Mo Charles and Bo

After breakfast at the Rutile Mines last Thursday, we went to check out a little village called Mo Charles.  We were evaluating their needs and their ability to host a medical team come February.

The road was VERY potholed with large crevices from the water run off.  We made it in the Land Rover, but a bus taking medical personnel definitely would not with small tires, 2 wheel drive, and poor shocks.  This is the view we saw walking into Mo Charles...

The brown patches you see on the ground are what Pastor Ben called brush.  It is the village's main 'crop' or export item.

John took a look at their one working well.  It was contaminated.  The village only uses it for washing clothes.  They get their drinking, cooking, and bathing water from a nearby stream.

We met with the community, including the village chief, the pastor and teacher, as well as anybody else around. We asked them if they were interested in having a medical team there.  Of course they were! lol!

We did tell them they would have to fix the road so that a bus could travel on it.  They said they were already planning to after the rainy season and they would have it done by December.  We will check out the road in early January again.

We also asked them what are some of their medical concerns or issues that they deal with.

Hernia                 Eyesight Problems
Ulcers                 Nodules
Appendicitis        High Blood Pressure
Gonorrhea          Diabetes
Syphilis               Hearing Problems
Scabies              Malaria
Diarrhea             Arthritis
Strokes              Priapism



We weren't sure how they knew they deal with some of the above concerns... whether they were properly diagnosed or they were just guessing or they had just heard those words before like the STDs.  I also thought it was interesting that priaprism can be caused by sickle cell anemia which is of higher incidence in Africa.

According to my good friend Wiki, 1/3 of all people living in tropical or subsaharan Africa carry the gene for sickle cell anemia, but because it is recessive, the trait has very little to no expression in the individual.  However, having the single recessive gene for sickle cell anemia has a protective or survival value.  Anyone that carries the gene will have substantial protection from the disease.  I think it is so neat that in the one place that has malaria, there is a condition (not that it is necessarily good to have) that provides resistance.  That is a God thing!!!

Here are some pictures of the medical conditions that people are facing in Mo Charles...

Nodule under armpit

 Skin Lesion of some sort...

This sweet little boy did not want his picture taken.  I think he hadn't seen that many whities before.  They said his ear was swollen but I can't see it.  Probably just an earache.

More skin lesions

This boy wanted his picture taken of him so he could see it.

This one elder (aka really old guy) in the community came up to me and grabbed my hand.  He talked at me smilingly and maybe a bit flirtatious.  However, I do not know one word of Mende (Pastor Ben had translated for us up till then)  I didn't know what he said but I replied "Tank ee" in Krio which means Thank you.  Then him and a lot of the ladies behind him were laughing.  I think I may have said Thank You to a marriage proposal!

Afterwards we looked at the school house to check out if it could house a clinic.

Then we were on our way.  Pastor Ben made us stop by another village real quick to meet his mom lol! The kids going to school were sooo darling!  Ben is the one in the brown shirt and his mom is the one in the pink dress (I think... I can't remember)

Finally we left that area and started traveling back towards home.  But we did have to stop to get gas...

This guy would pump up one glass jar...flip a lever...and that jar would drain while he pumped up the next one. Next we drove to Bo (the second largest city in Sierra Leone). It was a long drive on a bumpy road.  We needed to drop off some rice bags to John Barry for the rice projects that we had forgotten to deliver in Serabu (he was supposed to meet us in Bo)

As everybody carries EVERYTHING on their heads, I decided to give it a little try.  The only difference is that I had to hold it on, while the locals go hands free!

Here is our little Land Rover all muddied up after the trip.

Afterwards we started the long trek home.  I don't think we made it home till about 9:30 or so.  We had to drop off Ben on the way home also.

Alright, have a great weekend.  I do not know what I am going to write about next but it may not be for a couple of days.  God Bless!

Our New Home

John and I went to take a peek at a potential house for us all to stay in a little ways out of the main town.  It is called Allentown.  It has two stories and also a little house out back.  The top story is where Chad and Robin are going to stay.  It seems very nice!  3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms.  There little kiddos will like that!

A picture of the top story of the house...

I'm thinking that John and I will stay in the level below that which you can kind of see in the picture above.  The only thing is that we weren't able to walk through it lol!  The guard had somehow  lost misplaced the key and will get it soon.  I am told that it is two bedroom and two bath.


We were able to see the house that is behind the bigger house.  It also had two bedroom and two bath.

