Days 6 & 7 - Sept 30/Oct 1

First and foremost, happy birthday to one of the best people in the whole wide world, my dear friend Michele. Wish I was there!

Day 6 was supposed to be spent painting the eye clinic all day. Instead we woke up to rain. So, we had to spend the day working on the ship. Friday was a hard day for all of us. We were all very tired and lacking in our usual energy and enthusiasm. The long days and lack of sleep were finally catching up tom us all.

Mom, Betty, and Peggy worked in the kitchen all day, while Morgan and I helped out at the ship shop. Dr. Stuart observed the shunt surgery and then he had to leave. We were all very sad to see him go but understood that his patients in Texas need him back home. Dr. Stuart - we miss you! 

Morgan and I quickly discovered how important the ship shop is to the crew living on board and how much work it is to keep it stocked. All the necessities like toilet paper, shampoo, toothpaste, etc., are purchased at the shop. In addition, the crew can buy creature comforts like cake mix (they have a crew kitchen to bake in), candy, chips, etc. It is a vital part of the ship and Morgan and I spent several long, hot hours lugging boxes back and forth and unloading cargo. But we didn't mind. Supporting the Mercy Ships crew is a vital part of their existence.

That afternoon Morgan and I helped out central supply. At first we thought we had scored a really easy gig as he had us separate a zillion squares of gauze into small bags of 50. That kept us busy for about 30 minutes. After that, we had to move more boxes. Lots of them. Case after case of Lactated Ringer's and a gross (per the supply guy) protein juice. Cyle (the supply guy) told me I had to make sure and stack them where they wouldn't move. As the ship rocks, they can't have stacks falling down. You have to stack them all jenga-like in alternating conformations so the stack is more stable. The Lactated Ringer's was easy enough to figure out; however, I had a lot more trouble with the protein juice. Anyone that knows me knows that spatial relations are not my specialty. I never could figure out tetris. I stacked them one way and they wobbled. So, I tore them down. I stacked them another way and they still wobbled. I tore them down again. Poor Morgan was just bringing in box after box and I was in the cargo container sweating profusely, determined to figure it out. She couldn't believe I would build a three foot high stack of 20 boxes only to tear it down. Finally, on the third time, I solved protein juice tetris. That stack won't move even if a typhoon comes ashore. Cyle is not a real talkative, flowery language kind of guy, but I am pretty sure I saw a glimmer of approval when I insisted he try and knock my stack down. Take that protein juice!

Staying on the ship all day is actually harder than getting out amongst the people. You get a little stir crazy being inside all day; plus there is a certain degree of guilt being inside when you know what is right outside. Michael, our German dentist, said it best tonight. Inside the ship is America. Outside is Africa. Inside you have hot showers, TV, Internet, phone, Starbucks (the only one in West Africa I am told), buffet meals, etc. You really can very easily forget where you are when inside. I know the escape is important for the long-term people but since we are here for such a short time, I think by the end of the day we all wished would could have been at the eye clinic. However since that wasn't possible, we were happy to do our part in supporting the crew. 

And that brings us to today...

We got to sleep in this morning and we all needed it. Instead of being up at 5:30, I got up about 7:50. It was wonderful. 

We started the day at the craft market buying our African sussies (my mom's homemade word for souvenirs - great word, you all need to use it - singular = sussy). Dulce taught us the act of haggling with the locals and we all were pretty good at it. We bought a lot of jewelry, carved statues, purses, dresses, and scarves. It was a lot of fun. We then ate lunch at a restaurant in town (our first time to do that), the Crown Bakery. They served very 'western' type food - hamburgers, pizza, wraps, etc. Mom and I split a pizza as Dulce said it was the best in town. It was very good.

After lunch, Dulce took us for a drive in the mountains. While down in Freetown you can see all of these homes in the mountains, but can't tell much about them. Apparently this is where the other part of Freetown lives. Some of the homes were modest and some were flat out mansions. So different from the Freetown we have been in this past week. We got to see the American Embassy compound (it is quite large) and some amazing views of Freetown from high up. We stopped and took pictures and from high in the mountains, the city is quite beautiful. It looks like any other city - amazing how perspective changes everything.

Then came the hard part of the day. A visit to Kroo Bay slum. We joined the team from Word Made Flesh who run an after school program for the younger ones, a sponsorship program/schooling for the older kids, a discipleship program, and a 'The Good News Club' on Saturdays which is a feeding/Saturday only VBS for the kids of Kroo Bay. The Good News Club is what we helped with. There are about 3,000 kids that live there, amongst the 11,000 total population of the slum (at last estimate).

While walking to the church, the kids were shouting, "A-lay, A-lay" at us. We weren't sure why or what it meant. Later Dulce told us it is because they are trying to say, "hallelujah, hallelujah." Because of this, they have nicknamed them the "A-lay, A-lay Club." :) Also,  while walking, the kids saw Dan, who they refer to as, 'Rasta Jesus.' He is a white man with a beard and some serious dreads. The kids adore him and once they saw him, they all started flocking to the group while we were walking. I was immediately joined by several kids who wanted to hold my hands. I ran out of hands, so more kids clung to my arms. They were the sweetest, most beautiful children. I was in heaven being surrounded by them. When we arrived at the church, they all started hugging me (and all of the team), which set off a hugging frenzy. I could have stayed there forever letting them all run up to hug me. 

