I'm getting ever so confused, August means the height of summer to me, and here it's been raining, raining, raining. I often get soaked through despite an umbrella and have become a master at wrapping everything in plastic bags. I hear the UK hasn't been much of a summer either though with floods and coldness, at least here it is vaguely warm, although I'm still cold in the evenings and at night time.
So the month of August has been a time of ups and downs.
There has been the elections on 11th Aug that came and went fairly peacefully and it's been declared fairly. Praise God for that. SL was doing so well, however as there was not one presidential candidate that won with enough of a majority, there will be another voting day next Saturday (8th Sept). Unfortunately the tension is mounting because the 2 competing parties; SLPP and APC are largely grounded in the 2 largest tribes Mende and Temne. So the elections are not only political but also very tribal and history makes these two groups very competitive against each other, probably for reasons no-one can remember. There have been rumours of all sorts, but reports of fighting in various towns including here in Freetown, Police using tear-gas to control crowds, hidden weapons in the backs of cars, 2 houses being burnt down and people being taken to hospital after fighting has broken out. These warning signs are being taken seriously and peace is trying to be maintained. We're all praying that nothing gets worse than this. This week there has been a peace march in which both potential presidents took part. As said previously, most want peace, but it only takes a few troublemakers. Please pray with us for this week, the election day on Saturday, and the implications of the results being announced afterwards.
My work has continued as and when it has been safe to move around avoiding the crowds and trouble areas. I'm so excited that the children who I can most help are gradually coming to light. Word is getting around that there's a children's physiotherapist in SL and this month I've done a lot of networking. From this, more and more referrals are coming my way, and it confirms again that there is such great need with these forgotten children.
I have particularly been involved in a little boy Ola, maybe 3 years old, who was abandoned in a government hospital over a year ago. He has a developmental delay, but lacking in basic care and receiving next to no handling, he has never really had the chance to develop. Ola is easy to love, his big smile reaches the depths of any human heart. But still left lying on his back, I'm sure he longs for a familiar face to stay around long enough to love more. Along with some basic therapy, some of my time with him is spent cuddling him. When he fell asleep in my arms I did wonder when the last time was that he had that chance. I'm contacting orphanages and potential carers, trying to get him a loving home, where he will get a chance to develop and grow as a child of God.
Michael, who I wrote about last month has proudly received his new custom made support chair. He spent the day with me at MercyShips New Steps and went home with a big smile on his face. Already it has made a difference in how he can use his hands for things like feeding and playing. We are hoping to work on his communication next. To see some photos, click onto my blog.
Work has also involved making hand splints out of coke cans, trekking 3 hours up and down steep hillsides on home visits, helping a teenage boy get the surgery he needed on a very painful arm amputation stump, evaluating the use and effectiveness of wheelchairs in a typical African environment, cutting one home visit very short when I realised there was a lady in the next room behind a very thin curtain giving birth (that would so never happen in UK!), working with carpenters on another special seat, helping a pastor who had had a severe stroke learn how to sit up by himself and teaching relatives how to transfer him safely into a wheelchair, then to be taken outside his dark bedroom for the 1st time in 3 months, and starting up a ward aerobics session for the in-patients at the MercyShips fistula hospital.
I've been busy!
Another bad happening was that I got mugged. I thank God for his protection though as the 'thiefman' (as they get called here), only got away with my phone, nothing else and no-one was hurt. It really could have been a lot worse. I was so annoyed more at all the info inside the phone that I lost. Thankfully, most of my patient contacts I had written down on their notes as well, but I lost all my UK numbers and addresses. So if you'd like to help me get my paper address book (I'm not taking any more chances!) up to date, please do send me a quick email with your numbers and info. It gave me a wake up call too though as I was with 3 other girls just walking home with next to no valuables on me and I normally move around alone with a lot more. I am doing everything I can to keep safe, but sometimes these things just happen.
For many reasons I feel it is now time to be getting a car. It would obviously help to keep me safer, but it was also allow me more freedom to get to patients where the roads are too bad to travel by public transport, and would help me be more efficient going from place to place on my home visits. It can be so frustrating to have a really long day, travelling on and off public transport to get from home to home, seeing only maybe 3 or 4 patients then sitting for 2 hours trying to get home again. Having a car would allow easier access to these kids, I could see more in one day and I could also transport them and or equipment to places more easily too. I have found a LandRover in good condition that would be excellent to go for, but it costs £4000. Now I'm praying!
So as you can see, work is keeping me busy, home is the place I rest, but due to the current situations here with both the elections and rains, I'm not really able to do much else at the weekends. I've been finding myself a bit lonely recently which has led me to take imaginary trips while I lie in a candlelight room, doing all my favourite things back home, like cycling in the South Downs and walking around Chichester with friends – it's been fun!!
