Today is the 50th anniversary of Sierra Leone's independence from the UK. Celebrations are being held all week throughout the country and especially here in Freetown.
Happy 50th Birthday, Sierra Leone! :)
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Happy Birthday, Sierra Leone!
Today is the 50th anniversary of Sierra Leone's independence from the UK. Celebrations are being held all week throughout the country and especially here in Freetown.
Happy 50th Birthday, Sierra Leone! :)
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
New Home!
Over the weekend, we moved to a new cabin a few doors down from our old one. I had been sick for 3 weeks in March with no end in sight, which almost instantaneously cleared up while we lived in a family cabin for 12 days. Within 12 hours of moving back into our cabin, I was again sick. As a result, we asked for a cabin transfer.
Our new cabin is laid out exactly like our old one, but it has a few unexpected perks. It is about 8 inches wider than our old one, and comes with a large fridge/freezer, a small table, 2 sturdy wooden chairs (previously we had been using our camp chairs), an Ikea chair, 2 fans, and a large duvet - none of which our previous cabin had! And best of all, I have been slowly but surely getting better :)
Here are some pics of our new cabin, because I realized that we hadn't posted any pictures of our old cabin at all either. Enjoy! Makes your 'small' home look pretty good, huh? :)
Our new cabin is laid out exactly like our old one, but it has a few unexpected perks. It is about 8 inches wider than our old one, and comes with a large fridge/freezer, a small table, 2 sturdy wooden chairs (previously we had been using our camp chairs), an Ikea chair, 2 fans, and a large duvet - none of which our previous cabin had! And best of all, I have been slowly but surely getting better :)
Here are some pics of our new cabin, because I realized that we hadn't posted any pictures of our old cabin at all either. Enjoy! Makes your 'small' home look pretty good, huh? :)
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Christos Anesti!
Luke 24:1-7
On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: ‘The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ ”
Happy Easter from Freetown, Sierra Leone! We hope you are enjoying your Easter weekend with friends and family and remembering His sacrifice for our sins. We enjoyed a lovely service this morning onboard the Africa Mercy, followed by a fabulous Easter brunch and an even better Easter nap :) It has been a great day of relaxation with friends and we are enjoying our first Easter with our Mercy Ships family.
It is also bittersweet, as it is the last 'landmark' that we had to pass to mark the ending of our time here. We now have just less than 8 weeks left (though I'm trying not to think too much about it!) and will be spent spending as much time with friends as possible. Please remember to keep us in prayer as we transition out of this phase of life and into the next one.
With love,
Samuel & Amy Slennett
On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: ‘The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ ”
Happy Easter from Freetown, Sierra Leone! We hope you are enjoying your Easter weekend with friends and family and remembering His sacrifice for our sins. We enjoyed a lovely service this morning onboard the Africa Mercy, followed by a fabulous Easter brunch and an even better Easter nap :) It has been a great day of relaxation with friends and we are enjoying our first Easter with our Mercy Ships family.
It is also bittersweet, as it is the last 'landmark' that we had to pass to mark the ending of our time here. We now have just less than 8 weeks left (though I'm trying not to think too much about it!) and will be spent spending as much time with friends as possible. Please remember to keep us in prayer as we transition out of this phase of life and into the next one.
With love,
Samuel & Amy Slennett
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Revisiting Joseph Fofanah
Looking very sharp in his Boy Scout uniform, nine-year-old Joseph Fofanah stepped up to accept his country's flag. Then he marched crisply to place it in the stand, saluted, and retreated smartly. It was appropriate that this young man participated in the ceremony to welcome the arrival of the Africa Mercy in Sierra Leone.
Mercy Ships played a very important role in Joseph's life. He was born with a cleft palate and cleft lip. “He was having a problem,” said his mother, Isatu. “Any liquid we fed him would come back out his nose.”
This serious birth defect negatively impacts the lives of many African children. Fortunately, Isatu realized that her son needed a medical procedure to repair the cleft. However, the cost of the surgery was more than she and her husband could afford. “But the pastor and the doctor who delivered Joseph told me not to worry,” said Isatu. “A Mercy Ship is just on the way.”
