Admin Block

Work is coming on on the Admin block at the new City of Rest site in Grafton. Work began digging the foundations at the beginning of March and you can see in this photo how much progress has been made since then.

There are a team of 19 volunteers from the UK here at the moment and they will be working at the site, they will help with the ongoing work on the admin block, finish painting the generator house and be doing some land clearance while there are here.

African Style

I thought it would be nice to have an African outfit made for church and special occasions, so I chose some material and got the Hastings Ladies to make it for me.

I'm not sure yet if I'll be brave enough to wear it in public - all the people who were there when I tried it on laughed at me!

New Arrivals

My friend Brian who is the Mission Direct construction manager for the next three teams is arriving tonight - he's going to transfer from the airport by water taxi so I'll pick him up in Aberdeen tonight. It will be good to be working with him again. While I'm waiting for Brian to arrive I'm going to treat myself to a meal at one of my favourite restaurants....Alex's.

On Sunday we have a team of 19 volunteers arriving from the UK, mostly from the Leeds area - it's going to be a really tight squeeze fitting everyone into the team house at King George at mealtimes....there will be 21 of us altogether!

While the team are here we will be continuing work at the City of Rest site in Grafton and we're also planning to paint a classroom at the Hosetta Abdulai special needs school.

I hope Brian gets some sleep on the plane as I have a very busy day planned for us tomorrow so we can be ready for the team when they get here on Sunday.

Baby Fatmata

This is Fatmata - her Mum bought her to me as she has lots of yellow headed spot type things on her back and head. I had no idea what they were so sent her to the doctor, she has been given medication to take over the couse of the next two weeks, so I've asked her Mum to bring her to see me again in a few days so I can see if there's any improvement.

The poor little thing, her back looks so sore!!

Salman's Fan

Salman lives in the King George VI home for the elderly in Kissy - he was shot during the rebel war and is paralized, he still has 6 bullets in his back that cannot be removed as to do so could cause further damage or be fatal for him.

His electric fan had recently broken, he let us know that he REALLY needed a new one. One of our Mission Direct volunteers purchased a fan for him with a donation given to her by friends in the UK, here's a very happy Salman receiving his fan.

A small gesture like this can mean so much to someone like Salman and help to make his life a little more comfortable.

Samuel

Samuel's Mum bought him to see me. He'd not been eating, had lost a lot of weight and had bad diarrhea. I arranged for him to see a doctor who diagnosed worms and malnutrition. He was put on a drip for a couple of days and his mother was given a diet for him to follow.

He didn't like the look of me at all - until I took his photo and showed it to him, then he warmed to me a little.

I've asked his Mum to bring him to see me again next week so I can check how he's getting on.

Hosetta Abdullah Painting

The team has spent the last two afternoons cleaning and painting a classroom at the Hosetta Abdulai school for children with special needs. These photos show the progress we have made. We will be carrying on the work with future teams until the whole building is finished. (I did the brown paint!!)

Fatmata

This is Fatmata, she's a pupil at the Hosetta Abdulai school for special needs children. I was so pleased to see her when I visited the school as I'd not seen her since last June - she had been back to her village and I didn't know if she'd be coming back to Freetown again. Sadly her mother has recently died so at the moment her grandmother is taking care of her.

Fatmata is deaf and dumb, but manages to communicate and make herself understood. Once she tracked me down and came to visit me at the office at King George - I have no idea how she managed to find out I was there!

You can't really tell from this picture, but she has the most stunning bright blue eyes.

Today the team has spent the afternoon cleaning and painting one of the classrooms as the Hosetta Abdulai school, we'll be going back there again tomorrow to finish the work on the classroom.

Freetown Monument

There is a new monument in Freetown showing important people from Sierra

Leone's history. It's not open to the public yet, so we were very lucky to be able to have a guided tour of it yesterday.

Because it's not officially opened yet we weren't allowed to take any photographs - the photo here shows Major Moses Kargbo the head of the chaplaincy for the RSLAF (Republic of Sierra Leone Armed Forces) with his uncle who is also a village chief in front of the famous cotton tree. The Major arranged the visit for us.

Preparing for the team

Dear me it's been a busy few days!! I arrived late on Tuesday night and it's been non-stop getting ready for the team to arrive on Sunday since then.

I was really suprised when driving into town on Wednesday it started raining! I wasn't expecting rain in March! Rather than clear the air though place was even hotter once the rain cleared. It always takes me a while to get used to the heat when I come back.

I have a team of 5 arriving on Sunday including Ronnie who will be the contstruction manager for that team....everything should be just about ready for them by the time they arrive!