Pneumonia, Cuddles and Cakes

I seem to have had a very full day today........

 

Yesterday I saw my friend Susan, the head mistress of the Hosetta Abdullah school for children with special needs.......I'd last seen her at the beginning of October just before I went to the UK for a few weeks, at that time she had been poorly for a while with a bad chest. When I saw her yesterday I was shocked by just how ill she was so I picked her up this morning and took her to the AHS Hospital at Waterloo today for my friend Dr Koroma to check her over. Dr diagnosed severe pneumonia and has admitted her. She didn't really want to be admitted but Dr Koroma insisted......and you don't argue with Dr Koroma!

 

We arranged to meet Marwan, our boy with the poorly eye, at the hospital with his father as they live nearby. I got to spend some time with Marwan without him having to be stressed by having his eye examined, or the dressing changed, or be poked or prodded. I still haven't heard him say a single word.....but I did get to enjoy a lovely cuddle when he overcame his shyness and decided to come and sit with me. He was wearing the pyjamas I bought him from the UK for him - I got them so he has something to wear if he's admitted to hospital, he looks so cute in them. Tomorrow I should  find out if it's going to be possible to send him to Ghana to get him treated.

 

I'm praying, praying and praying some more for healing for this lovely, lovely boy. As we left the hospital - me to go to my home and Marwan and his Dad to go to theirs - he waved me off and gave me a big smile - it was the first time I've seen him smile. I love that little boy.

 

Aunty (the lady who comes each day to cook for the compound) had the day off today, so my Sierra Leone family and I all sat out in the garden and chatted while they prepared the food and I made omelettes to keep us going. It was wonderful just not to have to be anywhere and to have the time to sit and enjoy each other's company.

 

After years of being in Sierra Leone I have finally purchased an oven! Until now I've got by with 2 ring gas burner - I'm the only one who cooks inside, Aunty and the others cook on a charcoal burner outside. I tested it out for the first time today, first with the omelettes which went down very well.......then I made some corn muffins, which look a lot better than they tasted.

I've decided that I'm going to try to reinstate a tradition my Mum had and cook cakes each Sunday when possible and share them with whoever happens to be around.

I'm So Blessed

I'm sitting in the classroom that I'm going to be using as an office for the next few weeks as we lead up to the schools reopening and I've just been reflecting on how blessed I am to be able to be here.

 

Two of our sponsored boys Mohamed and Abu are here keeping me company and John and Sailu who live here are also here. The five of us shared a meal of luncheon meat and bread and now Mohamed is having a little snooze.

 

It's very peaceful here today, just the five of us. I know that when word gets around about where I am basing myself it's going to get a lot busier and a lot more noisy......and I will enjoy that too when it does......but for now it's nice to enjoy a little quiet time with just a few kids.

 Abu is one of the reasons that I started off the sponsorship scheme - I started paying his fees along with 3 other boys back in 2008, then I kept adding more and more students, when I got to 11 students  I realised I needed help and that was how the idea for the sponsorship scheme was spawned. The original 4 boys are all still in the sponsorship scheme and have sponsors.

Abu will start in Junior Secondary School when the schools reopen - he did well in his National Primary School examination last year so is able to go to the school that he wants to attend.

 

 

I am so fortunate to have been able to watch Abu and so many of out other students grow up and absolutely blessed to have been able to share so much of their childhood with them......and to continue to do so. They have definitely enriched my life and I can't imagine life without them in it.

Hosetta Abdullah Special Needs School

I visited the Hosetta Abdullah Special Needs School in Thunder Hill in Kissy this week - it had been a few months since my last visit and I just wanted to see how they are all doing.

 

I had a really good catch up with the Headmistress Mrs Kamanda and got to hear how all the students and staff are getting on.

 

Mrs Kamanda has kindly said that I can either share her office or borrow a room to use as an office until I find myself a suitable office space - so I'm looking forward to spending a lot more time there!

With the Headmistress Mrs Kamanda

Mrs Kamanda has moved into a house on site and is taking care of a number of children including the two lads pictured below.

The boy on the left is John, who I first met way back in 2008 when one of our volunteers from Texas made a strong bond with him which eventually led to us getting to know the Hosetta Abdullah school and enrolling John there. He was bought up by his Grandmother, but when she died John went to live with Mrs K.

Sadly they have lost two of their students in recent months. This is Kadi-Kadi, she had been living with Mrs Kamanda but went on holiday to family in the provinces and sadly passed away while there. Mrs Kamanda believes that she was infected with the Ebola virus. Mrs K kindly gave me this photo of me with Kadi-Kadi.

 

Hosetta Abdullah - Building Update

This is the progress on the building project at the Hosetta Abdulah school for special needs children.

As you can see the roof is on!

HA Building Project

The team started work today on the new residential building at Hosetta Abdulai Special Needs School. The picture on the left below was taken last week and the one on the right was taken as the start of the work this morning. Although most of the team had travelled all the way from Texas and arrived just last night they all got stuck into the work this morning. It will be good to see how much they can achieve in the week that they are here.

Airport Again

Today we have a team of 11 arriving from Texas and 1 Brit, I'm at the airport now with Brian (the Mission Direct construction manager) and Ted and Tom - two team members from Texas who came with the Canadian team and will leave when this next team leave, they have been working with Brian to get the project ready for the team to start work tomorrow. The team will be working on a new residential building at the Hosetta Abdulai Special Needs School.

The team will be here for just a week so we have a packed schedule, starting tomorrow with a morning working at Hosetta Abdulai followed by the afternoon at Hastings for the opening ceremony for the new accommodation building at Hastings, then after dinner we'll be back to the Hotel 5/10 to sort out the aid the team have bought with them.

The Canadian team who left last Friday got a lot of work done at the City of Rest site in Grafton. Here's a photo of how the work was progressing while they were here.

When the Canadian team (plus the 3 Texans!) came their flight was 7 hours late arriving - we were expecting some moans and groans, but they were great right from the moment they arrived.

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.