New Blog

Hey it's Mike! Since Chelsea and I are here together in SL we figured we needed a new blog with a different name. So here it is:

www.mikeandchelsea.blogspot.com

Be sure to check this blog from now on and don't forget to leave comments, they are much appreciated. C ya later

Rain!

Just to let everyone know, Mike and I are here! We arrived Friday night about 11:30pm by hovercraft. It was like being on a rollercoaster! The waves were really rocking it. We spent Saturday going to the market, restocking our malaria medication, and organizing our stuff. It has been wonderful seeing some of the people that I have missed so much. Mike is loving it. He keeps calling everything "tuff," and he is already speaking krio! There has been downpouring rain randomly, you never know when it's coming! When it does, take cover because it is like a bucket of water being poured over Freetown! Thanks for all your prayers. Thanks be to God for our safe travels and that we are finally here! Bye for now!

Wrapping things up

I hate computers!
I just want to apologize.. There will be no newsletter this month! I am having some technical difficulties..to say the least. I finished the newsletter, and now the computer refuses to allow me to see it or send it. On another note, as I said in my last blog, I have been living in the production room. Good news! I am very close to being done making the supplement.

The UMVIM team
The VIM team arrived early Saturday morning. They were supposed to have come by Friday evening, but the ferry got stuck on a sandbar. They were stuck out in the ocean all night. They got in Saturday at about 5am, slept until noon, then had to get on the road to Taiama. I felt so bad for them, but let me tell you they are troupers! I met up and travelled with the team to Taiama. Everyone arrived in the village in one piece..well almost everyone! The van's window fell out on the way, but the driver pulled over and picked it up off the road, no worries. I left the group Monday afternoon. They were at the Taiama Health Center working hard. Good news, the well that members of the Taiama community have been building outside the clinic is finished! This is a big deal, because now the patients waiting at the clinic all day will have water to drink. Most of the time, mothers walk for miles and are thirsty by the time they reach the clinic. Christiana, the head nurse, was so excited. She said to me,"Look Chelsea, now we can give our patients what they really need!" It still amazes me that something as simple as water is of the highest value for so many people in this world.

Leaving soon...
I am leaving with the team this Friday to come back to the U.S. I am back in Freetown wrapping things up at the office, getting last minute things done, and saying good-bye to friends I have made. I will be back with Mike in July, so it is only good-bye for 3 months. I am so excited about going back and seeing everyone I have missed and to get married, but sad to leave the people I have spent so much time with over the past months.
One of the greatest lessons I have learned while being here is to appreciate the time I have with the people I am around at the moment. It is difficult missing people, but it is even more difficult when you dwell on it to the point it hinders the relationship you have with the people you are around at the present time. I feel such freedom in knowing that God will care for the people that I will not have the opportunity to see for three months while I am away. It is amazing what peace I feel when I can get past being in control of my life and place it in the hands of God wherever that may take me.

I almost forgot!
I ATE MEAT ON A STICK!
I was really hungry coming back from Taiama on Monday, so I did it. I finally ate meat on a stick. Everytime I have been to Taiama, as I ride through Moyamba Junction there are always people out selling this mystery meat on a stick. I always told myself that was something I did not want to try.
So here is how it happened. I was on the road hitch-hiking to get back to Freetown on Monday afternoon. I was worried I would not be able to get back because I was leaving later than when public transportation comes through on its way to Freetown. So I was out in the road when a missionary I knew drove by and stopped for me. Tom and his family are missionaries with the Assemblies of God. He so graciously gave me a ride back. So as we pass Moyamba Junction he says,"Oh yeah we are at the junction! Who wants some meat on a stick." me- "no thank you" Tom- "Okay I will be right back with some for you" -as he jumps out of the truck... He comes back and says, "It's beef today!" So that is how it happened. You know what? It was really good! That was the first time I had had beef since December. I was just trying to be polite and taste a bite. Good thing I tried it. I am never passing by Moyamba Junction again without getting some good ole meat on a stick.