So if you can keep praying for:
* PEACE during this time of change in SL, thank God for the good 1st round.
* SAFETY as I travel around doing my work, thank Him for his promise of protection
* JOY for the disabled kids I come in contact with
* LOVING HOMES for all children, where kindness and gentleness abound
* A NEW HOME for Ola
* PATIENCE as I continue to battle the crossing of cultures
* the LANDROVER
* a peace of mind and Spirit for myself
“And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” 1 Corinthians 13:13
So there comes a time when I have to say good bye again, I really miss you all, and greatly value your support and friendship on this journey God has me on for now.
Do look up my blog from time to time, I update it at least once a week,
Bye to you all,
Love
Vez
Monday, 3 September 2007
Wednesday, 29 August 2007
Little Ola
Little Ola desperately needs a home. I was referred this little boy by 2 people on the same day, and have seen him twice so far. He was abandoned at the Children's Hospital over a year ago, when they thought he might have been about 1 year old. So he's now maybe 2 or older, and he's still there.
He more than likely has a medically caused developmental delay, however a big cause of his delay I'm sure is due to his lack of stimulation, rarely being handled, let alone loved. He cannot roll over, play with his hands together, bring his legs up to his chest, sit up, or stand even supported.
He monotonously sucks his left thumb and thats about it. I'm not even sure if he cries.
I so desperately want to get him a new home.
The times I've been there it has torn me to find him in bedding and clothes soaked in urine, smelling like rats and watching the cockroaches run over the sheets like they are in a playground. It's horrid. How can anyone be left like this. But the nurses have sick patients to deal with, and Ola is not acutely unwell, he is just delayed. All the other patients have caring mothers at their cot sides, but not Ola, his bedside is empty.
Today, I spent ½ an hour treating Ola with simple positions like allowing him to lie on his belly to try to work is neck muscles, and putting him on his side to play with his hands and feet that he is unable to draw together to midline while lying on his back. These are all normal things a baby would get the opportunity to learn as they are handled, Ola has never had these chances as he is always left on his back in his cot.
After ½ an hour he was exhausted from all the work I was making him do! He doesn't often get the challenge of work! So since I really didn't have to get anywhere more urgent than this baby needed love, I decided to take him the the window for a little look as rested his head on my shoulder and had a cuddle. And there we stayed for the next ½ hour. Occasionally looking me in the eye, then glancing away again. The he'd turn his face back towards me and his big dark glassy eyes shone the reflection of my face, I prayed for him and I held him close, our breathing deep and slow, it was like he was SO appreciating the cuddle, the closeness, the body contact. Gradually his eyes dropped, and asleep he fell – probably the first time in a very long time that he has fallen to sleep in someone's arms.
The hardest thing was to lay this precious treasure of God's back into his bed of cockroaches and walk away.
I will continue to see him as often as I can, and in the meantime am looking for a new home for Ola. Please pray with me.
He more than likely has a medically caused developmental delay, however a big cause of his delay I'm sure is due to his lack of stimulation, rarely being handled, let alone loved. He cannot roll over, play with his hands together, bring his legs up to his chest, sit up, or stand even supported.
He monotonously sucks his left thumb and thats about it. I'm not even sure if he cries.
I so desperately want to get him a new home.
The times I've been there it has torn me to find him in bedding and clothes soaked in urine, smelling like rats and watching the cockroaches run over the sheets like they are in a playground. It's horrid. How can anyone be left like this. But the nurses have sick patients to deal with, and Ola is not acutely unwell, he is just delayed. All the other patients have caring mothers at their cot sides, but not Ola, his bedside is empty.
Today, I spent ½ an hour treating Ola with simple positions like allowing him to lie on his belly to try to work is neck muscles, and putting him on his side to play with his hands and feet that he is unable to draw together to midline while lying on his back. These are all normal things a baby would get the opportunity to learn as they are handled, Ola has never had these chances as he is always left on his back in his cot.
After ½ an hour he was exhausted from all the work I was making him do! He doesn't often get the challenge of work! So since I really didn't have to get anywhere more urgent than this baby needed love, I decided to take him the the window for a little look as rested his head on my shoulder and had a cuddle. And there we stayed for the next ½ hour. Occasionally looking me in the eye, then glancing away again. The he'd turn his face back towards me and his big dark glassy eyes shone the reflection of my face, I prayed for him and I held him close, our breathing deep and slow, it was like he was SO appreciating the cuddle, the closeness, the body contact. Gradually his eyes dropped, and asleep he fell – probably the first time in a very long time that he has fallen to sleep in someone's arms.