The Kitchen

It is not much... Robin and Chad have a 4 burner gas stove and oven for us to use.  We may need to get some shelving and cabinets made.  Possibly some extra counter space.  Luckily woodwork is very cheap here... for labor and material cost.

Here are the tiles in what I'll call the "back house".  Apparently they are made locally IN Sierra Leone.  I think they look really neat!

You can see in this picture and maybe some of the others but the walls need a fresh paint!  We put that in the contract for the landlord to do before we will commit to renting it out.

This is the view from the back house.  You can see the huge water tank.

Our neighbor in the back and our landlord work for the water company so he promised we will always have water.  This is his house... It looks nice! 

I think there is a satellite on top of his house for TV.  We won't have that but we may put up a satellite for internet.  The internet here has been really sporadic and slow.  We jokingly call it our SLOW-dem instead of modem.  The satellite will be a lot faster, but still maybe not as fast as high speed internet in the states.  Unfortunately it is really expensive!  The actual cost to run the satellite isn't too bad but the government here charges and extra $2500 a year! Its ridiculous! The government considers it a luxury so they tax it crazily to make a little extra.  They don't see that to really rev up businesses and economy that have to make some of these things affordable for local people or things won't improve.

Please pray for the government here that good leaders will be put into authority positions to make decisions that will better the living conditions for the people here instead of with the goal of making money for themselves.

Here are a few more pictures of the houses from different angles.

This is a neat plaque on the house... It is the name of the house

COURAGE!!! (I don't know if it takes courage to live there or why its named that but I like it!)  We are very blessed to find this house because it is a good deal per month and very nice quality.  I think we pay under $300/month for rent for a 4 year old house.  Hopefully the cheap rent will out-weigh the pricey internet each month.  I am willing to skimp on some other areas in order to be able to talk with our friends and family via email or skype.

And finally a view of the river that is on the other side of the street from our home...

I hope to be able to take walks alongside this road.  It is a very green and beautiful area to live!

Sorry this post is a little out of order... but the next post will be about our trip after staying at the rutile mines to look on a couple of villages as potential sites for medical clinics for Willamette.

Rice Planting and the Rutile Mines

Rice harvesting is actually very interesting!

The community has only harvested about half of what they have planted.  Here is what the rice looks like after harvesting...

It is pretty incredible the amount of rice harvested so far and to think they have double that!  The next couple of pictures are of all the rice that is stored in a store room right now (which is 50% of the total harvest)

The rice on the ground above is to dry it out. We are told that they have to re-dry the rice every two weeks so it doesn't go bad because of the high humidity.  I love the 'bushels' of rice above, they look great!


Here is a picture of a guy named John Barry.

Chad employs him to watch over a couple of the different rice projects, help us know whats going on since we can't be there all the time, and be a cultural interpreter.  Our cultures are so different that we often need some kind of cultural help.  Things that seem so easy and straightforward are often very difficult when crossing the cultural divide.  Our worldviews and expectations differ vastly and John helps us to navigate these.  He is a good worker.  John (my John) really like him a lot.  By the way John is a VERY common name here so we are trying to get used to calling him Campbell instead.

After all the rice is harvested, it needs to be threshed.  This means that grain is removed from the stalk.  You can do this manually as they have done in the pictures of the rice in the bags.  One can also do this with a threshing machine. Then the rice is milled.  This removes the outer hull.  Machines can do this as well and is often how white rice is formed.  The machine removes the outer hull and polishes the grain down to remove the 'brown' bran.  Unfortunately this removes most of the nutritional quality of the rice.  Out in the provinces, most of the Sierra Leoneans mill by hand, preserving the bran of the rice and thus the nutrition. 

Eating brown (or 'country' as they call it) rice involves a little more work.  You have to wash it very thoroughly and remove all the rocks.  When the locals dry the rice, they usually dry it on a road.  When they go to pick it up, small rocks are included.  It also takes a little longer to cook and uses more water.  I think it is worth the extra work since nutritional deficits can be such a problem here.  I personally like the taste better anyways... its not as plain and has a little more flavor.   I like the pictures on this website to explain it better.

While John and Chad were ironing out some details with the community in finishing harvesting and threshing the rest of the rice, I was drawn to the cute little kids.

