Salone 23: Day 8 The Football match

This morning Théo and I woke up and went to breakfast on time (ish) at 7:35. Kelvin and Sibley sauntered into the dining area closer to 8 nearly half an hour late, this has become somewhat normal though so nobody was worried. After breakfast we were slightly late piling up into our respective transport vehicles, as one of us went down hard and both General D and Shimmy Shelley had to stay behind to look after the patient, and make sure that they got the right treatment. After a while, we all made our way as one big group to JTR. It took us a long time to get there as the roads were very busy this morning and we had to take a longer route up and around the mountain so we arrived at about 10 (ish) instead of the normal 9:15 am. The girls who had been at JTR this week had selected a couple of us each to help them with their lessons this morning. The kids at the school were excited to see some new faces and thoroughly enjoyed the short ‘lessons’ we delivered - which consisted mostly of fun group games. Next we had a VERY important football match. After a nail- biting 30 minutes the final score was 2-2 a DRAW! Mine and Théo’s personal Man of the Match was Naughty Neil (AKA Mr Bowen) for his sensational goal keeping very much keeping us in the game. Our favourite moment in the match was Kelvin’s shot from half way, which flew its way into tho back of the net starting our comeback from 2-0 down at half time! Then we were treated to some Jollof rice and chicken - a classic but it hits the spot. On the whole the experience at JTR school was awesome.

After JTR the original plan was to head to the big market, unfortunately we had a couple people back at the hotel from illness and everyone was rather hot and sweaty after the football match, so the teachers decided it might be best if we went tommorow when everyone could go! We then returned to the hotel instead where we showered and chillaxed by the pool… In the evening at roughly 5 we headed to Ballanta for the last time for the final concert, the BAFA, which marks the anniversary of the creation of the Ballanta Academy. We had supper when we arrived which was couscous with boiled veg - rather scrumptious. The concert scheduled to start at 6 started closer to 7. It kicked off with the SL national anthem performed by a group of brass Ballanta students. Then there was a solo pianist who played Für Elise. After that, us lot did our set, consisting of the pieces we played in the outreach concerts, which were all received well. We were then treated to some more traditional Sierra Leonian dancing such as we had seen at the cultural village. Then there was a brief interval before we watched the Republic of Sierra Leone’s Armed Forces Band (the RSMAF Band for short). They played a short set which consisted of some covers of noteable artists such as Adele, John Lennon and Elton John and it was fab! We headed back to the hotel for a well earned rest, and to check on the patient. We are happy to report that the patient is on the mend and received the best care possible- thanks General D for your care.

By Théo and Tobin, edits by JDA.