Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Dear Friends!
 
I'm back at Caleb's school today after a 3 day weekend! In this country with 2 major religions, all Christian, Muslim and historical holidays are officially national holidays! Yesterday was off for the Prophet Mohammed's birthday. The Moslem's celebrate it with a day of prayer. The rest of the population enjoys an extra day of family and rest! Many of the internationals I know spent the morning sleeping after watching the Super Bowl much of the night!

I had the opportunity to spend the morning with one close friend visiting on Caleb's balcony, which is a pleasant place! In the afternoon, I braved the public transport to spend a few hours with another friend, his wife and their new baby! (Some of you may remember my descriptions of poda poda rides!)  I returned to Caleb's hot and covered with sweat and dust. After a shower, we treated ourselves to dinner in a quiet restaurant where we were the only customers! (Quiet is a rare commodity here!) 

From there we went to an extremely congested and chaotic area for Caleb to get a hair cut. I so wish I'd had the video camera for this! The "barbing shop" was a chair on a busy spot beside the street, where there was an old blue tarp set up to separate a small space from the crowd. After having his hair cut as close to his head as possible with fabric scissors--in clumps, Caleb then had his hair shaved to about 1/16 of an inch with only a comb and a razor blade. (No razor--just the blade!) It is an amazing art. After doing his head, the barber decided to shape Caleb's 5 day old beard growth and used only the razor held at the proper angle in his hand to shave the beard shape he wanted! As far as I know, there were no nicks! (Yes, they use new blades, or 2, for each new person!)
I never know what new experience I'll have here!
 
We spent Saturday morning with Caleb playing Ultimate Frisbee on the beach with the Lighthouse guys and me getting to spend the whole morning walking the beach alone with Joseph. For those of you who have been praying for him, please continue. He looks good and is healthy... and from what he tells me, he's doing great with worthy goals, etc. Unfortunately, I hear otherwise from some of the Lighthouse leaders. As a former street kids, with lying, drugs, promiscuity, stealing just to get food, etc., as a major part of life, it is extremely hard for the Lighthouse kids to consistently move into the new lives and opportunities Lighthouse offers them. Joseph seems to find it hard to consistently go to work, clean up after himself in the room he shares with 2 other men, and stay away from, at least, marijuana. Please pray for this young man of intense faith and great musical gifts who I have grown to love in the past 3 years!  Anyway, I was delighted to get the whole morning with him! He considers me his Mommy Jenny and keeps up with our family news and shares news of his family with me via letters that someone else emails for him. When I am with him (and he has often "accompanied" me on public transport to places I could have never found alone!) he protects me as though I was a treasure made of breakable glass!
 
Caleb and I left Saturday afternoon to sleep out again at River No. 2 Beach! Getting gas on the way was another one of those experiences that one would not have at home! It took us 1/2 hour to get the gas. There were 12 pump nozzles at this large gas station... with only 1 of them working! In addition to cars trying to access the pump from different directions, there was a line of men with gas cans buying gas for generators which are used most evenings by people with money because the public electricity is often off!

When we got to the beach, I was surprised to see that there were 3-4" long tightly folded leaves already formed on the tree that had been shedding all its large leaves the last few weeks. (Even in tropical climates, deciduous trees drop their leaves--just not at the same time.) I had expected that it would take a long time for the new leaves to come.
We had our usual barracuda and rice dinner then talked til we were sleepy enough to go to bed. Laying on the sand looking along the beach was amazing. The full moon was so bright that the white-caps were a brilliant white as though there was a search light on them!
 
I woke up to the calls of pied crows (black with a bright white "tank top") and voices of the villagers who were walking by and then waiting on the beach for the fishing boats to come in so they could buy their fish for the day! My blanket was covered with little 1/2 flowers from the tree above me!   The big surprise was that the leaf starts on the tree I'd noticed Saturday evening, had opened into full leaves! If we could only teach our Ohio trees to do that!
 
Sunday evening, we went to the International Church and potluck. It was good to worship in that community. I was happy to realize that I knew about 1/2 of the people there and the potluck was a great chance to visit!
 
I got some questions in response to my last email that may be of general interest:

--The official language of SL is English because SL was an English colony. That means that in the capital city, most adults range from total fluency to at least being able to exchange greetings and sell things if they are vendors in English, depending on their educational level. Unfortunately, there was no opportunity to attend school during the war. The children are usually quite fluent in English. The local language in Freetown is Krio, which is its own very simple language that the English slaves developed derived from English as Creole is derived from French. When the slaves in England were freed in 1787, they were brought here and started their own settlement.  There are many ethnic/tribal languages spoken in SL and most people, even those who are illiterate, are fluent in several languages!  Out in the rural districts with HI, I have several times been in welcoming meetings when we arrive in a village, that are translated 2x...meaning 3 languages!  Often English is not one of them, but I know enough Krio to catch the general meaning!

--I do not feel any racial tensions at all, but that does not mean that there are not racial expectations!  Being White attracts a lot of attention! It is also often assumed that Whites are lucrative to beg from. SL's with money are also constantly asked for money. That gets very tedious and one can not give anything to one person w/o having 3 to 20 more people appear from nowhere with hands out! It is quite intimidating. Before the 1st time I arrived, Caleb told me to decide what I would do in response then to do it consistently without rethinking it. My decision was to give only to organizations here--never to individuals. That is always hard, but I haven't regretted the decision because there is no stopping it once you hand 1 person 1 thing!    The other racial reality is that whites are just plain a curiosity!  This is very open. As a greeting, people will often call out their tribal word for white man and wave! I think it's both a friendly gesture and a brush with perceived power. For the most part, SL are a very friendly people!
 
