Lumley Beach, Freetown
Two miles of white sand along the edge of the Atlantic. This is a main tourist attraction with hotels, shops, restaurants and golf courses.
Tuesday 28 April 2009
Monday 27 April 2009
Welcome to African Pie.
I am Ted Swindale and this is a collection of bits from here and there, put together to create something entertaining, maybe controversial but giving food for thought. But that is not the only reason to call the blog "African Pie". Pie also stands for "Partners in Excellence", which is the aim of the relationship with our Sierra Leonean friends and their land
A bit about the country:-
Where is it? On the West coast of Africa, South of Guinea and North of Liberia. Due South of the UK it is on Greenwich Mean Time and about 540 miles North of the Equator.
Sierra Leone is a beautiful country with fantastic palm fringed beaches, rolling hills and forests, and friendly people.
It has emerged from a most brutal civil war (1991-2002) complete with child soldiers, death, destruction and mutilation on a mega scale. Tens of thousands were killed and over 2 million people displaced. That is more than a third of the country.
The land is considered to have the second richest reserves of mineral assets in Africa, - bauxite, rutile, gold, diamonds plus lush agricultural land and seas teeming with fish.
Yet it competes for bottom place on the United Nations Human Development Indices. These compare life expectancy, literacy, education and standards of living of the world's 179 countries. In 2008 coming in at 179, just after the Central African Republic, is Sierra Leone.
The nation once educated leaders for the whole of British Colonial West Africa. Now less than half of men are considered literate, and less than one in four women.
My interest in the country began with a correspondence in 1985 with a young man, Alpha Kargbo, using snail mail in those days! He is now the Education and Development co-ordinator of our work.
I am Ted Swindale and this is a collection of bits from here and there, put together to create something entertaining, maybe controversial but giving food for thought. But that is not the only reason to call the blog "African Pie". Pie also stands for "Partners in Excellence", which is the aim of the relationship with our Sierra Leonean friends and their land
A bit about the country:-
Where is it? On the West coast of Africa, South of Guinea and North of Liberia. Due South of the UK it is on Greenwich Mean Time and about 540 miles North of the Equator.
Sierra Leone is a beautiful country with fantastic palm fringed beaches, rolling hills and forests, and friendly people.
It has emerged from a most brutal civil war (1991-2002) complete with child soldiers, death, destruction and mutilation on a mega scale. Tens of thousands were killed and over 2 million people displaced. That is more than a third of the country.
The land is considered to have the second richest reserves of mineral assets in Africa, - bauxite, rutile, gold, diamonds plus lush agricultural land and seas teeming with fish.
Yet it competes for bottom place on the United Nations Human Development Indices. These compare life expectancy, literacy, education and standards of living of the world's 179 countries. In 2008 coming in at 179, just after the Central African Republic, is Sierra Leone.
The nation once educated leaders for the whole of British Colonial West Africa. Now less than half of men are considered literate, and less than one in four women.
My interest in the country began with a correspondence in 1985 with a young man, Alpha Kargbo, using snail mail in those days! He is now the Education and Development co-ordinator of our work.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)