Settling in Salone - Part Two

Greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Hope you are doing well and are being hidden under the shadow of the Almighty.

Now favor is going to a mid week service and getting dropped back by the Pastor of a church you have never been and you have never met him before.   Shout hallelujah somebody!

Tonight I realized that just like a girl looks for her father in a man she would like to marry,  so a Christian looks for a church like the one she/he used to attend, serve and love before she/he moved to a different place.  At least that's what dawned on me tonight.  That I am looking for another Somerset Miracle Centre.  I am looking for another Rev. Dr. Joseph Nzeketha and Mrs. Elizabeth Mukuna.  I am praying that my search for a church here in Freetown will come to an end soon.  I have been to three churches already and two more lined up for the next two Sundays.  Will keep you posted as far as that is concerned.

Last week went by so fast that I didn't even know when it ended.  Here another week is ending tomorrow and both weeks feel like they are just one week.  I told you last week was a week of Camp at Aberdeen Women's Centre.  Well, tel papa God tenki that 26 women were operated on and they are now all walking around with catheters and hoping that their fistulas are no more and that after they heal they will be closed and dry.  During that week on the second day (Tuesday) I got a chance to pray with every patient that was being operated on on that day.  It was just an honor.  I bless God for that for I had mentioned to that I might not have the courage to go and witness the surgery but will pray for them.  Praying for them made me feel involved in some sort.  There are two women who normally go round the wards praying for them but now it is going to be three.  Hallelujah, hallelujah hot dog.  Keep praying for these women that they will heal well.  Also thank papa God oh that there were no major complications during the surgeries apart from one.  

Mamie came for her follow up check up this week and I got the chance to be introduced to her.  Remember the woman I told you about with the issue of a fistula for 29 years?  Yaap, that's her.  The nurse who told me her story called me and introduced me to her and after her check up she was not able to go back Up Line (up country) because of the rains.  So she has been staying in the ward with the rest of the women.  But every time she sees me now, she has been smiling and I have made a point to go hug her from time to time.  Why, is this important?  Why am I telling you this?  It is because when she first came, I am told, she had not had human touch or close human interaction for so long that when you touched her she would jerk somehow.  Smiling was not something she did by herself when she was inside that house for 29 years.  So you can see the transformation.  We just have nothing else to say but to tell papa God tenki.  To add to that, don't know if I mentioned this before, but most of the women who get fistulas end up loosing those babies for whom they get fistulas through.  So for someone like Mamie, she lost her child 29 years ago and now she is past menopause meaning her chances of ever getting another baby are minimal if not 0%.  Don't also forget that some of them get abandoned by their husbands when they get fistulas.  So if God puts it in your spirit mention them before God, please do.  Pray that we will get to them just are the right time.

We have a team that goes to the provinces (up country) to do the screening of these women and brings them back to the Centre here for repair.  Some women even come from Guinea.  Pray also for our staff as they go Up Line that God will protect them.  Pray that they will get to those women in time.  Pray that our facility will continue to sustain the work we do.  We currently need two vehicles, the ones we have are getting old and maintaining them is becoming costly since they keep breaking due to poor roads.  So pray that we get donors who will agree to purchase some new ones for us.  Also, pray for the screening team that God will continue to strengthen them because sometimes when they go there they are brought some medical cases that are just so pathetic it breaks their hearts.  The people in the villages see them and they think they are there to treat people and they are not.  Pray for better health care in this country.  Let me stop there with the prayer list because once I start to list prayer points for the City of Freetown, then this will become a long update and I had resolved to be keeping them short going forth.  Don't want to bore you with so much of Freetown or Salone until when you go to sleep you are dreaming of Freetown which is my current situation right now.  Let me know if you would like to help me to pray for this nation.  You never know, the people you pray for God might eventually take you to them.

Settling in Salone - Part One

S'up?

Hope you are keeping well and loving life like I am.

