Kushe o from Freetown, Sierra Leone
Written by KC King, Global Mission Intern with the Council of Churches of Sierra Leone
Kushe o from Freetown, Sierra Leone!
My name is KC King, and since the end of October I have been serving as a Global Mission Intern (GMI) with the Council of Churches of Sierra Leone (CCSL). I have a background in music and audio engineering and have been using my God-given gifts to serve CCSL and other communities of Sierra Leone as a music teacher intertwined with women’s advocacy work. My work has only just begun, but I am happy to share the experiences I have had in mission and the projects I am looking forward to.
Before coming, I knew mission work was something that could help me learn and grow as much as I try to do the same for those I am in service with. However, I don’t think I was fully aware of how this truth would look. When I think of my experience so far in Sierra Leone (Salone), the words flexibility and patience come to mind. I came here thinking I would be doing work as a music therapist, but the needs of the communities are showing that my gifts will be best used as a music teacher and women’s rights advocate. The projects I am helping with are matters that I am deeply passionate about and feel connected to, but because of the administrative process and flow of money present here, the projects have been decelerated.
Patience and flexibility are skills I’ve had to exhibit in my time outside of work as well as I have navigated (and with some issues, am still navigating) issues of harassment, communication, and a fraught living environment that has lacked basic working appliances and electricity. Yet, it has also reminded me how important my work with women’s advocacy is as well as the work of Global Ministries. The support of this ministry helps ensure interns like me can live in safe environments while we do the work God has called us to do.
Trying to exercise this patience and flexibility has led me to rely on the scripture Jeremiah 29:11 as a sort of affirmation for this chapter of the journey. It says, “‘For I know what I have planned for you,’ says the Lord. ‘I have plans to prosper you, not to harm you. I have plans to give you a future filled with hope.’” This verse is a letter God wrote to His people that were exiled from Jerusalem to give them hope and give them the permission to settle in this new land— find and build community. Although the circumstances that moved God’s people out of Jerusalem are quite different from what brought me to Salone, I hold onto the hope God promises those who follow Him. I also acknowledge and lean into His request for them to build a life there; community is something that is deeply important to me, so I make time to connect with those around through the Bible Study I attend in my neighborhood, for example.
Jeremiah 29 also reminds me of the hope I see in a lot of those I am blessed to be in community with. Many parts of their experiences are unfavorable, but it is evident to see how confident they are in their God and His power in all parts of their life. I’ve seen it in something as simple as a greeting, or the way they treat those around them. For example, a common response given here to the question “How are you?” is “Tell God Tenki”— translated to “thank God.” Another example is something I experienced just this week on my way to work. It is common to hail a taxi, or kekeh as they are called here, off the street as a main form of transportation. When I was doing so one morning, both me and a few others were having a difficult time finding one at a reasonable price, and we were all going to the same part of town called Lodge. When one woman found a kekeh going to Lodge, she made the kekeh driver wait as she told us to join her in the kekeh. A spirit of gratefulness, giving, and kindness is present in this country in a way I have not seen before.
Through my work and ministry, I am expressing this same spirit of giving and kindness that I see in the people here in Salone. Earlier in March, I went to a village named Tambiama because I was invited to a conference about women’s rights. The conference primarily discussed issues of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) and Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and how to combat the issues in their village. Local village leaders, teachers, and students attended. The event was targeted at the elementary and middle school age children. CCSL colleagues, local leaders, members of a women’s advocacy club called Girls Protection Club, and myself spoke at this event. I was quite enammored with how speakers of the program talked openly about issues of harassment, violence, rape and more in a digestable way for school children. It was especially affirming to see one of my CCSL colleagues speak about how seemingly “small” acts of harassment, such as touching a woman’s hair, face, waist, leg, etc. can lead to much more harmful acts if left unchecked. Him teaching about the dangers of harassment in this way compelled me to share my experiences with being harassed in Salone to underscore his points.
Members of Girls Protection Club spoke primarily on the issue of FGM. Female Genital Mutilation is a practice that involves altering or injuring the female genitalia for non-medical reasons. It causes chronic pain, HIV risk, infections, problems with childbirth, infertility, mental issues like anxiety and depression, and sometimes death. FGM is practiced in parts of Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, and in Salone it is often done as part of a cultural practice through a secret organization called the Bondo Society. The society teaches girls how to become women through teaching them how to treat elders, how to upkeep a house, and many other things from their Soweis, who are the Bondo Society’s eldest members and teachers (who also do the cutting for FGM). Because of its ties to cultural and traditional practices, FGM is an incredibly sensitive topic and finding solutions to the issue need to be broached with an amount of cultural understanding and respect. I’ve put together a resource on the topic of FGM, you can deepen your knowledge of this practice at this link.
The Girls Protection Club performed their skits and songs at this program as well (pictured). Girls Protection Club comes together to make songs and skits about FGM as a way to bring awareness to the issue and advocate against it. The group is open to men and women, and they have over 30 students involved in the club. The work they are doing is truly inspiring. It’s impactful to see the effort and passion they put into the songs, turning the pain of too many women and girls into art that can help in the liberation of the practice of FGM. With my most recent visit to Tambiama, I recorded 2 of their songs, and I am in the process of mixing and mastering them so that they can be heard by a larger global audience.
Finally, the primary work I do day-to-day is teaching music. I am in the process of restarting the CCSL Youth Desk Praise Band. The goal is to engage the youth through music and have them perform a few times a year at our member churches. We are being quite intentional with the planning because this is an endeavor we want to continue long past my time in Salone.
In addition to restarting the praise band, I also teach voice and saxophone lessons as well as aural skills/music theory classes at Ballanta Academy of Music and Performing Arts. I even assist with mixing and recording the bands of Ballanta as needed. My favorite thing about teaching music at CCSL and Ballanta thus far is how curious and passionate the students are. They are always thinking about how material I teach in our lessons can be connected to other music concepts they know and how to use all of these skills together.
When I think of my time in Salone thus far and what God is doing with this journey, I often remember the time I went hiking at SugarLoaf Mountain in Regent Village, Freetown with a friend. I had no idea what to expect, as it was my first hike. Sometimes it was steep and tiring, sometimes we reached checkpoints that gave us hope, sometimes we stopped for rest and recovery, sometimes I was not sure how we would make it to the top, and at all times we needed and relied on community to persevere. In the end, we got to see the most breathtaking view I have seen in my life thus far (the picture truly does not do it justice!). The ebbs and flow of my work as a Global Mission Intern feels a lot like this hike. There is a constant need and desire for God at the center of this work for guidance and support as I learn a new country, learn a new language, execute the goals of CCSL, and do ministry with the spirit of true partnership at the center. The journey is only just beginning and I am excited to see where it takes me.