Distorted Reality – Dream the new beginning.

I just wanted to chat on a few bits and pieces.

The first is that I’ve placed a donation tool in the sidebar for SLC Moyamba (the school that my wife is visiting in Sierra Leone) for their new toilet.  I’m running the Eastbourne Half Marathon as a sponsorship event but have found it difficult to find a way of setting up the sponsorship details online because SLC Moyamba is a school, rather than a charity.  Unfortunately this means that, if you choose to donate in this way, the donation will be taken at the time of donating rather than after the race and will enter my Paypal account as an intermediary.  However, if you feel the need, you could email MrsP’s school who have the link with Moyamba and can vouch for me. Obviously, the Internet is hard to reach in Moyamba and, unsurprisingly, SLC Moyamba do not have a website!

The next thing is that I’ve returned this site to its old address at jonpsblog.com, which feels all homely and warm.  I’m still trying to get the old posts recovered from my corrupted, old blog.  If you come across any problems, bugs or general dislikes, please email or comment, but don’t be nasty.

Finally, I just wanted to recognise the fact that the International Criminal Court is now starting its first trial.  Thomas Lubanga is now on trial in the Hague for his recruitment and use of child soldiers in Congo during the civil war.  The pictures I’ve been seeing all day of black kids in their early adolescence carrying enormous guns around are really powerful.  It makes me feel so angry but also incapable of action.

The issue of child soldiers is playing on my mind quite a lot at the moment.  With my wife heading off to Sierra Leone, we’ve been trying to understand a little more of the situation there.  I guess this is for another, more detailed post but it shocks me that a nation known for its friendly, peaceful demeanor could produce individuals who can go to that extreme of recruiting children to spread terror through rape and murder.  I wonder how a nation recovers from that.  Thinking particularly of Sierra Leone, there are constant reminders of the war everywhere – not only are there holes in families and communities where people should be, but people baring the scars and the stumps from missing limbs are easy to find.  Everyone has a story of the civil war there; even the children who were babies at the time.

Thinking about it, I find it disturbing that everyone has a story of the Sierra Leone civil war in my own country.  There was plenty of news coverage throughout the war; most people will have been aware of it.  My own story is one of ignorance – I knew a little and chose to keep it that way.  I guess that’s my crime against humanity.

My wife is a teacher.  I’ve always thought that it’s a great job – the responsibility for the knowledge acquisition of a small crowd of children for a year.  I occasionally think ‘Why am I not a teacher?’  Then I realise that there are numerous reasons.  These include:

1. Teachers need to be really well organised
2. Teachers work really hard
3. I know quite a few teachers and less than half of them enjoy teaching
4. All the teachers I know who enjoy teaching are really well organised and work really hard

Sometimes I think that teaching a class of the smallest children (my wife teaches four to six year olds) is probably like trying to impart knowledge to a gathering of small, British mammals.  There are the squirrels who won’t stop chattering, the badgers who you’re always slightly concerned look like they know more than you, the dormice who are exceptionally small and unnecessarily nervous, the weasels who are a bit naughty… Okay, I’m pushing it too far.  

Anyway, this is all beside the point.

My wife (MrsP) is a teacher and happens to be part of a nice little school in the middle of the Southern English countryside.  They’re in a wealthy little village with a nice little church at the heart.  The school is part of a group who have links with the Anglican diocese in Sierra Leone and MrsP’s particular school is linked with a school called SLC Moyamba.  MrsP, along with a few other teachers from the area, will be heading out to Sierra Leone on 13th February to build the links they have there and to visit some schools, including SLC Moyamba.

I think this link is exciting.  It’s a recognition of the common need for community in these two polar opposite worlds.  There are clear, obvious differences between the countries – one is consistently rated as one of the poorest countries on the planet despite it’s enormous mineral wealth while the other is one of the largest and, until recently, one of the fastest growing economies in the world; one is recovering from a horrific civil war where it seemed to rip itself apart, slicing off limbs, raping and recruiting its children as soldiers while the other arguably created the conditions that led to this civil war through its subjugation and rape of the ancestors of the other and lack its of responsibility thereafter.  The communities also have clear space between them, while both are tiny villages, the average wage in one is probably less than the value of my MP3 player while the average wage in the other could be more than the value of all my other possessions (we rent our home by the way)!  

One of the most illustrative differences is between the two schools.  My wife’s school has about half the pupils and double the staff of SLC Moyamba.  The resources work as great indicators: chalk and blackboards are the main teaching resource in Sierra Leone while MrsP is not allowed to use chalk due to the risk of asthma attacks and has a brilliant interactive whiteboard in her room; there are about 20,000 library books in Sierra Leone for its population of six million (one for every 300 people) so books are scarce while in MrsP’s class there is a multiplicity of reading material.  

When the headteacher of SLC Moyamba was asked recently what would make the biggest difference to life in the school, he replied that they need a toilet as they don’t currently have any.

So as we get closer to the leaving date, my feelings about the thing are all over the place.  Firstly, I’m excited – it feels like we, as a family, will gain a more tangible link with a place we’ve cared about and spoken about constantly (also, I secretly hope MrsP arrives home feeling a ‘calling’ to meet some specific need in Sierra Leone and we as a family will need to move quick-sharp).  I’m profoundly jealous that I can’t be the one bravely stepping out into the unknown and I feel a bit like a spare part.  I’m slightly frightened: not only will I be missing my wife for ten days – a bit like removing a vital organ and sending it to another country – but she’ll be leaving me with our two young sons, who are sometimes quite frightening.

There are things I can do about this.  First, get over my jealousy of my wife and fear of my own children (although the youngest does bite).  Also, expand the excitment and dedicate myself to some serious work for the cause.

This is why I’ve decided to run the Eastbourne Half Marathon.  I’m going to raise money for the new toilet at SLC Moyamba.  So I’m going to be asking for sponsorship in the weeks running up to 1st March.  I want to raise a substantial amount and run a good race.  I’ve done a little bit of running before and I know I can cover this distance, but I want to do it well.  I also think I should think of a name for the campaign.  Maybe ‘Running for the loo’ or something – as you’ll have guessed from my post titles, I’m not great at thinking up snappy names.  I also need to create a sponsorship page for the run.

That’s really all I wanted to say.  Think of the kids at Moyamba every time you go to the loo, that way you might pester yourself into actually giving serious sponsorship (once I’ve set things up)!  Also, please pray for my wife on her trip and me and the boys at home.  You might want to spare a thought for our home and furnishings too – the boys and I tend to get over-excited in light-saber duels and break things – I hope we have a home left for MrsP when she arrives back in the UK!