Tuesday 16 November 2010

News from Sarah in SL...Re-entry to Freetown

Hi everyone,

After 3 months back in the UK I returned to a sunny, rainy Sierra Leone. The rains are now becoming less and less frequent leaving little evidence other than many more potholes in the roads. Abu continued the work has written a short summary of his antics while I was away (see previous blog entry).

Shortly after arriving back here I was joined by Sarah Arbery, an English A & E nurse, due to start her training next year. It has been great to have another person join the team, providing a sounding board for decisions, IT training for Abu and increased enthusiasm & creativity for working with the children. She goes back to the UK on 21st December.

Part of a new venture (which you may remember me asking you to pray for earlier this year) has been some therapy groups based at our house. There are a few hiccups to iron out - such as people turning up 1 hour 40 minutes early, or one hour late to the same group - but it has been a great chance to work more intensely with the small numbers of children that have come.


Above: Group for under 2's with Developmental delay/cerebral palsy; picture on left shows
sensory play with Johanis, picture on right shows Abu working with Ibrahim and his mum;

Below: Group of toddler age children who can weight bear but need assistance to walk, photos show Sarah Arbery and Abu working with Barak
Abu supporting Barak to stand up to a ball pool...well our improvisation of a ball pool anyway.
Alternate weeks we have a co-ordination group, which is lots of fun and involves
various balance games, crafts and big action songs. These photos were taken at the most recent group and show Salimatu and Yusef playing balloon volleyball (left) & Salimatu following Sarah through an obstacle course while balancing a ball on a spoon (right).


Living Situation: Our 3 bedded apartment now houses Sarah, myself, and a SLeonean family. This can be fun although definitely much noisier and busier than before I left.

It took a little longer than I anticipated to settle back in to life and work here. I am grateful that God has been helping me through this process as well as putting amazing people around me to support and encourage me. Again really appreciate your prayers more than I can express in words. Please do keep praying for our work and my time here. God has already answered so many prayers since I have been back, reminding me regularly how essential prayer is.

Please could you pray for
· Abu: he has been sick this week with diagnosed Typhoid and has had a cold on and off since rainy season. Please pray that he is completely healed.

· For Sarah Arbery during the rest of her time here, that she would stay healthy,
enjoy her time and that it would have a lasting impact on her (positively)

· For the group work: For wisdom about how to do the timing of the groups to
maximise this as a resource and how to/whether to continue this in the new year.

· That I am able to be patient and gracious in my living situation.
Thank you so much for you're ongoing support.
Kind Regards from the Enable the Children team in Sierra Leone.

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