Action photo of Joe teaching
Class IV...CRC Primary School Kabala
Foday and Kari Fala (Joe's 14 yr. old Prefect)
Fatmata and Sundu
Joe's class pretending to work - trust me, no work takes place with the camera around.Tuesday, September 30, 2008
More work pictures
Action photo of Joe teaching Class IV...CRC Primary School Kabala Foday and Kari Fala (Joe's 14 yr. old Prefect) Fatmata and Sundu Joe's class pretending to work - trust me, no work takes place with the camera around.
More work pictures
More of my handiwork complete with kick-butt labels. It's really too bad there are no "before" pics.
The waiting room
And again....normally it is packed, but this is the end of day.
I get to spend the mornings (8-9) at CRC. It is fun because I get to hang out with the kids and get them all hyper before leaving them with Joe!!! haha.
Morning assembly. C'mon, Joe....a little more enthusiasm!
This is where I attempt to be nurse/doctor/pharmacist, and bookkeeper. Teresa is standing beside me. Lancelo is the gentleman in front who volunteers as a nurse and translates for me, and a lady is in with her child, who had (I think) an acute respiratory infection and malaria. It is the end of the month, so we are running out of meds, but I just had to make do with what we had, which has been a recurring theme. 
Our injection room!!!!
Work pictures
Current NarSarah Clinic
Future NarSarah Clinic
My organization job (doesn't look like much but you should have seen it before)
Med/delivery/storage room
Some Pics
This is the view from around a 10 min. walk behind our guest house - it's a pretty cool place to visit. The smoke is from people cooking down in the town.
Adrienne contemplating life.
Poor fella
Our share of the meat. mmmm..... Hawa and the guard were pretty pumped to take the rest of it home.
Adrienne always makes fun of me for taking lame wildlife pics.
Volleyball standards. nice!
The before shot.
Hawa (our cook) and one of our guards - they were pretty psyched.
Fresh bush meat.One Month Anniversary
Before we get to our blog entry, we really want to say how supported we have felt reading the comments left on our blog. We really do miss all of you, and it was so great to read what you had to say....some great laughs (and almost some tears). We wish we could spend some time responding to each comment, but we just do not have much internet time here because people are waiting. Thank you so much for the prayers - we truly have felt them! So, here is the latest blog entry. Again, sorry for the length, but it's been a while again, and there have been some new developments for sure.
Hello again from Kabala.
Well, Catholic Relief Services now has internet in Kabala! We're not sure how often we can use it, but for now we're thinking maybe for an hour or two every week. Not much, but it sure beats driving to Makeni to update and read our blog. We have heard once again that within the next two weeks it should be up and running provided the missing part arrives from Freetown. Here’s hoping because we really like to keep people at home updated more often, but we also want to be updated ourselves as to what is happening in all of your lives and in the rest of the world. One new development regarding internet (and we are trying not to get our hopes up) is that you can now get wireless internet through one of the cell phone companies here. It’s around $190 to start up, and then you pay a monthly fee ranging from 20 – 80 $. Anyways, we’re debated getting one ourselves, or maybe splitting the monthly cost with CES and sharing theirs. We’ll see.
So this weekend was our one month anniversary in Africa. It really seems like we just arrived, but already a chunk of our time here has come and gone. I’m worried that we are looking so forward to things that are in the future like having people visit that we have been missing out on the present. We’re beginning to realize that there are a lot of things about life here that we are going to miss when we get back home. One of these things is the pace of life here, which has at times been a nice change, but has at other times been a huge shock to our North American systems. This will change a little bit over time, but for now the simple fact is that our “To Do” lists from week to week are just way shorter than they are at home. Last weekend we had nothing planned, and it turned out that our friends were busy, so Saturday passed by like a decade. I don’t think we’ve ever looked so forward to going to church on Sunday. Having said that, it's nice having time to sit and reflect, think, read, etc.
