I'm back...

So. it's been about 2 years since I last updated this blog. The name, just another day in Africa still seems fitting. Although, I'm not in Africa, although driving through the streets with rundown motorcycles, brightly coloured taxi's/busses and building in the state somewhere between half-build and half-ruined, it seems like any place in Mozambiue or Sierra Leone, but in fact, it's Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

Signs of the earthquack clearly visible everywhere, slums obviously growing, butthe geeneral chaos in hussle and bussle of an African City is going on here in the Caribbean!

More soon, but for now, the line of eager people waitng for the computer is growing longer and although not impatient, it is th right thing to get off now.

More to follow soon I hope.

Up and down...

To end of our trip to Kabala, we set of for a walk on Sunday morning to climb the "klipkoppie" that overlooks the town. Got a "guide" from the guesthouse - had know idea where to guide us to.

The "Guide" from the guest house had now idea where to guide us to.

Took us straight up a steep hill - slippery (How will we go down?), then just about half way up, 5 kiddies left there morning chore of cutting wood and jump all the way ahead - machete's and home-made axes in hand. The took one look at us and said we came the wrong way. This road is just for wood cutters - it ends in think grass, no way through - but they knew a shortcut. Having seen a few shortcuts before, we considered it and decided they knew more than our guide, so off we went, a bit to the left and more easy slope.

A short break to admire the view, trees and catch a breath, then all the way around to the right, over a homemade fence, through a little farm settlement (read 3 hut in the middle of nowhere surrounded by banana and paw-paw trees + few chickens) then on a little path through some grassy-bits, up a few rocks - and there we were - overlooking Kabala.

Great few, slight breeze, quiet - I love Africa!

Took some picture with my Weg magazine (just in case I want to send it in as a photo from an unusual location). Then sat with the boys - naming plants and animals ( penguins was new to them, so was rhino's, hippos and a few more - OK, they actually just new elephant, lion, leopard and bush pig, but who am I to judge). They enjoyed it so much - I left the book with them. Will sure be a hit at school - too bad they can't practice their reading.

Down hill was much smoother.

All and all a great weekend away! (and already seems ages ago!)

Road to Kabala

Set off from Aberdeen, Freetown at about 14:30 last Friday with a couple of friends to see what's happening "upline" - a term for the "in land" held over from the colonial days when a railway line actually still connected the dots in here. It was a bit of a last minute decision, but off we went... to Lunzar, Makeni and Kalaba

We combined pleasure with a bit of business. First stop, a Catholic Hospital in Lunzar, where a little patient of Sandra's was receiving treatment for Burkitt's Lymphoma. Little Mariama was not her active self (chemo had obviously kicked in), but she and the family was non thee less happy to see us. Her dad was more intrigued by the colouring book than she was. Good to know she's receiving good care there.


On to Makeni, quick stop at another hospital then to find a bed. The Hotel was full (apparently booked full because David Beckham arrived there the next day), but we were on a budget in any case. Friendly and helpful staff, bed not to bad, disco opposite the road very noisy, cheap (<$7 each), but...the bathroom could do with a bit of cleaning

North of Makeni saw a few "Camel Mountains"
Then hit the "Kabala Highway"
A bit of miscommunication (and no road signs) lead us around the town of Kabala, but delivered us at the door of a really nice guesthouse run by the friendly Mr Turay. Running water, single rooms, small living room, satellite TV (on one Guinea-channel) and electricity from 7pm to 12pm at only $10- a bargain.

Spent Saturday afternoon, browsing through the local market, took loads of photo's of kiddies yelling "snap me" and laughed as they watched themselves on the little LCD screens. Had supper of cous-cous and veggies with 3 Canadian girls from Care Canada and enjoyed a much quieter night at our guesthouse on the outskirts of town.

Got to see a bit more of nature, including the cotton trees in bloom and the fruit with a cotton-like substance.

Photo...

Got good news today,

A photo I took was published in today's Beeld (a Afrikaans News paper that my parents subscribe to).

I thought it might be a nice surprise for Ma and Pa, so a few weeks ago I sent in 3 pictures for the yearly photo competition.

One of these from Lake Louise in Alberta, Canada was chosen.

Unwelcome visitors

It's been a busy few weeks, getting back into work after the 2 week break over Christmas.


Lots of visitors have come and gone.
Usually - happy to see them, sad to see them go. Especially the two Timper girls (Maartje and Lieneke) who kept me busy during the break.


but...

2 snakes came to visit -

1st in the gazebo - broken broomstick later and a guard killed it.

2nd fell over the wall from a overhanging tree.

Frans took the picture - it got away!

A massive tree-trimming project was launched and I already feel much safer!


( Just don't know what Helen's gonna say when she sees the garden!)

A man in a boat

Nothing like a fresh coat of paint to start of the new year.

So, Sandra, Maartje and I set off to paint the clinic wall.

We decided on Noah's Arc, colourful and at least something the kids should k

now.

There was a few frowns as we were busy...

but (to the surprise of most people, it seems) the end product looks pretty nice, even if I say so myself.

