Team Time

A team of volunteers from Calgary arrived a week ago. They have been spending the mornings plastering the accommodation block at the City of Rest at Grafton. Yesterday we visited a hospital where the team prayed for the patients, and in the evening we were privileged to have a friend who is a Major in the armed forces visit to tell us about the history of Sierra Leone. Below is a photo of myself and the team with some former street children who we spent an afternoon with last week.





Mrs Coker

Sadly Mrs Coker, the Matron of King George VI home for the elderly, passed away lasy night (19/02/11).

Mrs Coker

I visited her in hospital last week and she was very poorly, but in good spirits. I went to see her again on Monday and she had deteriorated a lot and was very confused. I've just spoken to her brother who told me the sad news.

May she rest in peace.

Sports Day

The Glorious Community Primary School had their sports day today. It was fun, but I couldn't tell you who won!





The young ones lining up.....



.....and they're off!



The older boys race



The sack race



Update on Mary

Last September I posted about Mary, the daughter of our security guard, who was badly burnt by hot water (here's the link to the original post: http://minklemar.blogspot.com/2010/09/hot-water.html). Her Mum bought her to see me yesterday and here are a couple of photos showing how she is now. She's quite badly scarred but her Mum assured me that she's not in any discomfort.

Kittens

Honey with her 5 kittens, aren't they lovely?

Ramatu - What a Difference!

Ramatu - Looking Great!

I popped in to see how Ramatu is doing yesterday and it was like seeing a completely different girl! As I approached the house she was sitting outside in a wheelchair and as I got closer I could see straightaway that she was much better than when I saw her last week - she had a great big smile on her face!!

The change to her epilepsy medication means that her fits are under control again - both Ramatu and Melrose (the lady who runs the home) told me that she hadn't had a fit for 3 days. Her sores are healing up nicely and her strength is coming back.

Me with Ramatu

Max, my friend who runs the Epilepsy Association for Sierra Leone, is going to monitor Ramatu and also contact a Sickle Cell Society to find out how she can be helped in that area and also to make sure that any treatment won't react badly with her epilepsy treatment

I'm thrilled that she is so much better and so thankful to Melrose for taking such good care of her.

Ramatu even told me yesterday that she wants to go back to school!!

Pregnant Puss

This is my mouse catcher Honey. She's been putting on a lot of weight recently and I had hoped that she was just getting fat, I've had to accept that she is pregnant and that we're going to hear the patter of tiny paws soon.

I've been trying to work out when she is due - the internet tells me that the gestation period for cats is around 65 days. Sometime around the 2nd or 3rd week in November she was making an awful racket that I'm told meant she was in season - so bad that I relented one night and let her out.....she must've gone hand found herself a Tom. By my reckoning she is due right about now!!

King George Relocation

This used to be the Glorious Community Primary School

Ever since I first started coming to Sierra Leone Mission Direct have used the King George VI home for the elderly as a base for work - but that's all about to change. One of the gas companies here has purchased the King George compound to redevelop it as an industrial area.

The home for the elderly is being relocation to Grafton. The Glorious Community Primary School in the compound are looking for new premises, and we have to find somewhere else to work out of.

The school has already been demolished (see photo above), they are currently holding lessons in the church building in the compound until they can find new premises. A lot of the trees have been chopped down, and the big store that was next to the school has been demolished. The have also started work on a new building in front of the bakery - where the kids used to play football.

The new site at Grafton is next door to the new City of Rest site, the foundations are in and work is progressing quickly on the building. It's expected that the residents will move to the new place before the rainy season.

I'm sad about the move, it will mean big changes for the local community as well as the residents....and for us too.

Baby Abdulai

This little baby was bought to me in December by his Grannie - he was less than a month old and his mother had died. The family couldn't afford formula for him and there was no-one else to breast feed him, so they'd just been giving him warm water.

Luckily a volunteer had previoulsy left a couple of tins of baby formula with us so we were able to give that to him, and since then I've been buying it for him as needed.



He's improved enormously in the past 6 weeks, he has put on weight and is very alert. He's a lovely baby.



1st December 2010



18th January 2011



Ramatu - Not Good News.......

Ramatu

I went to see Ramatu in the New Year and got a shock to see that she was really poorly and weak. I was there just over and hour and she had three fits while I was there. She had a lot of sores from where she's fallen during her fits and she's lost a lot of weight.

I contacted my friend Max at the Epilepsy Association of Sierra Leone who arranged for her to have some blood tests and also to review her medication. When the results came though she had tested positive for Sickle Cell.

Her epilepsy medication has been changed and Max is going to montior her, once her fits have been reduced then we are going to contact a Sickle Cell association to address that issue.

It is so sad to see her in such a bad way again, just a couple of months ago she was in school and now she doesn't even have the strength to sit up unassisted.

City of Rest Building Update

We had two teams in November and December who worked on the City of Rest project at Grafton. At the new site the work was mostly block making. The November team cleaned and painted the men's accommodation at the current City of Rest, while the December team painted Pastor Ngobeh's parlour.

Accommodation & Chapel Block

We don't have a team at the moment, but work is continuing at the site to put the roof on the accommodation and chapel block and to dig out the septic tank.

Septic Tank