Looking back at 2012

It has been nearly a year since I posted something here. This does not mean that there has been nothing going on. The picture has been changing all the time and often too fast moving to record here.
That includes events in our church in Derby as well as in Freetown.

Visits that did not take place!
 We had hoped to welcome both Pastor Samuel Kargbo and his brother, Alpha, to England at different times in the year. This would have allowed us to review where we are at and give them an idea of the current vision of our church.

                                Samuel Kargbo, Pastor of Faith Baptist Church, Wellington

Samuel was due at the end of May, when he proposed to stop off for a few days on route to the United States to be awarded a doctorate. Unfortunately he was refused an entry visa on the grounds that he had failed to show that he had enough money to support himself in the UK. This is in spite of our invitation latter stating that we would be responsible for his accommodation, meals and transport.

Alpha Kargbo,  Head Teacher and Development Co-ordinator

Alpha was due to come in a party of 27 teachers to visit their twinned schools in Hull. He had problems with a passport apparently and when I wrote to the school in Hull I received the reply,

"I'm sorry to say that Alpha will not be coming to England in the near future as he missed his flight. We were told that he was collecting his passport on the 19th and to book a flight for Sunday 23rd which we did. Unfortunately, due to a breakdown in communication, we were not informed until the day of the flight that Alpha had not got his passport by which time it was too late to get a refund on the flight so the money was lost." 

I don't know the details of this, but the upshot has been that the Greenway Primary School has linked with a different school in Freetown, which has been distressing for Alpha. I hope he has learnt something from it.


No trip from Derby to Freetown in 2012.

The primary focus of this trip would have been follow up to the healthcare teaching and the micro-enterprise. We had considered going at Easter, but the normal pattern of church services would have left little time for our teaching programme.

a)  Healthcare
After our visit in 2011 we were concerned that the people who came to the community health care teaching were, in the main, not prepared to take the knowledge they gained into the community unless they were paid to do so. That was not an option. Our teachers also saw that the professional medical staff who were there, clinic nurses etc., were knowledgeable and probably as capable of teaching the community as we are. I asked Samuel and the team in Freetown whether there is much point in continuing as we have been? Might it be taught better to teach primary health care through the school, or the scouts? Do we say we have done our bit and leave it as it is, or does it need more time?

b)  Micro-enterprise
This appeared to be doing well. Some new clients had just been taken on and “reports of the new clients will be sent once we are through with the verification process. We did not gave them the money before Christmas for fear that they would have used it for dress and food and done nothing with the intended purpose.

A client who was able to increase her selection of herbs and spices to attract more customers  and thereby support her family.

The old clients are doing fine with their repayment and there are no defaulters."

There was nothing that seemed to need our immediate help and it has been a good time to take a step back and see how we can best serve the communities of Looking Town, Kissy and Wellington in the future. We hope to be back before too long!