Church

Having asked James whether he went to church, he replied saying ‘have you never been to an African church before?’. We tentatively replied ‘no’ not knowing what we had let ourselves in for.

Church for James in Kenema is the Faith Assembly of God Church, an evangelical, all-singing, all-dancing affair. Whatever we had envisaged, it was triple the atmosphere. It began at 11am with Onward Christian Soldiers (which we missed cos we were late and it turned out to be the only hymn!). Following this there were lots of welcomes, introductions, explanations (it was a special service of thanksgiving to a young adult group) and lots of fanning (no a/c). Then the singing really started, crescendoing from significantly loud to deafening, but it was all good fun. Some of the songs were in Mende (local dialect), Creole (local dialect) and English (West African accent style). We managed to nod along, did some clapping, a few bum wiggles and the odd hum/moan/grunt from Caz as she tried to join in.

An hour later, very hot, we resumed seating for the magical unveiling of the flower-strewn pulpit/lectern. This was a gift in celebration of the young adult group. The ceremony involved various sets of donations from the congregation, for which you received a flower on a pin. After 3 or 4 layers of flower-covered cloth, the pulpit was finally revealed in all its glory. Much thanks was given and it was christened by one of the longest/loudest sermons we have ever heard. With hindsight, perhaps sitting next to the speaker was a mistake. Already 2 ½ hours in to the service, none of us were expecting what followed. The pastor in question was a big man with a booming voice who had come all the way from the sister church in Freetown for this special day. The essence of his talk was about being good Christians which was such a good message that it took half an hour to summarise, having taken 45 minutes already to get to the point. So involved in his lecture he was (some of which he screamed, some he shouted and some he simply spat) that I think he barely noticed the very helpful assistant who mopped up the streaming sweat from his face halfway through. Lots of ‘hallelujah’s, ‘young adults on fire for Jesus’s, ‘make some noise for the Lord’s and praying later, he sat down.

You’d think by this stage everyone would be exhausted and need a Sunday roast, but no. It continued. More messages/announcements/welcomes/thank yous were needed. There was more praying, singing and crying and after 4 hours of devotion we were presented with a sardine sandwich and a coke. Which tasted like heaven.

What more could you need?! It was such a privilege to be part of and we met some lovely people. However next time (strangely we want to go back) we may take a seat cushion, a glucose drip and put ourselves near the door (not the speaker).

First day at the hospital

After a much-needed rest and a very exciting breakfast consisting of spam and onion omlettes and cups of tea, Mohammad picked us up and drove us to the hospital.

James had jumped in the car en route, and in Dr. Khan’s absence, he stepped up to give us the grand tour. We were all impressed with the hospital and felt very welcome. We were introduced to many new faces, all of which greeted us with huge smiles and strong hand shakes. Not to mention; we had the pleasure of meeting the big cheese… the superintendent. Stay tuned to find out his name; we’ll let you know as soon as we find out!!

The lassa fever research lab was especially impressive, and the ophthalmology unit was brand spanking new. We started to realise that the hospital was pretty dependent on external funding. Other departments were obviously lacking resources and patients suffered for it. However on a more positive note, we saw where we could help and all were eager to get stuck in.

We began with an obstetrics ward round with the lovely Dr Jimissa, a man who we knew only via email until now. Needless to say, it was a new experience, and one that lasted a good few hours. The patients had a multitude of problems that required optimum management.

At 1pm we journeyed back to the house on Blama road for lunch. We were spoiled with African cuisine cooked by Mrs Faima. Our lovely host made sure we didn’t work too hard and ate well.

Our supervisor, Dr Khan was still in Freetown at this point, so we thought we should take the opportunity to explore Kenema for the rest of the afternoon,
Only one of us had a watch that had a second hand, a fundamental piece of clinical equipment. Therefore a mission to buy watches came about. Watch number one had a particularly large face with a certain popular American president plastered across it. Watch number one lasted about 9 hours before falling apart. Watch number two lost five minutes each day. Then it joined Alix in the shower and lost 3 hours per day. Useless. Watch number three – a rather convincing bling bling ‘Casio’ is still going strong, but time will tell….

We concluded the day with a first local beer, Star, which is award-winning in Sierra Leone apparently.

