They are still working with little interent, so here is what I have received - I know she has tried to send 2 more days of info and some pictures, but unfortunately they haven't come through. I'll post as emails come through! Sorry if some of the info gets a little out of order.
Wednesday, July 6
Packed up from Freetown guest house this morning to go “up country”. Always prayer before we do anything, often prayers at junctures in between, and thanksgiving prayers when we return safely. Rest of the team went with Matthew and our driver Samuel; we wait for Nelson and pick up Michaella. Maybe 1 ½ hours in, past Waterloo, all of a sudden there is a very loud clanking noise. Dick and Nelson look things over, think it may be Left front wheel. We drive slowly up the hill to an abandoned gas station. There are villagers, hens, rooster and children playing. Children point and shout in their language, “white man, white man”. A young man on motorbike appears and takes Nelson 1 mile up the road to get a mechanic. How these Sierra Leonians take such good care of each other! All three return on the motorbike, the third young man in green flip-flops bearing a wrench and other tools. Nelson takes him for a ride to hear the sound, and they take off the wheel. Around us the children are colorfully dressed and dancing to music, celebrating the end of Ramadan. We ladies find some shade to sit down. They work, put wheel back on, listen, and we all get into the car as Nelson drives very slowly, the two young men walking beside listening all around. They determine it is actually the right rear. We drive to Masiaka about 2 mph. This is a Muslim village. They find an old piece of something wrapped around, that has broken. Someone has tried to fix it before. They keep trying different items to wrap it, but keeps breaking. Nelson has already called his own mechanic to come from the city. I think he gave those young men some money; now we wait.
We walk to a gas station/market. All around people are selling things to eat. Pineapple, freshly roasted corn, nuts… mostly they carry them on their heads. Michaella buys a couple ears of corn, after checking several to see which she liked. I ask if there might be any boiled peanuts around, and almost immediately she calls to a young girl across the highway with a bowl of peanuts on her head. The girl crosses over (cars are passing about 50 kilometers/hr) and sells us some. It will be a while for the mechanic to come; we sit in the car in the blistering sun about 30 minutes until Nelson finds a shady place to park the car. It begins to pour and Nelson must go after Michaella with an umbrella, who has gone off to stretch her legs. An hour or so later the men arrive with another car, and we switch cars. There are some very clever rain shields above each window to keep rain out while windows are down, as there is no A/C. Much honking of horns as we come to villages, for people (and animals) to get out of the way. People need to walk along the road, so they walk on the shoulder as the cars speed by. Sometimes there are clothes spread out to dry in the sun along the side of the road, sometimes there are sheets with drying rice. Late in the afternoon we pull into the parking lot of the Njala University dorms where we will stay. The rest of the team tells us that we must leave immediately to go see the Paramount Chief. We are tired, hot, & dusty but she (Chief is a woman) has been waiting for us all afternoon, so we leave.
The road is tremendously awful. Every 6-10’ or so huge lakes of water fill massive craters in the red clay. The 4-wheel drive vehicles can go about 5 mph up, down, and around. Matthew and Samuel are extremely adept at this type of driving. Matthew attacks it with humor and Samuel with lively radio music. It’s sort of like trying to drive on the surface of the moon, only fill all those holes with water. We arrive at the chief’s home, little children waving, one darling little girl comes right up and gives me a hug! Inside we are greeted by several women. Not sure “who’s who in the zoo” here, we try to show deference and respect & introduce ourselves, but apparently these are not the chief, just the welcoming committee. Upstairs, David takes us to meet Katamata (sp?), who is David’s niece. Dressed in beautiful yellow traditional outfit with matching headdress, she is extremely gracious. We introduce ourselves and tell what we plan to do in the village. [Technically we’re supposed to be asking her permission to be in one of her villages.] We talk with her and pray for her. She has a big job, 200 villages in her care. The government wants her to feed all the school children each day but she is not sure how to accomplish that. She is a Muslim because the man she married was a Muslim (now deceased), but David tells us she was raised in a Christian home. I have brought a lovely colorful scarf for her in a pretty bag, which David has me present to her. She comes downstairs on the front porch to wave goodbye to us; that same little girl comes to give more hugs. One little boy chases after us running and waving. I was warned several times to be careful about taking pictures of the Muslims, but the little children seem to want us to take their picture.
Back on the mega-pothole road, and the “hotel” holds dinner for us: roasted chicken, couscous and slices of deep fried potato. A woman comes to the tables with slices of fresh cucumber. It’s nearly 8:30 but we cannot shower until the water heats up – our first shower since we have been in S.L.! [In Freetown, we have running cold water, and they bring us a large thermos of hot water each morning.] We are to be in the Kenema village by 8 a.m., but the 5 mile distance will take an hour because of the road. An adventure awaits!
July 7
It’s 6 a.m. at Njala University, the alarm is going off, and Dick is greeting the day, “Good morning, Africa, to no electricity”. [Later we find out that the electricity is always off between 1-7 a.m. and 5-7 p.m. at Njala.] Dick finds hot water to make his VIA coffee. I mix peach ice tea mix into a water bottle (thank you, Jeanne!). We had our best sleep yet – it must have been the shower! The team now has grown; we have added Matthew’s lovely wife Francess, a gentle-spirited older man named Musa, and an engaging man called Cheko who heads the animal science division at Njala. Dick and I wind up in different cars; it is good that the people who were critical to the operation and needed to be there reasonably on time were in the car that did not break down.
