This past Tuesday was another one of those days that was filled with great fellowship and community. We had another family-style breakfast-for-dinner. Home fries with sausage, egg bake, French toast, warm apple pie, and limeade filled our stomaches as we sat together in the cafe. Later in the evening, some of us got together for a a game of Horses (The Really Nasty Horse Racing Game), with two special guests, Mae and Tom. Mae is the wife of our managing director, Donovan. Donovan was away on business in the states, so we invited Mae to join us; she was a cheerful addition to our group and we had fun writing down silly things she said and tallying how many times she said "shush!" Our final count was 12. Our other guest was Tom, a former photographer on the ship. When he left the ship in the spring, he spent a few months in the Democratic Republic of the Congo photographing leprosy settlements before returning to do more photography work for NGOs in Freetown. It was his last night on the continent before leaving for the U.K. and his next adventures. His passion is leprosy and he will be working on a project for American Leprosy Missions as he travels and photographs leprosy camps world wide. He is a talented and gifted photographer--I encourage you to check out his website at www.tom-bradley.com.
Here is a photo at the end of our game where I came in second place (and my personal best) with 800,000 pounds! Mae whooped us all with over 2 million pounds. You can tell how some of the other fared by their facial expressions.
Left to right: Alex, Mae (seated), Tom, myself, David, and Jay
DAY 16: Document a Life
This past Thursday was the last day of surgery for the 2011 Sierra Leone outreach. The day was very laid back--it kind of felt like the last day of school. That afternoon, my friend Rob came and asked if I wanted to go with him to Auntie Fatu's farm. Since we were finishing up early in the office, I was allowed to leave early, so I went and changed out of my scrubs.
Fatu Williams is one of the ward day volunteers on the ship. A native Sierra Leonean, I would put her in the same category as my friend Kit; she has such a joyful spirit, a servant's heart (she often clears our plates at dinner), and can always put a smile on your face. Auntie Fatu had invited Rob to visit her farm outside of the city, so Thursday afternoon, we walked out the port gate, met her husband, and hopped in their SUV. (Note: Auntie/Uncle is a common term in Krio for a woman or man who is older than you/a sign of respect.) To no one's surprise, the traffic was thick as we headed out of the city. Being the person she is, Auntie Fatu even bought us water and cookies on the way out and refused any answer other than gracious acceptance. Naturally, I fell asleep in the car and didn't wake up until we were almost to our destination, so I missed some of the explanation behind the farms, but not all of it! As we pulled off the main road in Waterloo (about an hour outside of Freetown), we headed into small villages with names like Number Four, Fu Fu Water, and Joe Town.
Several years ago, Fatu's husband became involved in the Alpha Course, an outreach ministry which seeks to explore the basics of the Christian faith. You can read more about it HERE. Since then, Fatu and her husband have become the Alpha leaders in the Freetown area. Because of this and their connections with other organizations, they have been blessed with three large tracts of land which they currently operate as farms. Her husband explained that rather than having the needy people near the farms steal from the them, why not employ them to operate the farms themselves. The Williams' run the farms as cooperatives, where several villagers can apply for a plot of land to farm together. Crops include cucumbers, potatoes, sweet potatoes, peppers, rice, cassava, and eggplants (called "garden egg"). Palm trees are cultivated, as well, to produce palm oil, the a staple in the Sierra Leonean diet. They also hope to begin a poultry initiative in the near future. Since the rainy season has officially concluded, the Williams' have been busy with the harvest. Fatu repeatedly exclaimed "I love gardening! I just love agriculture!"
Part of one of the farms.
Rob and I harvesting cucumbers.
It took only a few minutes to fill up with this basket with cucumbers. The crops were very plentiful.
Rice growing on the edge of a farm.
After visiting the three farms and meeting several of their partners, the Williams informed that the large basket of cucumbers, and another one of eggplants was ours to take back to the ship! Astounded by their kindness, we could only say thank you and admire their generosity.
DAY 17: Document Something you Made
Add another skill to my resume--bookbinding. A project I've been working on the past few weeks, I was tasked with with making the new surgery registers and schedule book for the 2012 Togo outreach. Each of our six operating rooms gets a surgery register, which is where we record any and all surgeries that happen in that particular room. We record information like patient name, start and finish times, surgeons, nurses, implants, etc. Additionally, we have this big scheduling book where we hand-record all of the scheduled operations so that we can have something to compare to the computer database. Besides just assembling the books, I also got to design the covers using photos taken from this year's outreach.
I love your design of the OR registers. Fantastic!!
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