On our arrival back to the house for dinner, we were greeted by the man himself, Dr Khan, who had safely arrived from Freetown. He came to give us the low-down for the following day.

By Charlotte

A weekend not wasted

Customs did us one massive favour: they allowed us to have our first entertaining weekend in Freetown. After BMI delays and customs hassles we didn’t arrive at our guesthouse until the early hours of Saturday morning. Having had plenty of sleep and a wander onto the beach in front of us we went into town to do ‘admin’. Phones needed to be unlocked, sim cards needed to be bought, chargers needed to be lost and we needed to witness the mayhem that is Freetown. We drove through a market (see photos) that was so full of people that if a car needed to go somewhere it would just mow people and their stalls down until they moved, and they did.

The only guidebook to Sierra Leone enthusiastically encourages the nightlife in Freetown, so we thought…when in Rome…. We ended up at Roy’s (named after the owners unborn son) with two local boys who were there to look after us. Perusing the drinks menu, Jay spotted a Dimple. No one knew what it was, the locals said it was nice so we ordered a round. There is possibly a worse combination of 2 drinks in the world, but I doubt it. Whiskey and tequila in a deliciously disgusting mix. Say the name Dimple and Alix still shudders. It was not to be repeated. But we weren’t about to let that ruin our night. We played some very sketchy pool before heading to Aces the local hip-hop nightclub – our guidebook describes it as ‘seedier than a pomegranate’ and we’d have to agree. Full of middle-aged white men sleazing onto local girls with the decidedly loose description of hip-hop music in the background. There’s either more business in Sierra Leone than we realised or the NGOs have been here far too long. After confirming that our behinds just didn’t cut it on the dance floor, informing a Dutch guy who worked for the local beer Star brewery that it was not good enough and finding Jay (and what was here name?!?!) we left hip-hop in the hands of the experts.

Sunday morning we woke to a Spam and mayonnaise breakfast. Attempting to order a taxi to the beach, we got quoted $200. Even 20 miles on dirt and moguled roads isn’t worth $200 so we headed into town to find James. Sunday was football day. We went to a local premiership play-off match between Kingtom and St John’s, and what an experience it was. Sat on seating made from branches we ate peanuts from a lady’s head and watched the fiercely contested match. At half time it was still 0-0. Then the riot police arrived. Armed with visors, gas masks and tear gas guns, they were there to escort the referees off the pitch and protect them during the break. I don’t know if we felt safer that they were here or more concerned that they were necessary. Second half underway, a football or two in the face, St John’s scored much to the jubilation of the crowd. Goal etiquette is to run onto the pitch cheering wildly, hug every player and wait to be beaten off the pitch by the men with sticks (and a santa hat). These weren’t riot police, these were purely men with sticks for the sole purpose of beating people off the pitch. Match resumed, a riled Kingtom fought back with an equaliser. Received by the other half of the supporters running onto the pitch in celebration. The match ended 1-1 with a re-play scheduled for the following day. How anyone can score at all is impressive on a dirt pitch with chalk outlines, random bits of pavement in the middle and the odd drain cover just for you to trip over and dogs running on the pitch. Referees escorted off once more, it became clear why the riot police were necessary with the very boisterous crowd.

Excited that our first local event had gone smoothly, independence was the order of the day. Breaking from the set plan, sending our driver home to have a rest, we got into a taxi to a local eatery. For us, the journey was a bargain at £1.50, for the driver who may have lost a fuel tank, an exhaust and other extraneous items, it may have been a very expensive trip down a bumpy road to Lacs Villa. Halfway through a delicious meal, coming somewhere from beyond the pitch black trees next to us we heard massive cheering and celebrations. Someone’s birthday perhaps?? Thinking nothing of it, we paid up, got into a taxi (with markedly better suspension) and headed home. On the way the taxi man explained that Sierra Leone were playing Egypt in the African Cup of Nations. Egypt being reigning champions were tough competition for Salone, who despite huge support rarely do well. Sunday was a big day in Salone history. Taking the lead in the second half, Egypt equalised just before the end, but this didn’t dampen the celebrations for the best Salone result in six years. En route to our guesthouse, the car could go no further due to the human road block of revellers. Vouvousela in Jamie’s ear, thumping on the car and screaming had to be witnessed before we were allowed to continue. It made English fans look tame, Sierra Leoneans certainly know how to party.

