Day 8 - Oct 2

We left for The Hope Center at our usual 6:30 time. Since it was Sunday and since we had church twice today, we all decided today would be the day we wore our skirts and dresses. And let me tell you, we looked super nice! Especially after wearing painting clothes all week. Dressing up was a nice change and we were all excited about seeing The Hope Center.

The Hope Center is where Mercy Ships initially did all the screenings for the surgical patients, plus house the pre and post-op patients. I am not sure if I have mentioned that Mercy Africa sets sail for Togo in December, so their time in Sierra Leone is quickly coming to a close. Because of this, they are already completely full for surgeries until they leave; therefore, The Hope Center only has the patients now. No more screenings.

As expected, the kids were super excited to see us. One in particular, Omara, was especially spunky and immediately made friends with all of us. She is on crutches for a bum foot but gets around extremely well. However, with new people she uses her charm to get you to hold her and carry her everywhere. That trick worked for the first few hours. 

Mom immediately befriended a toddler, Alpha. He was pretty withdrawn when we first met him and just stared at us. Most African kids are pretty shy. They are also extremely well-behaved. Mom took a particular liking to him and it wasn't long before she had him mimicking her motions and engaging her a bit. When she saw him a few hours later, he smiled at her. Another time he motioned for her to pick him up. That was the best part of Mom's day.

About an hour after we arrived, they had a church service with the residents. It was in English and translated to Creole. The man that gave the sermon is a food service worker on the ship, originally from Cameroon. He was a very good speaker and Mercy Ships is very good about not only physically healing these people, but also reaching them on a spiritual level. Preaching Christianity in a Muslim dominant society is not very easy, but Mercy Ships does an excellent job. The residents were quite lively and it reminds me of the predominately black churches in the states - lots of singing and clapping and that very contagious environment where you get right into with them. The kids especially love to sing and clap. Most of them slept during the sermon part, as young kids typically do. It was really hot in there which I know doesn't help with keeping them awake. At the end, they made a special point of welcoming the strangers and the white people. None of us were the least bit offended but the culture difference in that statement was what caught my attention. Can you imagine if a predominately white church in the states made a point of welcoming the black people? I really like that race isn't an issue here. Although they frequently point out we are white, they are not being racist or negative about it. It is just a fact to them and no one tip-toes around it like they do in the states. They are black, we are white. No one cares. It's nice. Ok, I will get off my soapbox now...

After church it was back to playing with the kids. I showed them how to stack dominoes where when you push one, the subsequent ones fall down. They really liked that. We also played jenga (now my specialty thanks to my time in central supply); however, they weren't the best at taking turns. It was like 5 different little hands all pulling pieces at once. It didn't take long to topple when you play that way. Peggy played UNO with the moms - even the adults want to "play" when new people show up. The men were typical men in that they sat together in their corner talking. We saw a lot of the women doing laundry throughout the day (they scrub everything by hand and hang dry it) and one mom did it all with a baby on her back. 

Most of the kids were there for a variety of ailments. Some were siblings of the ones receiving treatment but most were injured in some way. Burns, facial tumors or trauma, amputations. Despite all of this, none of it slowed them down or made them any different from any other kid. Especially Osman. What an amazing kid. He only has one leg and he was treated by Mercy Ships because his original amputation was badly infected. He is the happiest kid and quite the soccer (or football as they call it) player. Seriously. He is great at playing with the kids despite his impairment. He also sings amazingly well and knows a bunch of old school church songs as well as contemporary Christian songs. I have video to post of him as soon as I can. He is such a delight and inspiration to be around and truly is living proof to anyone with a disability that disabilities don't define people. 

My little shadow all day was a little boy with some facial trauma - in fact he is Alpha's older brother. I am not sure what was wrong with him, but whatever it was it didn't seem to bother him. He didn't speak much English so we just played and read and he sat in my lap a lot. He was content to just be held and receive attention. They were all so sweet. The real fun came when the cameras came out. They were immediately, "snap me, snap me!!" They loved having their picture taken. The adults wanted theirs taken as much as the kids however they all asked that I send them the picture. Since I promised them all I would send them their pictures, I will have to mail them to Dulce when I return.  One little boy was especially interested in shooting video with my camera so I let him do that until the batteries ran out. I then put the video on the iPad and they loved seeing and hearing themselves on the "computer." 

For lunch we ate with The Hope Center residents. They have locals do the cooking so their diet doesn't variate from what they are accustomed to eating. Lunch was a whole fish (scales, head, eyes and all) deep fried, rice, and ground nut soup (pronounced graw-nut all run together). The soup was very spicy. I could not eat the fish with the eyes and head and scales still on. I know I am supposed to branch out and eat local food, but I had to draw the line at eating something that still had a face. Mom was a better sport than me and at least attempted to eat the fish but couldn't do it after the first attempt. She really enjoyed the soup but it didn't set well with her later. She feels better today.

Morgan had her hair braided like the locals while at The Hope Center. Dulce knows a lady that owns a salon in town and had her come out to braid her hair. They have to add a bunch of fake hair to make the zillion tiny braids and the process was fascinating. It took about 3 hours and I have never seen someone braid so fast. It was amazing. She could braid from scalp to bottom (about 12 inches) in about 10 seconds. When the zillion braids are in, they section the hair into three large braids and soak them in boiling hot water. This seals the ends and curls the ends. I will make sure to send pictures. The lady that was braiding her hair has probably been braiding since she was a small child as we frequently see the little girls braiding hair. In fact, when we first arrived, the little girls kept braiding my and mom's hair. 

After lunch we left The Hope Center around 2:00 and went back and spent the afternoon on the ship. We were all extremely hot and tired. It was nice having some down time. Dinner starts at 5:00 around here so by the time we took showers, it was almost time for dinner. Have I mentioned the showers on the ship? 1 minute to rinse, then turn the water off. Soap head to toe. One minute to rinse again and then you are done. 2 minutes total for water. We don't care though - we are just happy to have hot water.

After dinner we had church for an hour and then back to The Hope Center for one more hour. Morgan and I arm wrestled with three of the boys including Osman. We truly put all our strength into it and did not let them win and they still won. The 10 year old boys here are really strong! They did cheat a bit by putting their body weight into it, but they are still really strong. They start very early with the manual labor so I am sure they have been lifting since they were old enough to walk. We also had them guess our ages. Clearly judging the ages of white women is not easy for them as they guessed I was 20. :) That made my day (for those of you that don't know, I am 36). What made me really sad was when I asked the three boys when their birthdays were, none of them knew. They had no idea what month or day. Many of the children here have no idea how old they are. Apparently birthdays are not really celebrated around here.

After The Hope Center, is was home to the hostel. I forgot to mention that the other night as we were headed to the hostel, we saw the 'Secret Society' also known as the 'Devil's Society.' They are the voodoo people of SL and are known to be very evil. They have a person dressed up in costume and mask and the others dance around them with sticks and such. I couldn't photograph it as they will chase you down for your camera and take it. They do not wish to be photographed. They were very animated and seemed to be terrorizing the others by getting in their faces and waiving their sticks. It was super creepy.

I will end this on a happy note by saying it was awesome seeing The Hope Center and Mercy Ships is doing an amazing thing for these people, especially the children. I am super happy to be a tiny part of it. :)

Sorry - I toggled between past and present tense as I wrote this over 2 days. Good thing I am not a professional writer!