Going back to SL

I was due to go back to Sierra Leone this Sunday, but there was a mix-up with my ticket so now I'll be travelling on Tuesday. By the time I go back I'll have been in the UK for a month, and the time has just flown by. Its's been great to have some time with Bob - we celebrated our second wedding anniversary a couple of weeks ago!

Bob enjoyed his time out is Sierra Leone, and is planning to come back for another visit soon (but not soon enough!!)

When I get to Freetown I'll have just 4 days to prepare for the 1st team who will arrive on 7th March - that's going to be a VERY busy 4 days for me! I have to plan the meals, do the team shopping, sort out the first aid, visit all the projects, go over the staff roles, book the hotel, get the team house cleaned and ready, buy the team water, make sure the vehicles are running ok, take rice to Mahanaim, change money, plan the team schedule.......etc.etc.etc

During the time that I'm in SL I'll be hosting 4 teams - a team of ladies, followed by a youth team from Leeds, then a Canadian team and lastly a team from the US (McKinney, Texas). Brian will be joining me for some of the time as contruction manager and I'm very much looking forward to working with him again.

Accomodation and Chapel

This is how the accomodation and chapel blocks at the City of Rest at Grafton were looking when I left Sierra Leone at the end of January.

We have relays of teams coming between March and June to continue work at the site.

The teams will also be visiting the current City of Rest site in town to meet the residents and see the conditions they are currently living in.

Toothache

When Mohamed came to see me he didn't need to tell me that he had toothache.....just look at his poor swollen face!

He had to have a course of antibiotics for an abcess before he was able to have the offending tooth removed (which he very kindly gave to me!)

A lot of the kids complain of  toothache and during the last three months I was there I arranged for 5 of them to have teeth removed (with their parents or guardians permission of course). It costs between £10 and £20 depending on how difficult a job it is, but this is an amount that most families just can't afford so the children usually have to put up with the pain for much longer than they should have to.