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Abdulai Sesay became a model in 2007. He was just out of school in Bo, Sierra Leone’s second city. As the athlete got better at keeping his pose for hours and hours, his fame spread to Kenema, the third-largest city in Sierra Leone. Before he came to the capital Freetown, Abdulai went to Makeni to show off his skill. He struck a pose for a full 9 hours on the roof of a car. In Freetown, he posed for 10 hours at the National Stadium, while people made fun of him. Abdulai poses for very long hours. Perhaps the longest stretch was in Bo when he stayed in character for 14 hours and 48 minutes. Abdulai has always been excited by Spider-Man, the superhero in American comic books. He often paints his body like one of the fictional characters. It takes Abdulai a couple of hours to transform into Amazing Spider-Man or Wall-crawler. Once he applies his makeup with water paint, it might stay on his skin for a day. Abdulai came to Freetown in 2013. While he settled into life in the...

Mr. John Brewa owns a five-unit apartment building in the Allen Town district of the capital Freetown. Mr. Brewa and his family live in one unit and he’s been renting the other four since 2010. Each apartment has three bedrooms, a sitting room, a bathroom, and a kitchen. Since the local council doesn’t collect trash for each residence, Mr. Brewa’s tenants dispose of their own garbage. Once a week, the children cart everything to a dumpsite. Everyone has to fetch water from wells or standpipes. During the dry season, people oftentimes get water from streams. Sahr Matturi of the Water and Sanitation Media Network said Allen Town, which is about thirteen miles from the capital city, is divided into two halves. “In the lower part of Allentown, most of the residents are unable to access pipe-borne water. In the dry season, lots of people move [around] with rubber gallons in search of drinking water,” he said. Mr. Brewa rents finished apartments for 300,000 Leones and unfinished ...

Sports help develop skills and are a good way to get physical exercise. In the east end of Freetown, some teenagers and young people say the best sport is football. Not because it's the most popular game in the entire world or the sport they prefer. It's really the only activity available.   In Allen Town, a group of boys and girls have played football for about a year.  Their coach, 22-year-old Alhaji Koroma (crouching, front row, in black shirt) said their team is called Sasha Base United. He said they only play football because there are no fields or centers for baseball, volleyball, basketball, tennis and the likes. Karim Deen, Alhaji's assistant (in a check shirt, back row) said that if he wants to play volleyball or basketball, he would have to go to urban Freetown, or the National Stadium, about six miles away.   Sometimes Sasha Base is called to take part in local competitions, but Alhaji says they often get disqualified because they don't meet expectat...

It feels good to secure a national identity (ID) card because it makes you feel safe. Having one means evading and dodging the police stops and harassment ceases.   In central Freetown, the National Civil Registration Authority (NCRA) handles and distributes all national ID cards to civilians over eighteen, nationwide. That's why the staff at the NCRA hardly get to put up their feet.  Every weekday, hundreds of people can be found sitting in rows or standing in long queues, waiting to get a national ID card.  To get one, it’s the law that you have documents like your birth certificate, voter's ID card, and any bank issued identification card, together with 12, 500 Leones to buy an application form and to pay for a photograph.   But civilians who go in for a national ID card face many problems.    First of all, there's not enough space for people as the NCRA hall is small with only a few benches. Approximately, the hall can hold a total of a...

  Many old people have got something to say about when they were young.  In Freetown, Mr. Abdul Karim Kamara is a 75-year-old man, who used to be a tailor. Mr. Kamara said although he didn't go to school, his tailoring skills helped him fend for himself and his family. Mr. Kamara spent all his youthful days in Makeni, the largest city in northern Sierra Leone. He was such a famous tailor, all the surrounding villages had him sew their clothes. But things got difficult when the civil war came. He lost his wife, Adama, his house, and the rebels took away all his savings and his sewing machine. He felt devastated.  Later, he traveled to Freetown, more than 80 miles away. In the capital, he served as a shopkeeper for five years. With his savings, he was able to buy another sewing machine and started tailoring on Black hall road, east of Freetown.  But as time passed, his hands started trembling. Since he could no longer do the job to his customers’ satisfac...

I'm Inyilla Borteh Karimata Conteh. I'm in my twenties and I'm preparing to do a mass communications degree at Fourah Bay College. Writing is something I have always enjoyed. As a Sierra Leonean, I have heard many stories. This is my Sierra Leonean story.  I was born in Bo district and relocated to Freetown when I was 5 years old. That was in 2002. I attended the Dele Preparatory School in Allen Town and then high school at the Holy Family Secondary School in Calaba Town, where I stay with my parents, kid sister, and a few cousins. My parents are Muslims and I grew up in an Islamic community.  I love the way my people practice Islam in our little corner, doing no harm. Peace is one thing that we value and maintain.  Growing up, my mum and dad would walk through the rooms by 6.00 a.m. each day, asking all of us to wake up and be ready for salat. I used to get annoyed and frown till the end of the prayer. I didn’t like waking up so early. Most times, I'd stay in m...

The office of the Registrar of Births and Deaths in Sierra Leone recorded a total of 34, 536 deaths during 2016. Figures show an increase in the death statistics of nearly 10,000 from the total of 24, 300 in the previous year 2015, the births and deaths office said. The report also recorded a total of 293, 698 new live births in 2016, showing a corresponding increase of 38,698 in the birth rate from 2015. A total of 1,755 stillbirths were also recorded in 2016, also slight increase of 45 from the previous year. These figures include only cases officially reported and registered with the Sierra Leone Births and Deaths Office. It does not account for unreported deaths and births that may have occurred in remote and isolated communities across the country. Conclusion: Death numbers increased countrywide in 2016 more than the two previous years of 2014 and 2015 when the country was besieged by the Ebola outbreak. The office of the Registrar of Births and Deaths is a ...