.....still loving it though getting a little tired.
This month has not been such a normal month for many reasons, but still it's been packed full of fun and smiles from both me and the kids!!
Alie is a little boy with Downs Syndrome I've been working with. Having taught his mum some exercises and ways to encourage play, Alie has been progressing, albeit slowly. So I decided to try and make a special corner seat for him to be supported upright and therefore have more of a chance to play and participate in feeding himself. With the help of Alf (a Rotarian) and Ibrahim (a local 
carpenter) you can see just how comfortable a chair we made Alie. Hopefully with time he will work as well as sleep in this chair that suits his needs perfectly!!The Rotary teams all had a great but challenging time out here for many different reasons for each one. It was lovely to have them around but I hope they have been able to settle back to life as 'normal' now they have all returned home. Not only did they bring many useful toys and bits of equipment (which I am still sorting through), it was great to have their friendship and support of my work.
Bertie (my Landrover) helps out again by transporting a load of the SOS kids out to a place called Waterloo where the MercyShips NewSteps Rehab Centre is based. The kids were very happy to be receiving either new wheelchairs, crutches or leg braces. THANK YOU NEW STEPS. And now they zoom around the compound without a thought for safety!!
What has been the most amazing is for 3 children – Soree, Hassan and Baindu, who were all fitted with leg braces which has enable them to be upright on their feet. They all suffered from Polio affecting both their legs, leaving them unable to control or stand on their legs. The leg braces support their legs straight and allow them to stand and walk, albeit with crutches, but they are over the moon! Poor old Soree was so eager to get using them that twice in the first 30 mins he lost his balance and fell flat on his face sending his crutches flying! Having tired to slow him down a bit and work on his gait pattern, he now looks much more of a pro and loves proudly walking into school as opposed to pushing himself in a wheelchair.
This month also saw my Dad visiting Sierra Leone for the first time. It was lovely to have him here, even though it meant having to cook him pancakes for breakfast on many a morning!! Pancakes are easy to make here and short of many other breakfast options, they make one of my favorite treats, Dad loves them too!! So I took the time to take a bit
of a break with Dad, which included visiting the chimps, swimming in waterfalls and of course a few days staying at the beach (which I won't show you or you'll think I'm on a paradise beach holiday!!). But of course if anyone wants to visit, just let me know :o)
Let me tell you about Amara. He is a 12 year old boy who sadly has recently had an awful accident. He was innocently playing with his friends when he fell down a hole, a big hole. Not realizing he had broken his back he didn't tell anyone about the pain he was in and continued to walk around as normal. Unfortunately 2 weeks later his unstable fracture had turned into an incomplete spinal cord injury and he could no longer walk. It was at this point I met Amara. He had been carried to me in probably the worst position he could be in, but his family knew nothing of his broken back either. Having liased with an NGO orthopaedic hospital, we decided it was too risky to take him on the bad roads to get him to the hospital. The last thing we wanted to do was further the spinal cord damage. So instead, I taught the family how to nurse him at home. This meant lying still for another 4 weeks, only being turned very carefully for washing, eating and to prevent pressure sores. This is the same treatment he would have had in the hospital. He left me to be taken home on a plank of wood. The Grandmother is his main carer and an excellent learner. I visited as often as I could, and before long the 4 weeks were up and slowly we were able to sit him up and get him in a wheelchair. Amara has a lot to come to terms with and although he is smiling in the photo it was only the 2nd time I'd been able to get him to smile. He is very tearful as you can imagine, and what makes it even harder is to have an audience watch as you try to learn how to maneuver a wheelchair over rough mud ground for the first time, nothing can be done in private here. To enable him to get back to school as soon as possible I have been working on getting some ramps and bridges over gutters made. A local contractor has been working on it along with Amara's father, being overseen by another local man who lives nearby from an Epilepsy organization I've been working with, and we have even had advice from Mercy Ships New Steps worker who has built ramps in other places. The funding for this has been provided by one of the Rotarians and both Amara and I are very grateful. Watch this space..pictures will follow.
And of course my work with the ladies at the Mercy Ships Fistula Hospital has also continued. These beautiful ladies suffer from multiple problems after obstructed labors, resulting in their child dying. They are incontinent which in a hot humid climate is not good combination, and they sometimes loose the ability to lift their foot and feel a severe neural pain, which both cause a problem with walking. They work hard on their exercises with me, I only hope they continue to do them when I'm not there...the reputation of physio-terrorists goes throughout the world you know!!So thats about it for this month. I'm pretty tired at the moment and look forward to getting back into a normal routine for a few weeks up to Christmas. Then, the most special Christmas gift has been given to me by a very kind person...flights back home! We got a real good deal and since I didn't plan to go home till next July, it's come as an amazing surprise and I'm VERY excited about it!!
So Merry Christmas to you all, hope you get as amazing a surprise as I did!!
Lots of love and hugs,
Vez
Vez
“Praise be to God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God”. 2 Corinthians 1:3+4
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