So Adrienne ended up being the first one to get sick. We’re not sure what it was, since I never got anything, and we ate largely the same thing, but somehow some bacteria managed to squeeze through our hand sanitizer, filtered water, and anti-bacterial soap in order to wreak havoc on Adrienne’s system for around a day. That was on Tuesday, and she stayed home from work. She’s feeling good now, although still not 100 per cent. Speaking of food, it appears as if things are stabilizing for the better thanks to some nice snack food we found from Kabala and a couple of shipments of imported products from Freetown. We are enjoying the food a lot more, although it is still an adventure. One such adventure occurred last week when Hawa (our cook for Tuesdays and Thursdays each week) came walking up to our house with a sack of food. She was visibly excited about what was in the sack, so we were equally excited to see some new veggies or fruit from the market fall out when she tuned it over. Needless to say we were a little surprised when a large dead groundhog fell out instead of fresh produce. After we received a brief lesson on how to slaughter an animal on your porch, we had a large pot full of potent bush meat.
At CRC Primary, the volleyball net was set up this week, and I think a lot of Kabalans are going to benefit from it. From what I’ve seen so far, enthusiasm is high, and coordination is low. I have high hopes for volleyball in Kabala. I can really see this as being something that the greater community enjoys as well as the school. Teaching-wise, my students are settling in to how I want things run in my classroom. In other words, they’re beginning to realize that if they stop bouncing off the walls, they might get candy by the end of the week. It’s challenging because I really enjoy the kids and have fun with them, but I really have to watch how often I become anything but serious, because things go from calm to mad house instantly. It was my turn to lead assembly this week, which resulted in me standing in front of the school trying to clap on beat while pretending to know the words to different songs. Thank goodness for grade 4 volunteer song leaders.
At the clinic, Adrienne decided to organize one of the rooms this week, which was a huge task. But once she negotiated her way through the craziness, she was able to do quite well organizing the medications. We’re hoping to come back maybe one Saturday soon and do some more heavy lifting. She’s also been seeing a lot of patients with the help of Lancelo, a nurse-in-training who has acted as her translator. Peacemaker has been going to a lot of meetings, and Theresa handles the waiting room, so Adrienne has fully been acting as doctor lately – diagnosing, prescribing meds, sending people to the hospital. She is learning a lot, but still is feeling her way around how things are run at the clinic. I went to see the clinic today, and there was a full waiting room (mostly moms with children under 5) waiting to see her. I think the biggest challenge for her is that a lot of these patients are so sick, but there just isn’t much she can do for them.
Language-wise, we are beginning to learn Krio, and although we can't understand it when spoken quickly, things are getting better, and we are usually able to communicate what we want to say. "Daio (please), talk small small (slowly), I wan fo understand" has been a key phrase for us to learn.
As we have been settling into life here, we have found ourselves becoming more motivated to make a positive difference in our workplaces. There are significant needs at both the clinic and school (especially the clinic), but it will take some time before sorting out how to best approach which changes to suggest, and how to suggest them.
We miss you all very much, and we hope that this update finds you all well.
Love,
Joe and Adrienne Melissen
aka. Foday and Saio Mansaray (our Kabala names we gave ourselves because people here have trouble remembering ours).
Ps. In case people are worried, we decided not to take up smoking. =)
Hello again from Kabala.
Well, Catholic Relief Services now has internet in Kabala! We're not sure how often we can use it, but for now we're thinking maybe for an hour or two every week. Not much, but it sure beats driving to Makeni to update and read our blog. We have heard once again that within the next two weeks it should be up and running provided the missing part arrives from Freetown. Here’s hoping because we really like to keep people at home updated more often, but we also want to be updated ourselves as to what is happening in all of your lives and in the rest of the world. One new development regarding internet (and we are trying not to get our hopes up) is that you can now get wireless internet through one of the cell phone companies here. It’s around $190 to start up, and then you pay a monthly fee ranging from 20 – 80 $. Anyways, we’re debated getting one ourselves, or maybe splitting the monthly cost with CES and sharing theirs. We’ll see.
