She was leaning on the railing, her eyes fixated into the distance, where the blurred outline of the cobalt seas met a hazy horizon. It was an especially hot day, though the locals had long been immune to the temperature, chuckling as they told me that this was only the beginning. Wait until dry season comes, they would say, referring to the months from December until April when there were no longer daily downpours to wash away the heat.
I did not want to find out. I often see her laughing and joking around with her classmates, having a quick wit and a jovial sense of humor. Like Isata , she was keen on trying out new tools whenever she got the chance.
In fact, she told me she was motivated to apply for the program because she had been frustrated that there were no women working in the workshop. Adama grew up witnessing the pronounced gender inequalities that existed all around her ā and learning to defend herself against them. She often got into physical fights with boys in her village, which continued when she was adopted by her aunt and moved to Freetown. Her aunt worked as a trader in the neighborhood of Dwazark, a hilly area on the outskirts of Freetown that she described to me as being known for witchcraft.
Having had no formal education, the woman was determined not to repeat the same mistake with her niece. But Adama was stubborn. She refused to go to school, believing they would just send kids out to do farmwork like they did in the village. Luckily, a teacher took a liking to her, offering to help with uniform and registration costs. In the end, she reluctantly gave it a try.
She soon learned that, thankfully, school in Freetown did not entail farmwork, and that she was also quite good at it. She made it all the way to the senior secondary level, becoming a commerce student while helping her aunt out with various side jobs. It was through a cleaning job that she met her second adoptive parent, a friend of her aunt by the name of Lorna French. She was seventeen at this point, and her aunt was struggling financially, so she moved in with Lorna.