Joseph had his first surgery in 2002, when he was almost four months old, and he received a second surgery the following year. He has no memory of his problem or of his Mercy Ships experiences, but the success of these procedures is evident in his brilliant smile.
Today, Joseph is a happy, active fourth-grader. His favorite subject is mathematics, which may have something to do with his ambition to be a banker one day. An avid football (soccer) enthusiast, he is the goalie on his school team, and enjoys playing with his younger brother, Joshua.
Scouting is very popular in Sierra Leone, and Joseph is a five-year member of Boy Scout Team 3. “I really love to march,” he says, and he's looking forward to camping with his troop.
When asked what he thought about being onboard the Africa Mercy , he grinned and exclaimed, “I'm excited, and I really want to stay here!”
Story by Elaine B. Winn
Edited by Nancy Predaina
Photo by Debra Bell
Mercy Ships played a very important role in Joseph's life. He was born with a cleft palate and cleft lip. “He was having a problem,” said his mother, Isatu. “Any liquid we fed him would come back out his nose.”
This serious birth defect negatively impacts the lives of many African children. Fortunately, Isatu realized that her son needed a medical procedure to repair the cleft. However, the cost of the surgery was more than she and her husband could afford. “But the pastor and the doctor who delivered Joseph told me not to worry,” said Isatu. “A Mercy Ship is just on the way.”
Joseph had his first surgery in 2002, when he was almost four months old, and he received a second surgery the following year. He has no memory of his problem or of his Mercy Ships experiences, but the success of these procedures is evident in his brilliant smile.
Today, Joseph is a happy, active fourth-grader. His favorite subject is mathematics, which may have something to do with his ambition to be a banker one day. An avid football (soccer) enthusiast, he is the goalie on his school team, and enjoys playing with his younger brother, Joshua.
Scouting is very popular in Sierra Leone, and Joseph is a five-year member of Boy Scout Team 3. “I really love to march,” he says, and he's looking forward to camping with his troop.
When asked what he thought about being onboard the Africa Mercy , he grinned and exclaimed, “I'm excited, and I really want to stay here!”
Story by Elaine B. Winn
Edited by Nancy Predaina
Photo by Debra Bell
Monday, April 18, 2011
Mercy Ships Dental Clinic Brings Brighter Smiles and Hope to Freetown
On Thursday, March 10, 2011, Mercy Ships opened the doors to their dental clinic in Freetown, Sierra Leone, offering free treatment to provide relief for those suffering from long-term dental problems. The clinic is held in The HOPE Center, Lower Savage Square, beside the dock. It is a spacious building and an ideal environment for the daily dental procedures. The pre-screening assessment station is located outside the front entrance. This conveniently leads into the waiting room, where there are wooden benches facing an educational wall of dental hygiene information.
The dental practice consists of one large room, with many windows providing a good source of daylight. It has functioning air-conditioning and electricity connections. There are five dental stations. Each station contains two dental chairs, a table for sterile dental equipment and medications, a portable suction machine and a trolley. Additional lighting is provided by head torches worn by the dentist and hygienist. An adjoining room is equipped with a sink and running water for use in the sterilization process.
Typically the dental clinic is staffed with four dentists, one hygienist and four dental nurses from the Africa Mercy. They are accompanied by local day-volunteers who perform various duties such as pre-screening patients, sterilizing equipment, translating, and escorting patients through the process. The dental team at each station consists of a dentist, dental nurse and several local dental assistants, who are day-volunteers serving as translators. Each station serves two patients at a time.
On the opening day, the clinic gave free treatment to the local day-volunteers. This achieved two goals: to ensure that they received essential dental care and to provide them with an understanding of the process and the patient's experience.
As the day-volunteers arrived, they were met at the pre-screening station to identify those requiring dental treatment. Then they waited in an orderly seated queue. Any apprehensions were successfully distracted by the oral health education trainers in the waiting room. Their energetic demonstrations with over-sized props were not only entertaining but also offered clear simple advice on dental hygiene. The volunteers were invited one-by-one to the dental practice, where they were greeted by friendly, relaxed dental teams.
