May 12, 2012 

We’ve had a wonderful two weeks with Joan Kinde, her daughter Carrie Jo, husband Geoff and their two children Daniel and Rebecca.  It was something like a breath of fresh air coming in for a couple weeks. Joan was the speaker for the Kamakwie District of the Women’s Institute and the primary caretaker for 5 year old energetic and bubbly Rebecca. Rebecca usually had a small crowd of Sierra Leone boys and girls following her and playing with her. She had crayons and coloring sheets which they loved. She also had quite a few “tattoos” that were plastered on them J.  She is very adept at Uno and Old Maid which Bud and I played with her several times!

Sixteen year old Daniel spent quite a bit of time with Albert, the Kamakwie District Youth Director. Albert took him to several villages as well as to the school where he also teaches. Both joined with several other young men and played soccer several times. When Daniel was not with Albert, he was helping Geoff and Bud with carrying blocks, stringing electrical wires, etc. etc. Bud was very happy for their assistance on several projects during their short time here.

Carrie Jo, who is a Peds nurse, taught several of the topics to our Nursing Assistants specifically related to caring for the children. Carrie Jo also shared with our students as well as several of the KWH nursing staff her expertise in suturing superficial wounds. Bananas, mangos and grapefruit all got sutured after she cut some major gashes in them J.  She also teaches a course called Helping Babies Breathe which has been designed specifically for the traditional birth assistants (TBA) out in the villages where there is no electricity. She was able to teach two of the local midwives, each of whom supervise many TBA’s in outlying villages in Kamakwie area. She was excited to arrange with them to return early in 2013 to teach some 200 TBA’s. I am also looking at this class as a possibility for the IWU team to take to Zambia to teach TBA’s in the outlying villages from Zimba.

We have had a couple hard rain storms which have cooled things down for several hours each time. We had one during the night last night, and so far today (2:00 pm), the heat is still quite comfortable for which we are all very grateful. The wind is very strong at the beginning of the storm, so each time our “yard” is covered with mangos which are almost gone now.  You can see how the palm tree just beyond the mango trees is blowing!

We are getting excited as the time draws closer for Tiffany and her family and Tanya’s daughter Elizabeth come to Sierra Leone. They arrive on June 13 and will be with us until we all fly out together on July 8. We are hoping to visit Kabala where our three older children all attended school when we were here in the 70’s and spend at least one day at one of the beautiful beaches in Freetown area. I’m sure Tiffany will spend quite a bit of time walking down memory lane since she was born at KWH and lived here until going into 2^nd grade. (We were in US 1 ½ years) during that time.

Bud & I are getting ready to borrow Tom & Karen’s car for a little bit and go downtown to pick up a door Bud had made for the Asher’s generator house.  So, until next time!!