I'm back, I'm in Middelburg...

Okay, I’m back again. Nope, no excuses, just had other things to do. So, I have a lot to catch you up on and to make things easy on me, I’ll start with where I’m at now, then back track. That means that you’ll have to wait just a little bit longer for those wedding shots.

I’m in Middelburg, The Netherlands right now visiting family and friends. I’m here for another 8 days. My how time flies. Anyway, it’s good to be here and quite relaxing. Just too bad we’ve had so much rain. It’s been great seeing my nieces again. Zoey is now 2 ½ and Esmee is 8 months old. So cute!

Biggest event here so far was my 30th birthday. Yikes, that does sound different. Well, we were fortunate to have the sun stop by and had a lovely barbeque with friends and family. And thanks to all of those who sent cards etc. It was a special day.

More updates soon. Colorado, Texas, wedding. Stay tuned.

Parker, Colorado...

Greetings from Colorado!

I arrived in CO today and am here until Monday visiting friends and the church that has supported me over the past 2 years. So far I am having a great time.

The past 12 days in TX have been VERY busy with lots of wedding excitement: the wedding shower, Tate-Lako-bridal party dinners, bachelorette party, shopping, lists, rehearsal, pool party rehearsal dinner, wedding day itself, brunch the morning after etc. What more can I say? The wedding was absolutely amazing!

Don't worry - I'll send a more detailed update on my TX & CO trips soon...with pictures of course. But seeing as things continue to be busy, you'll have to be patient....

Vacation...

The week before I left Freetown was absolutely crazy… getting ready to leave, handing over to a German pediatrician, running the house etc. There had been a lot of transition at our house and I realized I was the only one at the house that had been there for more than 3 months! Crazy. So I was the trouble shooter for laundry problems, questions from the guards, checking the fuel levels for the generators, internet trouble, etc. And then of course there was clinic too, which kept me at work till about 8pm one night. The night before I left however, I did manage to get my laundry done, go to International Bible Study, prepare a guest room (for someone arriving while I am gone), and finally pack! My vacation was about to begin…

Well, the craziness continued the day I was flying out. I went to work at 730am and started seeing patients in the clinic as usual. Of course, there were many last minute things that needed to get done. I decided I would stop seeing patients at 3pm, which I did, but my last patient was one with malnutrition and needed lab work done. While waiting for the results I took a quick cold shower- since I had been sweating all day. I was supposed to leave at 415. Sure enough, at 410 the lab result arrived; just in time. I treated the child and left the rest of the patients for the pediatrician who is covering for me. It is kind of strange to leave everything behind…

The trip was pretty uneventful, although I did have to hurry to catch the flight from Newark to Dallas. The most exciting part of the flight was probably the dinner with a juicy piece of beef brisket, baby carrots and broccoli. Sad I know, but it had been 6 months since I’d had those veggies : )

Steef and Genae met me at Dallas airport which was great! We took a long route home (stopping at the mall first and Cheddars!). About 36 hours after leaving Aberdeen I arrived at my final destination…ready for the wedding week to begin!

The Rights of a Child in Sierra Leone...

Seeing as yesterday was “The Day of the African Child” I thought I would post something about new developments here in Sierra Leone regarding Child Rights…

UN Welcomes Child Rights Bill in Sierra Leone (UN News Service (New York), 13 June 2007)

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has welcomed new legislation protecting the rights of the young in Sierra Leone, where they suffer disproportionately from poverty and other social ills. The National Child Rights Bill, approved by the Sierra Leone Parliament last week, is a "huge step forward for children's rights," the agency said in a news release. Superseding all other existing national laws, the legislation offers an opportunity for aligning Sierra Leone with international rights standards for children, according to UNICEF.

With non-discrimination as one of the guiding principles of the Bill, it provides the overall framework for ensuring adequate standards of care for all children in Sierra Leone. These include prohibition of early marriage, of conscription of children in to the armed forces, the right to a name and nationality, free and compulsory education, protection against domestic violence and child trafficking, structures and systems for the protection of children at village and chiefdom levels, as well as protection against harmful traditional practices affecting children including female genital mutilation.

"The implementation of the Child Rights Bill provides us with an operational framework for the roll-out of child rights in Sierra Leone," said the UNICEF Representative Geert Cappelaere. The Bill "marks for all children in Sierra Leone one of the most significant events since the end of the war in 2002," said the Representative. "It is clear also from discussions in Parliament that many more efforts are needed to ensure a fully fledged culture of children's rights in all parts of society."