They spoke the tribal language Mende so we couldn't understand each other.  They liked repeating everything I said.  I eventually got them to tell me their names.  They also like mimicking the faces I made.  They LOVED when I took pictures of them and then got to look afterward.  The little boy in the blue shirt was my favorite.

After we finished at Serabu we headed out to the Rutile Mines.  Chad's wife Robin told me that they love the Rutile Mines.  It is like a 4 star hotel for the price of a one star!  Chad explained to me how they charge so little but I forget.  Basically they provide housing with AC, HOT SHOWERS!!!!!, flush toilets, and three meals a day for $20 a person!  What a deal!  It was my first hot shower in over a week.  Even so, wherever you are here in SL, you still have to be as quick as you can to preserve the water.  I wish I would have taken pictures of the food they had for dinner and the following breakfast.  They tend to cook in a more Western way. (and by western I mean America and other developed countries not the cowboys)

The sad thing is that the AC was too cold for me lol!  I've already acclimated to this heat (although it has been really beautiful in comparison to how hot it gets in January-March apparently)

Alright, I have a post ready to go for tomorrow about our housing that starts in January.  I thought I already posted it but it just saved in drafts.  So here it is as promised.  God Bless!

Out to Serabu

Last week (I am a little behind on events apparently!) John, Chad, and I left early in the morning out toward Waterloo.  On the way we picked up a pastor named Ben who disciples other pastors.  Chad is in turn mentoring Ben.  We brought Ben along with us because he grew up in the villages we were visiting.  We were hoping to find a site that could host a medical team and receive treatment when a Willamette team comes in February. 

I slept most of the way to Waterloo (John was driving).  We drove a little ways after we picked up Ben but he got hungry at about 9:30 so we stopped for second breakfast. 

Chad and I had cassava leaf and country rice (AKA BROWN RICE!!!)  I was so excited!

Cassava and rice are Sierra Leonean STAPLES.  It is like American hamburgers and french fries.  It looks kind of gross but it was very spicy and flavorful.  And you all know that I love my greens!!! (they cooked the cassava leaves for the dish) It had a little bit of fish in it too.

John and Ben ordered the lamb.  I had a bite it was also very tasty and spicy! 

Ben made me laugh though.  He sent his dish back because they had put a higher fish:lamb ratio than he thought was acceptable.  So they went back and put more lamb in it.  He acted disgusted and said "this is the African way"  basically meaning they will give you more fish (which is cheap) and give you less lamb (the expensive stuff) to save on their costs.  Lol, I would have had no idea!  It made me laugh!  It reminds me of when you order a salad and pay like $3.00 for them to add chicken and they give you like two little pieces.

On the road again... It was almost a full day's journey to Serabu. 

A little background on Serabu...
                Chad has been working through Willamette Medical Teams (an NGO that does more than just medical) to get a rice planting project in Serabu.  It is funded by a young gentleman who raised money to upfront the cost of a rice planting (somewhat of a microfinance model) This young gentleman started a non-profit organization called Truth x Vision.  They bought all of the seeds needed to plant ~20 acres of rice.  From the harvest, the community members that support (not financially) this project, they will split half of the rice.  The other half will go back to Truth x Vision I am assuming to refund their costs and hopefully start this same project in another community.  Basically the community is in charge of planting and harvesting.  They do not invest money... just time and labor but they get the fruits.  They can then probably replicate the planting next season as well as have rice to eat.  This is the goal anyways... but nothing ever quite goes as planned lol!

The road we drove on.  The clouds look dark.  I think it sprinkled a little on they way.  The roads on this picture do not depict most of the stretch of road we traveled.  The majority of the road is really pot holed or has large crevices on it from the water running off.

I think the country side is just so beautiful and green!

As this post is getting a little long (aka I want to get out for a walk to the local market to buy some food for lunch)... I will post more about the rice project harvesting and its minor snafu tomorrow... as well as the place we stayed over night.

Newton Dam at Waterloo

Hey Friends!  I'm hoping to start posting a little more frequently because John taught me how to make the picture sizes smaller so they upload faster.  It was taking me about 10 minutes to upload 2 pictures!

A few days after we arrived, Chad took us to see the Newton Dam at Waterloo.  He is still trying to get the government to lease us the property.  If we get the property a few cool things will happen...

1.  John will clean up the dam and get it running again to feed a community of ~5,000 with clean, drinkable water
2.  We could fix up the housing so that we could live there for free (minus the fix-up costs)
3.  The property would be able to house the medical teams that come 2-3 times a year for free and save on their costs

I'm not sure why the government won't lease us the land... It would ONLY benefit and improve the living conditions of the local community.  The property is not being used at all and the local tribe's chief has already given us the land (although it wasn't his to give lol!)

