It's getting nearer!

In just over a week eleven people will fly to Freetown to implement Community Healthcare Training for leaders and influencers in the Wellington and Kissy areas. It is a large and varied team that has come together. I am the only one that has been to Sierra Leone before, although some are familiar with other parts of Africa. We shall tackle the issues that the community see as their most pressing concerns and will help the leaders to formulate plans to bring about change in their communities. The modular programme that we are following has been successful in many parts of the world. Nelson Mandela specifically asked for it to be taken to his home village in South Africa.

Linden Boothby from the charity Links International in Sussex is guiding us through whatever may be seen as the initial problems to tackle.

Linden Boothby

We are very grateful and excited to have her with us, and an exceptional team has come together to learn from her. We have three medical doctors, a psychiatrist, G.P. and a paediatrician. They will double, I understand, the number of qualified psychiatrists and paediatricians in Sierra Leone during the week they are there. There are two healthcare students, not yet out of their teens - OK let's come clean on this, one is my daughter, Grace, and one my nephew, Samuel.  He's the one without any hair - at least he will have been shorn by the time we set off!
We also have a nurse with us, and four others, including me, who are here to learn. Actually we all will be learning. That is what makes it all so exciting - we don't know what the outcome will be. We don't know what the questions will be, or who will turn up. However we believe that we shall see the will of God unfold and that he has some encouraging surprises for us. Some team members will commit to going back four or five times until the work is well-established.

Hair raising!

One of the team on our March trip to teach on Community Health Care is Sam Warwick. Sam is a young healthcare assistant in a Derby Hospital, and needs to raise money for his expenses. He decided to do something that would be costly
  " To raise this money I am going to shave my head. If you are interested in sponsoring me and seeing me bald" ... he invited members of his church to sign a sponsor form. (pictured)

 If you know him, please get one. If you don't know him, but admire his courage and want to help - contact me and I can put you in touch. tswindaleuk@yahoo.co.uk

The British Obsession with weather.

People keep asking me how hot it will be in Freetown. The team leaves in three weeks. Well the forecast from Freetown from today, Sunday to Thursday, is 'Sunny' every day. Average maximum daytime temperature is 31 centigrade or 87 fahrenheit. Average minimum temperature at night, 26 centigrade/ 79 fahrenheit.  OK it's hot!

Moving on - Keep going!

I am reproducing a thought from the UCB 'Word for Today'. This applies to any task in life, but for all of us who love Sierra Leone and see the problems that must be grappled with to lift people from the suffering and poverty that are all too real, it is inspiration.  To find the original, click on the 'Christian Radio and Daily Readings' link on the left.

It is highly relevant to our interest in Sierra Leone, as the events it describes are contemporary with the founding of Freetown.   The original settlement was founded in 1787 and re-founded in 1792. John Wesley died on the 2nd March, 1791.

John Wesley

...in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.' Galatians 6:9

Why don't we see more of God's promises fulfilled in our lives? Because we overlook the process. It is in the process of reaching the promise that we become discouraged and quit. Success in any venture lies in holding on, even when others let go. We demand instant gratification and if we don't get it we leave our jobs, our churches, and even our families. But there's a process we must go through, regardless of our level of faith. There are no shortcuts. We've got to pay full price; it never goes on sale. Endurance is the price tag of achievement: '...in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart' (Galatians 6:9 NKJV). For years, William Wilberforce pushed Parliament to abolish the slave trade. Discouraged, he was about to give up when his elderly friend John Wesley heard of his campaign, and from his deathbed called for pen and paper. With trembling hand Wesley wrote, 'Unless God has raised you up for this very thing, you will be worn out by the opposition of men and of devils. But if God be for you, who can be against you? Are all of them stronger than God? O be not weary in well doing! Go on, in the name of God and in the power of His might, till even American slavery shall vanish away before it.' Wesley died six days later. Wilberforce fought for 42 more years. Three days before his death, slavery was abolished in Britain. Eventually, it was abolished in America too. Hang in there - what God has in store for you is worth any price you have to pay.