So this weekend was our one month anniversary in Africa. It really seems like we just arrived, but already a chunk of our time here has come and gone. I’m worried that we are looking so forward to things that are in the future like having people visit that we have been missing out on the present. We’re beginning to realize that there are a lot of things about life here that we are going to miss when we get back home. One of these things is the pace of life here, which has at times been a nice change, but has at other times been a huge shock to our North American systems. This will change a little bit over time, but for now the simple fact is that our “To Do” lists from week to week are just way shorter than they are at home. Last weekend we had nothing planned, and it turned out that our friends were busy, so Saturday passed by like a decade. I don’t think we’ve ever looked so forward to going to church on Sunday. Having said that, it's nice having time to sit and reflect, think, read, etc.
So Adrienne ended up being the first one to get sick. We’re not sure what it was, since I never got anything, and we ate largely the same thing, but somehow some bacteria managed to squeeze through our hand sanitizer, filtered water, and anti-bacterial soap in order to wreak havoc on Adrienne’s system for around a day. That was on Tuesday, and she stayed home from work. She’s feeling good now, although still not 100 per cent. Speaking of food, it appears as if things are stabilizing for the better thanks to some nice snack food we found from Kabala and a couple of shipments of imported products from Freetown. We are enjoying the food a lot more, although it is still an adventure. One such adventure occurred last week when Hawa (our cook for Tuesdays and Thursdays each week) came walking up to our house with a sack of food. She was visibly excited about what was in the sack, so we were equally excited to see some new veggies or fruit from the market fall out when she tuned it over. Needless to say we were a little surprised when a large dead groundhog fell out instead of fresh produce. After we received a brief lesson on how to slaughter an animal on your porch, we had a large pot full of potent bush meat.
At CRC Primary, the volleyball net was set up this week, and I think a lot of Kabalans are going to benefit from it. From what I’ve seen so far, enthusiasm is high, and coordination is low. I have high hopes for volleyball in Kabala. I can really see this as being something that the greater community enjoys as well as the school. Teaching-wise, my students are settling in to how I want things run in my classroom. In other words, they’re beginning to realize that if they stop bouncing off the walls, they might get candy by the end of the week. It’s challenging because I really enjoy the kids and have fun with them, but I really have to watch how often I become anything but serious, because things go from calm to mad house instantly. It was my turn to lead assembly this week, which resulted in me standing in front of the school trying to clap on beat while pretending to know the words to different songs. Thank goodness for grade 4 volunteer song leaders.
At the clinic, Adrienne decided to organize one of the rooms this week, which was a huge task. But once she negotiated her way through the craziness, she was able to do quite well organizing the medications. We’re hoping to come back maybe one Saturday soon and do some more heavy lifting. She’s also been seeing a lot of patients with the help of Lancelo, a nurse-in-training who has acted as her translator. Peacemaker has been going to a lot of meetings, and Theresa handles the waiting room, so Adrienne has fully been acting as doctor lately – diagnosing, prescribing meds, sending people to the hospital. She is learning a lot, but still is feeling her way around how things are run at the clinic. I went to see the clinic today, and there was a full waiting room (mostly moms with children under 5) waiting to see her. I think the biggest challenge for her is that a lot of these patients are so sick, but there just isn’t much she can do for them.
Language-wise, we are beginning to learn Krio, and although we can't understand it when spoken quickly, things are getting better, and we are usually able to communicate what we want to say. "Daio (please), talk small small (slowly), I wan fo understand" has been a key phrase for us to learn.
As we have been settling into life here, we have found ourselves becoming more motivated to make a positive difference in our workplaces. There are significant needs at both the clinic and school (especially the clinic), but it will take some time before sorting out how to best approach which changes to suggest, and how to suggest them.
We miss you all very much, and we hope that this update finds you all well.
Love,
Joe and Adrienne Melissen
aka. Foday and Saio Mansaray (our Kabala names we gave ourselves because people here have trouble remembering ours).