--How is the decision made about what village will receive funding to dig the next well?  That is very hard! Several factors come into play. This year the process is (1) the HI staff person in each district takes me to the HI villages that have the most desperate water needs. I have prioritized them as some are not as desperate as the ones in the other districts. (2) John Campbell, the water engineer, will visit many of them and give input such as whether the terrain is suitable to do a bore hole well (which is quicker and less expensive), whether there are pumps that can be repaired of replaced over wells that will then be functional, etc. (3) The number of water projects we have already funded in that district will also be considered! It is not a simple process!  We are hoping to prioritize villages early in the rainy season, as soon as John's work is slow enough for him to visit. That way we will get into his work schedule early enough for the wells to be done as efficiently as possible as soon as funds are available!
 
I'm sorry about the length of this email! Thanks to all who have stayed with it to the end!
God Bless You!
Jenny

Friday, February 3, 2012

Hello Friends!

A lot has happened since I last got a chance to email!

This has been a week of no overnight travel! I've had many meetings at the HI office and more time with friends and at AISF (school).

On Wednesday evening, I got to share dinner with some friends and then attend a Bible Study attended by Internationals from many different countries! It is always a wonder (not a surprise, but a joy!) to me that a group of people can share ideas and come up with so much richness and variety of insights from a passage of Scripture! It is truly a privilege to be in such a multi cultural group that all share our Christian faith!

It remains another great joy... and very spititual to me , to be with faithful Moslems in this land of 100% religious tolerance! The world has so much to learn and this country, with so many eztreme problems, could be a leader in this area! The expression of the Muslim faith here seems so much more true to how I understand the Koran the the Middle Eastern expression does. Jesus and Mohammed shared much of their teachings in common! If only all of us could follow our faiths consistently!

One of the things I have been meeting with Rashid about, is the possibility of a small group of WCUCC folks who might come here next January to learn more 1st hand to be better able to continue the WCUCC-HI partnership! It sounds like an exciting possibility!

The 2 bore hole wells in Konta Malkabeng are completely finished!!! The dedication ceremony will be Feb 13. I will be able to be there to represent WCUCC!!! This will be an exciting day!

Yesterday, I went to Grafton, which is only 45 minutes or so from Freetown, for the beginning of their new bore hole well! Was a joyful day! It is quite ironic that the people of that large town are in such need of water! Grafton is the area where there are a lot of natural springs and the water is bottled and bagged for sale for those who can afford to pay for it. Meanwhile, most of the population of the small city uses the river for much of their water needs! The water situation is not as clear in this large town where there are many wells and pumps, but most appear broken! We will dig 1 new well, repair or relace 1 well and possibly replace or repair a 2nd one! We are so fortunate to be able to partner with WIlamette Medical Team and have the knowlege and experience of John, the water engineer! I am very impressed with the many shared projects that HI has with other NGO's. Everyone wins!

The bore hole well is being dug in front of the orphanage, which has 22 or 23 orphans aged 7 to 23! The older ones all lost their parents in the war. Margaret, one of the War Widows for Christ (the group HI partners with in Grafton) runs the orphanage. The conditions are difficult to describe. There are 4 bedrooms that each sleep 5-8 people...3 to a bed on some of the double sized beds! No sheets. But all the kids are safe and have basic food. It will help there lives immensely to have safe drinking water right at their door!!!

The widows live across the road from the orphanage in the area that used to be the refugee camp. They have very small mud brick houses and a great sense of fellowship with each other. Many of them are raising grandchildren.

Time to leave the computer lab!
Jenny

Monday, January 30, 2012

Hello Friends!

It has been awhile since I have had internet to send a group email! A lot has happened in that time!

The 4 day trip to Kailahun last week was hot, dusty, exhausting and very fruitful!!!

It is so very exciting to be in the villages that have already gotten wells that we've funded or are in the process of digging them! I wish so much that all who have donated so that these people could have healthy water could share this experience!

It is also frustrating to see the many villages I've visited and know that so very many rural people in SL go without safe water. There is no possibility of boiling the water before drinking because of the deforestation problem. Wood is needed to cook the rice which is their main source of food. They can not afford to also use wood for sterilizing water.

Our 1st stop in Kailahun was Dorwa, Kambulele, Sepadu, and ???? (The 4 villages that we have been calling 'the villages in the Kissi Kama Chiefdom') They are the villages that had previously had no road. The villagers bush-whacked the brush on both sides of their well worn foot paths that connect them to each other and to the nearest village that does have a road. They have kept the brush cleared- all with machetes -- for the sole reason of allowing the HI vehicle to come to them. No other vehicles use the road. ( That's a great illustration of 'remote!") These villagers had many eyes problems, some caused by the river blindness carried by the black flies in one of their water sources. I did not see any seeping, pus-filled, swollen eyes this year! Last year most of the children were barefoot (which is a health hazard with so many parasites and pathogins that can enter the feet from the dust here--- plus the huge chance of infection when the kids had not 1st aid or good way to clean their many cuts or puncture wounds!) This year almost all of the children had flip flops!!! (The cost of a pair of flip flops is about $1, which most of the families can afford if they make it a high priority.) The children's clothes were also noticably cleaner! When I mentioned this to Stephen, the HI staff there in Kailahun, he said it is because they had been stressing to families that these things needed to be higher priorities and would bring better health!!!

