Monday, August 1, 2016
The most amazing things are
happening in Sierra Leone and Liberia.
We knew that after the Ebola crisis began all the missionaries were sent
to other countries, young and old; we also heard that they had continued to
baptize. When we last were in Kenema
they had just split the branch into two, and that was 4 years ago. They now have 7 Branches! They are baptizing so quickly that training
must be more than a challenge! That is why
we were so happy to see that a few couples have arrived; one is already in Bo
(Sherwood’s) and the other is Corbaley’s who will come to Kenema when the house
is ready for them. Soon Carley’s will go
to Makeni where he will be doing ‘double duty’ as the humanitarian couple and
trainers on the weekends. They just had a
family unit in Makeni when we were last here and had put in 50 wells, and now
they have three Branches. The Stake in
Freetown is under the Stake President, but they often consult President Clawson
when they have questions or problems that they can’t handle. They are after all, a very new Stake.
Mosquitoes just love me and this
time of year in the rainy season there are more of them than usual. I keep myself sprayed even after I shower,
which I hate doing, but if I don’t they find a spot to bite me. If I leave a spot on the back of my hand they
find it. They like to bite my face
because I am loathe to apply too much there.
We decided (Amarachi and me) that they will be in Hell along with the
flies. She wonders why they need
something around here that devastates the population. Everyone gets malaria and often little
children and babies die from it, and occasionally adults. Life is not fair anyway, and then there was
Ebola.
We talked a lot about what it was
like here during the crises, such as when Kenema was quarantined for over a
year. No one could go in or out of
Kenema unless they were transporting fuel or food. People were frightened if they got so much as
a stomach ache or a fever for fear someone would ‘turn them in’ and they would
take them to the Ebola hospital where they would
get sick! All the good doctors, the ones
that the Cobinah’s used, died. Now they
have no good obstetricians and they have tried to get rid of all the midwives
saying that they can’t operate in the country.
They are the only ones qualified now to deliver. The unqualified doctors cause the death of many
new babies because they don’t know what to do.
Amarachi used a midwife to deliver her last baby. Her midwife will get a license and be able to
open a clinic with a doctor that is an obstetrician and so they will have
someone to rely upon. When anyone got
malaria, they didn’t treat it so they often died, thinking everything was
Ebola. If you threw up you’d have to
hide so that neighbors would not turn you in for fear. One woman was pregnant and had morning sickness
so they took her to the hospital; luckily they put her in another part of the
hospital till they discovered the real problem and let her out. I can’t even imagine how frightening this
must have been. When Cobinah’s baby got
sick for a week they hid him away and then he finally got better. She is so relieved that things are finally
beginning return to normal. We are so
blessed, are we not?
Monday is our last
night in Kenema. We had a nice visit
with many of those children who live with now or are there temporarily or in
the past with the Cobinah’s. There was
Sonny that is Jonathan’s nephew that stopped by. He is now 20.
He is still there. There is a
girl, now 17, that is Amarachi’s niece.
Her brother died and the mom didn’t want her. There are several others so that at any given
time they could have 20 people living with them, some temporarily and some for
Amarachi, Jonathan, a
niece, a niece; a nephew, a niece, a niece, Jimmy.
Sonny, a nephew with two nieces. They come and go.
the long haul, at least for a
time. I don’t know how they keep it all
straight. They have a lot of pressure on
them at church (he is the District President and she is the Branch Primary
President). Taking care of all those
people has got to be difficult, but somehow they do it. I have to hand it to them.
Jessica, left, is back
with her birth mom but had lived for most of her years with Amarachi. She came just to visit us. Alberta has been with Amarachi nearly since
birth.
Amarachi doing Amarachi,
Jr.’s hair. Jessica and Alberta miss
each other.
I am happy to be going back to
the hotel in Freetown to an especially nice hotel. There are a lot of reasons to be happy about
it such as a showerhead that is amazing and the spray isn’t weak; they leave
the power on all the time; there is more than chicken and rice to choose from
to eat; the mattress is wonderful; they clean your room; they change your
towels—but the real reason I am anxious to get back there is because we never
saw one mosquito in our room. Here, it
is a battle. Amarachi says that if it
rains off and on you get lots of them; when it rains hard all the time they are
not there. We have brought with us those battery operated wands that look like
tennis rackets and when you push the button and hit a mosquito, it sizzles
them. It is our only revenge.
Monday we went to a
new area, about 3 hours up the road to a place called Kailahun. The Mission President is trying to get a
legitimate Branch started up there. They
have a number of members that live there, but there are many more non-members
that attend Church, so they are trying to get the Priesthood organized so that
they can begin to function properly; but even when the President visits their
meetings he says that they operate as they should—go figure! He thought that perhaps the Church would
consider putting in a water project in the area. We went unannounced and without badges. When they see us they think something might
happen, and we don’t want to give any false hopes. We just looked around to see if anything might be
feasible. Amarachi & Jonathan and
Jim and I and one other guy from the church and Amarachi’s little boy Jim went
together. Jim was finally feeling a
little better today; the peak of his cold we hope was yesterday. Perhaps the vitamin C is working.
Not only did we have a
hard time staying on this road, the bikes were really in trouble! Underneath the mud was a very rough road!
When they first said that we were
going to take this drive, I said I would stay home to do more wash. I should have gone with my first
thought. After a grueling 3 hour drive,
looking around for 15-20 minutes, I wondered why I had gone. The first hour and a half was delightful—we
were traveling on a road made by China, so it was a good one. The only problem was that there were a lot of
really small villages along the way so they had large speed bumps on both ends
of the towns, which slowed us down a lot.
But the big problem was when we got to the 17 miles of dirt road that we
knew was coming. What we didn’t know was
that the jungle is high on both sides of the road, which makes it so that it
does not dry out but instead collects rain water. The road was so muddy that we had to use the
4-wheel drive almost the entire way. It
wasn’t just muddy in spots, but there were long sections of it. The problem was that if we slipped off the
road into a ditch we’d need 20 guys to put us back on the road, and during the
worst stretches there weren’t any people to be seen. You’d think it would be nice and soft under
the mud, but there lurked many dangers—boulders to high-center you and ruts
that caused the car to lurch wildly. I
don’t know if I felt sorrier for us or for Jonathan’s car. We kept praying we’d make it, and then
realized we had to do this all over again on the way out! Luckily, even though it rained off and on,
the huge daily downpour didn’t start till after we’d gotten back. After we got to the actual town we saw that
it was beautifully paved! Some say that
sometime in the near future they will work on this stretch, but not now during
the rainy season. So, after our quick
look-see, it did seem shorter leaving the slog; we got home at 4 PM. I really do have lots of wash and I really
wish I had stayed back to do it! End
result, Jim felt as though they should do an Area water project and have Elder
Carley look at it.
We finally get to
Kailahun and it is beautifully paved! We
hope the Chinese finish the road up to the town someday!
The people trying to
start a Branch here are meeting in this school.
The man who helped get this location lives right across from the
school. They have way more non-members
than members that are attending these meetings.
Tomorrow, back to Freetown!
Farewell to Kenema and dear
friends, for who knows how many more years!
But Jonathan at least is coming with us to check on the Freetown water
project that got a bit messed up while everyone was out of the country. This will not be a happy time for us.
Love, Jim & Karen
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