The City of Rest has Moved!!

In November 2008 we attended the dedication of the site at Grafton for the new City of Rest buildings. Many of our teams have worked at the new site and have helped with the land clearance, digging foundations, making blocks, laying blocks, plastering, painting and many other tasks.





In May 2013 the residents were finally relocated to the new site at Grafton!!

 

 





Finally in their new home!!



 



Pastor Ngobeh at the new facility

 

City of Rest Photos

Here's a few pictures of the Mission Direct building project for the City of Rest at Grafton. We are hoping the the residents will be able to move in this month.



The Accomodation and Chapel Block




Back view of the Accommodation and Chapel Block




David demonstrating that the well is working

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.





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



Goodbye / Hello

The first team of this campaign left us last Friday and we have a new team arriving tonight.

The first team did a lot of block making at the City Of Rest in Grafton in the mornings. David (our construction manager for the team) took a drum to the site and found a builder who could play, so each morning was started with the team singing worship songs with the builders accompanied by the drum - it was a lovely way to start the day and I hope we continue it when we have other teams working on the site.

Most afternoons we visited other partners in and around Freetown, an especially nice afternoon was spent with the residents of King George VI Home for the Elderly, decorating bags that one of the volunteers had provided - each resident got to keep their bag. It will be such a shame if the King George VI home is relocated as our teams get to build relationships with the people there due to having our meals in the compound - something we won't be able to do if (or more likely when) they move.

The team that arrive today are 6 retired teachers from the UK who will be working with Sierra Leonean teachers in 5 of the schools in Kissy

Before and After - Men's Dorms

.

The team have cleaned and painted part of the men's dormitories at the current City of Rest location in Fort Street in town.

The before and after photos are of one of the bedrooms, we will be returning next week to finish off and paint the ceilings.

A few of the residents helped us with the cleaning and painting. One of our volunteers is going to provide them with buckets, brushes and cleaning products so that they can keep the rooms clean.

A Very Long Night

The team arrived last night just over an hour late, so we were hopeful of getting the ferry. We raced to the ferry port, only to be told that the ferry had just left. Another ferry would run only if there were over 30 vehicles waiting for it - unforunately for us there were only 17 vehicles waiting. We had missed the last ferry and there wasn't another one running until 8.30 the next morning - 10 hours later!! We decided to drive around the peninsular. It was a very bumpy drive that took us around 6 hours - we finally arrived in Kissy and the team were able to check into their hotel around 5am! I think most of the team found the whole night to be a bit of an adventure.

We thought it best to give the team the morning off, so postponed the start of our day to 12 noon. The team will visit the City of Rest site at Grafton today and also visit Hastings Ladies Polio Association. We'll all meet or dinnner tonight before sorting out the aid and gifts the team have bought with them.

Tomorrow the team will get the chance to get started on some work at the site - making blocks.

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.

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.

Building Progress

The Christmas team worked hard at the site - most days making more than 200 blocks!! The main building is slowly taking form and it's exciting to see it growing. What you can see in the photo on the right will eventually be the accomodation blocks and the chapel.

The team visited the current City of Rest in Fort Street and spent an afternoon there singing and chatting with the guests.