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 2nd 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!!
