Not Just an Eye Infection

This Tuesday we had to go to an eye clinic in a neighbouring village, Sarah had an eye infection that we needed to get checked out. Many of the children have pink eye and it’s almost impossible to keep from getting it ourselves. The eye clinic is run by the Catholic Mission, it was a very interesting experience being in a mission clinic here. Since it is free to go to the clinic everyone that came with us also had their eyes checked. So our driver got glasses(which is a good thing), the nurse got new glasses… We were kind of wondering if Sarah was the real reason we went or if it was just an excuse.
On our way back to Ngolola we stopped at a market to get some vegetables and while there, the nurse who had come with us was made aware of a baby across the street that was severely malnourished. The family of the baby had given up hope and had already laid out the death mat for the baby. We ended up taking the mother and baby back with us so that they baby could be treated at the clinic. As we drove over the bumpy road back, I prayed that God would spare this one’s life. Praise the Lord, we made it back safe and in just one day the baby’s health had improved so much. There was life in his eyes again. As humans we have our own plans of what we will be doing day to day, but God in His mercy has His own plan. And His plan for Tuesday was not to go to the eye clinic and have Sarah’s eyes checked, but to save that baby’s life.

Life

"And a little child will lead them all" Isaiah 11:6

Mama Jenneh & Auntie Isata

These are two of the most beautiful women who help our time here run smoothly. Auntie I is the best cook in the whole cheifdom, maybe even the whole country. Every morning we wake up to the sound of her voice saying, "Good morning my sisters." This week she taught us how to make cassava leave, which is the local staple and ground nut, which is the African word for peanuts. We then took the ground nut and made our own peanut butter, which has become one of our staples.
Then we have Mama Jenneh, with the talking eyes. Since communication is a barrier for us, Mama Jenneh speaks to us through eyes. Sometimes we have a hard time deciphering what she is saying, but always there is such love in those eyes. Mama Jenneh makes sure that our clothes, that seem to get dirty within seconds of putting them on, are always clean and fresh.

What a Week!

Every three months Sarah and I have to take de-worming medicine to rid our bodies of any worms that may have found their way into our bodies. So on Sunday we decided to have a little de-worming party, complete with gummie worms and chocolate pudding. I hope it worked!








We seem to have adopted some children while being here. Brima- is a five year old boy who is being treated at the malnourish baby clinic. When we first met Brima, he would barely look at us. But on Monday, we broke his shell and now he's never really apart from us(except at night). We've started taking him to school with us and he has really blossomed in the last five days. It's amazing what a little love will do. David and Sudie- are two children that live in our compound. Both their parents have died and so Sarah and I have loved spoiling them these past two weeks.

In school this week, we've started reading groups with the class six students and the class five students. One problem we've noted is that many of the children don't know how to read and they've never been given proper instruction in reading and phonics. So Sarah and I are trying to fill in the gaps for these students and also trying to impress on the teachers the importance of phonics intstruction. Much of the instruction is based on memorization, so these children have been taught to memorize but they have no idea what they are memorizing, let alone, what it means. An example of this is that sometimes when we ask them a question, they just repeat it back!

On Wednesday we accompanied the pastor to a neighboring village to do evangelizing and attend a baptism class they are conducting for new believers. Sarah had the opportunity to meet the town cheif and witness to him. It was quite an experience for her and we hope and pray that some of what she said will get through.

We've had a great week and are continuing to love it here. Please pray for the children here and the teachers. Pray that the teachers would have open ears to what we have to share and the willingness to try it in their classrooms. Please pray for Brima, he is continuing to improve but once he leaves this program we're not sure if he will go back to the way he was or if he will be cared for and provided for.

Banta

We are now up country in Banta, which most of you would probably consider the bush! It is truly amazing here and I can't even begin to describe it to you. So I will try to tell you through pictures.

This is a picture of the village, Ngalala, which is a predominantly Muslim community. Most houses are made out of mud and a thatched roof. Whenever we enter the village, in seconds everyone knows we are there and all the children come running!

This is morning devotions before school starts. Most of these children come from Muslim homes and so the fact that their parents allow them to go to a Christian school is truly a miricle. There are about 330 children in a one room school! And although you would think that there is no way that children can really learn in that environment, they do and they are so eager to learn! COTN also has a feeding program, so each day the children receive a meal of rice and either cassava leaf (the local staple) or ground nut(peanut) stew and a cup of milk.

Walking Chairs

Each day the children bring the chairs from the school to the head teachers house. As you can see it is quite a funny sight!

The School

This is another branch of the feeding program where mothers can bring their malnurished babies and go through a four month program where they learn how to make a porridge out of local foods(cassava, fish, ground nut, rice) that has the proper nutrients these babies need. Many mothers do not nurse their babies long enough, consequently the babies are not getting the nutrients they need to grow properly so part of this program also teaches mothers how to nurse and then the correct way to ween the babies at the proper time.

These are the cutest neighbors you could ever have! We have adopted David and Jennifer as our new children since we've left our other 87 children in Freetown! I hope my bag is big enough!

The Freetown Teachers

This is at one of our teacher in-services. We taught the teachers how to make guacamole! Yes, this really does have something to do with teaching. We used it to demostrate the fact that we learn more by doing rather than just being told something. The teachers had a lot of fun and in was very funny listening to them try to pronounce guacamole!

Sarah and I in our lovely green uniforms and the three nursery school teachers in Freetown