Groundnut paste is coming out of my ears!

I just realized I have not posted on my blog in a while! There is really not a whole lot to tell. I am leaving Sierra Leone April 11, and I will not be back until July. So, I have been making enough supplement to last the Taiama Health Center until I return. 4 months is a bunch of supplement!!! I have been running around town picking up supplies, bringing them to my production room, making as much supplement as possible, then heading back to town for more supplies. The town is such a crazy place! No matter what time of day it is there are always so many people doing business. I like going to bargain for the price of supplies, because at the same time I am improving my krio! It is fun learning the language in such an active and practical manner.

Taiama visit

I was at Taiama healthcenter this last Friday for a follow-up visit from the previous Friday. The clinic has been so busy lately with graduates from the program! To be a graduate means the child has reached his or her ideal weight-for-height of over 85% for two consecutive visits. We graduated five children this past Friday, and the Friday two weeks from now we are expected to graduate about twenty children! Lucy and I are so excited!

Even though the clinic was so successful this visit, it was also a sorrowful visit. I found out that two of our patients died in just a one week time period. They were two little girls named Isata and Elizabeth. Isata contracted malaria along with it came a very high fever that they were unable to break, and Elizabeth passed away in the Bo Government Hospital from typhoid. When I first heard the news, I didn't know how to react. I had seen these two babies a week ago and they were improving on the supplement. Now they are just gone. I was able to go with Lucy and express our sympathy to the mothers. It really is a numbing experience. I mean, you know the high death mortality rates in Sierra Leone, but the numbers don't become people until you actually experience the deaths. The longer I am here, the more I realize the true horror of the state of medical care this country is in. These were just two children we heard about that were connected to the Taiama clinic. What is it like in the outlying villages that have absolutely no access to any type of healthcare? How are we letting this injustice continue? Please pray for the families of these two little girls and the other families that have lost children from preventable deaths.

Electricity!

I remember when I was young the electricity would go out in our house maybe once or twice a year, and it was so exciting! It would usually happen during a storm when lightening struck a power line. My mom, sisters, and I would sit in front of the window with candles and watch the storm. Such happy memories... In Sierra Leone, for the past eleven years, there has seldom been electricity in Freetown. I was talking to my landlord's wife, Mrs. Assad, about the problem with electricity here. This morning she was explaining to me that since the war, during which the power lines were destroyed, most of Freetown has had absolutely no electricity. In our area, the Assads would have electricity about twice a month. Anyone who can afford diesel relies on generators for power. Most people use lanterns and candles. Walking home at night in the busy city feels so strange, because the roads are dark except for car lights and candles from the street vendors.
Upland of course doesn't ever have electricity. Bo and McKennie do, but it is also unreliable like Freetown. Since December the National Power Authority (NPA) has been much better! I have had electricity in my apartment almost every night! It is so exciting to be able to do simple things like cook dinner, take a shower, and brush my teeth with light. It is funny to think that now I dread the power going out when during my childhood this was such a treat! Now that I know what it is like to be without electricity, I realize how fortunate I am when I do have it.

Learning and Growing

A few months ago I read a book by Dietrich Bonhoeffer entitled Life Together. Something I read in it really stuck with me, but at the time I wasn't sure why. He explains that being a christian, makes being in the presence of the community of believers an uncommon luxury. I really didn't understand what he meant by that. Now I think I know what he is saying. For Bonhoeffer, he was imprisoned for many many years by the Nazis. So of course, having the opportunity to experience the body of Christ must have been a rare occurence. I have been thinking about how I knew God was first calling me into the ministry. It was a gradual call, but I always felt it strongest among Christians who loved, supported, and encouraged my growth in Christ. I realize now that God was using these times to strengthen my faith, to give me a strong foundation for the many times in life where I would be without this supportive community. Times when I would be "in the mission field."

