Back home

I'm back home now. I got back Saturday night right on schedule. The trip went perfectly. It was really long but I couldn't have asked for it to go more smoothly. I'm pretty much over the jet lag now, but I am still getting tired at 9 or so, which is early for me. I need to get over that soon.
I do miss Sierra Leone. I've had dreams about being in Africa the last 2 nights (only 1 was in SL). And I miss Chelsea. It was definately sad to leave.
I'm dealing okay with being at home. Most of the time it seems like I never left home, but every once in a while doing something makes me think of being in SL or how easy we have it here or just how different life in the US is. But that's good. I like that I think about Sierra Leone and I just hope I don't forget about it. Its just like the US and Sierra Leone are so different that they get compartmentalized and the second you're away from one you can hardly even remember what it was like.

Last day

I leave tonight to head back to the US. My plane leaves Freetown at 10:15, but I have to start getting to the airport by 5 or so. Thankfully Chels gets off work at 2 on Fridays (so that Muslim employees can make it to Mosque). We'll have to get a taxi and then I have to get a helicopter to the airport then I have to get through customs then I wait and hope that the plane comes! (The airline I'm going on has been a little unreliable lately- they were 22 hours late a couple of weeks ago. I don't want to hang out in the crowded airport for a whole day!) I'm a little nervous about the process of leaving, but I'm sure its not so confusing as I think its going to be.
I've been conscious about when I had to leave the whole time I've been here, but today, it just feels weird to know that I am actually leaving and I won't see any of these people again for years, if ever. And its going to be weird going from nearly the poorest country in the world to the London airport (which is like a mall) and then home to the place with hot showers and Wal-Marts and nice houses. On the way here, I knew to expect to see poverty and stuff, but I don't really know what to expect on the way back. I know that its just going to be the same old place, but going from Sierra Leone home is confusing. I just can't imagine driving in a car by myself down a street with no people on it but with streeet lights and stores and pavement and stoplights and grass. I know I've done it a million times, but I can't really imagine doing it.
I also feel kind of bad wanting to stay here. Going to America is a lot of people's dream here and I'm doing it and I am not sure that its what I want. I'm getting what people here and lots of other places want their whole lives but never get and I don't really even appreciate it. Not that I'm not really excited to see everyone at home and get to speak American English to everyone, because I AM excited, but I don't like leaving knowing that I can't come back for a long time.
All the thinking is making my stomach hurt a little bit.
I'll see everyone in Smyrna and Jackson soon. And everyone else, I wish I could see you soon!

Another day

The view from Chelsea's room over the fence

Today, I'm hanging around the office while Chels is at a meeting. I've been posting pics on some of my earlier posts, so go back and check them out. Once Chelsea gets back today, we're going to try and get the supplies to make another batch of the peanut butter supplement. We're going to try to make this one larger than the last. We used at least 50 kg in Tiama last time we were there. She goes back to Tiama again on the 9th and she is trying to get way ahead on her supply while she has some help around.
Yesterday, Chelsea and I worked most of the day on a bulliten board she was in charge of making to go in the CHASL entrance. It turned out pretty well. We did it on heart health- for Valentine's Day.
Last night, we lived with no electricity. It's good to have to live like the other half of the world sometimes. Anyway, I was feeling a little guilty having power every night while the people right outside the windows on the other side of a fence had none. The generator at her compound was broken and the National Power Authority system is getting better, but it is still not to the point where everyone can have power every day. We sat around in the dark mostly. The only bad part was trying to take a shower by flashlight, but NPA was back this morning so at least we could see to get ready. On the way to work this morning, we drove by a woman on the back of a motorcycle carrying a folding chair-- amazing how these people make do.
Another good example of how hard life here is is how they get gravel. (I was jsut thinking about this for some reason) People here actually make gravel. They take rocks and hammers and picks, etc and beat the rocks into gravel. You think about how cheap gravel is and how long it would take to make even a bucket full by hand, not to mention what hard work it would be. They can't get paid much for all their labor. The people here work so hard and I honestly don't know how they even get by with what they have.

If you don't already, you should check out Chelsea's blog she has set up for her supporters. The address is http://www.chelseainsierraleone.blogspot.com/. Yesterday, she posted a link to a really good article about healthcare in SL.