Went running on Friday evening and I got carried away only to come to realize I have been running for more than an hour.  Well, I normally don't like to over-exercise because I don't want to be too tired to do it again the next day.  Anyway, that is not the point here.  The point is, I don't know what to marvel about.  I didn't know whether to marvel at the wonders of God or the "wonders" of God's creation.  I mean, I was getting slowed down admiring the clear setting sun just above the waters beyond.  I was also having to dodge the waves because I did not want my trainers (sneakers) to get wet.  May be next time I should just run bare feet and I won't have to dodge the waves.  Plus I will get a natural pedicure.  All the sisters say Amen.  My only restraint to that is that the beaches around here are very dirty.  On the other hand, a few meters along the path I was running along with a lot other noble Salones (Sierra Leonians), there was this creature of a human being who....well, let's just say you don't want to know.  I was taught in literature that in writing, there is sometimes an element of suspense.  And there is mine right there.  Well, I just have to deal with it, keep running and mind my own business and may be pray for him if he is sick somewhere in the head (which I actually think he was - like mentally challenged you know).  

We went to the beach yesterday and the scenes were just beautiful.  From the drive itself which did not take so long to the beach where we went to.  The beaches around us are not clean but just a few minutes drive out and we find some cleaner beaches.  This is because the place is less crowded and therefore there is less that gets thrown into the ocean.  Also, there are not many houses in the hills in the area so no garbage get swept by the rains into the ocean.  Salones have not a clue of something called hygiene, they just throw trash anywhere and everywhere.  No wonder when there is an outbreak of a disease (especially water-borne) many of them catch it.  It is not only general hygiene that they are not aware of but also personal hygiene.  Many of the pikins who get brought to our Centre for treatment have skin diseases or hygiene related ailments.  Anyway, back to the beach, I was able to swim in the waves for the first time though I was afraid of going into the deep waters.  I only wish, if Jesus were here maybe I would have even walked on water....hehe.  But because he wasn't I only stayed in the shallow waters.  Just kidding.  We afterwards enjoyed freshly caught fish which they call barracuda and I was calling it okada (the motorbike that carries people just like a taxi)....ha ha.  I crack myself up sometimes.   Just as a side note, I don't normally call things which are what they are not, ha ha.  Anyway, the barracuda does not even have the bad smell that fish normally have.  You know having been raised in the country side, all the fish that got to us usually had the smell.  Yeah, that's how fresh they were.  I am saying all these to say that, I am loving it here.  I am enjoying every bit of it apart from the part I go to buy something and they take all my money.  They go make my mohni disappear.....you know, you know....:)

Church today was beautiful.  Loved the preaching of the word.  The pastor really taught the word using the Greek and Hebrew words.  Reminded me of my Pastor back in New Jersey.  He did rightly divide the word of truth.  Oh and the interesting part about the preaching is that he mixed both English and Krio.  But the more interesting part is that I understood it all.  My listening and reading a Krio bible has helped.  Clap foh mi naw, ah.  Wetin yu do?  (Clap for me now. What are doing?)

At work, camps are starting tomorrow.  Unlike the camps in the children's home in Kenya where I taught bible study, these are quite different in that the women with fistula will be operated on.  A doctor has been flawn in from Nairobi to perform the operations.  I am not sure if I will have the courage to go into the operating room to watch one being performed but if I don't then I think I will just pray for them.

PS - I am calling the update settling in because henceforth you will be receiving shorter and shorter updates (hopefully).  I hope there will still be a few things here and there that will catch my eye and knock my brain off that I will be writing to you.

First Impressions of Sierra Leone - Part 3

 Where did we leave off the last time?

Oh yeah, I remember.  I was to tell you about transportation.

Okadas in Eastern Freetown

Transportation here is very interesting.  First of all there are no buses, well at least not around here (saw one in downtown Freetown though).  What they have are small cars used as taxis.  And they are not taxis in the way we understand them.  They are used as public transportation where there set points to which they go to and you pay 1,000 Leones from like say point A to B.  If you have to go to a point D then that means you have to make two connections through B & C and you end up paying 3,000 Leones the whole way (one way).  So for example if I want to go to the famous cotton tree in the Eastern side of Freetown from Aberdeen, I will have to make two connections.