What a difference a little education brings to people who are so isolated!

These are also the villages who have 1 literate man among them. He volunteers to teach the children of the 4 small villages!!! Last year they had been meeting under the shade of a small (about 12' x 14') thatch roof crowded together on too few benches. This year, next to that roof structure is a 2nd, identical one that the villagers are building! The teacher will be able to separate the beginning and advanced students and go back and forth--- and the students will be able to sit in the 100% heat with a little space between them, rather than crowded! This is another improvement in their conditions!!! This is progress. It comes in small steps, but these 4 villages are taking many steps at once and they are visible and improving their lives! The 2 wells are in the process of being hand dug. Every shovel full of dirt that is removed has to first be loosen by pick ax because the soil is hard clay. The soil that is removed can be used to make the mud bricks with which they build their houses. The well that Dorwa and Kambulele will share had to be started 3 times because they hit a layer of granite rock that they could not get through by pick ax on the 1st 2 tries! The 3rd site is moving along well! ( I have many photos and much video of joyful people gathered around the work site!!) The Sepadu well was alredy down to the water table and being drained by bucket to continue the digging because they did not hit granite on the 1st site tried! By now the digging may be finished and cement being finished!

I took video of women in these villages ponding and winnowing both rice and coffee beans. When they see the video camera, the pounding, conversation and laughter all get more animated!!!

We walked the 2 or so miles from one of the villages to the river that is the Guinea border. The 2 border guards, who sit or nap all day with nothing much to do, were quite excited to see us, visit and also get photos taken! This part of the border is apparently not guarded at night. There is a man whose legs are handcapped, who supports himself (or supplements family income) by ferrying people across the river at this point for less than 25 cents a crossing! It didn't look like he had much business!

One village we visited, Pewahon, had a very memorable water hole next to their rice swamp. The woman are well practiced at dipping a small bowl of water at a time and pouring it into their buckets. A regular part of their fluid motion is pushing away the large floating gobs of slimy algae that float on the water. As we walked across the village, we pased a small, open structure. When I peeked in, I saw a group of 4-5 small children playing 'mommy' (or house, as we call it!) So cute! As I was sitting in the vehicle with the door open before we left, 3 children who were curious to get a last peek at this white woman, put their heads together to stare in at me. When I raised my camara, they all grinned: the perfect photo! (I'm sure we'll be seeing that one a lot!) There seem to be no end to cute kids here! I guess they are all animated near me because it is such a curiosity to see a White person in the small villages!

I learned a lot on the trip, from 3 non-profit workers who stayed at the same guest house and with whom we ate breakfast each morning. They arehere for a medical aid seminar.
---An organization (try farmradio.org) is airing basic health and farming info by radio! Sometimes there is a radio in a village, that people will gather around for entertainment! It's a great and simple development idea!
---Another group goes into larger towns, gets local people to act out a play written about an issue in their own dialogue. These are then filmed, taken with a generator and shown in small towns where there is nothing to do once it gets dark. The whole village shows up for the event! The issues range from basic preventative health, organic gardening, prevention of sexual and domestic abuse, and available treatments for malaria, TB, and AIDS.
--- UNICEF is trying to provide, distribute and document innoculations to all the common childhood diseases.... in every district in SL at once!

We visited many villages and saw many water sources--- mostly water holes next to rice swamps. All of them deserve to have safe water! I also saw many fun and human things... we are all alike in so many ways!
-----In one village, there was some real creativity in toys! One little boy had a 4' reed from the swamp. He held both ends of it so that it formed a large drip shape. He pushed it ahead of himself along the ground pretending that it made the noise of a car!
In the same village, there was a little girl with a doll made from an 8" section of 3" wide bamboo cut so that each end was sealed with the cross-section part of the bamboo. out of the top, came many braids made from someone's real hair and there were 2 holes burned into it for eyes!!! She was so cute with it!
-----It is common to see 2-4 girls walking down a road, arms over each others shoulders!
-----In 1 village there were newborn twin sheep huddled with their mother in the thin strip of shade beside a house!

I had a great, full weekend (and need an evening at home this evening, for sure)!
Saturday morning we went to Lumley Beach, the beach most accessible to the locals, for Caleb to play Ultimate Fisbee with the Lighthouse guys (formerly street kids). Ultimate is an American game taught to them by a former staff person who has returned home so Caleb and Francis, one of their current SL staff, now lead it. It takes men with considerable strength, athletic skill, self confidence and earned respect to lead this, as these guys have lived rough lives and get quite competitive! It's always a great game and they seem to love it! Afterwards, Caleb went home to finish his grad-school applications while I went to the food stand where the guys get their lunch paid for by Lighthouse. I sat with them while they ate, then went home with Francis to meet Patricia, his wife, and be with their 4 month old baby again! What a joy! The poeple here are so gracious! They thanked me over and over for coming to their house, and Patricia had cooked me a SL style feast! (Much more than they could afford to eat!) I spent much of the afternoon enjoying the visit with them in their very simple and love-filled home!

When I returned to Caleb's. I got showered, rested a bit, and then ready for an elegant dinner party in the home of Sharon, the AISF Director and Principal. Her hobby is gourmet cooking!!! There were 8 of us, including the US Ambassador and his wife! It was an interesting conversation with most people there having lived in many continents!