The hardest thing was to lay this precious treasure of God's back into his bed of cockroaches and walk away.
I will continue to see him as often as I can, and in the meantime am looking for a new home for Ola. Please pray with me.
Monday, 27 August 2007
A HomeVisit like no other
So I last on my last home visit before I was to head for a Crio lesson.
I was tired from having walked all day from house to house, up and down a steep hillside in a community called Wellington.
We arrived at a house to see Emmanuel – a 2 year old with Cerebral Palsy affecting both his legs. This was my second visit to him and as soon as we entered the house, some bizarre noises could be heard from behind the curtain separating the 2 rooms of this small 'pan body' – (house made out of corrugated iron sheets). I couldn't quite work out what the groaning noises were, and after a few words were shared between my assistant Umaru and Emmanuel's mother, Umaru promptly declared that we had to leave. I hesitated as the mother was wanting her son treated since we had made the effort to come. However Umaru insisted, and said we'd come back later; so we left.
When I asked what was going on – he informed me that there was someone giving birth just behind the curtain that was flapping in the wind just 2 meters away from us!! And he as a male should be no where near those kind of events! Infact no-one in the neighbourhood is meant to know that the labour was happening, not until the baby has been born – we probably do not want to know how they keep the women from crying out loud enough for all to hear.
When Umaru said we'd come back later I thought he meant later that day, but I was informed by Umaru that “later here means anything from later that day to anytime in the next week or so.”
I had to have a little chuckle as we walked away, I was in total shock, would never happen in UK like that hey??
Next week I hope to see the new born baby and find out what all the commotion was about!
I was tired from having walked all day from house to house, up and down a steep hillside in a community called Wellington.
We arrived at a house to see Emmanuel – a 2 year old with Cerebral Palsy affecting both his legs. This was my second visit to him and as soon as we entered the house, some bizarre noises could be heard from behind the curtain separating the 2 rooms of this small 'pan body' – (house made out of corrugated iron sheets). I couldn't quite work out what the groaning noises were, and after a few words were shared between my assistant Umaru and Emmanuel's mother, Umaru promptly declared that we had to leave. I hesitated as the mother was wanting her son treated since we had made the effort to come. However Umaru insisted, and said we'd come back later; so we left.
When I asked what was going on – he informed me that there was someone giving birth just behind the curtain that was flapping in the wind just 2 meters away from us!! And he as a male should be no where near those kind of events! Infact no-one in the neighbourhood is meant to know that the labour was happening, not until the baby has been born – we probably do not want to know how they keep the women from crying out loud enough for all to hear.
When Umaru said we'd come back later I thought he meant later that day, but I was informed by Umaru that “later here means anything from later that day to anytime in the next week or so.”
I had to have a little chuckle as we walked away, I was in total shock, would never happen in UK like that hey??
Next week I hope to see the new born baby and find out what all the commotion was about!
Wednesday, 22 August 2007
Billabong - Bumpalong
A saw a copy of the Billabong logo today which made me look twice. It was perfect in the right colours and style but said 'Bumpalong'! It made me laugh to myself, it was innocently on someone's backpac – i was so tempted to bump into him just for fun! He may not have found it so funny mind!
Tuesday, 21 August 2007
Sad leaving of Almamie from orphanage
Some of you may remember me talking about an orphan in Michaels orphanage that I was training to treat Michael when I was not there. Almamie was a great learner and handled Michael in such a gentle and loving manner. Having severe burns and an awful story of being orphaned too, I was sad to hear that he had left the orphanage after some problems. I've seen him since and he is safely staying with a local Pastor. I will meet him again I'm sure, but please keep him in your prayers.
Michaels chair
At last, the chair was finished for Michael. Abdulai the carpenter (on left in photo) has done a wonderful job of making my design a reality! 
A few minor adjustments,
a hole for toileting.....
adequate pelvic support and a tabletop
and the finishing touch – Michael's name and a smiling, satisfied patient!
A few minor adjustments,
a hole for toileting.....
adequate pelvic support and a tabletop
and the finishing touch – Michael's name and a smiling, satisfied patient!
Friday, 17 August 2007
Gutted – bag snatched! Phone stolen :o(
Ok, so it was likely to happen, but it still wasn't nice to be the victim. My friend Sandra put it so well on her blog (http://www.sandralako.blogspot.com/) that I've nicked it (with her permission!)
Unfortunate Friday evening...
