Leaving soon!

I'm pretty much packed and ready to go. My bags aren't too heavy and I think I have more than enough stuff to survive. I started taking my anti-malaria drugs today and so far no side effects and no malaria. I'm pretty excited to get there!!!! I leave Nashville at 11:45am Monday and will get to Freeown about 10pm Tuesday. That's with a lot of layovers though. I like flying, so hopefully this will be a fun trip even if it is long. Thanks so much to everyone who is praying for me while I'm in Sierra Leone. I really appreciate it, and please also pray for peace and hope for the people of Sierra Leone. Hopefully I'll be able to post a few times while I'm away but even if I don't I'll put up pictures and stories when I get back. Happy New Year to everybody!

stuff to know

I just thought that I would give you all a little more information on Sierra Leone. It is a country on the coast of West Africa about the size of South Carolina. It is close to the equator so it's hot and humid nearly all year. I'm going during their winter and it will still be in the 80s-90s. Sierra Leone was rated the second poorest country in the world by the UN. The average person there makes about $500 per year. All the revenue for the whole country comes to 1/25,000 of the revenue of the US! Over half of the population survives only on subsistence agriculture. The rest of the people work in diamond mines, markets, etc.

A few US- SL comparisons:

Population: US-301,139,947 SL-6,144,562 (so the US has about 50x the population of SL)
Television stations: US-2,218 SL-2
FM radio stations: US-8,961 SL-9
Internet users: US-208,000,000 SL-10,000
Airports with paved runways: US-5,143 SL-1
Paved roadways: US-4,165,110 km SL-904 km

I know that the US is way larger but still!


I’m excited to be going somewhere that is so drastically different than anywhere I’ve seen before. I’m sure that it’s going to change how I see the way we live here. I’m glad that I have the opportunity to help out somewhere there is so much need and I can’t wait to see what our team accomplishes.

before I go

I am leaving for Sierra Leone in about 2 weeks! I can't beleive it. I'm so excited and of course a little nervous. I'm going to be in Sierra Leone for 26 days. The first half of the trip I'll be with a group with United Methodist volunteers in missions. They'll be working in a health clinic and also helping out with keeping the community farm going. I'm going to be working on the farm most of the time. The team leaves Sierra Leone on Jan 13 but I'm staying with Chelsea (one of my old roommates who I've known forever) for an extra 12 days. She's there working on a children's nutrition project called the peanut butter project. I'm really excited to get to hang out with her and see what she does!