Although the distance between us Wednesday night was only the length of a dining room table, I’ve learned the gap between the way we think is even closer. The Honorable Joseph W Lamin MP and I had more 1:1 time in my country during our two brief days together than during my two recent trips to his native Sierra Leone, West Africa. Our moments moving around the Seattle metro area from one meeting to the next afforded us individual time to better understand each other. It’s possibly the only time in my life I’ll have a parliament member as a passenger in my car.
Turns out, he’s one of the most influential people I’ve ever met. He’s the first man I ever met that has almost single handedly made the needed changes in his country so over 6500 children will have access to basic education. His efforts are the spark of their elevated human experience. Joseph has seen some things and most of them are why he’s so passionate about making sure children have access to basic education, no matter how much effort and energy is required of him and his team at Programme for Children. The challenges in his tiny coastal slice of West Africa are well documented. Through it all, Joseph tells me he’s more optimistic than ever. As a recently elected member of the Sierra Leone Parliament, his SLPP (Sierra Leone Peoples Party) is making sweeping changes and attempting to correct the course of his counties priorities. These include a commitment to education, transparency, public cleanliness, and personal responsibility. These are the attributes I’ve know in Joseph even before he was sworn in to represent the 081 Constituency, Bo District. My #Extraordinary friend Cindy Nofziger, Executive Director of Seattle-based Schools for Salone told me about Joseph long before I had an opportunity to shake his hand. This partnership she described is rare. She also explained that much of her good work simply would not happen without this trusted collaboration between her Schools for Salone and his Programme for Children.
As we moved throughout Seattle, Joseph was intrigued by many things including a new floating bridge, the size of our stadiums, and the shear size of our office buildings. I caught myself, more than once wondering what he must think of our lovely Emerald City. How does he measure his perspective against the experiences we’re sharing together in MY country? There are more people in my state of Washington than in his entire country. After just a few hours traveling together, he answered my curiosity. As do I, Joseph lives in a nearly constant state of gratitude. He asked me on more than one occasion how he could best thank someone that has made a recent project possible though a philanthropic gift. He wasn’t looking for cultural custom counsel. He truly wanted me to help him make sure the words he would speak had the greatest impact on that specific individual. Each of our half dozen meetings included being able to personally thank a member of Friends of Sulehun, a donor group that collectively built the village school I had an opportunity to help open 90 days ago. His thankful words during each of our brief meetings left that contributor feeling as if they had done a significant part to lift up a small village in the jungle of his West African country. This is exactly why I felt beyond moved to take on this opportunity. The amount of sacrifice in this country to provide first access, basic education in the farthest reaches of Josephs country is miniscule in contrast to what it takes to move the needle in the my land.
It was harder to say goodbye to Joseph in my country than when I was about to leave his this summer. He refers to me as his brother now. During our road time we both discovered that somewhere on the path of our human experience, we both accepted the role of encourager, convener, and deep believer in the human spirit. I hope my path leads back to Sierra Leone in the future. If it never does, I’d like to think the seeds we planted on both sides of the Atlantic will grow into hundreds of well actualized children.