Rokel

Rokel is where Change One and IMC completed our first project--a water well.

Here we are going up the hill:

Here's a shot of the well, complete with sign board:

And the view from up the hill:

Grafton Polio Camp

Change One recently finished a latrine project in the Polio community in Grafton. This community supports individuals with polio and their family members. We went to "dedicate" the latrines yesterday. We were so welcomed and the people were so thankful to have a decent toilet.

Below is a picture of Keith with the community and the sign board for the project (I think it's a cultural thing to have to put up a sign board for everything):

This is me with Samuel Sessay, the pastor for the church at the polio camp. He is one of the most thankful and joyful people I've ever met:

I had some bubbles in my bag, and the kids loved them!

One Fabulous Road

This is the road to Grafton, a community east of Freetown, where many of the war wounded and displaced persons were relocated after the war. I tried to take this picture out the back window of the car. Rainy season makes road maintenance even more difficult.

Freetown

These are some views of the city from where we are staying. Freetown has become even more overcrowded and congested in the past few years. It's amazing to see all the little houses cropping up farther and farther up the mountain-side.

Sweet Salone chop! This is the lunch we had today. Keith had beans and rice, and I had jollof rice with fried chicken. delcious.

What makes my life worth while

The Ferry Incident

Keith and I are enjoying our first full day in Freetown, Sierra Leone! We flew out on Thursday afternoon, around 2:30pm, routed through Washington DC, London, then to Freetown. We landed a bit late at the Freetown airport. Not terribly late, but late enough that it was already dark (it gets dark around 7pm here).

Just for reference, the Freetown airport is located in Lungi, a peninsula across a really large "river" from the main city of Freetown. I've included a map below for people like me who need visual aids:

So, at this point, we'd already been traveling for over 24 hours. We're pretty worn out. Pastor Jacob (the pastor/construction manager who has helped us on our building projects with Change One) met us at the airport, and helped us get our luggage and everything to the ferry dock, so that we could make our way over to Freetown. Once we reached the dock, we learned that we just missed the ferry, but they would send another one soon. So, we waited.

The other ferry arrived around 10:00pm, and we loaded ourselves and our luggage onto the boat. At about 11:30pm, the engine died, and we were stranded, free floating in the river. They finally found a small fishing boat to tug us into the dock, but about half way there, the decided they wouldn't be able to dock properly. So, around 2:00 am, the ferry "docked" at a place called Government Warf, and all the passengers had to climb over the side of the boat, with our luggage, onto the warf. It was an interesting experience being stranded in an unfamiliar part of town in the middle of the night. Thankfully, one of the security guards offered to drive us to where we needed to go. He even helped me haul my suitcase up what seemed like thousands of stairs.

So, today, we slept in a bit and have been trying to rest after last night's ordeal. We got to spend some time with some of the lighthouse youth this morning. It was really sweet to see them again. We had dinner tonight at one of our favorite Lebanese restaurants, too. So, things are looking up a bit!

Countdown to Africa

...9 days and counting...

It has been over 2 1/2 years since Keith and I moved home from Freetown, and it is hard to believe that we leave next week for a 2-week visit!! We plan to be in Sierra Leone from August 22 through September 4. I'm really looking forward to visiting the Change One ministry project sites and reconnecting with friends there.

One of the projects we've done with Change One this year was building toilets in one of the refugee communities. I've been secretly hoping that maybe they will dedicate a latrine to me while we're there!

Wouldn't this be a fantastic place for a plaque with my name on it? The Laura Padgett Latrine.