The Returnee Files – Q&A with Yeniva Sisay-Sogbeh

Either time really flies or I’m a slacker. I can’t believe the last time I put one of these out was in 2009. Geez. Well, I have a few lined up and I promise to release them before this time next year. This offering throws the spotlight on someone who has been a constant support to VSL and one of our forumites who passed through VSL en route to Sierra Leone.
What struck me about the interview was just how modest Yeniva is being. In under three years since being in Sierra Leone, she set up EXCEL which is an after school education programme for kids. Seven of those kids were accepted into the African Leadership Academy in South Africa, other students are in Russia, Ukraine. She got married and has a beautiful daughter. She is a key driver and organiser of Poetry nights which unleashed some hidden literary talents in Sierra Leone. She is one of the founding members of Ma dengn Association, organisers of the Ma dengn Beach Festival in Sierra Leone. She not only brought the “Green, White and Blue” Ball to Sierra Leone but also MCs numerous events including the popular Haiti Appeal concert in Freetown were funds were raised for Haitian victims of the earthquake. As if that’s not enough she has recently been appointed the Executive Secretary of the 50th Anniversary Celebrations. Phew! I’m exhausted just typing that.
For someone who was born in the US and never lived in Sierra Leone (only coming back and forth for the holidays) before relocating, she hasn’t done too bad!
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When did you move back to Sierra Leone? How long where you out of the country?


I moved to Sierra Leone in October 2007. I was born and raised in California but I’m a “Daughter of the Dust” both of my parents were born and raised in SL. I have been coming here all of my life.
Why did you decide to relocate to Sierra Leone?
For so many years I had a love affair with Sierra Leone. After restless returns back to the US, I kept connected through the NGO I started, family and following social networks like VSL but I realized that was just not enough. I had to make a conscious decision to be A PART of the change I dream for Sierra Leone or stand by and hope the dream manifests. I chose to come home.


Did family and friends try to discourage you from returning home?

Family and friends have been the most supportive of my relocation although they did raise concerns about how tough Sierra Leone can be on an everyday basis. Things like finding suitable work, no electricity and culture shock were at the forefront of concerns.
How and what steps did you take to prepare your move/relocation to Sierra Leone?
First I prepared my mind for a different life. This is NOT America. No matter how much you would like to compare the two they are just worlds apart. So I first prepared my mind for my journey and change of lifestyle. Next, I prepared to ship my belongings and those things I would want, need and miss.
If you are in full time employment, did you find a job before moving?
No, I did not find a job before moving.


What is your profession? Have you been get the most out of your educational qualifications achieved abroad?
I am an educator I hold a Masters Degree in Education. I would say I have yes I have been able to get great use of my qualifications as I established The EXCEL Education Center as well as serve as a education consultant on curriculum development and teacher training. More encouraging are the opportunities available to explore other talents and passions outside of just my profession.

If you own/run a business/organization, did you move to establish your business? How did you go about setting up the business and how did you find the experience? What type of business do you have? How can folks get in contact?
This is a long one. I am the Executive Director of The EXCEL Education Program www.excelscholars.org

What culture changes did you experience after your move? What surprised you the most about life here?
The sense of time is what surprised me the most. The fact that I was so used to having things right at my finger tips, electricity, internet etc. In the US we are always moving so fast and things get done quickly. Every minute of the day is accounted for. I was surprised at how people take their time and how there is really no rush. It can be quite frustrating at times but it also helps you to slow down and enjoy the things that life has to offer.


Have you adjusted to the Sierra Leonean lifestyle or are you still living like you did abroad?
I am truly adjusted its just something you have to do or you won’t make it. Not adjusting is the mistake that people make and their life here is not sustainable so they get frustrated and turn back. There are certain things that are part of the quality of life, necessity while other things are desires or fluff.
How have you handled the infrastructure limitations, including electricity, water, sanitation, etc.?
Whew! well it is what it is. Things like electricity supply have made quite an improvement however there is still a ways to go. Infrastructure is key to development and investment and Sierra Leone is making steps in the right direction.


What’s the best thing about returning home?
The best thing about returning home is being a part of the renaissance of Sierra Leone. It’s about being able to contribute to a new Sierra Leone on my terms.


Do you think living abroad--education, work experience, culture-- have enabled you to contribute to the development of Sierra Leone
There is no doubt that the sacrifice my parents made in giving us the opportunity to experience abroad has contributed to who I am as a person. The way I communicate, interact is different. I see life the through a different lenses through a different experience.

If you are in Salone with your family, why did you decide to bring your children?  How have your children adjusted to the new lifestyle and culture?
While in Sierra Leone I developed my family. I am now married to an amazing husband who is supportive and allows me to explore and express my love for Sierra Leone. I also have a beautiful and smart daughter who is 2yrs old and her main struggle is whether to speak Krio or English LOL


Will you return to the country where you relocated from?
Sure for visits, conference and professional development. But I’m home now.


What is your long-term vision or hope for Sierra Leone?
To see Sierra Leone gain its rightful place as the diamond of Africa. This is possible through good governance, education, leadership, investment, development and wealth creation. These things are the cornerstone to creating the New Sierra Leone and shedding the negative images of the past.