Yesterday was all day at River Number 2 Beach, then the evening at dinner with some international women who get together Sunday evenings for dinner and prayer.

Time to sign off! No time for the clumsy spell-check!
My greetings to each of you!
Jenny

Monday, January 23, 2012

Hello Friends!
 
We had a delightful weekend. We got to River Number 2 Beach where one of Caleb's friend's family owns some property. There we can both “rough it” sleeping on the sand and a flush toilet and shower!  On the drive there, Caleb calls the “restaurant” down the beach and 3 order fish dinner to be delivered after we arrive. (Otherwise, we'd get the food very late!)  The restaurant is a kitchen with table on the beach. Instead of going down the beach to the tables, we hang out near where we will sleep and the waiter runs the food down to us! They come back for the plates the next morning and ask if we want breakfast. By the time we are ready to leave late in the afternoon, we have to call them to come get their plates and bring us a bill for all of it!  It's been done enough times so that the “relaxed” service you always get here extends all the way through a 24 hour overnight!   The dinner is grilled barracuda, caught each night by the fishermen of the village, and either chips (French fries, as this is a former British colony!) or rice.  The barracuda, which I've never had anywhere else is my favorite fish!
 
Nevin, Caleb, Dan (a Brit who one of Caleb's closest friends- who has even visited us in Westerville), Fuchsia (Dan's girlfriend, who I'm just getting to know and really like- also from England) and I made up the group.  We sat up and visited, ate, and I turned in early under the stars!  Laying in my bedding under the brilliant stars, listening to the waves is such an amazingly peaceful way to feel a bond with creation!!! That is one of my biggest thrills here in SL!
 
Saturday we swam, read, napped, walked down the beach, looked in the craft market down by the restaurant and generally relaxed! Delightful and restful!
 
Yesterday Nevin, Caleb and I went to a Craft Market on Lumley Beach (it's actually on google earth!) to shop for a few gifts. That is always a slightly overwhelming experience. There are very few people who are shopping at any point, so it is much less overwhelming than the larger, busier markets, but here the vendors watch what you've looked at to continue following you with those items, asking you to buy, long after you've left their stall! Deciding on a price takes a lot of haggling and time! That said, there are some amazing and well done batiks, country cloth woven blankets, carved cow bone, carved ebony and mahogany  (masks, animals, and a few nativity sets!)  clothing, fabric bags, and an abundance of jewelry!   Nevin bought a few gifts and I bought some beautiful cloth bags and a 5 inch section of cow leg bone carved all the way around with a giraffe under a palm tree!
 
We walked quite a distance down the beach road to the tables on the sand where we had decided to have lunch, only to find out that they weren't ready to serve food for awhile. We turned back in the heat to go back to another beach restaurant. By the time we got there, I was hotter than is healthy and the cold water and great pizza did a great deal to revive me!
 
We got a taxi home where Nevin packed, Caleb filled his extra suitcase with things to go back to the States until Caleb arrives the end of July, and I journaled.  We hung out, eventually joined by, Gabby, Caleb's mechanic, who had taken Caleb's car for the day to take the engine apart and clean the dust out of it! Mechanic's here generally do not have garages so they either work on your car in your compound or pick your car up and take it to their neighborhoods. Caleb's new compound is too small for mechanic work! It was great to see Gabby again!
 
Caleb and I then took Nevin to the dock for the water taxi to the airport. It was sad to watch the water taxi (a 20 passenger covered motor boat) pull away with Nevin! It was wonderful to have this time here with both my sons!
 
This a.m. (Monday) I stayed in Caleb's apartment and did some laundry--by hand, but not in a river!  ;)  My friend, Cami, who is the director of Word Made Flesh/ Lighthouse (that helps the street-kids off the streets and has the children's program in Kroo Bay where the kids get Christian Ed SL style and a hard boiled egg every Saturday) came over for coffee, a visit and to learn some beading techniques.  It was so great to relax with her a bit!
 
I've spent the afternoon at the school-- reading time in Caleb's classroom and hearing poem's the kids wrote!  I'm about to walk up the hill to the nearby indoor grocery store to change some money. The evening will be spent trying to catch up on my journal and packing to leave early in the morning for a 4 day trip to Kailahun with HI! I will be away from email until next Monday or Tuesday.
 
In Callahan we will visit the Kissi Kama villages where we have funded 2 hand dug wells. It will be exciting to be back there! I have not heard whether the wells are started of not.  I will also visit several other villages where HI works!  Kissi Kama is the area where the black fly that causes river blindness has affected so many villagers. It's also the 4 villages that had never been accessible by road until the villagers themselves cleared a road so that the HI vehicle could come to their villages! The people also have to keep the road from growing back with tall weeds!
 
The 4 days will consist of 2 driving days and 2 days of visiting villages. It is a 9 1/2 hour drive to Kailahun. It is all the way across the country (which is smaller than Ohio) on very bad roads.  I will appreciate all your prayers for safe driving and for energy during these days!  Thanks!
 
God Bless You,
Jenny

Friday, January 20, 2012

Hello Friends,
 
Yesterday Nevin and I traveled with HI to several villages in the Western Rural Area which is adjacent to the Area where Freetown is.
 
