Rain, Rain, Rain!!

Settling well. Enjoying the challenge of some things, but feeling very at home with others. Emma (a lovely physio student with me for 3 weeks) and I are really getting to grips with stuff – life, work, old contacts, and making new friends living near my new house. It's good to know the people living / selling near by, you never know when you will need their help or protection. We're finding the kids, but being slowed by the rains, the bad road conditions because of the rains, and the underlying tension of the political campaigns.

We did some training for a local disabled childrens home and school last week. It was all going wonderfully well until I made the Director of the project sit on a gym ball then reach so far that she fell off onto the floor! Certainly not the sort of thing you are meant to do to the person in a smart skirt suit, and the one person you should show most respect. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry, then looked at all her staff and they looked just as caught in the dilemma. Then Auntie Mammie burst out in laughter, and we all roared away for a while!! Second time I got Emma to stabilize the ball so there was no chance of a re-play of this disaster! Nothing like a little example of safety – what not to do on a gym ball!!

It's pleasantly cooler here than expected, a little caught out as didnt bring any warm clothes, or my umbrella (having looked at it while packing thinking I wont need that!) It's really very wet here, when it rains it rains! And the heavens are opening a fair few times a day. Old climbing skills came into action when tried to straddle between a wall and some rocks rather than wade through water ankle deep, had I known that just around the corner there were no wall and rocks and infact to wade on through was the only option, i'd have just enjoyed the foot wash. However we provided a little entertainment for the onlookers – it's always good to make someone smile.

My room is becoming 'vezified' with pictures and cards from home. Altough I've got this horrid feeling that things are going to go mouldy quickly as it's so damp all thet ime and not really drying out.

Been exploring the food markets – okra, fish, aubergene, avacado's are the 'in' things at the moment, getting bog standard potatoes has been a little harder. Being creative with resource I'm sure will be fine tuned after a while – but for now Emma is having to endure my concoctions!!

So thats all for now, but do email me some time, it's always good to hear news from home!

Vez and Emma

HELLO SIERRA LEONE!

We've arrived safe and sound and now just getting used to the 'normalness' of life, which is all but normal. You just dont ask WHY? because there is no rhyme or reason.

The journey was good, just the getting from the airport to Freetown by hovercraft took a while. It was very dark and chaotic by the time we reached the other side of the water, but got to our new home in true african style - a packed out taxi - bags, faces and other body parts everywhere you looked.

getting stuck into work now,
very aware of the underlying tension coming upto elections - lots of political party events - just trying to steer cleer, but please keep praying.

Thanks all,

look forward to hearing from you soon,

love Vez and Emma

Good Bye England x x x

Hello, Hello.......>Good Bye!

I've had a great time visiting friends and family and have really enjoyed doing all things I like best about being in UK - getting outdoors (particually in Chichester/Bognor), eating chocolate and indulging in good food - steak, potatoes, toast, cereal, apples fruit juice and custard doughnuts! And I've felt so supported by so many people in so many different ways - from hospitality, kindness, encouraging words and prayer, physio advice and generous finacial support.

I'm heading back to Sierra Leone tomorrow, at long last. My goodbyes have been hard but I'm keen to get going with settling into my new home and meeting with the children I've been referred already for physio treament and reviews.

I'll be updating this blog from time to time and will have some photos on it to give you a bit more of the flavor of where I am and what I'm up to. You can have a quick read whenever you fancy, so save the address.
I'll also be sending out a monthly email newsletter as previously, just without the photo nightmare!

I've got a physio student Emma from Brighton University coming out with me for the first 3 weeks. I'm very happy to have her as just having someone to travel with and bounce ideas off will be a massive support while I'm getting used to it all again. Please pray the she has a great time too, and that God will be working in her life however He sees fit!

Another big prayer request is the travel, not only getting there, but moving around from house to house, village to village whilst there. Some of you may know that the helicopters are not flying at the moment due to a tragic accident resulting in them being deemed unsafe. But the hovercraft has started again, so this is how we will travel from the airport to the main land. Once there we will be using public transport. This can be very chaotic, frustrating, hot, and time consuming. It is one of my biggest anxieties, so prayer would be great!

Please also pray for:

~ Effective Witness

~ Good relationships

~ Safety & Protection

~ Good Health

Just one more little prayer - the governmental elections are coming up in SL in August - we need peace not trouble.

Right I better go no, but thanks for all being so lovely, I will be praying for you all aswell as I go off into the horizon. I would not be able to go if it were not for you all holding my up from all angles!

God bless you all,

Vez

~Verity Furneaux ~

My Car's been written off!

Rest peacefully Rusty Amos.

Not sure why, but joyriders broke into my car in the middle of the night and tried to steal it!! Obviously Rusty being loyal to his Master did not start (only those with the know how get anywhere in my car!), oh and it might have had something to do with my Aunty Norma running out and disturbing them with not much on!!! He he he!

My hair is back!

Ok, so the African braids had to come out! Hair went a bit crazy, so did I...now all I'm looking for is my jungle!!

Planning Visit 'Don Don'

Dear Friends,

Well, my initial planning visit is 'don don' as the locals would say. A month is up and I'm back in the UK for a bit.

I thank God for such a successful trip and am happy that my plans for work in Sierra Leone have totally come together. Although I'm still to see how some of that looks, I've got a home and some lovely house mates (one an American who has lived in SL for 17 years so has lots of 'know how'!), made good connections with people I can be useful with, got lots of work set up with kids homes and a few schools, and even a few babies who have been referred to me with developmental probs that I will start to see in their homes, and a new challenge to me, but one I've already started to enjoy are the women and young girls who have fistula's after complications during birth resulting in the death of the child and them being incontinent.
AND, I've got a crio (the local language) teacher, a close network of international and local friends, a much better idea of local transport, and even more amazingly MercyShips managed to sort out for free a residents permit and visa for me, both of which were going to cost me lots money and lots of hassle! So I'm now officially a Sierra Leonean resident!!