The dental procedures are highly professional and enviably efficient. It is an impressive operation. The majority of procedures are routine extractions of multiple decayed and broken teeth which create much pain for the patient. In fact, many of the patients have been suffering for months, if not years. The dental screening also provides an opportunity to diagnose other types of oral lesions such as benign tumors, which can be referred to the hospital ship for further investigation and treatment – often a life-saving intervention.
Dental health care services are rarely found in Sierra Leone. There are currently five dental officers serving the four regions of Sierra Leone with a total population of approximately 6.5 million. Basic dental problems such as decaying teeth and gum disorders can escalate into oral infections that threaten the lives of the sufferers. So, the provision of dental treatment is vitally important to the Freetown communities.
It is easy to underestimate the value of the patient care provided by the dental teams. But for many of the patients, this is the first time they have experienced compassion. The result is evident in the radiance of their smiles. The Mercy Ships Dental Clinic is a paving the way for cleaner brighter smiles – and happier, hope-filled lives.
Story by Claire Ross
Edited by Nancy Predaina
Photos by Tom Bradley
The dental practice consists of one large room, with many windows providing a good source of daylight. It has functioning air-conditioning and electricity connections. There are five dental stations. Each station contains two dental chairs, a table for sterile dental equipment and medications, a portable suction machine and a trolley. Additional lighting is provided by head torches worn by the dentist and hygienist. An adjoining room is equipped with a sink and running water for use in the sterilization process.
Typically the dental clinic is staffed with four dentists, one hygienist and four dental nurses from the Africa Mercy. They are accompanied by local day-volunteers who perform various duties such as pre-screening patients, sterilizing equipment, translating, and escorting patients through the process. The dental team at each station consists of a dentist, dental nurse and several local dental assistants, who are day-volunteers serving as translators. Each station serves two patients at a time.
On the opening day, the clinic gave free treatment to the local day-volunteers. This achieved two goals: to ensure that they received essential dental care and to provide them with an understanding of the process and the patient's experience.
As the day-volunteers arrived, they were met at the pre-screening station to identify those requiring dental treatment. Then they waited in an orderly seated queue. Any apprehensions were successfully distracted by the oral health education trainers in the waiting room. Their energetic demonstrations with over-sized props were not only entertaining but also offered clear simple advice on dental hygiene. The volunteers were invited one-by-one to the dental practice, where they were greeted by friendly, relaxed dental teams.
The dental procedures are highly professional and enviably efficient. It is an impressive operation. The majority of procedures are routine extractions of multiple decayed and broken teeth which create much pain for the patient. In fact, many of the patients have been suffering for months, if not years. The dental screening also provides an opportunity to diagnose other types of oral lesions such as benign tumors, which can be referred to the hospital ship for further investigation and treatment – often a life-saving intervention.
Dental health care services are rarely found in Sierra Leone. There are currently five dental officers serving the four regions of Sierra Leone with a total population of approximately 6.5 million. Basic dental problems such as decaying teeth and gum disorders can escalate into oral infections that threaten the lives of the sufferers. So, the provision of dental treatment is vitally important to the Freetown communities.
It is easy to underestimate the value of the patient care provided by the dental teams. But for many of the patients, this is the first time they have experienced compassion. The result is evident in the radiance of their smiles. The Mercy Ships Dental Clinic is a paving the way for cleaner brighter smiles – and happier, hope-filled lives.
Story by Claire Ross
Edited by Nancy Predaina
Photos by Tom Bradley
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Water.
There are many challenges to living on a ship in West Africa...no clothing stores, no fast food restaurants, limited options for eating out in general, no movie theaters, no music downloading, no seeing popular TV shows (unless they're on the Discovery channel or BBC!), among other things. These things I can handle and willingly gave up when I joined Mercy Ships nearly 3 years ago.
One thing I did not think about when I moved to the Africa Mercy was the challenge of water. I took it for granted that water is treatable and it wouldn't be a problem. I knew it wouldn't be super easy to get and that we'd have to work hard to conserve. I knew we'd have to take 2-minute ship showers (turn the water on, get wet, turn the water off, soap up, turn the water on to rinse off), and by now am well practiced at it!
