Mike Simpson, One Sky

Mike Simpson works on international environmental projects with partners in West Africa and Latin America. He is the executive director of One Sky -- The Canadian Institute of Sustainable Living in the rural, northern town of Smithers, British Columbia.

My day started at 4:59. Awoke to the sound of prayer being sung on loudspeakers. It is Ramadan and a lot of people are fasting and praying. It lasts a month. I lay in bed for a few minutes listening to a beautiful voice through miraculously functional loudspeakers and thought what a wonderful day it was going to be.

I got up and reviewed strategic planning documents and read over some organizational management materials. At 7:00, people were starting to wake up in the apartment so I walked down to talk with some nuns I met years ago. By 8:00, I ventured down to do battle with cyberspace demons with the Internet provider. He was trying to figure out what the problem with the Internet was. With my help and to his dismay, we managed to crash the satellite system.

Later in the morning I met with the executive director of Friends of the Earth and then with a group called the Conservation Society. They are trying to protect one of Sierra Leone's last remaining forested areas next to Liberia, which has huge value in terms of biological endemism. They are completely on their own and hardly anyone knows what has been going on there since the war. We made cursory plans to travel there later in the week.

Then I hitchhiked in the back of a sand truck with Kristin, one of the One Sky employees, to the rural village of Lakka. We are basically the only NGO that I know of that is working in Sierra Leone without transportation. It takes longer to get around, but there is value in traveling with other people. You can fit 22 people into an eight-passenger minivan here. It makes for great conversations. And our people walk more. In fact, they walk a lot, and life here is lived on the street. There are four young women working for One Sky in Sierra Leone. They live in a so-called "dangerous" market area, yet seem to be completely safe. Everyone knows them because they walk and talk and have formed community. It is noticeable for people here because all of the other NGOs drive around in $50,000 Land Rovers advertising their causes on their doors. Our people carry their water on their heads to the house, ride in overcrowded buses, and live on low wages, all the while speaking Creole to the locals. In short, they relate and people notice and it keeps them safe. Sometimes I feel bad that we don't have more money, and other times I figure it's a blessing.

When we got to Lakka, Kristin introduced me to the ecological center staff. The center is a ramshackle collection of huts made with leftover United Nations refugee tarps on a piece of land donated by the local village. The village was impressed with Friends of the Earth and their consistent desire to teach about appropriate technology, so they donated a chunk of land.

Pa Conteh, an older man, gave me a tour of the organic agriculture plots. He showed me some drip irrigation plots they are experimenting with and posed for pictures next to an organic compost-enriched cocoa plant that literally was 10 times the size of the regular plants. We looked at 12-foot trees that were planted last year from the nursery, inspected corn that had been ravished by monkeys, and pondered over his plans to expand the use of marigolds and natural pesticides.

Probably the highlight was to look at the "demonstration building" that was made of local materials, including roofing tiles that were constructed using a pedal-powered cement tile maker. It is a pedal-powered technology that a One Sky employee, Jud, borrowed from El Salvador, adapted in Vancouver, and has been promoting in Sierra Leone. The locals have not recovered from the idea that a Canadian woman would carry cement on her head, help move bricks, and struggle to work out the details of building with an assorted crew of volunteers, ex-combatants, and impoverished old men.

The building is completed now and eliminates the need to use zinc roofing that wears out, is expensive, and is hot to live under. We celebrated by drinking palm wine and making flowery speeches about rebuilding Sierra Leone and protecting the environment. Everyone joined in, and it seemed the longer the poyo flowed, the more eloquent the speeches got. Eventually an old spindly lady had everyone in tears laughing as she insisted on a "cultural dance" accompanied by a lot of stomping and clapping. You cannot beat Sierra Leone for having fun or good company.

At the end of the festivities, we walked a mile or so down the road trying to get some transportation. It eventually showed up in the form of a busted-up, beat-up, barely surviving minivan with square wheels and we all made the squeeze to Freetown. I think I hit the sack about 11:30.