Nelson studied here at Njala – there are currently about 9,000 students. We stop at the home of Adolphus Johnson and his smiling wife Adelaine; Adolphus is head of the Agriculture division; he and Nelson grew up together and studied at Njala. Michaella and Francess need to stop to get 5 dozen fresh eggs just collected from the Poultry division; they carry them on their laps. Francess will cook breakfast once we get there. It is 7:45 and I think we are off to Kenema, but we stop and there is much discussion among many men. They are hearing a sound in the back of the car so we pull into a barn-like structure to have the men look at it. No one is concerned, no one minds waiting. Michaella is so thoughtful. “Cathy do you want to calm down (cool down) – you can get out and walk around if you are hot.” It seems awfully hot but it is now the cool season, I am told. We walk while they figure out the car problem. Interesting how the men in the garage are in a small cavity underneath the auto to work on it – seems awfully clever. In less than 20 minutes Nelson holds the problem part in his hand – a bushing – and it has been fixed.
The drive is interesting. School children in uniforms – this village has royal blue and white – walking to school. A few fortunate ones get motorbike rides, and one boy is kicking a soccer ball as he walks. Some students have notebooks in hand, but I saw just one backpack. We stop again to buy oil, then again at a small market hut. Everyone is leaning out the window giving their phone numbers to the person who is selling minutes for their phones. 10,000 Nelson tells him; I assume they mean Leones, the Sierra Leone money unit. It is now 8:45 and we are off. So noisy with windows open, and BUMPY! Always with me I have my camera, water bottle and washcloth for perspiration. So glad Caroline M. told me to forget about handkerchiefs and bring washcloths! Another stop – the Nano Community Health Center. Apparently this woman used to be the nurse for Kenema village, so those who know her want to stop and greet her. Such care and consideration for relationships! I see that there is much to learn from these people about what is really important. Another stop, in the Paramount Chief’s village of Manodasse, to buy bread. I wish I had some Leones to use here at some of these little market stalls. This village used to be a major train stop. The train system was excellent, but is gone now. The ladies come back with the bread, and now it is 9:30. I imagine what it would be like in America if the people who were to be cooking breakfast showed up much later. But here, everyone is peaceful and not concerned in the least! There is a man in a heavy winter-type coat, so we discuss the reasons. No one knows why, but he turns up later in Kenema and Dick talks with him. He gets bitten terribly by the black flies, so he covers himself for protection. I wish I could give him and every other villager a can of insect repellant.
We arrive in Kenema! The people have finished their morning devotions – Moses and the burning bush – “What do you have in your hand?” What do we each have in our hands, that God can use for His kingdom? They explain the order of the day for the classes, and everyone disperses. David says it is a good time for us to take school supplies to the headmaster. The children greet us with a song. There is much clapping and excitement as the children see the items. David makes a little speech about the origin of these from Zionsville Fellowship. The assistant teacher says they have a large project on Saturday which will require pens or pencils and paper; he was trying to figure out how to get it for the children. God already had it figured out! Then there was a complete surprise.
The headmaster told me the schedule as he wrote it on the blackboard. [4’ x 4’ blackboard on a wooden easel] I sort of paid attention, but not carefully. It quickly became clear that he was leaving – and leaving me with his class – for the rest of the day! 28 children, ages 4 or 5 through primary school. I was dripping with perspiration and completely forgot that these young students have not yet learned English – that happens later on in school. They repeated everything I said, dutifully, even though they undoubtedly had no idea what I was saying. So Dick picked up rocks in the yard outside for us to do grouping with tens and ones, we did even/odd, counting by 2’s, 5’s, 10’s,and 100’s, we did shapes, anything we [Dick helped immensely] could think of. At the recess/water break they took the new soccer ball outside that we had brought. Later we took another break and we did “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes”, and taught them the Hokey Pokey – they loved it! We drew shapes in the sand recently wet from rain. Dick entertained all the little boys and they kept coming back for more high fives and “knuckles” & other games, and used his very loud whistle to get their attention. Later on the kids followed us around everywhere & were intrigued by my little fan.
Others on our team did food preservation, sheep nurture, and peeling and spinning banana fibers into banana silk. Chris showed the ladies how to prepare fresh pineapple (it is in great abundance now), cook them down and how to sterilize and can jars of pineapple. The next few days she’ll help the ladies do it themselves, and show them another fruit or vegetable they can do. Diane the vet, and husband Peter are teaching animal husbandry (sheep and goats). Pete had asked for the men to build a chicken coop. Pete is also building one, then he plans to have everyone discuss the merits of each and where each type could be made better. Pete & Diane own a ranch that began with 10 sheep and now has over 400. That is incentive for these villagers to want to listen to what they have to teach them. Those who complete all the classes will get a starter lamb or goat. The people are industrious and extremely creative in their solutions to problems. Diane demonstrated using banana tree bark to get fibers, then spin them into banana silk. Many village men (and some from neighboring villages) took part. Usually, she says, about 10% of the people learn to spin. Here today she had 90% of the people who learned to spin 2 different ways. She was ecstatic.
The little children kept wanting to touch us because of our white skin. Sadly one little guy saw me smiling at him and screamed in terror. Most of the children are excited, smiling, wanting to touch, see our phones, my little battery fan, my jewelry, and often point out all the perspiration on my face. Dick says he has never been so hot in his life. Come here in March, the people say, then it is really hot! David takes us on a tour of the village (15 minutes tops, he says), and especially notes the wells that ZF funded. One of them is fenced in and covered over so nothing can get inside. We leave with prayer for our journey, and back at Njala smiling Samuel just begins praising God for all the answered prayers of the day. It is so encouraging. He takes such good care of us. If we mention any little thing we’d like or we need, he is off trying to get it taken care of for us. Praises for today: all car issues have been taken care of, we all are safe, had just one short storm today rather than the usual pouring “cats and dogs”, good health for everyone, showers and great sleep! Tomorrow Nelson and Michaella will take Dick and me back to the city while the rest of the team stay here until they finish the classes on Monday.
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