Back in the Liberia days, water was an issue. The laundry room was closed for a time and we spent a while eating off of disposable plates using plastic silverware (and lots of it because it breaks so easily!). However, I was only in Liberia for 4 months, and since then (being in Tenerife, Benin, and Togo), we've never had any sort of true water problems that I've been aware of.
Appelsbosch (where we lived in South Africa) had some unique lessons to teach me - one happened to be about my frustrations regarding my expectations over things like running water. It would randomly go in and out, usually when I was doing my laundry or in the middle of my shower.
And now we are back in a war-torn country. Sierra Leone and Liberia's histories are linked, as are their socioeconomic situations. And again, we are having problems with water. Water mains breaking in town; delays in receiving water deliveries; receiving low-quality water that takes days to treat; unusually high water consumption by the crew. All of this culminated last week and on Thursday the laundry was shut down and we switched to disposables in the dining room. The captain even asked us to avoid showering if possible! Saturday saw the water being shut off completely for a few hours, then slowly back on for cleaning purposes - but no showers allowed. We are even supposed to report improper water usage to the captain!
Today, finally, everything has been reinstated on a limited basis, much to everyone's relief. We must still be cautious and our water situation is still critical, and is likely to remain that way for most of the outreach. We also have no hot water in the cabins to encourage short showers :)
Thankfully none of this has really stressed me out. I was desperate for a shower on Saturday, especially since I hadn't had one for a few days and we came back all sandy and salt-watery from the beach on Saturday to discover there was no water. However, sometimes it is nice to have things in our lives that stretch us, something to break us out of our ordinary routine. And this water situation is one of them.
Please pray with us that the water situation is resolved soon, and that frustrations can be soothed.
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Something i wont miss about Africa
Its an interesting title i know, because surely you would say to me, you will miss everything about Africa!
Well its not totally true, i will miss an awful lot about Africa once im not here, however today i was reminded that i wont miss having to ask the question ...
"So what kind of surface is it that we are playing on?"
Yes indeed, today was another Football match for the AFM football team, and well you never know what to expect in terms of pitch, players or referees.
Today was no different from any other match day! The car ride we found that it was sand, which was no surprise, then it turned out it was the training pitch at the national stadium! (yes we played a game with the national stadium 100 yards away)
It also turned out we were playing a Freetown premier league team or something along those lines, so turns out they play a fair bit!
The pitch was as un even as you can imagine, but it was still very playable compared to some places we have tried to have a football game!
So as you would expect we were under siege from the off, thankfully it took longer than expected for them to open the scoring, thanks to a couple of saves from myself and a couple of last ditch blocks from Ben!
So after 1 came 2 and after 2 came half time, after half time came 3 and after 3 came 4 after 4 i got bored, after i got bored i came out on pitch, after i came out on pitch i set us up a goal, after we scored our goal they scored one more, after that that was that.
So 5-1 loss for the AFM football team, not too bad and not too good with all things considered!
Least it was nice to have a run around! :)
Well its not totally true, i will miss an awful lot about Africa once im not here, however today i was reminded that i wont miss having to ask the question ...
"So what kind of surface is it that we are playing on?"
Yes indeed, today was another Football match for the AFM football team, and well you never know what to expect in terms of pitch, players or referees.
Today was no different from any other match day! The car ride we found that it was sand, which was no surprise, then it turned out it was the training pitch at the national stadium! (yes we played a game with the national stadium 100 yards away)
It also turned out we were playing a Freetown premier league team or something along those lines, so turns out they play a fair bit!
The pitch was as un even as you can imagine, but it was still very playable compared to some places we have tried to have a football game!
So as you would expect we were under siege from the off, thankfully it took longer than expected for them to open the scoring, thanks to a couple of saves from myself and a couple of last ditch blocks from Ben!
So after 1 came 2 and after 2 came half time, after half time came 3 and after 3 came 4 after 4 i got bored, after i got bored i came out on pitch, after i came out on pitch i set us up a goal, after we scored our goal they scored one more, after that that was that.
So 5-1 loss for the AFM football team, not too bad and not too good with all things considered!
Least it was nice to have a run around! :)
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