Poverty is endemic in Sierra Leone, which was ranked 176 out of 177 countries listed in the UN's Human Development Index. Infant mortality is estimated at 158 per 1,000 live births, under-five mortality rate at 267 per 1,000 and maternal mortality rate at 1,077 per 100,000 live births - all among the highest rates in the world.

Children are exposed to violence, exploitation, abuse and deprivation. Almost one half of children aged 5-14 years are engaged in some form of child labour. About 11 per cent of children are orphans and 20 per cent do not live with their biological parents.

UNICEF said despite this bleak picture, "much progress has been made," citing increased immunization coverage rates and the Government's commitment to give priority attention to cutting child and maternal mortality.

Our very own health education videos...

The Mercy Ship's outpatient clinic’s mission is to serve as a primary care facility for the children of Aberdeen and greater Freetown. Most of what I do in the clinic is diagnosing/treating the sick children. However, this is not the only focus of the clinic. Most illnesses seen at the clinic are readily preventable, making health education an important part of the clinic’s mandate. We have also implemented the national immunization program to aid in the prevention of disease.

Due to the high patient load in the clinic, the nurses no longer have time to sit down and teach the patients/caretakers during clinic hours. This is unfortunate, because you can’t find a more perfect time to teach these parents- they are sitting with their sick child, waiting to see the doctor, and might not need to come for the same illness next time, if they know how to prevent it!

So, we came up with the brilliant idea of making our own educational videos. I chose two topics- diarrhea/ORS & malaria and wrote outlines for the skits. I then asked my national staff (3 nurses & a receptionist) to come up with a full script (in Krio) and present it to me in the form of a play. Our communications ‘officer’ filmed the plays, each at a different location in the Aberdeen community. After some hours of editing we soon found ourselves with 2 top-notch educational videos.

It was a great experience; fun to see it through from start to finish, entertaining to watch it being filmed, exciting to see the finished products. What can I say? I’m proud of my staff and I am sure this will be a great tool!


On the left- a patient of mine- who lives in this community and came to take a look!
On the right- one of our staff's relatives - who actually stars in the malaria video

Sierra Leonean wedding...

Three of our employees got married in the past 5 weeks. Needless to say we got a good taste of what Sierra Leonean weddings are like J See for yourself…

Harriet and myself in our 'wedding outfits'. Yes, all Mercy Ships staff wore similar outfits...that is, the same material. It's amazing how many different styles you can come up with. At least we didn't have to decide what to wear for each wedding.

Last week's wedding. The wedding couple and the bridesmaids. This is our seamstress' wedding. She made her own wedding dress!

This is at the second wedding we attended. Bridesmaids walking up the aisle. Note the little colored flags hanging from the ceiling- this seemed to be a recurring decorative style.

Also similar in all of the weddings was when the couple had to stand at the front to perform their first duty: time for an offering. Actually, make that two offerings. The first one was for the church, the second one is for the couple. Aisle by aisle people go forward with their donation.

Typical shot at a SL wedding...the bouquet of artificial flowers, the glove, the ring, painted nails...It actually does look quite amazing.

Sad news from my Aberdeen neighbors...

I’m happy it’s Friday evening; it’s been a good but tiring week. We ended our work day at a beach ‘bar’, visiting with friends who just came back from the USA. It was a great way to end the week, amazed again by the sunset.

On a different note- I was saddened today. I was walking from the beach road to the center and stopped to visit my two little ‘running buddy’ friends on the way. I used to go running frequently and would run past them, stopping briefly to play. However, the runs have been non-existent lately, so I decided to drop in.

Usually the kids are outside playing or taking baths, mom is preparing dinner and father is sitting outside with their 4 month old son. Not today. I was deeply saddened to find out from family that the father died last week; very suddenly, in the middle of the night. I went inside to talk to the mom. She was sitting in their dark one-room shack, with her baby boy lying next to her and one of her other children eating dinner. It was hard to know what to say. Words just weren’t enough. The words “osh ya” mean “sorry”. It sounded very cheap. But I hope that she knows I genuinely care and feel her sorrow. I hope to stop by there again in the next few days.

Unfortunately this story is just one of many that take place here everyday.

Beginning of rainy season...

The pictures say enough…rainy season has started!

Rainy season = getting wet!!! It also means: less beach trips, more/bigger potholes, the permanent presence of my rain jacket and/or umbrella, staff arriving late to work, flooded streets, watching people being carried across flooded streets, patients coming in soaked, lots of thunder and lightning, the impressive sound of a huge storm at night, leaking roofs (for our staff), deserted roads during a storm and traffic jams when it clears up, slippery walkways at the center, rain water collection, dashing to the car, weekends at the house, requests for raingear and hopefully some rainbows now and then. That pretty much sums up rainy season : )