Too bad, on Monday Sandra asked the kids at the clinic what the picture was about and no mom or child knew. Got as far as a man in a boat with animals. Seems like we might need to expand on our collection of Bible story DVD in the waiting room.

Some smaller things

On New Year's day a couple of us went up to the

Guma Valley dam - the waters supply for about 300 000 of the Freetown population.

We got a permit to spend the day there for a picnic and a hike. The hike was more a short stroll and photo session.



It was quite a change for me to look for small crawling and flying things to "snap".



Here's a few

Goodies from home

It's a bit difficult to not give in and taste everything on the first day! A friend came back from a holiday in SA. She met up with my parents and also visited Woollies, so I got some nice "proudly SA" -stuff.

Of course biltong and droe wors, chutney, rooibos, fizzers and (a big bonus) some chocolates, DVD's and a Weg (Afrikaans outdoors/holiday mag). After reading that, I'm ready for a break in Mozambique or the Kruger.

Can hardly believe it, in 4 weeks time my 6 months in SL will be finished!

"12 days of Christmas"

The whole "12 days of Christmas "thing never made much sense so me - can't remember the words and only recently found out it's actually the 12 days from 24 Dec to 5 Jan, but .

In any case that, song was the inspiration for this blog, with some obvious variations and no tune what so ever.

It was quite the busy time...

On the 12th day to Christmas - I went to County Lodge (complete with Christmas Lights), had a steak and had a good time with friends.

On the 11th day to Christmas I had drinks on the beach, did some shopping on the beach and waved off a Stef at the Helipad!

On the 10th Day to Christmas - Spent a great day at River No2, and said good bye to Morgen at the Helipad!

On the 9th day of Christmas - I spent a fun day at the orphanage in Calaba Town, fun and games, Christmas story and Ice Age 2

On the 8th day of Christmas I mostly worked!

On the 7th day of Christmas I mostly worked again

On the 6th day of Christmas I helped pack gifts for the staff party and sang Carols at Bible study

On the 5th Day of Christmas I spent a few hours at Bunkers, with Vez and Sandra

On the 4the Day of Christmas I chopped ham and eggs and had a great staff party at AWAFC.

On the 3rd day of Christmas I wrapped some gifts and relaxed.

On the 2nd day of Christmas I watched the kiddies of Regent do a nativity play (and I also played a small roll in the Prov 31-sketch with the ladies)

On the 1 st day of Christmas I had full Turkey dinner with friends at the D.O.V.E. Children's home.

On actual day of Christmas day I chatted with all my family on the phone, had a brunch with all my friends and took off to River No2.

On the first day past Christmas I relaxed on the beach and ended it with a bonfire under the stars!!!

Unusual Christmas Gift

So, Santa (or Father Christmas as I like to call him ) came to S'loene as well. On Christmas morning everyone in the house had a stack of gift in front of there doors. The 3 of us staying outside the main house had make-shift stockings (pillowcases hooked into a drawer in the living room).

What treats - nice things for showering, nice smelling things, some African jewelery and crafts, a zebra, books, lots of candy, chocolates, stationary, a flashlight, a plate of home made cookies and a very unusual, but extremely thoughtful gift...

On top of the other gifts

a single piece of green paper folded in three

Merry Christmas in red

A gift to all in the house - 24 hour electricity (or more precisely the fuel to run the generator)!!!

As most know by now, we only have electricity when our generator runs from 18:30 - 7:30 (weekend until 10:00). NPA (National Power Agency - also well known as No Power, Always) has been promising 24h electricity to all of Freetown as of 21 December (?2007?). No sign of that yet, so today we had almost 5 hours of our "Christmas present".

Of course I spent most of the time on my laptop under the gazebo, but did take a break to watch a movie in my room with the AC on at 18C.

Thanks Susan!

Feeding Centre

Thought a few times before posting this blog, but here it is after all.

Visited the Children’s hospital feeding centre on Friday – only place in Freetown that admits and manages severely malnourished children. And with severely malnourished I mean just that, entrance criteria is much lower (or is it higher) than we ever had in SA.

On Fridays we sometimes visit there just to see how patients we referred were doing. Sometimes good news, often not. Friday, due to unusually good traffic flow, we arrived there earlier than usually – just as they were doing the weigh-in. It’s amazing how much clothes can generally conceal. Here were 15 kids all naked - mostly skin and bones and a few puffy with kwashiorkor. I could not get myself to take picture of them – although I’m sure they would have made it into some newspaper before Christmas time.

I’m used to seeing malnourished and underweight children – after all spent 6 years in a Barberton’s children’s ward. But this is different, in Barberton we would maybe one or two a month admit a little one with pure malnutrition – usually the kids had HIV and/or TB and a lot of the weight loss was more due to disease that pure lack of food. But here AIDS isn’t that common. Here just poverty, poor (almost non-existent) health care and absolute ignorance of what a child needs is at the forefront.

This time we actually went to hand out something small for Christmas, but even though the mother, grannies or aunties that was there with the children looked grateful, there wasn’t much joy in it. Mothers gladly smile for photos afterwards - for some of them possibly the last ever to be taken.

