My Life - Aminata from Freetown

this is Amina tamansari she Liv with her family in the West End of fre which is the capital of Saron in an area called brookfields Ras MOS Street Aminata lives in a pan body house a pan body is a corregated iron zinc house she lives there with her parents Five Sisters two brothers and a two wom house I mean at day start at 7:00 in the morning she wakes up and go outside to wash her face and gets ready to do some domestic work around the house sweeping is a job that many children do in Salon it is important because it helps to keep the pest away from the house and insects and keep the compound clean average homes inside don't have water supply so every morning I'm have to go to the local community tab to fetch water for the family to cook drink and wash fetching water is hard work but it has to be done at least twice every day sometimes you see friends and neighbor on the way and they catch up with the news in Saron everyone has a role to play to keep things going at home if children don't do their job around the house their mom is not going to give them their dinner amata likes to do what she can to help her mom secondary school education in Saron is not free and it can be difficult for families to afford to send their children to school in big families par often choose just to send their boys to school when girls grow up and get married it becomes a responsibility of their husband to look after them but when boys grow up they continue to look after their parents brothers and sisters so educating the boys becomes more important but Aminata is lucky her brother and friends in the UK are helping to pay her school fees the average salinian ants 30 to 40 a month school fees are expensive PS also have to pay for uniforms exercise books and textbooks I'm inata attend St Joseph Secondary School for Girls this a 15minute walk for my [Music] home in Saron there is no fixed age at which children start secondary school once you've passed your primary school exams you join Secondary School in jss one that is junior secondary school one the next year is jss 2 the following year jss 3 in jss3 you have to take the basic education certificate exams which is also Al known as Beck if you successfully move on to SSS one which is senior Secondary School one and the next year SSS 2 and the final year sss3 then you take your West African senior Secondary School certificate exam called was the equivalent to gcsc in the UK Aminata is in jss 2 so she still has 4 years to go when am gets home the first thing she does is to get change and wash her uniform ready for the next day then it's time to start getting the food ready Aminata chops the wood and lights the fire and then heads off to Congo Market with her sister mabinti many serans and their living as P Traders buying and selling few things every day to make end Meats cono Market is always busy and am visit the Stalls where she knows she will get the best price today she buys Cava leaves oil ground nut that's peanut pepper Yas onions dry fish oriri [Music] that's all the ingredients would cost around 7,000 lons that's about1 20 to feed the whole family back home Amin and mabinti prepare the food it's a time for the Sisters to talk and share jokes together even though seron is a fertile country farming is not that well developed white rice is the main food but most of the rice in s comes from overseas free town is along the coast and fish is an important part of our diet in the city drying is a popular way to preserve fish and dry fish is commonly cooked in a stew with Cera leaves the onions and pepper are placed in the mat wood and motar and pounded together Cava Leaf soup and rice is one of the most popular dishes in Saron it is a proper traditional food wherever you are in the world you feel at home when you eating Cava leaves at me time everybody sits together everyone has their own Bowl sometimes you would like to save some of your food for later in the evening after you've been out fathers normally have two Bowl one for the guys and one for the soup they always get more than everybody else the rice that sticks at the bottom of the pot is called Crow and it tastes [Music] [Applause] good am and her family don't have electricity at home and they don't have a TV so like most serian they make their own entertainment the girls spend hours fixing each other's hair plating it in different stylebody before the place get too dark Aminata settles down to do her homework she knows that if she works hard she will make life better for herself and her family at around 10:00 she pulls down her mosquito net and settle down to [Music] sleep know you

Channel: Nova Studios Ltd

Views: 285,770

Keywords: Sierra Leone, Freetown, Africa, Educational, Education, life, Salone, Krio, Emmerson, Plan, British Council, Kallon

Id: -aimnBs7BIE

Length: 10min 48sec (648 seconds)

Published: Mon May 21 2012