Black magic encounters with limb-cutting followers, scuba diving with a former Mossad agent and attempting to help a country exploited by members of Columbian drug cartels, al-Qaida and corrupt officials.

What better way to spend eight months.

After originally receiving inspiration from the Jasper High School Action team, this is how former Jasperite Larissa Stendie spent much of her year in Sierra Leone.

Now, she’s returned to inspire others to do the same.

“It was a lot of fun being there,” Stendie said.

Stendie joined current high school student Theresa Westhaver for a talk about development work in Africa on Sept. 30 at the High school.

While Westhaver was in Kenya as part of the Make Poverty History campaign, in which six Jasper students took part, Stendie talked frankly about her time in Sierra Leone helping reclaim abandoned diamond mines in the war torn country. Sierra Leone is almost exclusively reliant on the billion dollar diamond business, however very few have seen any sort of long term benefit from the trade, which has attracted corruption and left the country with massive illiteracy rates and 80 per cent unemployment.

Stendie was working with the diamond development initiative, and received funding through the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) – a government organization she is weary of. 

“CIDA has done some things I don’t agree with. Under the Conservative government, their focus has been on helping Canadian mining interests,” Stendie said, noting that CIDA has recently launched development projects designed at allowing Canadian mining companies to access land in South America.

In partnership with One Sky, a non-for-profit group based in Smithers, British Columbia, Stendie helped restore fields.

“Diamonds were found in Sierra Leone in the 1930s. There were billions of gem quality diamonds there. But the country didn’t diversify their economy and their focus was almost entirely on diamonds,” Stendie said.

Diamond mining is as simple as using a sieve, a shovel and a bucket, Stendie said, and there is no onus on individual miners to repair the land they’ve disturbed.

“The conditions are pretty rough. They make less than a dollar a day. It’s tough to make a living,” she said. “There’s so much illicit diamond mining, it’s impossible to control.”

Despite the disturbed topsoil, farming is a real option for Sierra Leone, Stendie said.

“I was amazed how fertile the land was, despite the loss of topsoil. It’s harsh in rural areas, however they have access to agriculture on a small scale.”

Stendie said the civil war in Sierra Leone kept most agri-business out, which allows the land to be used for organic farming.

The reclamation project only cost about $7,000, which helped employ many citizens desperate for work. On top of a wage, the workers were given a free lunch.

Yet working conditions were different.

“We would have to sacrifice a goat,” Stendie said. “Everyone there was Christian or Muslim and extremely proud, and it was one of the most religiously tolerant places I’ve been. But everyone is a member of a secret society. There’s a lot of dark magic in Sierra Leone.”

Stendie did see examples of Ju-Ju, which is a precursor to voodoo.

“There are stories of people losing their heads and their hands. Forms of cannibalism are still practised. I only had one dangerous encounter, on Christmas we were going to an island on a narrow mountain road and we encountered them. They rocked the jeep and were upset we were there.”

She also got a chance to practise her emergency response skills in Sierra Leone, as she volunteered at the hospital. Having worked as an EMR in Northern Alberta, the villagers were happy to see her, however the ambulance also doubled as a delivery truck, Stendie said.

On top of the politics, she also got to see the shades of grey caused by doing business in Sierra Leone. “The industry is regulated but it’s not enforced, because everybody has their finger in the pie,” Stendie said.

She also learned much of the ex-pat community, which consisted of foreign aid workers and academics, and businessmen looking to make money off of diamonds. She made close friends on both sides, which led her to a scuba diving trip with an ex-Mossad member.

Stendie had studied Sierra Leone in University before the trip, and was attracted by the diversity of problems they faced.

“They’ve been through the bloodiest civil war in recent history. They have child soldiers, al-Qaida connections, cocaine trade flowing as a gateway into Europe. I went over thinking I had to be very careful.”

But instead of fear, she was touched by the people.

“There wasn’t a lot of safety concerns. For the longest time I couldn’t reconcile how a country had gone through such a violent period and had so many friendly people, just so full of joy and wanting change,” Stendie said.