Our 1st and longest stop was at Morthaim to see the completed, almost 1 year old, spring fed gravity water system. You can see photos on the WCUCC website (serve area) in the power point on projects finished in 2011.  It was probably my last long climb up that mountain, a trek I made many times last year while it was under construction.  It was wonderful to see how it is being maintained! Every Saturday, Shakia, the volunteer water caretaker, empties the holding pool between the spring and the filter and scrubs it out. He regularly has to empty the large holding tank, climb inside of it and scrub and bleach it, as well! He is very proud of this role and it obvious that he does it well!  Each family in the village is supposed to pay 1000 leones (less than 25 cents) to be kept in a maintenance fund to replace scrub brushes, future broken pipe, etc. Even that amount is difficult for many of the families.
 
An added bonus in Morthaim is that the rutted, mostly dirt road the village is on will soon be torn up, widened and paved. Most of the houses will be torn down in the process. The gov't has given each family enough money to rebuild further back from the road and, in most cases, nicer houses! The process of mixing the clay mud for new bricks and making the concrete requires a lot of water! The process is very work intensive as it is. I can't imagine what it would be like to be carrying water up the mountain from the river!    I was planning on making a power point on the differ types of home construction and now I have the process on video to improve the presentation!  (Everyday Life in SL will be 1 of the 3 Wed. night programs on HI-SL in April at WCUCC.)  Nevin and I were asked over and over again to relay great thanks to all of you who have helped them have a safe water source!  Many people in Morthaim, as well as in the other villages include the people of WCUCC in their prayers and appreciate being in ours!
 
The next stop was Grafton, quite a large town, where we will begin on about Feb. 1 to dig 1 bore hole well and replace 1 dysfunctional pump. The organization that HI partners with in Grafton is the War Widows for Christ Organization. (The mosque also has a war widows group.)  We did not stay long because most of the group was at the funeral of one of their members, but get to talk to their leader.  The well will be dug in the yard of the orphanage. Many of the orphans lost their parents in the war.  The replacement pump is for the well in the school yard. Families near both sites will benefit from these water sources!
 
The great irony in us providing pure water to people in Grafton is that the large company that bottles water for people in SL who have money to buy it, is in Grafton and is called Grafton!  This area is known for it's good quality spring/mineral water. Just as in the US, the poor people do not have access to something just because it is from their area!
 
We then visited the villages of Magbanamaty and Marparea.  They had wells dug in 1995 by an NGO that didn't a good job of ceiling the walls of the wells.  The water from the wells in both villages smells and tastes bad and gets a film of iron rust oil on to in dry season.  As a result, these 2 villages and at least 1 more get their drinking water from spring water that sits in a natural mud pool.  (The rusty pump water can still be used for bathing and laundry.) 
 
I will be visiting so many villages in desperate need of pure water, I am very glad that the HI staff will make the final decision about which water needs are priority for our projects! While I am in each village, I am very sure that that village is the 1st priority!
 
Our last stop was Crossing, the site of our 1st well! It was like seeing old friends to return. If I have time in a future letter, I'll tell about the organic gardening project began by Mercy Ships that is so impressive!
 
 In a few minutes, we'll leave school for the weekend. We'll be staying overnight on the sand at River Number 2 Beach and spending the day there tomorrow! I feel in need of a relaxed day, as my energy needs a boost!
 
Sunday Nevin will leave for home. It has been wonderful to have this time with both of my sons! I will miss Nevin along on the upcoming HI trips!
 
Jenny

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Hello All!
 
Yesterday was a wonderful, 12 hour trip to the Port Loko District With Heifer International! 
Both the drive and the time in the villages are always times of observing and learning for me!
 
First the 3 hour (1 way) drive:
--We saw a flock of large bats (mid- day) that I think might be fruit bats!!! About a foot wide wingspan. We have to go to the Zoo to see them!
--As we drove along in Freetown, we heard a siren. Tomba, the driver, pulled over for 2 police motor cycles, a large black car, then an open truck with armed soldiers standing in the back. It was the President of SL's motorcade with him in the black vehicle!   I thought that this was quite an occasion, but when I told Caleb later, he said it happens all the time!
-- The SL national elections will be in on a Saturday November. The date will be announced later.  The Pres and VP run separately. It's Tomba's opinion that the Pres will be re-elected. The Pres can fired and hire his VP.  It will be interesting to see if we can get news about it.
-- The Minister of Gender (which must be like our federal Dept of Health and Human Welfare) has started a campaign again child and domestic abuse!  As in out US past, they are wide spread and education, attitude and peer pressure are the real ways to stop them- they are already illegal. There are now large signs/billboards about them, along with malaria and HIV education.
--The Gov't has bought some new buses that run not only in Freetown, but also a few rural routes. These supplement the taxis and poda-podas (extremely old 15-17 passenger vans that crowd in many more than that!)  Caleb's street, a crowded 2 lane dirt road that has cars parked on it, as well as people walking, dogs sleeping, etc, is 1 of the bus routes!
 
