Back to the New Brookfield's Hotel, Freetown

Thursday, April 26, 2018

First, a note about home: We were very sad last night to learn of the passing of a lovely man in our ward, Jack Regas.  I don’t think any of us expected him to go just yet.  He is most known for his dancing—he was in those older movies with actors like Fred Astaire, dancing in the background or choreographing.  He was kind and fun and we will miss him, along with his wife and daughters and many grandchildren.  We presume he is ‘tripping the light fantastic’!

As we were leaving Kenema we followed Jonathan so he could show us the house he has nearly finished.  It will be used for a missionary couple when they come, which they expect in about 3 months.  Jim gave Jonathan a list of things he needed to fix, and then we happily drove back to Freetown.

The house Jonathan built for couples in Kenema.  They will be here in about three months.  It is quite roomy, has solar panels and even a garage.  It is just behind the chapel that he also built for the Church.  All are enclosed in high walls with razor wire on top.  It has two bathrooms and I think 2-3 bedrooms.  They were taking care of the details while we were there.  Even some of the furniture was inside.  The workers were using a mattress on the floor.  They had one room just for the generators and electrical equipment.  They had a washer and a dryer.  Not all couples get dryers. 

We arrived at my ‘happy place’, the New Brookfield’s Hotel, in the afternoon.  On the way we picked up a few groceries—lunches for the guys for the next few days, and cereal and milk for me so I don’t have to always order something from the hotel restaurant. 

We slept well and then prepared for the day’s activities.  I made sandwiches for the men: Jim, our driver John, Samuel the contractor, and the site monitor Lionel Thomas.  John picked up Jim just before 10 and they met the others at the Church office.  It took a shorter-than-usual day to look at the present spring box project that was not completed by the time E/S Carley’s mission was up.  Elder Carley hired Lionel to visit each site twice monthly for many months to make sure that they completed all that they had agreed to do, both the contractor and the communities.  We have been pleased with his performance.  As he has sent us his reports, we noted that the water committees have sometimes been changed (corruption or lack of doing their job), and he was making sure that they were collecting fees for the water to sustain the projects.  He also had to make sure the contractor completed all of his work and some of the repairs that were needed.  Some of the projects’ concrete had to be poured during the rainy season so he needed to fix those.  Brother Thomas has done an amazing job, so much so that we will be using him to become a manager of the new spring box projects we’ll be submitting for Freetown and also the contractor.  We plan to do 15 wells in Kenema District, which Jonathan will be managing, and 4 spring box developments in Freetown for the 2018 clean water project in Sierra Leone. 

As for lazy and happy me, I did the wash of course, as much as the tub/shower could take; I worked on the trip report for Kenema District; I watched TV, read some of a novel about flying in WWI, and caught up on my reading of Jesus the Christ.  I have no idea where the class is, but presume that I am behind.  I won’t be doing much else, so at first planned on going out with the guys the following day to look at possible future sites. However, my neck was bothering me so I declined. Also, the truck would be too crowded.  The contractor, the driver, Jim, and the site monitor make 4—with me there it would be 3 in the backseat and we have found it to be very tight in this small truck.  I will let Jim sweat for me! (I was glad to be back at the hotel—it was a much longer and hotter day, with lots of sweaty hiking on slippery rocks and Jim was happy that I didn’t go!)

Our driver will be married a week from Saturday.  He has a place that he rents here in the area, which is where they will live, but the wedding will be in Makeni. There will be no honeymoon—there is no money for honeymoons for most Africans.  As it is, he also (besides the dowry) had to buy food for the reception, which he hopes will not get out of hand (invitation only, or else he’d be feeding 500!)

The men returned for the day after having seen all of the spring box projects that Lionel has been working to complete and organize.  At one place Jim was really upset because the people have not taken care of the project.  Some areas were really, really good and he was pleased.  All the rest were doing mostly fine.  A few problems will be able to be resolved with committees not agreeing, separating some into two.  All in all, it is a very good project.  This time of year when it is so dry, people are in long cue lines at some sites.  Some of the projects are really working well and earning lots of money.  Some will do other projects on their own and have already.  Some developed springs have plenty of water even at the end of this dry season.

 This great community enclosed their water tanks in a building with their own money. Their rules are listed on the building.   

Too long a cue in the dry season!

This place never goes dry; people can drive here so they sell lots of water.

 One bad area: filthy, don’t collect money, unorganized, broken taps, but they are still getting water.

Last evening we heard a large commotion and saw that a large group of people were coming into the hotel.  It was a wedding party!!  The groom works at this hotel and they were having their reception here.  I got a picture of the bride.  There is a space outside where they had planned to eat and dance, but shortly after they got settled there arose a huge wind, followed by a thundering rainstorm!  They quickly moved everyone inside the dining area and then called everyone in their rooms to apologize for the loud party, that went fairly late, but it didn’t bother us.  They even suggested that we join them (if it did bother us!). 

The new bride entering the hotel with her wedding party.  I saw the groom earlier—he had on a blue suit with a yellow vest, matching the colors you see in the wedding party.  At first celebrating on the patio, a sudden storm later chased them inside.