A little silver lining around the cloud of that day was at least 2 happy babies, ready to go home after spending a more than a month in the centre.

The one in the picture was being discharge – and definitely looks like she and Mom both discovered the wonderful benefits of breastfeeding.

What can I bring...

I just spent a great afternoon as a "Christmas Party" with some kids at an orphanage in Kalaba Town, Freetown. What a wonderful present they were to me.

On the road back this song by Matt Redman was playing, so I will let someone else's words and a few photo's speak...

I will Offer up my Life

I will offer up my life
In spirit and truth,
Pouring out the oil of love
As my worship to You
In surrender I must give my every part;
Lord, receive the sacrifice
Of a broken heart

CHORUS:
Jesus, what can I give, what can I bring
To so faithful a friend, to so loving a King?
Savior, what can be said, what can be sung
As a praise of Your name
For the things You have done?
Oh my words could not tell, not even in part
Of the debt of love that is owed
By this thankful heart

You deserve my every breath
For You've paid the great cost;
Giving up Your life to death,
Even death on a cross
You took all my shame away,
There defeated my sin
Opened up the gates of heaven
And have beckoned me in

A first....

Thursday I did 2 (usually quite common) things for the first time since coming to Freetown
That is, the first time in 18 weeks
I wore jeans
and I ate a steak!

Occasion: farewell dinner for 2 Mercy Ship team mate/house mates/ friends, Stefani and Morgan
Location: Country Lodge – most expensive hotel in SL, not too far from our house and with a great view overlooking the town/sea

“Sweet Basil Steak” came recommended
I chose the local beef option (Le10 000, $3,30 less than the imported beef)
Medium rare
Grilled perfectly
Filled with mozzarella cheese
Not too spicy basil sauce
Fries and veggies on the side

My mouth is watering again…

What a model...

On Saterday's outing I found this little model.

Kati (her mom works at the orhanage) .. she just loved having het picture taken and looking at herself on the camera and video camera.

17 days and counting..

No shopping malls, no decorated street lights, no electricity in most houses, so no Christmas tree with flickering light. No Santas dressed in red suites and face beards. No competition for "the must have toy/gadget this Christmas".

Stuck in slow creeping traffic for more than 3 hours with "Holy night" playing in our Landy, I couldn't help but notice the absolute contrast to the outside. Shopkeepers and hawkers still selling the same old goodies from their baskets ( cookies, cotton ear swab, cassava, plantains, lanterns, candles, boiled eggs, flip flops etc.), amputees and the blind begging at car windows, dirty kids running, playing, laughing - the usual. No, wait - there's someone selling a big Santa face decoration, a few Christmas lights and a few illegal copied Cd's with Christmas songs.

But I knew it was almost Christmas when 60+ orphans started singing Christmas carols at the top of their voices then we visited the Wellington Orphanage today.

It was a great day and I look forward to a true Christ feast in Sierra Leone!

Taste from Home

Got a nice taste from home today!

Sweet red grapes from SA bought at Freetown Supermarket - Lekker!
Was also quite surprised to see a Tru-Cape box @ the little vegetable stand near the clinic. (Apples and pears from Western Cape - my favourite ever since my brothers and I was dress in matching CAPE Apple T-shirts in the early 80's).





















Abdulai was quite happy to smile for this snap in front of his store.

So, how did you get here from the airport?

For anyone flying into Sierra Leone's Lungi Airport, that's usually the first questions asked. The international airport's actually not situated in Freetown, but "across the bay" from the city. Leaving you with 4 options to get into town- helicopter, hovercraft, ferry or road.

For most expats there's really only 2 options - helicopter (US$55, 8min) or hovercraft (US$55, 25 - 90+min). The road is REALLY bad and takes a few hours, the ferry that's slow and over crowded but cheap. Both heli- and hovercraft ports are situated very conveniently within a few hundred meters of our clinic in Aberdeen.

What do we see on the way to work yesterday "SURPRISE" -
hovercraft halfway submerged in the "The Man of War Bay", less than 50m from the shore and few hundred meters from the clinic.

As always in Africa rumours are plenty ...
A possible scenario:
around 6 am with
39 people on board (again, who knows for sure),
ran out of fuel,
another boat went to take fuel,
either ran into it or the fuel/engine caught fire -
back part of craft sank,
front part stayed floating,
luckily near the shore,
nobody hurt/drowned
craft now not hovering, but safely at the shore.









And that's not all....
latest rumour has it that the helicopter was also grounded, that on "the eve of the Presidential inauguration with several heads of state and the media expected".





But again, who will ever know....

Twins, twins, twins

Clinic days has been markedly busier since rainy season is ending, elections are over and someone made an announcement over the radio that our clinic exists (we didn't need any advertising, we're busy enough).

We usually limit the numbers of kids to the first 60 arriving before 8am and then usually have 10-20 booked for follow-up.

On a particularly hectic day 2 weeks ago I took a few minutes to "snap" these 3 sets of twin that was there at the same time.

In the middle of a long and busy day, just couldn't get them all to look at the camera and smile at the same time!