 
The HI village visits:
 
   The visit to Malkabeng, a community of 3 villages, where WCUCC has funded 2 bore hole wells was great!  Actually, we raise the $6000 for 1 well. That is the approximate cost of 1 hand dug well. Fortunately, 2 bore hole wells in the same location can be dug for the cost of 1 hand dug well.  The digging started yesterday!
   We visited both the villages of Konta and of Malkabeng. (The 3rd village, which is quite a distance from the others, has a well.) At each of the 2 villages we were greeted by excited singing and dancing then seated while the villagers stood around for speeches. We were then free to start and learn about the bore hole digging process, which is low-tech, muscle powered and perfect for this setting! I have the whole impressive process well documented on both video and photo!   They will be easy to share when I return. It is such a wonderful bonus to have Nevin visiting villages and taking the video this week while I focus on photos and greeting people!  For those of you not at WCUCC, many of the photos and some of the video will be available on westervillecucc.org under "Serve."
   The joy and excitement were evident as the drilling began. People hung out near-by watching all day and there was abundant muscle power to pull from!  In each village where a bore hole well is dug, the villagers provide the water, sand and gravel to mix with the cement to make the concrete. The villagers also provide meals for the workers and for John's team and wife who are camping in the village for the 2 weeks that the bore hole digging takes.
   The team is a group of 6 men who are being trained by John to become proficient in the process. (At 1st it appeared simple, but it was soon clear that there is a lot to the technique and many opportunities for problem solving!) Some of those men are on salary with Willamette Medical Team and some are being trained by the job. I think that all will be offered the opportunity to begin their own small businesses with the goal of making pure water more available more widely in SL.  It appears to me that there is no end to the need!
 
   Later we walked the 10 minutes down to the stream which has always been the water source. It was quite shallow and will dry up completely during the dry season. Beyond the stream is the very large rice swamp, which is the only source of water by mid dry season. At that point, a hole is dug for water to pool so that buckets can be dipped and filled.
There is not enough firewood to burn to sterilize the water, so it is left to settle and drinking water gently skimmed off the top of the containers. The 3 minute video, by Bruce Houtz, that is on the website shows the name of some of the variety of diseases that are water-born in this part of the world. Suffice it to say that no one who has an alternative drinks the same water where laundry is done, the village bathes, and the animals drink even if they know nothing of the disease agents they are drinking!   I cannot keep all of the disease in mind. For me, the simple thought that is most discouraging, is that almost all of the rural people here have intestinal worms that eat the nutrition that they work so hard from sun up to sun down to produce!   
 
   In 2-3 weeks, the 2 wells will be drilled and lined, the pump will be installed, the water tested and it will be dedicated! Then the people of the Konta Malkabeng community will have pure water without having to carry it up the steep hillside!
 
   After leaving Konta Malkabeng, we visited 2 other villages where HI works. I had the added joy of seeing Paul again. He is a HI Community Facilitator (A paid HI employee who lives in one of the villages and oversees about 8 villages, then reports to the Program Officers that are over the whole district. They are bright, capable villagers who speak English, can translate and do an able job of being more present in every HI village. That is essential as the HI program grows so rapidly to service more villages!) Paul created salt licks from free local materials that greatly improve the health of the livestock!  They are made of dried local plants, fish bone, salt and eggshell, which provide vitamins and minerals. This is powdered and mixed with okra slime and powdered termite mound which hole the contents together as it hardens. The softball sized salt licks which the goats and sheep love!  For his invention, Paul won an HI award and his home village was awarded $800. They are building a community drying floor (where rice and other foods are spread to dry) and are starting a community savings and loan! The Savings and Loan Fund can save a family or community when there is a bad crop year and families can borrow to have money for the next year's seed! The loans seem tiny, but they make the difference between a family getting by or not! I have also heard of families borrowing money for medical treatment if they have a hope of re-paying it later.
 
    The 2 new villages are Mambanbu and Rombombeh. In Mambanbu, we walked straight to the stream without talking to village leaders or waiting for people to notice us and assemble. Needless to say, a HI vehicle and staff with 2 white people do not sneak go unnoticed where no one is wealthy enough to have a vehicle and no one is white! By the time we got to the stream, we were leading a parade of villagers!  The site is so beautiful to come upon walking through the woods and hills, but looks quite different as a water source!  Again, there is a very large rice swamp beyond the stream, which will soon be the only water source!    There were a few women fetching water, one with a toddler on her back. When she realized it was turning into quite an occasion, she hoisted the water to her head and stayed there in the crowd to listen to the formal introductions and impromptu short speeches... then walked up the steep hill with the rest of the crowd! I can not imagine walking up and balancing along that way with either the passenger or the water, much less standing there with the weight of both beforehand! These people work hard!
    We met By, the teacher who was born in Mambambu, got to go to college then came back to his hometown to be the only teacher for all grades!  The school is impressive! The community worked together to build a 3 room school. They made the mud bricks and raised money for cement for concrete to go between the bricks and to plaster the outside of the bricks. The school has a corrugated zinc roof! There are chalk boards in 2 of the rooms, but at present, there is no chalk!  By is given a tiny salary (or food?) to encourage him to continue teaching!
  
    When we got to Robombeh, Paul told me that their water situation is even worse than the situation in Mambanbu. I didn't see how it could be until I saw it. The stream water looks the same, but the stagnant water is full of iron rust!  Again, the beautiful rice swamp will soon provide the only water. Here there is a split log bridge over the stream. The women and children squat on the bridge to dip their containers without stepping in the water to stir it up!    Since it was late afternoon by the time we got there, we found ourselves in the mix of many women and children who came to draw water! The photo ops were abundant!
    Robombeh had a mud school house that was in bad shape,,, but it's adjoining soccer field had great bamboo goals!
 
