A coworker passed away last week after spending four decades with the organization. I did not get the chance to know him, but I wish I had. BBC news reports called him a “legendary humanitarian” and the news spread quickly throughout the country. At one point, he was the only expat left in Freetown during the civil war. He risked his life on many occasions, standing up to armed combatants and hiding men in his house, delivering food to displaced people and taking tea while bullets passed overhead.
His funeral was attended by hundreds of people, almost all of them Sierra Leonean. Scattered throughout the crowd were pockets of color, reds here, green and blues over there. They were the boys he coached and encouraged, the boys to whom he had given so much of his life. Over 40 of soccer players he mentored are now playing professionally in Europe or on the national team.
The day after it happened, my taxi driver dropped me off at the office and asked what the black banners were for. I told him about his passing, and my driver let out a groan and covered his heart with his hand. “He was a father to all of Sierra Leone,” he said.
Read more about him here and here and here.
His funeral was attended by hundreds of people, almost all of them Sierra Leonean. Scattered throughout the crowd were pockets of color, reds here, green and blues over there. They were the boys he coached and encouraged, the boys to whom he had given so much of his life. Over 40 of soccer players he mentored are now playing professionally in Europe or on the national team.
The day after it happened, my taxi driver dropped me off at the office and asked what the black banners were for. I told him about his passing, and my driver let out a groan and covered his heart with his hand. “He was a father to all of Sierra Leone,” he said.
Read more about him here and here and here.
Posts
1 comment:
Lindsay, I'm so glad you mentioned Jacques. I got to meet him one time, w/out even a handshake. "Angie this is Jacques, Jacques this is my wife." All I know is w/out that guy all of my things would have never made it from Guinea to Sierra Leone & Sierra Leone would not have been the same at all. Only a week ago a man asked Dave & I, "So Papa Jacques is dead?" "Yes," said Dave. The man just lowered his head & the conversation was over.
Post a Comment