Eye - 08 January 2016

From hope in Sierra Leone to when 'nivver nowt 'appened'

Hope in Sierra Leone

A school in Rokel, Sierra Leone, has been affectionately dubbed ‘Sidcot School’ by its students.

Dorothy Crowther, of Keswick Meeting, told Eye that Sidcot School in Somerset has sent its Rokel ‘namesake’ books and school uniforms.

She explained: ‘Sierra Leone has been declared free of Ebola but the country is now coping with the aftermath. A couple of months ago much of the country was flooded during the monsoon rains.’

Hope House, the Ebola orphanage set up by Quakers in the Rokel area after forty children were left parentless following the outbreak, ‘was evacuated and they lost a week’s food supply but the children are now back in their accommodation’.

Dorothy adds that the children in Hope House ‘would like to thank those British Friends who have contributed to their running costs, food and schooling.

‘They would [also] like to say thank you to Sidcot School for the provision of school uniforms.

‘A few of the children have been found places in secondary education. But the majority of the children are being taught in their own school, which they affectionately call Sidcot School. We continue to hold them in the Light.’

All’s well that ends well

Fairy lights dimmed but spirits were high at Clun Valley Meeting’s ‘Festive Friends’ Christmas lunch on 25 December 2015.

Local Friend Linda Murray Hale writes that, for several years now, the Meeting has organised the event for people in the community who might otherwise be alone at Christmas.

She explained that local businesses donate ‘money, turkeys, Christmas puddings, mince pies, chocolates, even a Christmas tree’, dozens of volunteers give their time freely and the venue, ‘a beautiful old church barn’, is lent to them by the parish church free of charge.

Industrious volunteers spent hours preparing on Christmas Eve and sixty people were expected for lunch the following day. However, as 11 o’clock on Christmas morning rolled round… ‘catastrophe struck – the power failed! Fairy lights, room heaters and, most crucially of all, the ovens – all went off!

‘For a few terrible moments, it looked as though disaster was unavoidable and disappointed guests might have to be sent home with no turkey or Christmas pudding! But often a crisis brings out the best in people and this occasion was no exception.

‘Within an amazingly short space of time everything was back on track – while guests were being entertained by a local storyteller, ovens all over Bishops Castle were being drafted in to receive sixty Christmas lunches! The owners of the pub across the road from the church barn even removed their own turkey from the oven to make way for ours! An angel in the guise of an electrician from a nearby village arrived and was able to at least restore lighting and – miraculously – lunch was served up, not only on time but hot, too!

‘Afterward, a grateful guest was heard to remark that Quakers can be relied upon to “get on with things without making a fuss”!’

When ‘nivver nowt ‘appened’

Memories in a recently released book hold up a mildly mortifying mirror to Friends.

In Anthea Boulton’s Telling it like it was: Dent, Sedbergh and district in living memory a selection of recollections and photographs from the archives of Dent and Sedbergh Oral History Society show how others have seen Friends.

The late Bessie Mason, who was born in 1911, reminisced about Meetings in Lea Yeat, Dentdale in the 1920s. The Meeting house became a Reading Room in 1911, but in the 1920s Friends would meet once a year at a little room at the back.

Bessie remembered that ‘me mother used to take us and we used to sit on a form, and nivver nowt ‘appened! Quite nice gatherings, nobody never said anything for a long long time’.

Jenny Kiddle, a local Methodist chapel organist who was born in 1918, was once invited along to a Meeting for Worship. She said: ‘Well, you know what it is, the Quakers, yer jus’ sit an’ wait an’ sit an’ wait an’ sit an’ wait, yer don’t know when they’re goin’ t’ start! Anyway, I was twiddlin’ me thumbs… I wished I’d ‘ad me organ in that back room, I’ll tell you! I could ‘ave been playin’ some tunes!’

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