Inside the poda poda

If you want to use the taxi as a regular taxi in the normal way most of us understand, then you tell the driver 'charter'.  That means the driver will not pick or drop other people along the way but will take you to your desired destination.  There are bigger vans which are a little bigger and those are called poda poda and they are sotta like the matatus in Kenya.  For one, they are very uncomfortable and unkempt.  You think matatus in Kenya look bad, think again.  Poda podas here are worse.  But those ones you pay only 1,000 for the whole ride no matter where you are going to so long as that poda poda is heading your way.  I had to get into one the other day just for experience sake and am telling you I will only use them the next time when I really have to.  The chairs are metallic, so throw comfort out of the window.  And for the taxis I noticed one thing, that instead of the driver telling you he is not going where you are asking, he just looks away and drives off.  Personally, I think that's rude but that's just me.  That reminds me of this makit uman (market woman) whom I asked how much the sandals are worth the other day.  She told me 30,000 and I told her I have 8,000 and she looked away and didn't even talk to me again.  I thought that was very rude.  But then I thought it was just the makit uman being rude, you know, like a one off situation.  Go figure.

Singing during gladi gladi

I promised to tell you about gladi gladi.  But I can't tell you about gladi gladi without first mentioning fistula.  I told you about the maternity ward and the fistual ward.  If you are like me before I started working with Kenya Children's Home, you are probably wondering what fistula is.  Well, if you have not googled the word already, I will take the liberty of telling you what it is.  Well fistula is simply a hole in the bladder which causes the woman to leak urine and sometimes even feaces (if it is a rectal fistula).  This normally results from prolonged obstructed labour during childbirth.

So one thing that immediately comes to your mind is, don't those women smell if they leak urine all the time?  The answer is a big yes, they do and because of the odor they are subjected to social stigma in the society.  I was being told of a woman who had the condition for 29 years.  She hid in her house and was brought food everyday by her neighbor.   Sounds familiar, yaap, talk about the woman with the issue of blood in the bible?  That is her in today's context.  So what we do here in Aberdeen Women's Centre is perform reconstructive surgeries (for free because most of them cannot afford) on them to correct the condition.  Actually before they come to the Centre someone goes to the villages to screen them - to make sure they really have a fistula.  Of course, we air the messages in the radio and there is a toll free number they can call and for those who are near, they just come to the Centre for screening.

Once they are admitted, they are monitored and prepared for surgery.  For some it takes days and other it takes months because they might have some health issues that need to be treated before they are ready for an operation.  They are also prepared mentally and they are taught how to read and write (because most don't know).  They also attend the devotions that we have as staff every morning.  Once they have been operated on, they stay in the ward until they have recovered and are strong enough to leave.  So on the day they leave, we have gladi gladi.  So gladi gladi simply means glad in Krio or happy happy and it is a celebration for the women who are leaving on each particular Friday.  It is good to see them when they leave, more healthy, with a better countenance and to imagine how they came.  It is just so moving.  There are some who came this week and most of them walk around with catheters.  By the way, most of the pregnancies that cause those women the fistula, the babies do not survive.  We currently have about 30 women admitted but only one has a child and she is leaving this Friday.  

I was doing orientation in the maternity ward on Tuesday and we were entering the ante-natal data and every time we entered data that one of the women had lost a baby or a pregnancy, my heart went out to them.  I don't even know them but for some reason God is somehow giving a burden for them.  It is now clear that I am not here just to work but to also minister to these people even if it is saying a silent prayer for them like I was doing yesterday when I was entering the medication in the system for the pikin (children).

Here when you greet someone you don't ask them how are you?  You ask them, 'aw di bodi' - how is the body?  So when they ask you that and you reply 'fayn fayn' - fine fine, they tell you 'teh papa Goh tenki' - tell father God thank you.  As in, they don't take it for granted.  You are fine, you are well, you are healthy - then that is a reason enough for you to tell God thank you.  And they make sure they remind you that.  I love it.  An attitude of gratitude. 

Apart from the devotions we have every morning, when the maternity women come to registration for the first time for ante-natal care, they also have their devotions.  I can't understand every word in Krio yet but again and again I here the words 'teh papa Goh tenki'.  "Yu geh behleh, te papa Goh tenki" - you are pregnant, tell father God thank you.  It is amazing.  Some of them you not even sure how they got pregnant, but whatever the circumstances they are to thank God.  

In the spirit of 'teh papa Goh tenki', I went to donate blood yesterday because they are having fistula surgeries next week and they will need blood.  My blood hemoglobin count was 15.7 and they were asking me if I eat a lot of fruits.  That means it is very high and that I am very healthy.  Normal count for women is normally between 12 and 15.  Any count below 10 indicates anaemia (just learnt that in the one week I have been here, are you proud of me? he he).  So, I clearly have something to teh papa Goh tenki.  I thank Him for my health and I pray that He will continue to make me strong so that I can continue serving the people around here.