   Neither of these 2 villages have had any NGO help since the war until HI began to work with them!
  All of the villages we provide wells for have gone through the HI training process, received the 1st livestock and had at least 1 cycle of "passing on the gift" of the 1st offspring to the next cycle of recipients.
 
++++++++++++++
 
It is almost the end of the school day. We will soon be leaving for Tacugama, the Chimpanzee Preserve. It is a fun trip!
 
God Bless You and again, thank you for the greetings that keep me linked to all of you!
Jenny

Monday, January 16, 2012

Hello Friends!
 
I just finished reading your delightful replies to my last group email. Thank you!
YES! I am appropriately thankful to not be in the Ohio weather you all described :)
Nevin is our oldest son who was able to come for his 2nd trip to see Caleb! Yes it's wonderful to be here with both of my sons. It's a unique opportunity!
 
The weekend was packed and wonderful! To make it even better, I have started to wake up somewhat rested!!!
 
Sat. AM Caleb and I joined the Lighthouse boys and some of their staff on Lumley beach (the one that is most accessible to the locals on this side of town) for their regular Sat AM ultimate frisbee game which Caleb helps lead. As you can imagine, with the players all former street kids, it is not a low key game. I stay under a tree with the spectators to enjoy visiting with the staff and subs!  It was great to see so many old Lighthouse friends!
The best was seeing Joseph, who I have been close to since my first days here. Caleb tutored him 2x a week for over 2 years and between my visits Joseph and I emailed through Caleb for most of Caleb's time here! He calls me Mommy Jenny and has a permanent spot in my heart! He also has had some difficult periods of regression to old street ways and I have appreciated the prayers of many of you for his welfare and future. At this point, he has been doing well for quite awhile. Current prayers can be that he show up regularly for the last few months of his carpentry internship and graduate from that program!  It was a joyful reunion with him!!!
 
We picked up Nevin and joined a group of ex-pats for a hike to Baptist Falls. SL has some stunning natural beauty!  The hike was a challenge in the sun at mid-day (we are 6 degrees N of the equator) and some the terrain was quite tough with gravel hillsides and stepping from one small boulder  to another in the stream, but the sight of the falls made it all more than worth the work!!! Picnic lunch and swimming in the pools below the falls were delightful!   (For those of you aware of my rehab on an ankle injury, it could not have had a tougher workout and it fared quite well! What a relief!)
 
Sunday I spent the day following someone's advice.... getting the sand beneath my feet!  We spent the whole day at River Number 2 Beach with a group of ex-pats.  One of Caleb's friends owns a spot on this beautiful beach and has a gather every Sunday! We will probably be there often during my trip. The plan for next Friday-Saturday is a camp-out on the sand there!    One of the many joys of this beach is that we can walk down the beach to the river when the tide is going out and ride the river on our backs on a natural 'lazy river!!!"  ( There are even sand bars that safely stop you from going out into the ocean on the current!)  An added plus to Sundays at River No. 2 is that the gracious family that owns the spot where we go, brings the best 'buffet' of international food that I've ever had!!!
 
The MLK program for AISF is in an hour or so. The kids have had their last practice and everyone is anticipating the show!
 
After school, Nevin and I will be picked up by the Heifer International driver to go to the office to see Rashid, the HI SL director. It will be a good meeting hearing how the water projects are progressing and finalizing some plans! Rashid has already asked me to relay his greetings to all his friends at WCUCC!
 
Tomorrow we will travel Konta Malkabeng, where 2 bore hole wells that we funded will be started simultaneously in 2 different parts of that 3 village community!!!  We raised funds for 1 well in Konta, but since the bore hole method of digging is faster and less expensive that the hand digging method, John (the water engineer who does the bore hole wells) suggested 2 wells to service this wide spread community!  We will be working with John (Willamette Medical Team- WMT) as often as possible. Part of the joy of that is that as we raise money for 1 project, it will sometimes fund 2 new wells or a new well and replacements or repairs of broken wells!!!  So many more people will have access to safe water this way!
 
I will write again on Wed. or Friday.
 
Peace!
Jenny

Friday, January 13, 2012

Hello Friends!
 
Nevin and I have spent our 1st 2 days at AISF, mostly in Caleb's classroom. That was a conscious decision to help us have a restful start, getting over the initial jetlag and exhaustion. The School seems like a bit on an oasis at times... cool and clean!
 
I've loved seeing the kids and teachers that I've known for a few years and meeting the new ones.
I sat outside under a mango tree this afternoon, reading and watching the large (foot long) colorful lizards!! I also love watching the birds, trying to guess what N. Amer. birds they are related to! (Small things are amusing and time seems very different... in this culture in general and through the lessening fog of my jetlag and lack of sleep! I slept 5 hours from waking Wed am in Ohio to going to bed Thurs pm plus 5 hours time change!)
 
We settled in and had a good friend over to dinner last evening. I'll stay in this evening to rest up while Caleb and Nevin go out for the evening!
 
We have a lot of plans for the weekend, but so far I'm happy with my balance in the slow start!(I'm sorry it's boring to report on!) 
 
We have plans for a full weekend-- a large group hike to Baptism Falls, ultimate frisbee on the city beach with the Lighthouse boys, where I hope to see Joseph, then a full day Sunday at River number 2 beach!  Mon we will be at AISF for the Martin Luther King day program.   Tues and Thurs will both be 1-day trips to villages with Heifer International. We'll  get in a trip to Tacugama, the Chimpanzee preserve and an overnight on my favorite beach before Nevin leaves on Sunday Jan. 22, so the pace will pick up significantly-
 
I hope to write more on Monday.
 