If you were asked to encourage others to return home, what would you do/advice? Any regrets?
My advice is to come home and do your part. The Diaspora has a key role in the development of Sierra Leone. Be ready for the road ahead. Have an idea about what you want to do but be open to applying your qualifications in un-conventional ways. ( Ex : an educator who moonlights as an event organizer/ marketing and PR) Be humble and ready to open your eyes, listen, learn and live. Crawl before you run and don’t expect to hit the finish line without a bit to sweat and don’t be afraid to celebrate your natural brilliance.

Pineapple Rum Refresher – Made in Sierra Leone

Man I love Sierra Leone’s pineapples.. and alcohol’s not bad either.. so put the two together and I’m very likely to try it. Add to the fact that it’s Sierra Leonean made… and I’m sold.

Its always been disappointing that with all the beautiful fruits (mmm..mango) that fall off the trees of Sierra Leone we haven’t been able to process them into juices that can be sold commercially. So this new pineapple drink is definitely a welcome change.

Developed by KETSO Company Limited and driven by Dr Eamonn, he sees it as a drink for  "cocktail lovers" and its 6% alcohol puts it under the category "alcopop". Think Smirnoff Ice or Barcardi Breezer. The KETSO farms are located at Makombeh village in Port Loko district and according to Dr Eamonn, “selling this product brings in household income to provide, for example, children’s schooling, more livestock and better energy and water supplies.”

Cool stuff. The drink itself is brilliant and excellent when served really chilled. My personal thought is that it will have the greatest appeal to Savannah, other alcopop and cocktail drinkers as those Heineken and Guinness drinkers are pretty loyal. I didn’t taste anything to suggest it’s not an established product that can compete with any foreign drink out there and the packaging is fine.

"Dr. Eamonn" PINEAPPLE RUM REFRESHER is available at
Freetown Direct Supermarket (Congo Cross), Freetown Aqua Sports Club, Alexis', Chez Nous, Roy's, Beach Apple, Njala Venue, Family Kingdom, Mamba Point, Tribe's, Senegalese Restaurant and Balmayas Restaurant.

Please tell friends about this product, not just because it’s important to support Sierra Leonean enterprise but it really is a tasty and refreshing drink (with a bit of a kick obviously, so the normal guidance around alcohol apply). You can find out more by going to their website:

www.ketso.org

Demolishing Lumley to construct highway will breathe new life into the area

They said it wouldn’t happen; which is why some continued to build. They said the govt would not have the ‘cahunas’ to clear out the Lumley junction area. On Saturday, they were proved wrong as work commenced on the dismantling of buildings and the market at Lumley. This is all for a good cause though… National Development which is more important than any individual or enterprise. As far as I know, residents have been compensated.

This is part of the preparation for the “Extension of Wilkinson Road to Water Street” Project, which has an optimistic end date of July 2011. Wilkinson Road through Congo Cross to Water Street will be upgraded to a four lane highway.

Residents and landlords of the Lumley and Juba hill area should be licking their lips because if the congestion problem in that area is solved.. not only will it ease their daily frustrations but it will become a more desirable place to live once again. Sadly, it lost its prestige after the conflict and I know from experience through our real estate business that hardly anyone wants to live there these days. These areas were the choice for Presidents, Ministers and those fortunate enough to be in the higher end of the Sierra Leone – or certainly Freetown’s – citizenry.

So as I sit in my office at Congo Cross, looking at my vandalised sign board next to the fence that is supposed to be knocked down as a part of this project; I’m trying to visualise what a four lane highway running right in front of us will look (or sound like) in the next twelve months. Scary, but totally worth it for National Development.

Happy Birthday VSL! Six years later, we look back to the future

After a friend of mine reminded me of how much Visit Sierra Leone had done over the last six years – whether I realised it or not - I was forced to go back into the archives and find a document called inspiration.doc. If you remember this document, it means you have been there since day one! The first couple of paragraphs read:

“When was the last time you heard Sierra Leone mentioned in a sentence without being followed by one or more
of the following words: donated, aids, war, war child, war-torn, prostitution, rebels, amputees, corruption, poverty, rebel, RUF, child soldiers? Whilst these may be perfectly valid in the context in which they are used, anyone who’s been to Sierra Leone will know there are many other sides to the country.

Not enough is said about the natural beauty of the country, its people, and what it may have to offer to the world at large. This has been the inspiration behind the development of www.visitsierraleone.org . This website aims to promote those aspects of Sierra Leone which makes it a tourist destination for the adventurous traveller. The intention is not only to target non-Sierra Leoneans but also Sierra Leoneans scattered across all continents.”

Or course, the site looked different then and I have been looking for a screenshot but unfortunately, I didn’t keep any. I did however find the original logo which I cooked up myself one evening.