We left the kids outside while we went in to get our instructions for the church service. Basically they needed us to help keep the kids from talking, hitting, sleeping (the usual kid stuff) during the service. Then we were to feed them, pray for them, and send them on their way. Any that needed wound care, we were to send up front (several had sores on their feet or hands and they treat those minor wounds each Saturday). Easy enough, right?

The kids started coming in and they sat them in order or age. Little ones (around 3 or 4) up front, 5 - 6 year olds behind them, and so on. I was watching a couple of the 5 - 8 year old rows. While waiting for all the kids to come in, two little girls kept rubbing my arm and then sniffing their hands. I couldn't figure out why they were doing that because I was drenched with sweat at that point and I am pretty sure I smelled kinda funky. I asked the Word Made Flesh volunteer what they were doing and she asked me if I had lotion on. I told her I had hand sanitizer on and she picked up my arm and sniffed it and said, "yep, that's it - they are rubbing it on their hands so they can smell it." Apparently they are rarely around any kind of lotion or perfume, so when they are exposed to it, they love to smell it. She told me about a time they gave some kids sunscreen and they put it all over their faces without rubbing it in because it smelled good. She said they were running around with these white faces. :)

The service started (all was in Creole) and the leader Noah lectured the kids for about 30 minutes (maybe longer) about sitting still, not talking, not sleeping, etc., and if they did, they would be sent home ('ouse' as he pronounced it in Creole). Initially I thought that he was asking an awful lot of very small children to sit still and be good for that long and we had not even started yet. However, Dulce later explained that Noah's lecture is the only discipline they receive all week. After the 'talking to', Joseph, another one of the volunteers, started singing with the kids. It was difficult to understand the words, but very simple to understand the enthusiasm. They loved the singing and really got into the standing, clapping, shouting, and turning around. You couldn't help but smile and laugh with them.

The church was very hot and all of us were drenched in sweat. I marveled that none of the children appeared hot, despite a packed church with 300 kids, no a/c, and no breeze. Talk about acclimation! We spent the next hour quieting kids, removing hands from the backs of the pews, sitting them down, turning them around, and stopping all of the universal kid things kids do when forced to sit still and quiet for over an hour. It is obvious the kids love going there and love Dan and Noah. They learned about Joseph and his coat of many colors yesterday.

After the service was over, we fed the kids a product called 'Mana.' It is basically peanut butter with milk and vitamins in a paste form. It is very sweet. The product was developed for severely malnourished people. The kids had to eat half before they were allowed to leave. If we didn't make them do this, many of them would take it home and the siblings and/or parents would eat it and that would defeat the purpose of the program. Many were having a hard time eating it because it was so very sweet and they had no water. I had a couple try and cheat and leave with a glob in their mouths (probably to spit out as soon as they left the church) so I started making them open their mouths before they left. 

The kids were all adorable and they were the best part of the day. Frankly, they have been the best part of the trip. I so enjoyed my couple of hours with them at Kroo Bay.
The children are the only part of Kroo Bay I wish to blog about. Anything more feels disrespectful to the people of Kroo Bay and it was also an experience I am not comfortable sharing in this kind of forum. I am not even sure I have really processed everything I saw today but I can tell you the memories will be with me forever. 

With that being said, I would encourage all of you reading this to learn more about Word Made Flesh and the amazing things they are doing to support the children of Kroo Bay. They despretly need volunteers and financial support and anything you guys can do to help them would be awesome. Check out www.wordmadeflesh.org for more info. And special props to the Word Made Flesh Sierra Leone team - Noah, Dan, Jonathan, Brandon, Analisa, and Kristen! You guys are amazing! 

In addition, the mana we served the kids was donated to Mercy Ships to give to Kroo Bay by a member of Dulce's first Mercy Team. She took that team to Kroo Bay as well and the man was so moved by his experience there, that he contacted the company that makes the mana and donated 14 pallets to the kids of Kroo Bay and some for Mercy Ships. All from his own money. That is a rock star in my book!!

We ended the evening by going to one of Dulce's favorite restaurants - a Senegalese place. We were going to eat there but there were only 4 tables inside and they were all full. It was also extremely hot inside as they have no a/c. Being that we were all covered in sweat, mud, and mana, we really didn't want to do hot anymore that day. We decided to place our order to-go, which turned out to be a good plan as the power went out right as the order came out. That is typical in Freetown - electricity comes and goes on a regular basis. We took our food back to the ship and the chicken and chips were delicious. They were served with a traditional african hot sauce that was really spicy but so good!

After that, it was home to the hostel for cold showers and bed. I slept ok except Bark and his buddies had a barking party sometime in the night that woke me up, but I went right back to sleep. I am starting to get used to the nighttime noises. Even the traffic isn't freaking me out as bad as it did (you all can probably tell since I haven't mentioned it in a few days). Keith told me what seemed so shocking at first would soon feel not so foreign. He is right. Now I just jump right under the mosquito netting and go to bed (after checking the sheets for critters of course). 

Sunday it is all day at The Hope Center, which houses the pre and post-op patients and their caregivers. Can't wait!