HMS ALBION CIMIC – Tokeh Village – Sierra Leone 2006

My name is Stacey Cameron, I come from Bedford and joined the Royal Navy in November 1999. I have now completed seven years service. Having carried out rigorous training courses to become an Aircraft Handler I am now currently serving onboard HMS Albion, an Amphibious Assault Ship, otherwise known as a Landing Platform Dock. We are one of the Navy’s largest war ships.

HMS Albion’s exercises and tasking has recently brought us to Freetown in Sierra Leone, West Africa for phase five of the ‘OP VELA’ deployment.

Our ship is one of sixteen ships involved in the amphibious task group CTG 333.01.

One of our primary purposes was to conduct Civil, Military Co-operation ( CIMIC ).

CIMIC tasking took place in schools and a hospital, in a local village just outside the capital. The work consisted of rebuilding and redecorating the two schools and hospital. Sierra Leone remains one of the world’s poorest countries and relies heavily on financial support and help. With this in mind, the ship organised a handful of volunteers to go ashore and help with CIMIC commitments. Our ship alone had such a good response from the ships company for CIMIC tasking that our CO, Captain Tim Lowe was able to offer for a further two days tasking.

My day began with a safety brief directed by the International Military Advisory Training Team (MATT), we then made our way onto a minibus for a 40-minute journey into the village of Tokeh. Although 40 minutes on a bus doesn’t seem very long it gave me a long enough time to create a perception of what I expected Tokeh village, the local community and the challenges that lie ahead. I’m not naïve but my expectations were different from the ones I faced that day. From the journey alone I was amazed at how the Sierra Leonians lived. Their houses were made from the bare minimum of materials, in most cases with rags and cloths.

Once we arrived the community welcomed us with big smiling faces and open arms. Although some of the locals expressed a curious, confused reaction. Some of the locals, I believe felt vulnerable. Not in the sense of being endangered, but vulnerable because we were unfamiliar territory to them. Under the watchful eye of all the children while I worked in the humid, sticky climate with the dust and rubble from the wall I was helping to knock down, I couldn’t help but think about how fascinating this experience was becoming. My emotions were getting the better of me; I felt so overwhelmed and just couldn’t comprehend living like this. For such beautiful looking scenery, with dense jungle and white sandy beaches it is such a shame how poor the country really is.

Due to the heat and the working conditions we split into two groups and worked for a period of two hours. When our two hours work was up, my group made our way to the beach for a rest and our lunch. The children followed us where ever we went, still with their fixed bright smiles and happy, cheerful faces. I couldn’t eat my lunch in those circumstances. I gave it to the children, as did most of us. Our empty plastic bottles and cardboard lunch boxes were a big fascination to the children. They fought furiously with one another for everything and anything we gave to them.

Whilst I sat on the beach resting and taking in the extraordinary scenery I was approached by a teenage boy called David. He was very polite and spoke clear English. Like any other teenager, David had ambitions.

He wanted to finish school, hoping to eventually become a lawyer. David helped me understand a few traditions and beliefs that the villagers had. He looked after me well and even picked me a fresh coconut from one of the trees, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Towards the end of the afternoon I gave the head mistress of one of the schools a box of A4 paper and two big boxes of pens. This caused chaos amongst the children and for the rest of the afternoon while I was entertaining them, they were constantly asking me for pens. The biscuits I gave out soon stopped them thinking about pens and helped me think about just how lucky I really am.

Saying this was an eye opener is an understatement. We can all watch the news and television documentaries but until you’re actually here, feeling the emotions, smelling the pungent aromas that go with it and beating off the flies, then no news or television, comes close to being here. We take for granted what we have in the Western world. We hold on so dearly to the things that we think are our most prized possessions that we think we need: like our houses, cars, clothes, and belongings but suddenly out of our element and into another world, all those things around us don’t seem as important. For something so little it went such a long way, for just a few hours hard work and help we had brought a lot of pleasure to Tokeh village.

For all the work we did we were thanked gracefully and while we waited for our transport back to HMS Albion we entertained the children by talking and playing football. Talking and playing with the children was an inspiring part of the day for me. It will be a memory I will never forget, seeing the children’s joyful faces looking up at me with their admiring eyes as I talked to them and holding their little hands was amazing. At one point I had fifteen pairs of hands hanging off of me, so many personalities all fighting with each other to have a little bit of my attention, which I was only too willing to give.

One thing I learned about today’s unique experience was the beauty of human laughter. It really doesn’t matter where in the world you are or what language you speak. Laughter speaks in a language all of it’s own. I had a remarkable day and I don’t think I could have got anything more out of it than I did. I felt I achieved a lot and I will never forget the importance of those small connections we as people in this world can make. There were so many thankful faces for all that we did but it was me who really gained from this remarkable day.

Volunteering for the CIMIC was the most rewarding experience I have had in the Royal Navy, and a day I will certainly never forget. I’m not claiming that we ‘changed the world’ but even if it was just for those days, we did make a big difference.

Stacey Nadine Cameron

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