The only way is up

We have eleven people in Sierra Leone during the first week in March to undertake Community Healthcare teaching. The first task will be to meet with the local community in Looking Town on the outskirts of Freetown.  What will their leaders and influential people in the area see as the most pressing health needs?  Linden Boothby, who is leading the training, was in Tanzania last December.  She described her first meeting there.    "We started this session carefully feeling our way, being very sensitive to local issues and local culture. “What makes you feel unhappy when you wake in the morning”, we asked and out it all poured! Relationship breakdown, wife beating, unfaithfulness, children dying, female circumcision, child marriages, HIV/AIDS, diarrhoea, alcoholism, malnutrition and so much more. When the group prioritised the issues, it clearly showed that they wanted us to start teaching on Family Matters, e.g. wife beating, unfaithfulness, HIV/AIDS."
 But it could be quite different in Sierra Leone. We must wait and see what issues we shall tackle together.



Did you note how this video ends?  What did the lady want? Good health, safe water, shelter, the right to life. "We are dying because of lack of knowledge, because we are poor and because no one is hearing our stories."
Together we can make a difference!

The world is currently concerned with the terrible situation in Haiti. Money is pouring into that nation. This follows a familiar pattern as the spotlight of publicity moves around the world from one disaster to another. At one time, just after the end of the civil war, it fell upon Sierra Leone. But it has covered famine in Ethiopia, the aftermath of the war in Bosnia, the plight of those areas affected by the 2004 Tsunami, the flooding in New Orleans, refugees in Rwanda and Burundi - the list goes on. This is much needed relief work and aid. At the same time there is work growing slowly over the years which escapes the spotlight, but over time can effect radical change. This is how we work with our Partners in Sierra Leone. We seek to care for the carers, the teachers, leaders and influencers who are making a real difference in their community. With better health they have more chance of making a sustainable living and a brighter future.  Please support us in prayer. If you wish to be considered to join a team in the future, or  you wish to support the work financially, please contact tswindaleuk@yahoo.co.uk for more details.

Samuel Crowther

In the last post I mentioned that Adjai Crowther was one of the first students to be educated at Fourah Bay College in Freetown. His story shows the fascinating interaction between the United Kingdom and West Africa two hundred years ago. At that time Freetown, founded as a home for liberated slaves in 1787, was also home to the British Navy because of its fine natural harbour. The West Africa Squadron liberated Samuel Crowther from a slave ship in 1822.

Adjai was born in Nigeria in about 1809 and when only 12 or 13 was kidnapped along with his mother and sister and  his entire village, by Muslim Fulani slave raiders. They never knew whether his father and other relatives were killed or captured. After being separated from his remaining family, Adjai was sold to Portuguese slavers. He was placed on a slave ship to be transported, but before the ship left port it was detained by HMS Myrmidon of the West Africa Squadron.

Liberated slaves arriving in Freetown

Adjai and many others were rescued and taken to Freetown, where he was educated at a missionary school for several years. On the 11th December 1825, he was baptised and took the name of Samuel Crowther.

Samuel had a gift for languages and learnt to speak English fluently; he also studied Greek, Latin and Temne, the major language in the North of Sierra Leone. In 1826 he attended Islington Parish School in London for a year, and then returned to study as a teacher at Fourah Bay, later joining the staff. He met another schoolteacher, Asano Susan, who had been rescued from the same ship as himself, and would later become his wife.

In 1841 he became a missionary on the Niger, but soon returned to London to train as a Minister. He was ordained by the Bishop of London in 1843 and returned to Africa to open a mission of his own in Abeokuta, Nigeria. Here he translated the Bible into Yoruba, wrote a Yoruba dictionary and published several books of his own on African languages.

In 1864, Samuel Crowther was ordained in Canterbury Cathedral as the first African Bishop of the Niger. Among those at the service was Sir Henry Leeke, the captain of the ship that had rescued him forty-two years earlier.  The same year he also received the degree of  Doctor of Divinity from Oxford University. He died on the 31st December 1891.

Samuel Crowther with his son, Dandeson.