I have begun to redefine what it means to be a missionary. My job right now is to direct the Peanut Butter Project in Sierra Leone. I am a christian, so I am a missionary at all times no matter what circumstances I am in. I am not to dwell on missing the times of fellowship with family, friends, and mentors, but I am to trust that the community of believers is doing their job at being God's example to the world. I have to think about the here and now of what God is calling me to do daily. Of course this is enough in itself! I am to continue understanding the true meaning of love. The true power of Christ's perfect love as he died for us. And when I do have the opportunity to be with those who share my faith, then I can enjoy it with the knowledge that God is strengthening and preparing me for the work ahead.

Summing up the trip

What a wonderful trip to East Africa! It was interesting to see another african country on the other side of the continent. What I didn't expect were so many differences between the two countries. Many people, myself included, tend to categorize all of africa as the same. Since traveling through I have definitely seen how rich africa is in the variety of cultures, customs, and beliefs among the different countries. There is even a difference in the way mothers use lappas to hold babies on their backs! Each country is unique in the way the people dress, greet one another, the landscape, and climate. As far as weather is concerned, it was a shock to the system going to Malawi where the rainy season is ending and coming back to Sierra Leone in the midst of the dry season. I went from green and tropical to dry and dusty! Both countries have such unique beauty but it is good to be home.

The rest of my training and time spent in Malawi went great. We worked hard, getting up at 4:30am and sometimes screening up to 300 children in one day! I learned in more detail how the screening process needs to go in order for it to run best. I got training in all aspects of it. I had lots of practice in using the scale, measure mats, distributing the supplement, and checking for edema with the nurses. My last weekend in Malawi was spent at Lake Malawi! It was such a great trip! We had an adventure getting there... Put it this way,we were five girls packed in a car with a Lonely Planet book and verbal directions from Malawians along the road as our way of reaching the destination. We ended up traveling into the night along a dirt road with high elephant grass growing on both sides of it and absolutely no street lights in sight! One man described the way using hand gestures as he said, "Well you're going to go this way, that way, and then this way..." I still can't believe we made it! The first night, just as we were pulling up to the backpackers' lodge where we would spend the night our vehicle got stuck in some deep sand. That is how close we were to the lake though! You could hear the hippos! After that night everything went as smooth as silk. We got to go swimming, snorkeling, and for a boat ride where we saw eagles. The snorkeling was amazing. The lake has 600 different types of fish and they were a variety of colors and sizes.

I am so thankful to have had such great training from Danielle, Johanna, the nurses, and Liyacka during my time spent in Malawi. I am so excited about implementing what I have learned to the program in Sierra Leone. Thank you for your prayers for my safety during the travels. They are appreciated!

In Malawi!

My travel to Malawi went smoothly.  Thank you for all the prayers!  I arrived Wednesday evening and stayed with the factory manager, Liyaka and his family.  On Thursday I went to the Project Peanut Butter factory.  It was amazing! I got to observe the factory workers making literally tons of the RUTF!  Liyaka took me on a tour and explained everything from how the factory runs to the delivery of the RUTF to the numerous project sites.  The factory, in addition to the RUTF with powdered milk, is now making a RUTF using soy as a substitute for the milk.  This food is being used for moderate malnutrition and achieving the same amazing results.  The soy is locally grown, so this makes the supplement a quarter of the price that it costs to use the milk.  

I am staying with two awesome girls that have been in charge of the project.  Danielle has been doing the project since July and has been a part of Project Peanut Butter since the beginning. She knows the project inside out.  I couldn't have asked for a better teacher and resource to train me and answer all my questions. Johanna came last month and will be here for two.  She is a MD, so she is able to contribute to the program enormously.  The three of us and the nurses went to two of the project sites on Friday.  Johanna, Chrissy (one of the nurses), and me went to Phanda in Mwanza.  The clinic site was set up under a tree!  Johanna taught me how to check for children with oedema using physical cues.  I couldn't believe how much I was able to learn on my first day on the field.

