Life in Sierra Leone

Two large synthetic burlap sacks, one blue and white and one orange, sit on the sidewalk in front of a cement house with a rust-patched corrugated metal roof and a dirt yard with a basin and a line of wet dirt. The sacks are filled beyond the top and covered with palm leaves the ends of which are tucked into the sacks. The picture is labeled "Bags of charcoal for sale: Sierra Leone, 2018"
Every piece of charcoal is a piece of a tree that has be processed in a smoldering fire. In addition to the smoke released into the air, both in making and using the charcoal, the loss of forest to make charcoal puts people’s health and well-being at risk.
Large, sturdy aluminum cooking pots sit atop braziers of burning coal. One of the coal pots is made of metal and the bottom is a smaller cylinder with a rectangular opening. The top half is conical, joined to the bottom half and becoming wider at the top. The sides have air holes. The coal is in the top half. The other coal pot is metal on the bottom, conical with the wide end on the ground. The top half appears to be ceramic and is also conical, with the wide end facing up. The coals are in the top half. There is a diamond shaped opening in the bottom half.
These are coal pots typically used to cook meals in Sierra Leone.
A densely populated city is on the shore of the ocean. At the ocean, there are cranes, for lifting large industrial items. The two largest cranes are on a platform built out from the shoreline. The entire scene is filtered through smoke in the air. In the nearest foreground is the top of a tree.
Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, on the shore of the Atlantic Ocean, viewed from a ridge.
Three wooden boats, each with a pointed bow and flattened stern onto which a small motor is mounted, float close to the shoreline.
Boats at shore in Freetown.
Six people are lined up on the shoreline pulling on a fishing net. The net extends beyond the frame of the photo, further into the ocean. Other people are milling around the beach. The people pulling on the net appear to be one woman, one man, two teenaged boys and two pre-teen boys.
At the shoreline in Freetown, pulling in a fishing net.
On a sidewalk next to a congested street, a woman walks with a clear plastic storage bin that is wider than her shoulders balanced on her head. Inside the bin there appear to be prepared foods. There is a blue plastic bag filled with something on top of the green lid of the bin. The woman also has a purse strap crossing from her right shoulder to her left hip.
Vendors carrying their products on their heads are frequently seen on the busy streets of cities in Sierra Leone.
On a tree branch, one chimpanzee sits with a foot on the branch and the other dangling in the air while his hand is picking at his chest. A few feet from him, another chimpanzee is perched on the same branch. Her lips are on the forehead of a juvenile chimpanzee whose arm is around her body.
An easy day trip from the capital city of Freetown, the Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary rehabilitates rescued chimpanzees to prepare them to be released back into the wild.
An engraved slab over a worn cement building reads "Royal Hospital and Asylum for Africans Rescued from Slavery by British Valour and Philanthropy Erected A.D. MDCCCXVII."
The capital of Sierra Leone is called Freetown because some who were rescued from slavery were sent here to rebuild their lives. Upon arrival, they were given a medical checkup and treatment they needed at this hospital a few steps from the dock where they would have disembarked from the ship.
The interior of a church, where most seats are full of worshippers, many of whom are dressed in kente cloth. The room is a rectangular sanctuary with ample windows on each side and the door at the back open to the outside.
Our team worshipped with the congregation at Charles Davis United Methodist Church in Freetown.
A crowd of boys and girls wearing their blue school uniforms, many of whom are excitedly raising their hands, stands in a dirt yard with a long, single-story building behind them along with several stands shaded by sun umbrellas next to the building.
Academic research has found a correlation between a history of Protestant missions such as this school and democracy, equality and prosperity decades later. It was an inspiration to see so many kids getting an education through this United Methodist school.

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