~*~

This is on the mountain road out of Freetown

Chelsea and Patience- she's 18 months old and well under 15 lbs.

Lakka Beach

Lakka Beach

(and the little boys who sat by us white-people watching finally walking away)

My trip to Tiama was so good. We left (tried to leave) Thursday at about 1:00 but we had a fan belt problem about 5-10 miles from the mechanic's place, so Mustepha (the CHASL driver we were traveling with) got the car back by coasting most of the way. We would just have the car on for 30 seconds or so to get going and then coast on hills for a couple minutes. I was impressed. We spent an hour or 2 at the mechanic's getting the belts fixed, then started on the way. It s 150 mile drive but it takes a long time because of the condition of the roads here. They're mostly dirt roads so the going is slow. For the trip out of the city, we took a mountain road. It was one of the most beautiful places I have ever been! The mountains here are shaped kind of like the Smokies but they are totally covered in trees. It was so pretty. An hour or so into the trip we had aonther fan belt problem. So we sat in a village while Mustepha and a mechanic and some random guys tried to get it figured out. That's one cool thing about Sierra Leonians is that they just really want to be helpful. People from the street see you are having car trouble and they may know nothing about cars and they may only be in your way, but they come over and look at what is wrong and at least stand around for a while or offer some opinions. Once we got going again, it went well. We ended up getting to Njala (the guesthouse) at about 8:30.
In the morning, we went to Tiama and set up the clinic. Another thing is that people here, especially in the villages are so much less time obsessed than we are in the US. The clinic was supposed to start at 9:00, but between waiting for a vaccine package to come and having a health talk and a small worship service it didn't start until 11:00. Here people were fine with coming at 9 or 10 and not being seen until maybe 3:00. If that happened in the US, people would just be angry but here people just took the chance to catch up with eachother, hold eachother's babies, etc. The medical facilities here are also a lot different than in the US. They are just so undersupplied. Like the Tiama clinic, which serves a large area only 2 weeks ago got a set of bathroom scales so they could weigh people older than 2 years old. The medical facilities in this country are also understaffed. The Tiama clinic, which I would guess serves 20,00 or more people has no doctor and a staff of 3 paid nurses and 1 volunteer nurse. It is just amazing to see such a lack of medical care and its like that throughout the whole country. While we were in the clinic working both a chicken and a dog wandered through the exam room. Its funny how at home people would just freak out about those animals in a doctor's office, but here its just par for the course and someone shooed the chicken out and the dog left on his own eventually.
Chelsea, her assistant Nurse Lucy and I saw a lot of kids. Her program is really good and very needed. Almost all of the kids previously on the program had gained a pound or 2 since just 2 weeks ago. Some of these kids are so underweight, I'm glad that there is at least some way to help them. I saw a 7 month old that weighed about 10 pounds, and another little girl who weighed probably less than 15 pounds that was old enough where she should have been walking. I'm just excited for Chels to get the opportunity to spread the program further.
In the late afternoon, we went to Bo, Sierra Leone's 2nd largest city, to check on some patients in who had been in the hospital and to get some meds to take to a patient in Tiama. The difference between Freetown and Bo was amazing. Bo was like a big village- probably not more than 25,000 people, where Freetown is a big crowded city. Back at Njala, Chelsea and I watched Africa Magic, a Nigerian soap opera, for a few hours. It was entertaining. Its a lot cleaner than soaps in the US but more dramatic.
In the morning, we stopped in Tiama to say goodbye and take care of a few things. Then we headed back to Freetown. On the way our breaks went out. That was something- Mustepha is such a good driver. I'm thankful we had him. He ended up fixing the brakes on the side of the road using random things- a lug wrench, a crecent wrench, my small pocketknife, some superglue, dirt and his teeth. It was amazing. I just can't beleive how much people here can do with practically nothing. We got back to Freetown in time for dinner. We made spaghetti. I had missed pasta!
Yesterday, we went to church and then to Lakka Beach. Church here is partially not so different from home- there is still an order of service and most of that is the same. The building itself is far different. Peace Prespbyterian where Chels and her friend Melissa go is made of wood and plastic. They have one fan, a keyboard and a sound system. In church, it is a lot less focused on making everything pretty. The music is not necessarily pretty- no one but the man playing the piano knows what pitch they are supposed to be singing or what beat they are supposed to be clapping on, but they are all enthusiastic and bold. It is cool having a place of worship where everyone seems to be involved in the service and how you sing isn't even a factor. Lakka beach was so nice. The water was the perfect temperature and there was practically no one there. From the beach, you can see mountains just a mile or so away. The people we went with were pretty cool- there was a group of six North American under-30s who came to the beach who all work for NGOs in Freetown. It was neat to hear about what they do. You can't imagine how many NGOs are in Freetown. Seriously about 1/10 of all cars on the road in Freetown belong to an NGO, especially the UN. Its good though how much help this place is getting, but it isn't even enough. Yesterday on the way home from the beach, I got to see the President of SL drive by. That was cool. And this morning on the way to work I got to see one of teh guys on the SL Olympic track team running. Its cool to be in the capitol to see all this. David Beckham is even in the city right now (but I haven't seen him).
And still, I'm healthy, happy and loving being here!

