A bittersweet return

Well, I'm enjoying the internet Kiosk in London once again. It's been amazing to spend a month with my mom, experiencing the Sierra Leonian culture even more that I already have, but I'm very happy to be heading home to my fiance, my own bed, my own kitchen and proper grocery stores. It has definitely been an experience to remember.

As always, travel from africa is never easy. The plane didn't leave until 11:50pm last night, but you have to be at the airport terribly early even though this is the only plane leaving. It takes an extreme amount of time for Sierra Leonians to do ANYTHING and checking people in at the airport is no exception. I took the 7pm hovercraft over to Lungi, was in line by 8... about 4 hours early... .let me remind you this was the ONLY flight leaving the country that night, so...really... how on earth does it take 4 hours to check in one plane that's not even 2/3 full??? Well, it does take some effort to be that inefficient, but they've got that covered.

Anyways, it's about time for me to go find my gate here in London... then an 11 hour flight to LAX, finished with a quick hopper flight on to San Diego. I can't wait!

Signing off...

Brushing Sholders with Fame

Tonight we joined a group of Americans for dinner. They are a group that comes out every year to run clinics for a week here in Sierra Leone, and my mom has joined them three times in the past before she moved here.

Since she knows so many people in the group, we went and crashed their party. They were incredibly welcoming and they were so excited to hear about what my mom has done here in Sierra Leone, and I think they're just amazed at the fact that she gave up her life in the states to be here and change people's lives so positively.

Tonight was their kickoff, since they will be heading upline tomorrow afternoon, so they had a big banquet. The American Ambassador to Sierra Leone and the First Lady of Sierra Leone were there.

Also, on the team itself were a couple of somewhat celebrity people
Patricia Heaton (the wife in Everybody Loves Raymond)
Mark Steins who works for Entertainment Tonight
And I got a chance to talk with both of them somewhat, so that was a fun thing... and realistically it's great to help make sure they're aware of the issues and what can be done to help here in Sierra Leone.

Here we are talking with Patricia Heaton

On the Left is the 1st lady of Sierra Leone, on the Left is the American Ambassador.

Turns out it's a bit fuzzy, but here is my mom talking to the 1st lady.

Only in Africa...

Today we got out of Freetown. We were headed to New Steps, which was a Mercy Ships center to help handicapped children. Sadly, it is not currently the trendy thing to give money towards, so the center had to close down.

Since it is closing down, the Mercy Ships clinic is facilitating the entire New Steps facility to be handed over to another organization… for FREE… which is great because otherwise it would be turned over to the government and would no longer serve people. But… the clinic here could use a few things from First Steps, since they still own it, and will be expanding some of their work in Freetown. So today we drove the hour and a half out to Waterloo, started packing some tables, chairs and bookshelves up, and then the people who are acquiring the land (for FREE, mind you), called and said we were trespassing, stealing and that everything belongs to them. Turns out that one of the guys with us was now working for them and must have called them. Anyways, no papers have even been signed (for the FREE center, mind you), but we ended up having to unload everything and head back into town.

Since we had just wasted all that time, we decided to take a detour on our way back and check out an old Mercy Ship project. There was a clinic that was off the beaten path, and it was actually really interesting to see. They had all the numbers from the past years pasted to the walls… each month, how many they treated for AIDS, Malaria, STDs and all kinds of things. There were lots of posters to educate anyone stopping by. They do deliveries for the local women. Basically, it seemed to be working quite well. It’s completely run by Sierra Leonians, and it’s so great to see them being successful.

Anyways, here are some pics from our adventures… enjoy!

TSA would have a heart attack

One more interesting note on Traveling in Africa… when we were at the airport in Senegal, on our way back to Sierra Leone, we were very impressed. The local people were running the airport, things were clean, they were efficient for the most part, and they gave the impression of high security.

I say, they gave the impression of high security, it's because when we went through security they actually had a metal detector and an x-ray machine (something they don’t have in Sierra Leone), but as we put our stuff into the x-ray machine, the three security guards didn’t even glance up at us from their newspapers. So they can say that ever bag that goes on the plane went through the metal detector, but I could have brought ANYTHING in the world on that plane and no one would ever have known. We just had to cross our fingers that we would be safe…but that’s Africa for you.

Gladi Gladi

When a woman goes home after her fistula surgery, she has usually been at the clinic for three weeks. The Gladi Gladi is like a going away event for the women before they go home. On Wednesday mornings, all of the women who are slated to go home over the next week are given a brand new nice dress, and a pair of shoes and a necklace. The women are prayed for, then they lead the group in singing as they dance around the entire courtyard together, singing with a drum. It is a great way to send off the women into their new life back at home.

Fabulous Fabrics

Since returning to Freetown I've had a chance to do a few exciting things. One thing was to take a trip to the Fabric Market. Now, there are two kinds of fabric... African prints (which are apparently made in china, but they're only $1.50-$3 per yard) or Handmade African Fabrics, such as batik and tye dye (which can be quite costly depending on the time they spent making them). The market where I went was primarily full of prints, but I'll have a chance to see the handmade fabrics on saturday.

I picked three different fabrics for myself, one of which Sydney Lyn, the clinic seamstress, will make into a shirt tomorrow. They have a really great system here, because Sydney Lyn gets her regular salary, but on fridays she sews for the people at the clinic for money. All of that money goes towards buying the fabric for the Gladi Gladi dresses and other fabric needs for the clinic.