Ps. In case people are worried, we decided not to take up smoking. =)
Saturday, September 13, 2008
The view from inside our place.
Our bedroom - quite nice!
oh yeah
shower - the cold showers are actually quite nice at the end of the day.
Adrienne concentrating on starting without popping a wheelie
our porch.
our neighbors
our view
The market in Kabala - it's a very different and exciting shopping experience.
Sorry about the lack of workplace pictures! We just haven't taken our camera yet - we'll get some better ones soon. These are students responding to the bell for morning assembly. Adrienne and I taught "head and shoulders knees and toes" to the students in assembly as an intro to our health teaching. Unfortunately we don't really know where to go from here. We have video of it which we will try to post.
Our place - the CES guest house.
The drive from Makeni to Kabala is gorgeous.Finally on the Web.
So we’ve decided to make the trip down to Makeni to use internet after 2 weeks without much contact with the outside world. The situation with internet in Kabala is that the CES office (Christian Extension Services is the NGO that is closely connected with the CRC Primary School here in Kabala), which is located on our property is going to switch internet providers if they do not have web access by Monday. So word on the street is that they might have internet access by the end of next week. might.
Thanks to my sisters for the extremely well - written and thoughtful blog post. Written by Jeanette and proof-read by Jacqueline I assume! =). Very Melissen Blog-worthy
Here's the latest update. Sorry for the length, as we've had to give a bit of an extended summary.
Living Situation:
When we arrived in Kabala, the house that we were supposed to be staying in was not finished, so it was decided that we should stay at the CES guest house. Although we saw a large spider, a frog, and a freaky rat/lizard/cockroachy creature within the first 10 minutes of moving in and Adrienne started crying and got mad at me for not catching the rat, this turned out to be a nice turn of events for us because the house is very nice for Kabala standards. It also has running water (not drinkable), a generator during office hours, and is already furnished. We have really enjoyed the view and the nice porch as well.
In fact, living here has really left us dreading the eventual move into our new place. Since there will be other guests arriving in January, we will most likely be expected to move out. Furnishing a house which is now completely empty is a daunting and expensive task. Maybe another option can be negotiated? We’ll see. For now, we’re quite settled in here.
Work:
Both of us just completed our first full week of work, which has been cool, but there are definitely a lot of challenges ahead of us. One of the main ones has to do with communication. We were under the impression that because it is an English speaking country that the people spoke English. Maybe this was naïve? Some speak English, but most people in Kabala speak Creo, which is impossible to understand without learning it first. It is an easier language to learn than most others given the fact that many English words are used, but it will take a number of months before communication in Creo is possible beyond simple greetings. Koronko is the alternate language, which is a tribal dialect.
At the clinic, lack of communication means Adrienne is not able to see and assess patients one on one. Hiring a translator might be an option down the road. This, however, is only one of the complex challenges that she is facing there. Helping out with setting up and organizing the new clinic is something that she can see herself being an important resource for, but unfortunately the new building will not be ready now until January, which leaves a lot of time working in a small, crowded and extremely unorganized space that is never cleaned. Helping out with the organization sounds simple, but for Adrienne it feels like stepping in taking this on by herself is quite daunting. Trust me, if you saw the clinic you would understand. Sorry about the lack of pictures - they will come soon. Another challenge is that her colleagues want changes, but aren’t excited about implementing them. A large percentage of the patients are under 5, and most of the patients are extremely sick. So much should be done for these people, but most are just given medications and sent home. Adrienne tells them to come back if they are not better, but this rarely happens – which may or may not be a good sign. Since some medications cost money (antibiotics, Tylenol, etc.), many parents can’t bring their kids into the clinic at all. On a positive note, the clinic is helping a lot of people in the community, especially through malaria meds (free) when parents bring their kids in early enough. On Friday mornings, there is a maternity clinic, which is also very helpful.