Headed up-country

Me and the mixer

The mixer with 25 kg of peanut butter supplement

All 65 kg in jars and ready to go

The CHASL building

Chelsea and I are headed back up-country to Tiama again. I am excited to see the normal Tiama instead of how crowded and crazy it was while we were there. We're leaving in a few hours and we should be there until Saturday afternoon. This week has been good. I've gotten to go walking by teh ocean a few times. I finally got my lapa and I get to wear it on Friday. I never thought I'd be excited to wear a skirt, but I borrowed Chelsea's the other day and its nice (plus I'm running out of clean pants so I'm just excited to have something to wear). Yesterday, Chelsea and I did a lot of work on getting the peanut butter supplement ready for our trip. I got to go with her to get the groundnut paste (AKA peanut butter in the US). Wow, everything here is so difficult. To get peanut butter, you have to shell the groundnuts, which was already done when we got to the market then roast them, which had already been done too. When we got there, they had a 50 pound bag of nuts that we helped them sort through getting off most of the red peanut skin and picking out the bad nuts. Then the sorted nuts were run through a hand cranked grinder to turn into groundnut paste. That whole process took hours. It is just amazing how much work goes into everything here. EVERYTHING takes such an effort. Even just doing a load of laundry takes hours. And the people here are so underpaid. To get 4 or 5 guys to do the groundnut paste cost under $20. Several hours of work for several people and they make so little for such hard work.
After that Chels and I came back to CHASL ate some groundnut paste sandwiches and started making the supplement. We made 274 jars! That is 65 kg or more than 130 lbs. It went really fast. Chlesea said that we would be lucky if we even had enough for all the children she needs to give it to. I'm excited to get to help with the clinic. The Chelsea quote of the day yesterday was "I work so hard for all of this that I get attached and I kind of don't want to give it to the kids!" That was when we were staring at our stacks of bottles. And I kind of understand. I can't beleive that all that will be gone in a couple of days and we'll have to start all over again!
Another thing I can't beleive that in a little over a week I have to come home. Not that I don't love all of you there, but if I knew how to change all of my tickets over to a few weeks later I would be seriously considering staying a longer.
I won't be seing a computer again until next Monday, so I'll be able to write about Tiama then.

the team

Me and my friends at the farm

Dona, the boy in the pink above wanted to use my camera. He's good.

Some of the younger people who live on the farm.