Customs

5 days, 3 ferry crossings, 24 hours in a truck, 7 dimples, 1 very seedy nightclub and a bucketload of sweat later, we arrived in Kenema. Despite all our best efforts to do everything above board, use appropriate channels and help from James (from the Lassa Fever unit in Kenema), customs were not expecting our arrival with 6 big boxes of donations. After our initial attempt to get them through on Friday afternoon (everyone had gone home) we returned to the customs office bright-eyed on Monday morning at 9am. We were met with a very adept paper-shuffling lady who had no record of our documents. So we trotted to the other side of town to the government building to get the documents re-printed. Returning to customs, the paper-shuffling lady (miraculously) found our documents in front of her….but the relevant man who could stamp these was now in a meeting with the IMF.

Fortunately, across the road we bumped into our supervisor Dr Khan (having a pedicure, yes he’s male) who made an energetic phone call for all the salon to hear. Bureaucracy in progress, we became concerned about ferry crossing timings. Freetown’s international airport (the location of our goods) is situated across a massive estuary from the main city. To drive around takes 6 hours, so the only way to get there is across the water. There are several boat related options but as the FCO says ‘none is without risk’. However, general local consensus is that the big car ferries are the least risky of all options, even if they do sink and don’t have life jackets. The ferries leave from the airport in time with the flights so there are only a few a day; our plan was to take the 2pm ferry across, leaving Dr Khan sorting things out at the mainland end, by the time we had arrived at the airport, a phone call would have been made and we would return with our booty on the 5.30pm ferry. It was optimistic.

We arrived at the airport to find that a phone call is not enough, in fact we needed the document in all its glory, with stamps. Dr Khan (who had the letter now with stamp on the mainland) had a plan. He managed to find a local lad who would take our letter to the airport via a fast (but more risky) route of a ‘speedboat’. So we raced back to the ferry terminal with Mohammed our rebel-escapee super-driver to meet this lad off the boat. Stamped document in hand, 4.15pm on the clock, we were smiling. Proudly presenting the prized document to the officials at the airport, the big cheese in the chair said ‘I will see to action this very quickly’, put the paper to one side and continued paper-shuffling. After some frustrated looks, the man granted us our special boxes and at 5.35pm we again raced back to the ferry terminal in the hope that it was late (which considering African time, was a valid hope). Sadly when we got to the gate the guard simply said ‘9 o’clock’.

In true British style we had decided it was very much beer o’clock while we waited 3 hours to board the last ferry of the day. Monsoon rains hit just as we needed to walk down the ramp, but we were in high spirits as we had our boxes and a 6 hour car journey with 7 people in 5 seats to look forward to. Mohammed valiantly drove through the night so that we could finally sleep at our Mama’s house in Kenema. After a big welcome from the whole family (and tea) we went to bed.

so its been a while since we updated,
since the last fundraiser we have had loads of kind donations and are now at a total of around £2450!!!
which is fabulous
we have now ordered the meds and equipment from the distributors, and its going to be delivered directly to the hospital in the first week we are there so we will be ready to collect it!!
and start putting it all to use!
so thank you to everybody who has contributed so far!!!
its all very exciting!
xxx

Fundraising galore!

Massive thank you to everyone who went to the Charity Gig last Saturday, by all accounts it was a huge success!! And a speacial thank you to Bea and her family and Simon for playing some memorable tunes, I have seen video footage!

We raised nearly £350 which is AMAZING! We can buy loads with that....but we don't want to stop there!

Our second event at Cubana's is this Wednesday and hopefully we will see lots of you down there. It starts at 8pm, there will be plenty of yummy food and games, then at 10pm there is a salsabandman playing! If you are still without tickets or reserved tickets, don't panic - there should be some on the door.

Hope to see lots of you on Wednesday for a great night!

Cubana's Event!!

We have confirmed our fundraising event at Cubana's on Wednesday 14th April at 8pm.

There'll be a buffet and a band and a raffle and some fun games.

Tickets are £6.50, please contact any of us if you'd like to come and we'll get you a ticket.

Hope to see lots of you there!