Speaking of serving, I want to te papa Goh tenki for the people that are serving along side me.  We had our bible study today for the experts and it was nice to hear a doctor say that it is not by power nor by might and that there are cases that as human beings we have no control of and that we can only pray and commit the patients to God.  Some cases are just heart breaking.   And as heart breaking as they can be, there is nothing more we can do but pray.  It is good to have colleagues who remind you of that.  Teh papa Goh tenki.  I think that is a line I should be using everyday and in everything.  As in someone will just ask "how do I get to Aberdeen Women's Centre?" and before I utter another word I say 'teh papa Goh tenki', ha ha....just kidding.  But in all seriousness, the bible tells us to give thanks in all circumstances.  I Thessalonians 5:18.

First Impressions of Sierra Leone - Part 2

How did you enjoy reading part one?  I feel like I am becoming a writer, he he.  May be I should do a blog about my experience here.

So, I got in on Tuesday evening and on Wednesday evening I attended a bible study with my boss.  I thank God very much that she is a born again Christian.  We have devotions every weekday at 8am before we start work.  On Friday after devotions and gladi gladi (will explain later what this is), the international staff go to the director's office to pray for the Centre, the patients and everything that concerns this place.  That in itself is like one of my highlights.  There is just something about those prayers that touched me.  I can't explain but it was humbling when we did it on Friday.  The director is especially thankful that I joined them being a Christian and we had another doctor who also arrived this week who is also a Christian.  So to my director, its like hallelujah, the army is increasing.  Apparently two of them have been keeping the prayers on Friday going.  So that's a praise report right there.  Are you up on your feet dancing?  A se pres di Lord en you are sitin don? (I say praise the Lord and you are sitting down?)

So, if you don't know yet, this is a medical Centre for women and children.  There is a maternity ward for women with behleh (pregnant women) and there a fistula ward and outpatient clinic for small pikin (children).  Some of the international staff live on the floor above the maternity ward and the other lucky or should I say blessed ones like me, live in team house.  I say we are blessed because we don't (or should I say) I don't hear the women screaming as they give birth at night.  One of my colleagues here in my floor told me she heard 4 of them screaming the other night.  I told her, I didn't hear nothing, he he.  God giveth His beloved sleep, can I hear an Amen?  Anyways, the team house is adjacent to the maternity ward so anyone who does not sleep soundly like I do could still hear the screams.  

The team house has 3 floors, ground floor is where the main kitchen is and a laundry room and dining room.  I live on the middle floor with 2 other colleagues and one room for the doctor on call.  It also has a small kitchen so we don't have to go downstairs to make our own meals on the weekends.  In my room I have my own little bathroom (I thank God) and the rest share one bathroom.  My room is not very big but it is enough.  The closet is big enough, I have a study table, a chair, a little storage wooden thingi (don't know what to call it) and a book shelf (of my own).  Oh, most important, there is an air conditioner in the room and a little remote to turn it on/off - how cool is that and I mean it literally.  There is a generator in the compound so power for us in not an issue.  There are things called power stabilizers in every room and any place there is an electrical appliance.  The reason being, power here goes on and off all the time, so it helps protect the electrical appliance.  It is like a surge protector but not quite the same.  

I have had chance to sit at the outpatient clinic to see how things run there.  That is where I learnt to ask the child's name, age and address in Krio all in the first day.  That was Thursday.  Wednesday I rested and took a stroll to the beach.  On Friday I sat in the admin office (where I will be taking over as HR manager) and there came a lady who brought some fabrics for sale.  I asked the lady who is assisting the current HR manager to ask her if she has something for someone my size.  So I heard her say "na mi boss na smohl uman" (my boss is a small woman) - I swear I do not know who she was taking about....he he.  Anyway, that is when it dawned on me that I am going to be someone's boss.  It is an honor but scary at the same time.  Why?  Because there expectations.  Expectations, that I will make some improvements around here - whether big or small.  The director and the bosses in Scotland say they heard goods things about my work in Kenya and that's why they offered me a job here.  So my prayer is that I will uphold those standards and excel here like Daniel, Shadrack, Meshack and Abednego in Babylon.  Would you pray with me along the same lines?