Saturday we hiked Machiru mountain.  It was beautiful!  It was a 1,478 meters high and had the most amazing view!  The bottom of the mountain was grasslands with the sun shining brightly, but by the time we made it to the top we were hiking along the heavily forested trail through clouds.  When we reached the peak, looking down into the valleys and out to the other mountains was an incredible site.  It was beautiful to see the mountain peaks cutting into the clouds and how the sun beams hit different areas of the valley below.  Malawi has such ascetic beauty!  After we hiked back down the mountain we were worn out!   We went and had fresh mango juice, yum! It was another great day.  

Beginning on Monday I will be going out in the field again with Danielle and Johanna.  I am so excited about all I will be able to learn from them!

Off to Malawi!

The nutrition clinic at Taiama last week couldn't have gone better! Lucy and I had a great turn-out of returners. All of these children had gained weight, and some as much as three pounds! You could actually see a physical difference in the children. It is exciting to see how quickly they are thriving from the supplement. I took pictures of two of the patients that graduated from the program. I am at an internet cafe right now, so I am unable to post them. Hopefully I will be able to in a couple of weeks.

I am leaving for Malawi today! Dr. Manary, who began Project Peanut Butter in Malawi has invited me to come to his factory and clinic sites for a two week training period. What a blessing! I will be working and learning from the people who run the program there. I will learn how to screen and diagnose malnourished children and how to run our production of the supplement more efficiently. I will also learn how to train people to do the screening and monitoring of the children. I will be on the worksite the entire time, so I am not sure how my access to the internet will be. I will post if I have the chance! I am thrilled about this special opportunity to learn exactly how and what to do in order to use the knowledge I have for the program in Sierra Leone. Blessings!

The Most Useful Invention Ever

The lappa is by far the most useful material ever invented. It is a simple piece of fabric that the women tie around their waist as a long skirt. The women also use the lappas to carry children on their backs and wrapped up on their head to carry items. I have seen a woman use a lappa to lie down on as a mat. Many use them as tablecloths. They use the garment to clean-up messes that their children make, then, the lappa being made out of cotton, can be easily washed. Lappas are beautiful with and can be found in an assortment of colors and patterns. Every Friday at the CHASL office we have traditional African dress day. I have a lappa I wear, and I have to say it is the most comfortable article of clothing I have! The picture below is a woman from Lunsar, a town in Sierra Leone. She is using three lappas: one to carry the child, another to carry the bucket on her head, and the other as a skirt.

I will be heading to Taiama today to hold the child malnutrition clinic on Thursday and Friday with Lucy, the local healthcare worker. I will be taking 120 kilograms of RUTF (ready-to-use therapeutic food) with me! I will be back on Friday evening. Peace!

Dry and Dusty...

In Sierra Leone, the dry season lasts from December to May. When I returned January 1, I found everything much dryer than I left it! As we traveled up country to Taiama there were small bush fires along the road. It is so dry that the grasses catch fire. These fires hardly ever disturb villages. They naturally go out just as the start. During the dry season, there is a time called harmattan. This is when cool, dry winds blow in from the Sahara Desert. These winds carry the dust and dirt, and sometimes the air is so dusty that it is difficult to breathe. Many children and adults have respiratory problems from breathing in the dust. I need to comment on all the emails I have received asking if I saw David Beckham while he was in Sierra Leone. Of course I did! I went and visited Makeni with him, and that's where I got this picture!!!! Okay, just kidding. I tried to track him down, but the closest I got to him was this picture from the internet. Beckham was in Makeni at a UNICEF supported therapeutic feeding centre. This is a picture of him with a child being weighed. GOTCHA!

Production Time!

I'm no Rachel Ray...

The mixer in action! 65 kilograms packed and ready for Taiama!