For now, Adrienne is working alongside Peacemaker and Theresa getting a feel for how things are done, doing some teaching and learning where possible, and just trying to figure out how to fit in.
For Joe, communication in the classroom has been a bigger challenge than expected. Neeless to say, the first day was a disaster. The upside for him, however, is that the school is supposed to be entirely English – speaking, which means communication will improve very quickly, and already has within a week. For some reason, I also expected there to be some sort of fascination period during which I wouldn’t have to worry about classroom management issues. There was no such period. In fact, the kids are quite high – energy, and it’s hard to reprimand a kid who doesn’t understand a word you say and whose name you don’t know. Every day, however, was much better than the previous ones, and I really enjoy the students. One big difference is that they all love being at school.
One serious challenge is their general academic level. Their ability does not match up with the text books, which raises curriculum concerns.
The staff are great, and the general tone of the school is really positive.
JT (the principal) has more than insinuated that he wants sista Adrienne on staff as someone to teach health to the students. She was invited to the staff meeting today (Friday), and made the mistake of staying long enough to be appointed “assistant deputy of sanitation.” She’s hoping to muster at least one idea good enough to uphold such a lofty title! Brodda Joe did not disappoint, as he was appointed “minister of Foreign Affairs”, AND “assistant deputy of Physical and Health Education.” Seriously, though, we are going to love sharing a year with the people there.
They are excited to have us as well, even if it’s only because we brought a volleyball net and 6 volleyballs. Their reaction to this, however, was nothing compared to the riotous applause that was heard when it was revealed that we brought 3 old trophies along!
Food:
Well we haven’t gotten sick yet, but this is one of our biggest challenges. There really is not a lot of selection. There are some imported products available, but not many, and the fruit and veggie selection is slimmer than we thought. No dairy products are available. There is great bread here, but we can’t eat it 3 times a day. We (especially Adrienne) are people that love good meals, so going from what we know back home to a situation where you come home from work and dread what you have to prepare is rough. We’ve definitely cobbled together a few unique dishes. Egg/onion/rice mixed together for example. We’ve considered taking up smoking in order to curb our appetite. Seriously. Another thing is the fact that we can’t really rely on our fridge to keep things fresh. One fun thing has been shopping. We really enjoy going to the market, which has been a very “raw” cultural experience.
Learning to cook here will be something that takes a bit of time. Some friends that we’ve made are bringing some supplies from Freetown which will help out.
General well-being:
We’d be lying if we said we’ve had a fabulous couple of weeks. It’s been a real emotional roller coaster, but we knew it wasn’t going to be easy. We feel that things like the food and challenges of living and working here will work themselves out over time. Something that we are praying for is that we will find a community of friends that could bring a sense of normalcy to us. As much as we love spending time together =), it’s always nice to mix in some different personalities.
Thanks for reading….don’t feel guilty for having skimmed over the boring parts.
Hopefully our next entry will be sooner and shorter. We hope you all are doing great, and we miss you lots!
Joe and Adrienne
Thanks to my sisters for the extremely well - written and thoughtful blog post. Written by Jeanette and proof-read by Jacqueline I assume! =). Very Melissen Blog-worthy
Here's the latest update. Sorry for the length, as we've had to give a bit of an extended summary.
Living Situation:
When we arrived in Kabala, the house that we were supposed to be staying in was not finished, so it was decided that we should stay at the CES guest house. Although we saw a large spider, a frog, and a freaky rat/lizard/cockroachy creature within the first 10 minutes of moving in and Adrienne started crying and got mad at me for not catching the rat, this turned out to be a nice turn of events for us because the house is very nice for Kabala standards. It also has running water (not drinkable), a generator during office hours, and is already furnished. We have really enjoyed the view and the nice porch as well.
In fact, living here has really left us dreading the eventual move into our new place. Since there will be other guests arriving in January, we will most likely be expected to move out. Furnishing a house which is now completely empty is a daunting and expensive task. Maybe another option can be negotiated? We’ll see. For now, we’re quite settled in here.
