~ Day 61 ~

Lots of catching up to do; I will try to keep it short and sweet. :) On July 14, we arrived in Freetown, Sierra Leone, West Africa.  Praise God, no one in our group had any missing luggage!!  We had dinner on the ship, then went to our housing accomodation- a product of GCPN.  Arrived there at about 11 pm, then by the time we got all our luggage moved in, showered, etc., it was 2 am.

The airport, as we walked in from the plane.

Our luggage stacked on the poda-poda...a very crowded poda-poda at that.

The view from the ferry as we headed across the water.

The girls' side of our dorm.

Slept in the next day, which was much needed after the long flights, then we headed to Yams Farm to meet the community we would be working with for the next 2 weeks.

Margot and a crowd of children.

A view of the wharf.

Saturday, July 16, I was awakened by a child outside the window yelling, "Mommy gotta poop!!!" repeatedly.  Very amusing.  We went to Bureh Beach and enjoyed the warm, beautiful waves. 

Headed to the beach with Solomon, our trusty driver.

Gorgeous.

Sunday, July 17, was our first church service at Word of Life Church in Yams Farm.  It was a rainy day, so not many people from the community came.  After church, a group headed to check out the market.  Those of us who stayed behind got to visit with some friends who came from the ship to see us. 
Monday, July 18, we began VBS and latrine-building. 
Tuesday, July 19, Toni (the dentist) screened over a hundred people in the back of the church, then set up arrangements to transport those who needed extractions to the dental clinic near the ship.  Wednesday, Thurs, Fri, Monday, and I think Tuesday, she was busy pulling teeth. 
Heather made friends with a lady from the church named Elizabeth, so when she was invited to go to her house, she took me along.  It was quite a hike uphill the whole way.  She had a very nice house, and we met her son Augustine and her husband Michael.

Elizabeth, Augustine, and Michael in front of their house.

Wednesday, July 20, Elizabeth said she wanted to braid my hair.  She and a few other ladies started braiding!  It didn't take them too long, but it hurt so badly!!

Elizabeth, a church lady, and Pastor Mark's wife-Hawa.

Thursday, July 21, we played Duck, Duck, Goose on the soccer field during our game time for VBS.  One thing to note...the soccer field was not a nice field of mowed grass.  It was hard, packed dirt, with lots of rocks in the ground, and loose on top.  The center of it was part of the road.  Long story short, I slipped on the loose rocks and received some lovely abrasions and bruises on my left leg.  Thank God, it has healed well with no infection.  We left the school early that day so we could go to the Community Meeting on the ship.  We ate dinner, had our lap tops registered for the wireless internet onboard, used the telephone, went to the Community Meeting, enjoyed a drink from Starbucks Cafe, used the internet some more, then headed back for the night.
Friday, July 22, In the morning, I helped with construction rather than VBS.

An assembly line passing bowls of concrete.

In the afternoon, we had a special scavenger hunt game for the older children ages 10-15.  The children were divided into 4 teams, according to the color of the piece of paper they had been given the previous day.  Amy had organized different stations throughout the village with different activities such as: 1) Remembering the 10 Commandments which they had been taught in VBS on Tuesday, 2) Writing John 3:16, 3) Solving 12 math problems, 4) Creating the alphabet with popsicle sticks, 5) Taking a canoe to the island to find Renier who had an item for us to take back to Evilin, proving we had found him, 6) Running through an obstacle course, and 7) Successfully kicking 5 soccer goals.  I was leader of the yellow team and we won!! :)  It was very fun, regardless of the scariest canoe ride in my life!  I was praying so hard, and so thankful when we got back to land without tipping over.
Saturday, July 23, Slept in today, then went for a walk to find some roasted corn and cold Coke with 4 other people. Took a trip to the beach again in the afternoon.  It was raining, therefore it was not as nice of a beach day as the week before, but we still had fun. 

Roasting corn along the road.

A rainy day at Bureh Beach.

Sunday, July 24, Went to Word of Life Church once more.  It was a beautiful day, so many more people showed up. 
Monday, July 25, Today we did our simple assessments of the school children which included height, weight, and birthdate (most did not know an exact date- only year, and sometimes month and year). 
The latrine is now complete up to ground level.

The top of the latrine.  From what I understand, the funny shaped hole on this side is the poop hole.  :)

Tuesday, July 26, While a few people stayed to help continue finishing the latrine, the rest of us had a new assignment: painting the Kissy Eye Clinic.  We started with the porch and scraped and sanded the walls to remove all the loose paint, then washed the walls so that it would be ready to paint the next day.

Ready to scrape the walls!!

The porch before we started.

Wednesday, July 27, Once again, our group split up, some painted at the Kissy Clinic, and some helped finish the latrine.  We weren't able to completely finish the painting, since we were to paint a bottom section brown, and the rest white.  The white section we completed, and had worked at preparing the brown section for it's coat of paint.

A precious little girl who wanted a snap while we waited for the paint to arrive.

Kellly, painting away.

Brighter white walls when we left.

Thursday, July 28,  We had our individual reviews with the Gateway team leader Stefan and his wife Andrea in the morning, then went to Yams Farm for our farewell celebration.  They had made up a song that they sang to us.  Then we said our goodbyes with promises to come back to visit before we sailed away.

The song they sang for us.

The finished Latrine building.

That evening, Pastor Mark and several others came to our "hotel" and brought with them a shirt for each of the men, and a dress for each of the ladies!!  Their thoughtfulness was so special!!

Hoe Jung and Sing in their matching African outfits.

Friday, July 29, The morning was filled with group debriefing, last-minute packing, and the afternoon was when we loaded up and headed to the ship!!
I am on the third deck in a 6 berth cabin with 4 roommates.  Saturday morning we had a bit of Admissions Nurse orientation, Sunday- slept a lot, Monday- started work!! : )  My job in Admissions is very enjoyable and I think next week will be busy.

My "cubby hole" in our cabin.  I sleep in the top bunk, Maureen sleeps in the bottom bunk.  The cabinet to the left is our closet.