Last week on the road to Taiama

I haven't updated what has been going on with the production/storage room in a while. As I explained in my newsletter, I have a mixer! It was an exciting accomplishment that only took 3 MONTHS! Over the month of December, Mike and I visited Dr. Manary, Zach, and Micah in St. Louis. We practiced making batches of the supplement using different percentages of the ingredients to find just the right consistency for the mixture. Since I have been back, I have been mixing batches left and right with a lot of help from Lindsay. When the team of missionaries were here, we ran into a problem. The CMV (mineral-vitamin complex) ran out! We ended up crushing children's vitamins and making due with that. A couple of days ago Lindsay and I went by UNICEF and explained the problem of not having any CMV. We asked to borrow one tin of it until we could get more. The nutritionist at UNICEF had a nearby government hospital donate 2 cases (12 tins) of CMV to the nutrition program! What a blessing! This week we are working on alternative ways of making groundnut paste, using a combination of palm oil and vegetable oil for the supplement, and having a metal table made for the mixer. The production room is coming right along...

Survival is Tough in Sierra Leone

Check out this article that was forwarded to me by Dr. Joe Geary. It does an excellent job of explaining the state of healthcare in Sierra Leone and the effects the lack of healthcare has on mothers, infants, and children.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/2/hi/health/7202278.stm

Just wanted to post a quick update....
Lindsay and I made65 kilograms of the peanut butter supplement yesterday. Whew! It is so nice to have her here to help! This afternoon we are leaving for Taiama. The nutrition clinic will be going on Friday, and Saturday we will be working on the supplementary feeding kitchen. We will also be doing a follow-up visit to the Bo hospital to check on the patients that were referred there last week by the VIM medical team.

I really will be posting pictures soon! :)

VIM Trip 2008

VIM trip 2008 to Sierra Leone is ending as I am blogging. All my new missionary friends have departed from the Gatwick airport and are on their way home. This week I had the opportunity to see what an impact 16 people could have on the village of Taiama. So here is a brief report on what the team did during their time in Taiama. Taiama farms had some important improvements made. The agriculture team checked on all the livestock, bought some essential tools for the farmers, and obtained a pump to begin an irrigation project. The construction team had some barriers this week, James Ross even hit one with his head! They were able to do a lot of painting and get supplies going for reconstructing the village's United Methodist Church. This will allow the people of Taiama to get a lot done on the church themselves. The medical team saw and treated 406 patients during the week! The pharmacy worked so hard, and most days finished working last trying to keep up with the patient load. As we saw a huge number of patients receive the medical care they desperately needed, we also saw the number of patients never decrease. This showed us what a need for medical care the community has. The Peanut Butter Project made four batches of the supplement, and I had to refer others to come back to the clinic when I return on January 18th. We were able to further train the local healthcare worker, Lucy, on more specifics of the program such as how to distinguish a healthy child from a malnourished child based on physical cues. Our photographer, Tony, despite feeling under the weather by the end never stopped snapping! Thanks to him our trip is well documented. As you can see, we had a busy but productive trip, Praise God! I also praise God that the team trip ended when it did, because I think the rice and African sun was making some of our beloved team members looney! They had begun to make animal masks for eachother and that is all I have to say about that! You can use your imagination! Thank you for your prayers and support for the VIM 2008 team. I should have pictures of the trip up as soon as possible! Lindsay and I are here in Freetown going strong and ready to get back to work Monday morning.

Back in Action!

Happy New Year! The Paris UMC Volunteers in Mission team and I brought in the new year flying somewhere between Atlanta and London and arrived in Freetown last night! It is wonderful to be back and have the opportunity to share the experience with so many awesome people. There are so many things I missed about Sierra Leone (pretty much everything but the monkey meat). The team and I are headed up country to Taiama for a week. The team will work in many different areas of outreach including a medical clinic, agriculture, constrution, and nutrition. It will be amazing to see what the Taiama community and VIM team will learn from eachother as we come together as the Body of Christ.