The curator of a 2008 exhibition about Crowther in Islington commented on his importance. Cheryl Smith acknowledged, "Not only did he have to endure the traumatic aftermath of being captured by slave traders and separated from his family, but he was obviously a highly intellectual and spiritual person who achieved great things within the Church and followed through his convictions. He experienced and achieved so much in his life."

Is Sierra Leone a suitable place for tourists?

The Observer on Sunday 3 May 2009 reported that Sierra Leone is emerging as a new destination for adventurous travellers. At the time Tony Blair was about to visit to raise the country's profile in the tourism market. The paper reported that UK operators were beginning to offer holidays there. Rainbow Tours http://www.rainbowtours.co.uk/ had just launched a 10-day group tour, Sierra Leone Highlights, which included visiting the historic capital, Freetown, and Tiwai Island, which teems with wildlife. The trip cost from £2,285, including flights, accommodation, meals and guide.

However, there are difficulties. In "The Guardian" a few days later, Sierra Leonean writer, Aminatta  Forna, did not believe that tourism would be a quick fix for the country.   "We need roads, power and water," she said.  "Speaking to the entrepreneurs on Lumley Beach in Freetown," says Blair, "I was struck by their optimism ... New hotels and facilities are being built in anticipation of the increase in visitor numbers." But did they tell him how new businesses are hamstrung by the lack of electricity and water in the capital, forced to factor into their overheads the cost of running a generator and even - as some hotels do - bringing in daily bowsers of water?

Getting there is a problem in itself.  Lungi International Airport is separated from Freetown by a wide estuary. There are a number of options for getting across or around; road, helicopter, ferry, hovercraft, Pelican water taxi and local boats/pirogues. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office state that " None is without risk. You should study the transfer options carefully before travelling, especially if you plan to arrive at night".

The options for crossing may have their own problems - although I have always found them surmountable. On my first visit around twenty years ago, the ferry was not working and we therefore made a 70 mile road trip through hamlets and palm trees, along red earth roads that I found fascinating. But no good if you are in a hurry, average speed if it takes 5 hours to cover 70 miles is 14 m.p.h.!!!    Foreign and Commonwealth Office staff, their website states,  "operate a policy of informed choice and presumed competence within certain parameters. Wherever possible, they use water modes by day and, if they choose to travel, helicopter at night. They do not travel on the hovercraft."  Why?    They give a good explanation. "On 2 July 2008 the hovercraft lost power and failed to fully get up the beach at Aberdeen. On 23 May 2008 the hovercraft crashed into the terminal at Mahera Beach damaging the wall of the building. None of the passengers waiting in the terminal was hurt. It was reported that one lift engine lost power due to a fuel blockage. In November 2007 it experienced mechanical problems while crossing the lagoon. There was no organised emergency response and the passengers were rescued by small craft. The hovercraft was subsequently towed back to Freetown."




 

 

 

Hovercraft at Freetown

The Foreign Office advises against the five-hour car journey at night – when all direct flights from the UK, operated by BMI, arrive – because the roads are unsafe after dusk, while the ferry service was "warned by the Port Authorities in January 2007 about overloading, and has been known to operate in poor visibility without lights".

Freetown Ferry

I have used the ferry on many occasions, including at night, and have always found it satisfactory - but the official line is worth thinking about!  The other options, helicopter and hovercraft, have not been of use to me as I have not wanted to travel to the tourist areas in the West of the city which they serve.

BMI boss Nigel Turner admits that there are "issues" with the helicopter services and getting out of Lungi in general, but he is "fully expecting the government to deal with it".

But why should tourists go at all.   Stunning beaches, varied wild-life, colourful and friendly people and interesting historical relics. For more information see www.visitsierraleone.org/

River Number 2 beach

The Cotton Tree, Freetown

Fourah Bay College, The Athens of West Africa.

The first student at the college, Samuel Adjai Crowther became the first

African Bishop of West Africa. He gave his name to Crowther Hall,

one of the Colleges at Selly Oak in Birmingham, England

Wildlife - the Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary

at Regent Village near Freetown

Bunce Island - Historic Slave Trading Site.

The Law Courts in Freetown

Lumley Beach

The red earth and friendly people