As I promised before,heres a more interesting review of the trip. It started out pretty normal until we met the team in Atlanta. The trip doctor introduced himself and chose me to be the team's first recipient of his book on grieving and loss. It was an interesting way to be introduced to someone. In London, one of the older ladies started giving team massages in the airport. She had brought a massager with her and ready. Then we left for Sierra Leone. Everyone and everything waspretty normal at the hotel. On the day we left for Tiama, a small group went to the Christian Health Assn (CHASL) to mix up some peanut butter supplement. The rest of the group entertained themselves by trying to force-feed beef jerky to the starving city dogs. Even they wouldn't take the Slim Jims. Then we went out to eat where most of the team took picutres of the food. They couldn't believe that they served whole fish head and all. Our group was something for the locals to stare at! Then we headed upcountry to Tiama. What a bus ride!This was when we realized what talkers our group had. Man- there were talkers! Chelsea & I essentially became mute from the time we left freetown till we got back. The whole ride in the bus was like being in a parade. Everyone waved out the windows like celebrities and peppered the conversations with "they just love white people" comments. Then the beef jerky began being thrown out the window like candy from a parade float. I guess if dogs won't eat something the next logical thing is to throw it to people walking down the road!
As soon as we got to Njala (our guesthouse) the drinking began and it never stopped. they're probably still going strong as I'm typing this! that's not something i expected from a mission trip, but man was i wrong. [my shift at this computer has mostly stopped working so forgive all the missed capitals].
in the morning I went with a group to Tiama farms for the day. When we got to the farm, the conversation went about like this-
- "Do you need chickens here?"
-"No we don't want chickens."
-"Okay so where can we get some chickens? We should build the pen here."
-"Maam there is no need for chickens"
-"How many do you think we should get? eight or ten might be a good start....."
The whole farm trip was like this. Which is some indication of why the pharmacy was my location of choice.
The next day, the animal rescue mission began. By the end, there was pretty much a separate team for animal affairs. There was a monkey at the nurse's house that was being kept to eat. The team did not want that to happen so they bought the monkey and droveit out to the middle of nowhere for release. This was repeated with another monkey from a shop and someone's pet owl. By the end, people in the village were coming up with animal schemes. One guy came to the doctor and said if he could be snuck to the head of the line, he would tell us of a turtle to rescue. There was some real consideration of this- no kidding. The townspeople thought this group was nuts taking their food to the woods, but at least they were paid well for the animals.
One day on the trips between Tiama and Njala, one of the older women brought out a cat puppet. oh my- no children on the trip and we still had to deal with being talked to through hand puppets. This was the moment that I thought maybe i had been put on a mission with the mentally unstable. The puppet was a frequent member of our team after this!
We got to go to 2 village churches while we were upcountry. It was very cool to experience church in a place without modern ammenities and no electricity etc. The camera flashes going off the whole time were obnoxious, but when that wasn't happening, it was neat to be in a service in complete African darkness with only 1 candle for a whole building. It was very different but very cool.
The group lived by the "we've got it lets toss it" motto. Everything they had became a projectil meant to 'help' the children. They threw beef jerky a lot, bracelets, trinkets, there was even nearly an incedent with money going out the window. and the famous quote- "who wants to toss these out to the kids?" just tossing water bottles for the kids to fight over.
But really, the team wasn't so bad. They were some entertainment and it sure helped in the logistics of me getting here. This has just been a joint effort of me and Chelsea's venting of how 'different' life was with the team. It was just a skewed life being around so many Americans and doing dinners with speeches and meeting officials and stuff. I'm glad i finally get to experience real life here. If you want to read the rose colored version see Chelsea's blog. Now its good to just hang out with chels.
Yesterday, we went to the beach and went to a coffee shop and hung out with some of chels's friends here. It was a good time. The beach was pretty and it was nice to walk around with the sea breeze, etc. Everything is going great and I get to go to CHASL tomorrow and work with Chels.

Back in Freetown

One of the best sections of road from Freetown to Tiama (it's paved!)

Sunrise out Chelsea's window

A mud-brick house. These are everywhere

I made it back to Freetown the day before yesterday and it's finally our first day without the team. It's pretty exciting to finally be on our own and not have to worry about having the group around and doing all the group things. I'll probably get a chance to post a little more in depth about the "group experience" in a couple days. All I'll say right now is that at one point I honestly started thinking that this could easily be a trip for patients at a mental institute... some loony people in the American bunch! Tiama (the village we were in) was cool. African villages really do look kind of like the National Geographics you see. There really are mud huts, thatched roofs and all that. This is such a beautiful country. Chelsea was right about that. And it's something you can't really get in a picture. The people have been so nice. In Tiama the kids are a little clingy and crazy around Americans just because they have been given so many handouts from white people (like our group- which was one of my big gripes about the group I was with) but once you convince them you aren't handing out toys, even the kids are really sweet and just want to play with you. During most of the time on the trip I ended up working as a pharmacist. I got picked to work in the pharmacy bcause of my chemistry background (however limited it is). It was an intense job, but now I can read perscriptions and am pretty much a pharmacy tech now. The medical clinic saw 406 people over the 6 days it was open. Even after seeing that many patients, we still had to send some people away without treatment because there just wasn't any more time.

