomed us into his home, introduced himself as ‘Patrick’, and served us with cold drinks from his freezer, which we were particularly grateful for as it was 7:30pm and still over 30 degrees Celsius outside. It was a very casual and laid back meeting where he shared with us about his previous work with caritas, and also spoke briefly about the extent of Irish influence in Kenema as a result of Catholic missionaries in the past, something that took me by surprise! We could easily have spoken to him for much longer but our meeting was brought to an abrupt end with a power cut, we were guided back to our car by torchlight!

Before meeting the district and City councils, we were privileged and humbled to visit the Paramount Chief of our local area. He had a suitably grand name; Paramount Chief Amara B. Vangahun of the Nongawa kingdom. He was essentially the highest figure of authority in the whole of the Kenema district. There was certainly an air of authority and grace about him. He, like everyone we have met so far, was incredibly welcoming. A Chief from a neighbouring Chiefdom was present too for this meeting. He assured us that ‘although our hair and skin may be different, we are not strangers’. Paramount Chief spoke to us in Mende, the language used in Kenema District, and this was translated for us by Mousa, one of the Caritas staff. Paramount Chief Amara expressed his gratitude to us for coming to the country and said he whilst we were here we are an example for the young people of Sierra Leone. In order to conclude this meeting we were taught to say ‘thank you’ in the previously mentioned Mende, something that again surprised me as it was weirdly similar to a well known town and TV series related to the North East!

Thank You = Byker

Our accommodation for our first few nights in Kenema was a guest- house on the hillside. ‘Home’ comforts were laid aside as we became immersed in much more self sufficient lifestyle. Victor, a young adult, worked very hard at our accommodation to ensure our buckets (for showering, toilet flushing and general water related activities) were full. Victor was an expert spider catcher, which was lucky as we are somewhat inexperienced and Laurence (who is working in Cardinal Newman School, Arundel and Brighton), our solitary boy on team, ran a mile claiming it was ‘the size of a dinner plate’. We soon adapted to the unpredictable water and power supply and the girls (myself, Sarah who also works as a Chaplain in Blackpool, and Hannah who also works at Just Youth in Salford) enjoyed a shower in a thunder storm. Quite a sight for the locals as we rushed outside with our shampoo and shower gel!

We spent some of our best ‘team’ time at the guest house and created some excellent memories; Hannah provided the party room as the other rooms were quickly quarantined after Sarah shared her toilet with a poor unsuspecting lizard, Laurence quite literally fell into a toilet and I accidently sprayed Deet in my mouth and lost the ability to speak.

The food has been fantastic, extremely fresh and hot thus far. We’ve all developed a taste for Plantain, a type of fried banana (it took us some time to get the pronunciation right we spent our time in free town requesting plankton!) We’ve eaten a huge amount of freshly caught fish including barracuda, snapper and ‘chicken fish’, which is kind of like chicken… but a fish!

As people who work with youth, we have had a lot of opportunity to spend time with the youth of Sierra Leone including an extremely life filled trip to St Monica Pre-School where the young children put our levels of excitement and energy to shame! To say they are inspiring would be somewhat cliché but that is what they are. We have visited numerous schools and youth groups and they have welcomed us into their space and their lives. We have shared cultures and stories and they have told us of their faith. We look forward to more adventures and of course, to sharing more with you at home.
But for now we are signing off,

CAFOD ‘Step into the Gap’ Team Kenema

Lord,

In this season of Lent, let us not distance ourselves from our brothers and sisters around the world. Help us to live daily remembering that although there may be many miles between us, we are joined globally in your love; ‘we are not strangers’.

Amen.

This is definitely the hottest February day I have ever experienced. This morning we split up into two smaller groups and said goodbye to the coastal breeze of Freetown and travelled inland to our respective destinations of Kenema and Makeni, where we will spend the next two weeks. Carmel, Iona, Joe and myself along with our CAFOD officer, Denise have joined up with a charity called Caritas in the sweltering heat of Makeni.

We were driven here and introduced to our new hosts by Alex and Harriet of CAFOD. It’s a shame to leave them as they have been excellent hosts. On the way here they pulled over at a roadside market where we were instantly surrounded by excited fruit sellers. I was a little apprehensive at first due to the sheer volume of sellers around us but we followed our hosts lead and sampled some of the local produce, which was delicious. I went for a coconut, which turned out to have a surprisingly fizzy juice and then I bought some dried plantain for the road. I don’t know how many ways there are to have plantain but I’ve now had it spicy, sweet and dried and they’re all excellent. Those of you that know me can expect me to be forcing plantain into your lives once I return. Apparently it’s readily available in the UK but I’ve never seen it and I am widely regarded as one of the leading authorities on fruit and veg since the mysterious disappearance of the man from Del Monte.

I made a couple of observations about Sierra Leone on the journey that I’d like to share: the amount that Sierra Leoneans can carry on their heads (with no hands) is unbelievable, there is a huge visible difference between city and rural lifestyles and it is a surprisingly green country (one of the wettest in Africa I’m told).

Once we arrived in Makeni at midday, we were superbly welcomed by the entire workforce of about 25 people all assembling to meet us and have an introductory briefing. CAFOD doesn’t work directly in Sierra Leone but it does support and fund numerous projects and charities. Caritas, the international catholic charity is one of the key partners out here that CAFOD works through. Over the next few weeks we will be observing various Caritas project sites in and around Makeni and seeing the effects of CAFOD’s funding and partnerships. Continue checking in on this page as we will be reporting regularly on what we encounter.

For those of you worried about Naomi, fear not, we have not left her behind again. She has travelled with Hannah, Sarah, Lawrence and their CAFOD officer, Carol from Middlesbrough diocese. They too are joining up with a branch of Caritas and will be blogging their journey.

Anyway, I’ve distracted myself; I was saying how hot it is. It’s hotter than a flaming kettle filled with chilli peppers.

For more detailed weather reports from West Africa, stay tuned.
Pete.