Work:
Both of us just completed our first full week of work, which has been cool, but there are definitely a lot of challenges ahead of us. One of the main ones has to do with communication. We were under the impression that because it is an English speaking country that the people spoke English. Maybe this was naïve? Some speak English, but most people in Kabala speak Creo, which is impossible to understand without learning it first. It is an easier language to learn than most others given the fact that many English words are used, but it will take a number of months before communication in Creo is possible beyond simple greetings. Koronko is the alternate language, which is a tribal dialect.
At the clinic, lack of communication means Adrienne is not able to see and assess patients one on one. Hiring a translator might be an option down the road. This, however, is only one of the complex challenges that she is facing there. Helping out with setting up and organizing the new clinic is something that she can see herself being an important resource for, but unfortunately the new building will not be ready now until January, which leaves a lot of time working in a small, crowded and extremely unorganized space that is never cleaned. Helping out with the organization sounds simple, but for Adrienne it feels like stepping in taking this on by herself is quite daunting. Trust me, if you saw the clinic you would understand. Sorry about the lack of pictures - they will come soon. Another challenge is that her colleagues want changes, but aren’t excited about implementing them. A large percentage of the patients are under 5, and most of the patients are extremely sick. So much should be done for these people, but most are just given medications and sent home. Adrienne tells them to come back if they are not better, but this rarely happens – which may or may not be a good sign. Since some medications cost money (antibiotics, Tylenol, etc.), many parents can’t bring their kids into the clinic at all. On a positive note, the clinic is helping a lot of people in the community, especially through malaria meds (free) when parents bring their kids in early enough. On Friday mornings, there is a maternity clinic, which is also very helpful.
For now, Adrienne is working alongside Peacemaker and Theresa getting a feel for how things are done, doing some teaching and learning where possible, and just trying to figure out how to fit in.
For Joe, communication in the classroom has been a bigger challenge than expected. Neeless to say, the first day was a disaster. The upside for him, however, is that the school is supposed to be entirely English – speaking, which means communication will improve very quickly, and already has within a week. For some reason, I also expected there to be some sort of fascination period during which I wouldn’t have to worry about classroom management issues. There was no such period. In fact, the kids are quite high – energy, and it’s hard to reprimand a kid who doesn’t understand a word you say and whose name you don’t know. Every day, however, was much better than the previous ones, and I really enjoy the students. One big difference is that they all love being at school.
One serious challenge is their general academic level. Their ability does not match up with the text books, which raises curriculum concerns.
The staff are great, and the general tone of the school is really positive.
JT (the principal) has more than insinuated that he wants sista Adrienne on staff as someone to teach health to the students. She was invited to the staff meeting today (Friday), and made the mistake of staying long enough to be appointed “assistant deputy of sanitation.” She’s hoping to muster at least one idea good enough to uphold such a lofty title! Brodda Joe did not disappoint, as he was appointed “minister of Foreign Affairs”, AND “assistant deputy of Physical and Health Education.” Seriously, though, we are going to love sharing a year with the people there.
They are excited to have us as well, even if it’s only because we brought a volleyball net and 6 volleyballs. Their reaction to this, however, was nothing compared to the riotous applause that was heard when it was revealed that we brought 3 old trophies along!
Food:
Well we haven’t gotten sick yet, but this is one of our biggest challenges. There really is not a lot of selection. There are some imported products available, but not many, and the fruit and veggie selection is slimmer than we thought. No dairy products are available. There is great bread here, but we can’t eat it 3 times a day. We (especially Adrienne) are people that love good meals, so going from what we know back home to a situation where you come home from work and dread what you have to prepare is rough. We’ve definitely cobbled together a few unique dishes. Egg/onion/rice mixed together for example. We’ve considered taking up smoking in order to curb our appetite. Seriously. Another thing is the fact that we can’t really rely on our fridge to keep things fresh. One fun thing has been shopping. We really enjoy going to the market, which has been a very “raw” cultural experience.