The Trip-
When we left Freetown last week, it took us a 5 hour drive in a bus to get to Tiama. When we finally got there, they had a tribal welcome for us. That was just a little too intense for me. We got off the bus in the middle of a HUGE crowd. Hundreds of people singing and chanting and playing insturments. I didn't understand the language or what was going on, but all I could think was ' They've decided to kill us!' They obviously didn't. It was very crowded and loud- not my favorite part of teh week, but we got to meet the "chief" kind of guy. Then we headed to the Njala Agricultural College guesthoue. It was nice. Everybody got there own room in one of 4 houses and we had our meals made for us. (They must think that all Americans eat is fried chicken though because we had that all but one day.) The first day at the village was busy. I thought my brain was going to explode. I went with a small group to check out the community farm. The coolest part to me was we got to see them digging a well by hand. I had never even thought about how that would work. That was cool. I was pretty clueless about how to make improvements to the farm so I'm glad I got put into the pharmacy rather than having to try to find things to "fix" on the farm when I thought it could be left well enough alone. After being there for a couple of hours, we went back to the clinic where I just spent the rest of the day mingling and trying to learn Mende, the local language. That was when I was pretty sure my brain was full. I've learned a little Mende but not enough to even talk to a kid. i can really just say hi and a few other things, but I'm even still practically useless. But I guess that's not so bad for a few days of trying. By the end of the first work day they had put me into the pharmacy where I stayed for the rest of the week. Oh man, even the first day I got to see the disaster caused by taking gifts on these mission trips. One member of our team had taken bracelets to pass out to people and started pretty immediately. It just caused so much trouble. People didn't get one and were disappointed. Big kids took them from little kids. There were mobs around her trying to get a gift. And they were just little plastic bracelets. It was just really sad seing the white people playing Santa Clause just because we have more stuff. It was like our help was secondary and the fact that we could give things became the focus. i don't really know how to put it, but the passing out of trinkets (which happened CONSTANTLY) was my biggest pet peve on the trip. I guess I'll write in a little less detail about the rest of the days later, but it was a good time and I look forward to getting to go back to Tiama without the group in a few days!

I am loving it here and everything is going well. Chelsea and I are on the way to the beach so I'll blog again in a couple days.

My first day

Sunset from the Kimbima Hotel

My first day was really fun. I realize now what Chelsea means about it being slow here. It's not that everyone is slow its just that everything just logistically takes longer. On that note, we didn't get everything done that we meant to (no lapa yet and I haven't seen Chels's apt), but I got to see a lot of the city. I like it here. I'm so Glad that I'm staying for a while. Some of you will be glad to hear that I confirmed my airline ticket in Freetown today, so I have to return on the 25th whether I like it or not. I won't have internet access for the next week. We're going to Tiama to run the clinic, the peanut butter project, a construction project and to work on the community farm. I'll post on the 11th or 12th.

I made it to Freetown

This is a pic of the London airport for Kayla.

I just wanted everyone to know that I made it okay. Dad, I tried to text you from Chelsea's phone. I hope it worked. You really can text back a couple times if you want to. She said it isn't too expensive. I spent the last couple of days all over the place: Atlanta to London to Freetown and then we had to take a helicopter to actually get to the main Freetown. That was exciting. It's been fun talking to people so far. Everyone can speak English well enough for us to understand eachother and they're nice about trying to help you learn Krio too. We'll be in the city for tomorrow and I'll help Chelsea pick up spme supplies and run to her headquarters and see her apartment and get a lapa (skirt) made. I have a busy day but thankfully the jet lag isn't too bad. Wow, I've only been in Freetown for a few hours and I already have too many stories to tell to say it on here. So- I'm safe, healthy and very excited! Happy New Year to everyone!