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- Road to Rotifunk at the beginning of the rainy season.
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- Rotifunk is a center of local trade with its lively Saturday market.
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- Arlene’s former house in Rotifunk she shared with other women teachers, now rebuilt after being burned by rebels during the war..
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- A number of homes remain burned out shells, victims of rebel soldier occupation that owners have decided to not rebuild.
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- But many modern new homes in Rotifunk continue to be built.
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- With no running water system, carrying water from wells is a daily chore often given children & teenagers.
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- Battery run LED lights have replaced smoky kerosene lamps and their fire hazard. But reading – and studying – at night is still difficult.
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- Magdelaine is one of the adult education students in Rotifunk.
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- Example of Energy for Opportunity, a Sierra Leone Nonprofit for solar technology installing solar panels on roof.
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- Paramount Chief Caulker, traditional leader of Bumpeh Chiefdom
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- Director Steve Papelian with young Rotifunk friends
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- Goboi devil dances in Rotifunk.
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- Woman Sampa dancer in Rotifunk wears her Obama shirt.
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- The Bumpeh RIver is the only practical means of transportation for some small villages. Sometimes the only means.
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- Misty morning in Moyeamoh, Bumpeh Chiefdom’s second largest town.
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- Bumpeh River widens as it nears the ocean.
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- Fisherman’s colorful patchwork sail on Bumpeh River
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- Typical village, one of 208 in Bumpeh Chiefdom
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- Giant cotton tree dwarfs six foot man.
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- Paramount Chief Charles Caulker’s horn blower announces his official visit to village.
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- Paramount Chief Charles Caulker and his official horn blower pass through rice swamps on their way from Bumpeh River to a village.
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- Paramount Chief Caulker visits village to give a talk encouraging people to register to vote for 2012 elections.
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- Most basic house construction is mud packed on a frame of small tree limbs. Dried mud bricks are the next step up.
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- Heavy clay soil makes strong mud bricks, the most common rural building material.
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- Small motorcycles are taxi and delivery “truck” on small unimproved dirt roads. Note goat strapped on driver’s lap.
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- Arlene felt honored when the women’s Bundu devil came out to dance for her.
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- Men turn over heavy mucky flood plain soil, preparing rice swamp for seasonal planting.
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- Cutting newly germinated rice in rice nursery to transplant in rice swamp.
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- Newly transplanted rice swamps. The Bumpeh River area is a rice bowl for Sierra Leone.
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- Rice in rice swamp is ready to harvest.
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- The Bumpeh River carries daily tides from the nearby ocean to inland waterways. Rice swamp when the tide is in…
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- … six hours later same swamp when the tide is out. Work and transportation are timed to follow tides.
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- Harvested rice is par boiled in drums and then laid out to dry before storing for use.
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- Next is removing the husk. Here rice milled in bulk in a powered rice mill is winnowed by fanning.
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- Children pound rice to remove husks.
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- Women cooking in front of houses.
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- Most cooking in rural areas is still done on three stones.
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- Woman extracts oil from palm fruit in her canoe. Palm oil is a staple of the Sierra Leone diet.
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- Village children along Bumpeh River always appear when a camera comes out with calls of “snap me.”
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- Sherbro women sing and dance for the Paramount Chief.
Sherbro Foundation 