This document was sent out in July 2004 and was effectively the ‘launch’ of VSL – there was never an official launch with balloons and champagne – and it explains why VSL has remained a passion. At the time, I was a pretend nerd working in the IT department for the charity SCOPE. Now I’ve moved back to Freetown and dedicated full-time to VSL and its sister business, VSL Property, and my only regret are the internet speeds, which were much better at SCOPE in 2004 than in Freetown in 2010!
As always, one is thankful to the assistance provided by friends and family over that time, and I guess birthdays are the time to look back and reflect as well as plan for the future.
At six, VSL has changed. A lot. So many things have happened in that time. We still deal with all manner of inquiries relating to Sierra Leone, one of my personal favourites being “Can you tell me more about the poro society and how do I become a member?”… or one that came through last week “i need a sierra leone passport will that be possible even if it will cost me 500us,thanks”. Er, no. We continue to provide free advice through the forum and continue to be driven by the central goal of “rebranding Sierra Leone”, which was our catalyst in 2004 and continues to drive us today.
But from an information-based website with a single person at the helm in 2004, we are now an Inbound Tour Operator/Travel Services company with staff of six (up from one in 2008).
As recently as 2008, you’d have been hard pressed to find an operator running scheduled tours to Sierra Leone (not those organising one-off trips for adventure seekers). In 2010, we are proud to represent three UK-based operators now including Sierra Leone in their brochures, with another few from Europe in the pipeline.
We’re proud to have received acclaim from industry leaders such as Bradt Guide and the Lonely Planet.
Bradt Travel Guide for Sierra Leone: Visit Sierra Leone has single handedly done more to promote
awareness of Sierra Leone as a tourist destination than anyone else."
Lonely Planet West Africa Guide said of our forum community “Tons of travel advice and an active discussion
forum where, no matter how obscure your inquiry, someone will probably have an answer”.
Of course, I cannot talk about VSL without mentioning our forum community, who have been quite supportive over the years. It’s a blessing that relationships, both business and personal, have been formed on that platform and will hopefully stand the test of time. Perhaps one of the best things is how many of our active participants have actually relocated back to Sierra Leone. Mah-D, Fisherman, Saloneboy, DCGunner, Nasratha, Sabawaka, Joyah Bobor, DarkChild and others…we’re still waiting on you Cool-runnins!
As a small but ambitious company, our emphasis is now on serving clients to the best of our ability and with a passion for sustainable tourism development, we also provide valuable services to corporate clients and groups, both before and during their stay. We want them to leave with positive experiences and fair recommendations that Sierra Leone is worth a visit.
Among the highlights of this work was the chance to provide travel and ground handling services to South Africa’s Bafana Bafana and the Equatorial Guinea national team (our office staff are footie fanatics) but it has also been fun to learn about the positive work that many of our clients do. One example is the group at Mape Project, who we have been providing some logistical support to. Their vision for tourism development is astounding and you can find out more about their work at www.themapeproject.com.
On the development side, learning of the work that Madieu Williams, the Sierra Leonean born American football safety player for the Minnesota Vikings does through the Madieu Williams Foundation with a joint partnership with the Healing Hands Foundation in the field of Health and Education was inspiring.
A few months ago while we were in Berlin for the Travel Fair and were able to get some tour operators interested in Sierra Leone as a possible destination and just a few weeks ago, we worked with the National Tourist Board (SL) and Exodus in bringing four journalists from The Metro, Times Online, The Independent and The Press Association to Sierra Leone for a press trip. The first of those articles is out and we are proud to say that Exodus will start advertising their trips here for January 2011. See Metro Article.
Six years later, in our own little way - we’re still trying. Just imagine where we might be, with your help, six years from now.

With the Beach Bars gone…can somebody at least turn on the lights?

 
Picture courtesy of Awoko.org (http://www.awoko.org/)

Almost two years after the beach bars were demolished by truckloads of soldiers and armed police to make way for tourism revamp just how is that going? How is the beautification process coming along? No, honestly. Because I may have missed it. Maybe just getting rid of the bars was seen as beautification itself? How long do the trees need? What are those structures starting to rare their pop up where the beach bars used to be? Roy’s for example? I’m not knocking Roy’s because I like what they’ve done but it proves the point that existing owners could have been given the opportunity to modify their establishments.

In any case, this post isn’t about the bars being gone. It is about what has failed to follow. Forget the trees for a second… why is there still no power along the beach in 2010? All these shiny new restaurants and hotels like the Taia Resort have to generate their own power. 

Taia Resort

I mean, common… this is an accessible, flat stretch that already has power at the Police Post (Aberdeen end) and Golf Club (Lumley end) in the capital city.

As the President rightly tells us every now and again, infrastructure is the foundation for economic growth. So, maybe the Tourism Ministry would do well to gather round their friends from Energy and Power and any other related Ministry and get Lumley Beach out of the dark ages. Sometimes, I am tempted to believe that the powers that be are scared of Tourism development in this country and as a result, sub-consciously or otherwise, sabotage it.

Please, this is not 1910 it’s 2010 and this is our city beach; and filthy though it may be (for another article), we love it still. So if the Ministry is serious about the ‘tourism revamp’ along the beach, this would be a good start – two years later.

See earlier article about the demolition:

So what do you think of the beach bars situation?