I walked to the market yesterday and I could not find what to cook.  I do not know how to cook their vegetables and the vegetables we would normally cook are very rare and expensive.  I bought two tomatoes for 4,000 Les which is like KES 80 or about one US dollar.  We bought a small cabbage today for 6,000 Les (equiv KES 120 or $1.35).  So, go figure.  The only cheap thing here is fabric they say.

I did my first round of church scouting today.  Went to church with one of my colleagues and next week I will go with yet another colleague to a different church and the week after that likewise.  It's like the international staff here each go to a different church.  So, I will see which I will end up in.  May be I will also go to one which no one else here goes to, who knows.  Na Holy Spirit I go guide oh (The Holy Spirit will guide).  Dat na mi preya (That is my prayer).  Impressions of the church here, very loud just like the Nigerians.  But I loved their praising and dancing.

I am thinking I will need to do a part three so I can tell you about transportation here.  Very different from both Kenya and States.  So don't change the channel, part three is coming soon.  And I need to tell you about gladi gladi too.

First Impressions of Sierra Leone - Part 1

Since I had not started my blog when I first went to Sierra Leone, I am going to post my updates that I had written then.  The part one of First Impressions of SL was first written on the 9th September 2012 - 5 days after I arrived in Sierra Leone.  So here goes.

Freetown is very congested even more than Nairobi.  The topography is hilly and swampy.  But being a coastal town you can understand why it swampy.  There are small small islands here and there and streams passing through peoples' backyards or frontyards.  

Being a coastal town makes the weather so hot and humid and I hear it is not hot yet.  It is yet to get hot.  I hear I have just come at the end of a rainy season which lasts six months and likewise the dry/hot season.

Where we are (Aberdeen) is an island but there a bridge that connects us to the rest of the town and a road stretch which also connects our little Aberdeen to the main land.  The airport is also sort of in an island so I came via a water taxi from the airport.  It took me 20 minutes in the water taxi get to Aberdeen.  I think there was high tide because there were waves and it felt just like turbulence in a plane.  The water taxi comes straight to Aberdeen and it is faster and more expensive but there is a ferry that goes to the main town.  That takes about 45 minutes to get to the east side of Freetown.

Was so surprised to get out of the airport to find the road that we took to go board the water taxi was not tamacked.  I mean, a road from a major international airport?  But then you can expect a country which has had war to have poor infrastructure.  The roads are terrible.  Potholes everywhere even for the tamacked roads.

The funny and interesting thing about the city life here is that the town has shops and it is a place where people live at the same time.  Meaning there are no designated places where people live like apartments or flats or even a place with just houses or even like in some other places where the ground floor of building is a shop and the upper floors are residential houses.  No, that is not how it is here.  Here you have a shop here and then the next one is someone's house.

The people are really nice.  They are welcoming and generally courteous.  But many of them are idle.  They don't like to work I hear.  They like getting grants.

Their currency is very worthless.  A bottle of 500ml water is two thousand Leones.  For you to do some good grocery shopping you have to have a million Leones with you, he he.  One US dollar is worth 4,500 Leones.

We are 3 hours behind Kenya and so that means four hours ahead of New York.  I think we are on GMT time here.

Food, am okay with it.  They eat a lot of cassava and potato leaves or what they call in their local language (Krio) pehtehteh.  That is like their collard greens for them.  I have eaten cassava leaves but yet to eat pehtehteh leaves.  I like it actually.  When I first heard they eat them, I was not looking forward to eating them but they make them in a way that they come out nice.  They also put a lot of pehpeh (pepper) in their food which I lehk (like).  There is also a lot fish in their meals too.  Almost every meal has bits and bits of fish here and there.

And in case you haven't noticed, I am learning Krio very fast, he he.  Well, I have to if want to go to di makit (market) and not get charged big big moni (money).  If you see me use words twice twice from now on, know where it is coming from - na dis Krio language (from this Krio language).

A wan go slip nao.  (I want to go to sleep now).  Will tell you about my accommodation here and my work in part two of My First Impressions of SL.

Wetin ehls yu wan sabi?  (What else do you want to know?).