Isn't it awesome that God sorts out these things well and truly to get you right in there where He wants you!

Let me finish with a few little thoughts / challenges,
how many people do you think typically squeeze into a PodaPoda – a form of public transport used for people and objects like greens or jerry cans (see photos)?

How do you teach a bible study on Godly submission to authority (Romans 13)?

Why did I put myself through 3 hours of torture all in the name of beauty? Do you like my hair?

Which method of transport would you choose to get to the airport which is across a large stretch of water from the city......
1. old Russian helicopter at 125,000 Leones (£25) you hope all the important parts are still working because there certainly are not enough seat belts!
OR 2. rusty old ferry at 5,000 Leones (£1), first class that is, ignoring all the grounded and half sunk wrecks around you all the way along the route?
The choice is yours!!

Hope to catch up with a lot of you over the next month before I return back to my new home in SL.
My UK mobile no. should still work 07812572870, and I'm hoping my car does too! Just a few more weeks Lord – keep it going PLEASE!!!

Byeo as they say in crio,
Love Vez

Mango's, Mozzie-nets and Mugginess!

Hello my friends,

I'm on African soil again! Writing from Sierra Leone, thought I'd give you a bit of an update.
Mango's, mango's everywhere. Tis the season to be mango-ed! I love mango's so much that I wasn't impressed to be sharing my one this morning with a sneeky maggot that I caught red-handed just as I bit near him! He was lucky (or I was more to the point) not to be eaten too!
The mozzie's are not so much around, but it's still important to be sleeping under a net at night, unfortunately it does make it hotter as it stops any breeze flowing too.
It's so muggy here – humid like I've never know it before. Sweating like a beast – what a pretty picture to start off with! Apparently it breaks when the rains come, but they're sure not here yet!

The familiar sounds of Sierra Leone have been flooding back to me in the last 2 weeks. As I sit here I listen; the sound of a neighbours generator to provide power, chickens and dogs roaming for food amongst the rubbish heaps, the distant hum of traffic and horns tooting for no apparent reason, children singing songs from the local school drift over the non-moving oxygen starved air. Some noises are hard to work out; a barring goat or a child crying?? Sounds strange that these can be mixed up, but things here do sound odd, not the norm or what my English mind has been programmed to. Sometimes my mind goes wild – is that the screams of someone being beaten? Or just an animal making strange moans? Someone giving birth maybe? You really can't tell. The Lord is in control and has mercy on every situation.
This planning trip has so far been very successful. Having thought it would take me the whole month to sort out practicalities, most was done within the first week and a half! Miracles do happen in Africa sometimes!

My work will be based with 3 organisations here. SOS Children's Village, an orphanage and school run by locals, but supported from Germany; FHM – Family Homes Movement, run by locals, supported by Italians. In these two I will be doing children's developmental physio and training within the children's homes – some with lots of children living together, some individually with their carers / parents. Then I will also work a day a week back with Mercy Ships at their Fistula centre. Women who have had a very prolonged and obstructed labour (due to the poor birthing facilities) often suffer from a fistula which makes them incontinent and sometimes they have a foot drop, not to mention the death of their unborn child. Mercy Ships asked if I would be willing to help them with the physio these women need, and although this a very new area of physio for me to be working in, many of the women are under 20. The two I saw this week were 15 and 16, but they have operated on girls as young as 11 who have fistulas. They are still children themselves.

Working with well rooted organisations has helped me gain a good network of friends and support. They have helped me sort permit's and visa's – a blessing that I did not have to tackle the government offices myself! They are such an encouragement and a source of wisdom – I thank God for paving the way to these fruitful connections.

I've had an interesting time sorting my accommodation. Having got the number of zero's mixed up in the prices I was being quoted, I did start to panic that I may have massively under budgeted. Safety was always paramount when looking into my accommodation. After looking at a few places, and talking to a few possible future house-mates, I decided to settle on one which is a about 5 mins walk off the main road, sharing with 2 other ladies with other people coming and going. The community here is largely very transient. But there are a few people who stick around much longer, so it's great to find a home with them. The extra blessing is that we will get water most of the time (although I think washing from the bucket is a norm - goodbye to by nice long baths!), and we should even have electricity some days!!
It's been great fun living with Dr Elmer and his wife Angelica, my Peruvian friends, they have a great sense of humour and a humble openness. Our dinner conversations are normally around English pronunciation's, one evening we sat with them trying to tell the difference between 'a' and 'u', I'm not sure how many times I said cap, cup; hat, hut. But I'm also teaching lots of phrases that I keep popping out with – and them not knowing what on earth I'm trying to say – like 'bog-standard' and costing an 'arm and a leg'! We don't often think what we are saying or why, it just comes out!

Praise the Lord, I've not been sick, although I have burnt my shoulders when I was working sorting out a shipping container of medical supplies. I'm drinking more than you could imagine, all water I might add, but it's the only way to keep the headaches and dehydration away.

Thanks for your support and encouraging emails. For those of you who pray please could you remember to pray for continued safety in this country where elections are looming and have already moved date once (now due 11th Aug) due to big political campaigns. Also pray that I can use the rest of my time here this month to be fruitful and pleasing in God's sight.

Bye for now, God bless and be in touch soon,
love
Vez