Thank you for the many notes!
 
Jenny

Monday, January 9, 2012  

Hello Friends!
 
This is my 1st group email from my 2012 trip to Sierra Leone, West Africa. If you are on this list and do not want to receive periodic letters from now through February, please email Kathy at kmvhd@yahoo.com and ask to be removed from the list.
 
I'm writing this from home, but leave tomorrow morning on the 36+ hour trip. I'd love prayers for a smooth trip for me and Nevin as we have only a 3 hour layover in Heathrow-London and if we arrive late we (or our suit cases) will probably not make the connection. The next flight into Freetown, SL is 2 days later.
 
A main reason for this letter is to give some background info so that I won't have to do that so much in the future letters. (Some of you have been getting these letters since my 1st trip in Jan 2009 and some are new with this one.)
 
-- I have limited and sometimes unpredictable ends to computer access at Caleb's school. This will be the only time I beg forgiveness for mis-spellings (erratic or absent spell check and poor typing skills) and sometimes awkward sentences, but please keep that in mind when necessary!
 
-- AISF, American International School of Freetown, is the school where Caleb, my son, teaches 5th grade. This is his 4th year at the AISF teaching 2nd,3rd,4th &/or 5th grade.
AISF is the best school in SL. Most of the students at AISF are the children of NGO (non-profit) workers and come from various countries around the world. (At the time of my 1st visit there were more counties represented than there were students in Caleb's class because many of the kids have parents from 2 different counties!)There are several other private schools in Freetown that are much better than the public schools.
The public schools are in deplorable condition, with out books, paper, etc. All the ones I've seen have a 'chalk board' (a black painted area of wall or wood) and chalk. The teacher lectures and the young students sing back what has been said to memorize it. In high School the teacher writes on the board and students copy the lesson into a paper book similar to our ole 'blue books' then memorize it.  The public school teachers are college graduates that have come through that system. (Caleb, who has interviewed some of them to be assistants at AISF says that there is no abstract thinking or problem solving ability.) That said, it is a federal law that children attend school. There are also very low school fees that many families can not pay. At least in the villages where I have asked, the children whose families can not pay fees or provide the required uniforms 'owe' the money and the children are mostly in school! 
 
-- Freetown is the capital of SL and is the only very large city. A high percentage of the SL population lives there.
 
-- SL had a horrific civil war, which ended about 14 years ago (the book Boy Soldier and the movie Blood Diamonds).  The effects of the war can still be seen everywhere, but progress is being made. A great book that is not too grizzly is A Princess Found, by Sarah Culberson and Tracy Trivas.
 
-- SL is between 2/3 and 3/4 the size of Ohio.
 
-- Our church, WCUCC (Westerville Community UCC) raises money to fund Water Projects through Heifer International (HI) in villages where HI is providing training and livestock (goats of sheep, which in the tropics, have hair instead of wool and look very much like goats!) As or Dec 31, 2011, we have provided water in 8 communities (10 wells and 1 new pump!) Some of these villages had wells that run dry by the end of the dry season and some had never had any source of pure water! Drinking surface water from rivers or in some cases, rice paddy swamps, causes many. many diseases. Most, if not all, of the people in the rural villages have internal parasites often ingested in the contaminated water. It is a joy to work with the HI staff in providing this basic need for whole villages! A video and 2 Power Points are on the WCUCC website, www.westervillecucc.org. Click on 'Serve' and scroll to the bottom! There will be more Power Points in the future.
 
-- Much of my time in SL is spent traveling to villages with the excellent HI staff. This is such a privilege! It is a unique opportunity. Much of what I write about will be the work with HI.
 
-- I also work with an NGO called Word Made Flesh (an American non-profit) that runs 2 programs in SL. The 1st is Lighthouse, which mentors about 15-20 homeless teens. The are provided with 1 meal a day, school fees or a apprenticeship to learn a trade, Christian education and moral character development, group and 1 on1 relationships and helped to find a place to live.   The 2nd program is for young kids in the Kroo Bay slum, which I've been told is the largest and worst slum in the world, but I doubt that's documented! It is believable! Walking through it is unbelievable. Some of the children are given school fees. About 300 kids from 2 years to per-adolescence come to a neighborhood church for gospel singing, a Bible story acted out, and 'responsive yelling' (my term-similar to a responsive reading for non-readers!) The kids are then given 1 hard boiled egg each which may be their only protein for the week! Any that have scrapes or injuries are also given 1st aid.
 
-- A personal goal for me this year is to balance my "work" with relaxation and fun with Caleb! Last year, my time was too heavily work. I will also be writing about time on the beautiful beaches for SL! Dinners out and time with Caleb's friends, internationals from all over, will also be great fun! After my 3 previous trips, I have many friends that I am looking forward to spending time with, as well!
 
-- I apologize for the length of this email. Subsequent ones will be shorter! Having this background communicated will help with that!
 
-- I love to receive emails while I'm in SL. They help me feel in touch with life here. I will not be able to answer individual emails or open attachments because the connection I can get there is slower than our old dial-up, but I'll try to address common interest questions in the group emails! 

I especially appreciate knowing that many of you are holding me in your prayers.
 
God Bless You
Jenny