I was pretty excited about the upcoming weekend, however, it didn’t start out very well. Late afternoon on Friday (it was still light!) 4 of us (all women) decided to walk home, which we often do. However, on this particular day we were unlucky. One of my friends had a purse on her side and unfortunately a young guy that was running past must have spotted it, because he turned around and later snuck up behind us. Before we knew what was going on he grabbed the purse, ripped it off of her shoulder and attempted to get away. As my friend grabbed his arm, the purse fell to the ground. We thought he was unsuccessful. Unfortunately, however, we soon realized that all that remained in the purse was Le 10,000 (=£2); the phone had been stolen. My friend and I dashed across the street after him but to no avail. I have to be honest and say I was cautious in going after him because I was afraid he might have a knife. He quickly jumped over the wall at the golf course and we never saw him again. We shouted “thief” but the road was pretty deserted, other than a girl with a basket of goods on her head.
A group of people outside one of the beach bars only 5 minutes down the road heard the commotion and had actually seen the guy earlier on, before he ran past us. Some guys offered to go and look for the thief; “a guy in a purple jersey”. Which they did, but I’m sure he was long gone. And I’d never be able to recognize him if he wasn’t wearing the same purple shirt. We thought of going to the police station to file a report but figured that would probably take 3 hours, maybe a bribe, us providing paper and pen and in the end it wouldn’t bring the phone back. So we didn’t bother.
I felt really bad for my friend. It wasn’t an expensive phone, but had a lot of important contact information. Also, it’s just plain frustrating to have someone steal something from you, especially when you’re in another country, trying to help others. Sorry friend! Anyway, yes, this happened to us here at Lumley beach, in an area that is known for events as such. But to be honest, this happens to people in Freetown all the time. And for that matter probably in a number of big cities all over the world. We were just unlucky.
So there you have it – I was got! Discouraged me for a bit, but I'm up and running again now – there was nothing more I could really have done to have been an safer in that situation, but still I walk with more caution and am thanking the Lord it wasn't a worse attack – it could have been nasty.
Would quite like to get a car now too – not only for protection, but also to make work home visits easier and therefore be able to see more patients in less time, and move bigger bits of equipment around with me more easily. I've got my eye on a good one – a Landrover named Gertrude (my it's current owner!), but need to see if the finances can stretch that far. Please pray with me for provision.
Thanks you all again.
Unfortunate Friday evening...
I was pretty excited about the upcoming weekend, however, it didn’t start out very well. Late afternoon on Friday (it was still light!) 4 of us (all women) decided to walk home, which we often do. However, on this particular day we were unlucky. One of my friends had a purse on her side and unfortunately a young guy that was running past must have spotted it, because he turned around and later snuck up behind us. Before we knew what was going on he grabbed the purse, ripped it off of her shoulder and attempted to get away. As my friend grabbed his arm, the purse fell to the ground. We thought he was unsuccessful. Unfortunately, however, we soon realized that all that remained in the purse was Le 10,000 (=£2); the phone had been stolen. My friend and I dashed across the street after him but to no avail. I have to be honest and say I was cautious in going after him because I was afraid he might have a knife. He quickly jumped over the wall at the golf course and we never saw him again. We shouted “thief” but the road was pretty deserted, other than a girl with a basket of goods on her head.
A group of people outside one of the beach bars only 5 minutes down the road heard the commotion and had actually seen the guy earlier on, before he ran past us. Some guys offered to go and look for the thief; “a guy in a purple jersey”. Which they did, but I’m sure he was long gone. And I’d never be able to recognize him if he wasn’t wearing the same purple shirt. We thought of going to the police station to file a report but figured that would probably take 3 hours, maybe a bribe, us providing paper and pen and in the end it wouldn’t bring the phone back. So we didn’t bother.
I felt really bad for my friend. It wasn’t an expensive phone, but had a lot of important contact information. Also, it’s just plain frustrating to have someone steal something from you, especially when you’re in another country, trying to help others. Sorry friend! Anyway, yes, this happened to us here at Lumley beach, in an area that is known for events as such. But to be honest, this happens to people in Freetown all the time. And for that matter probably in a number of big cities all over the world. We were just unlucky.
So there you have it – I was got! Discouraged me for a bit, but I'm up and running again now – there was nothing more I could really have done to have been an safer in that situation, but still I walk with more caution and am thanking the Lord it wasn't a worse attack – it could have been nasty.
Would quite like to get a car now too – not only for protection, but also to make work home visits easier and therefore be able to see more patients in less time, and move bigger bits of equipment around with me more easily. I've got my eye on a good one – a Landrover named Gertrude (my it's current owner!), but need to see if the finances can stretch that far. Please pray with me for provision.
Thanks you all again.
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