Here is the dam as is

The local tribe at Waterloo gave the NGO we're working under a pregnant goat for the property.  She gave birth to a daughter and son.  Then she mated with the son and had another boy and girl.  They were soooo cute!  I wanted to take them home with me, but we don't have much of a yard.

Here are Mom and  Son   Dad

The Babies!!!

Oh my gosh... I just love those baby goats.  We also looked at the place that we were thinking of moving to at the first of the year.  I thought... why not bring these little sweeties with us?  But apparently they will just eat at all of the greenery of the property and the landlord is pretty anal about the "landscaping" of the house.  I will do a post about our future living arrangements in the next post... but here is a darling picture to leave you with...

Saying Goodbyes.... and Hellos!

We left on Thursday…  It went really well.  My mom, dad, John’s mom (who drove from Parker), my aunt Robin and my favorite cousins Megan and Stephen came.  We left from Terminal 2 at Sky Harbor Airport which doesn’t have coffee so we stopped by Starbucks on the way over and Stephen bought us some Decaf via.  We tried the new cinnamon Via which is absolutely delicious!
It was so nice to have the support of our families there.  I love them so much and will miss them dearly.  God has given me a really great peace about being away from them during this time in my life.  Here are some pictures from the airport with my wonderful family.  My dad bought us some neck pillows when we arrived at the airport.

Megan is planning to give birth today or tomorrow!  I am sad to miss it! And John’s sister is giving birth around November 15th.  Thank goodness for skype!

We made it through the airport security with flying colors.  A few hours later we flew into O’Hare in Chicago where we only had a 40 minute layover.  I was hungry and hoping to buy some airport food because it is usually better than airplane food, but once we got to our gate most people had already boarded.
John and I walked onto a pretty full plane and looked for an overhead bin to store our oversized carry-on luggage but most were full.  John told me to sit down while he searched all the overhead bins to find room.  I was worried about not finding room but it turned out to be quite comical because most of the passengers were watching John struggle.  They would laugh when he couldn’t fit it in, some turned back and smiled at me telling me in another language that our luggage was causing “problems”.  I’m not sure what language it was… sounded like something French or Dutch… I assume whatever they speak in Brussels.  I just smiled and nodded because I had no idea what they were saying.  A few passengers were cheering John on and some jumped up to help him.  Finally he managed to squish our luggage up there and joined me.
When we flew to Tanzania we each had our own personal TV’s and could choose from about 50 movies.  This was not the case on the way to Brussels.  You could choose the channel of about 5 movies.  I chose the latest Twilight movie while John watched Grown Ups.  I tried to sleep after dinner and the movie.  We even bought these sweet pillows that rest on our laps and rise up to face level.  Airplane Pillow   For some reason I couldn’t get comfortable and didn’t sleep that well.   We woke up in the morning and landed in Brussels.
We had probably an hour wait before boarding in Brussels.  I bought John a sandwich and I got some tasty roasted cashews and almonds in smoked paprika and a green apple.

 I started to sleep once we boarded because I was pretty tired.  I used the neck pillow my dad bought me and slept for a good long while.  Two decent sized naps with a meal in between.  John had some beef meal with sweet potatoes (which I later ate his sweet potatoes) and I had some fish in a yellow sauce.  It came with some kind of whole grain-ish bun, butter and this wedge of fancy looking cheese.  Dessert was a cupcake and a square of Belgium chocolate.  The chocolate was different than American milk chocolate… sweeter in a more floral way.

I didn’t realize that we were supposed to stop in Dakar, Senegal on the way.  Most of the passengers got off the plane there.  We stayed on for probably less than an hour.  Once in the air we got a snack of a cheese and butter sandwich. John ate his sandwich… I just had some cheese and some more nuts.  The sandwich reminded me of when I was a kid and ate cheese and mayo sandwiches EVERY day for lunch.  The thought grosses me out a little now, but man did I use to love them! 

Once we arrived in Freetown Lungi, Chad was waiting for us.  So good to see him after such a long journey.  Here we are on the ferry once we arrive.

I love and miss you guys yet I’m expectant of what the next few days and weeks will hold for us!  Here are the cuties that were waiting for us when we finally got home.