Learning to cook here will be something that takes a bit of time. Some friends that we’ve made are bringing some supplies from Freetown which will help out.
General well-being:
We’d be lying if we said we’ve had a fabulous couple of weeks. It’s been a real emotional roller coaster, but we knew it wasn’t going to be easy. We feel that things like the food and challenges of living and working here will work themselves out over time. Something that we are praying for is that we will find a community of friends that could bring a sense of normalcy to us. As much as we love spending time together =), it’s always nice to mix in some different personalities.
Thanks for reading….don’t feel guilty for having skimmed over the boring parts.
Hopefully our next entry will be sooner and shorter. We hope you all are doing great, and we miss you lots!
Joe and Adrienne
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
The 10-Day Report
The Internet connection in Kabala is still down, and Joe and Adrienne remain unable to write an update. So this is being written by Joe's sisters, based on telephone conversations we were able to have with them.
Anyways, there have been both good and not-so-good surprises for the Melissens throughout their first week in Sierra Leone. They were very pleasantly surprised by the home that they are living in. It is apparently much nicer than they had prepared themselves for, and was mostly furnished and comfortable so they are very happy to have a lovely little place to call home.
On the not-so-good side, the communication with the people of Kabala has been much more difficult than anticipated. The English spoken by most of the people combines Creole and pidgin to such an extent that J&A are having a harder time than they anticipated with both understanding and being understood. For Joe this requires an adjustment in many activities and goals he had planned for himself, but as he is expected to be speaking and teaching in English, he believes that the language barrier will be overcome in a fairly short time period. It is a greater concern for Adrienne who obviously will be seeing many more people for much shorter durations, and will have a much harder time with being understood. As well, the patients who come to the clinic where she is working come from different villages and there are variations in the language so it will also be harder for her to learn all of these dialects. This unexpected situation was a bit overwhelming initially and Adrienne was unsure exactly what role she would be able to play at the clinic if she wasn't able to clearly communicate. However, when I spoke to them yesterday, it had been a much better day at work and she had felt that she had been able to contribute in a positive manner to the clinic's operations that day. I am happy to report that both Adrienne and Joe believe that things are on the upswing now!
Anyways, I told them I'd keep it short so that when they finally get an internet connection I will have saved them some things to write about. They wanted me to say again thanks so much to everyone for the love and support that they can feel coming across the world to them, and they hope to be able to write for themselves very soon.
Anyways, there have been both good and not-so-good surprises for the Melissens throughout their first week in Sierra Leone. They were very pleasantly surprised by the home that they are living in. It is apparently much nicer than they had prepared themselves for, and was mostly furnished and comfortable so they are very happy to have a lovely little place to call home.
On the not-so-good side, the communication with the people of Kabala has been much more difficult than anticipated. The English spoken by most of the people combines Creole and pidgin to such an extent that J&A are having a harder time than they anticipated with both understanding and being understood. For Joe this requires an adjustment in many activities and goals he had planned for himself, but as he is expected to be speaking and teaching in English, he believes that the language barrier will be overcome in a fairly short time period. It is a greater concern for Adrienne who obviously will be seeing many more people for much shorter durations, and will have a much harder time with being understood. As well, the patients who come to the clinic where she is working come from different villages and there are variations in the language so it will also be harder for her to learn all of these dialects. This unexpected situation was a bit overwhelming initially and Adrienne was unsure exactly what role she would be able to play at the clinic if she wasn't able to clearly communicate. However, when I spoke to them yesterday, it had been a much better day at work and she had felt that she had been able to contribute in a positive manner to the clinic's operations that day. I am happy to report that both Adrienne and Joe believe that things are on the upswing now!
Anyways, I told them I'd keep it short so that when they finally get an internet connection I will have saved them some things to write about. They wanted me to say again thanks so much to everyone for the love and support that they can feel coming across the world to them, and they hope to be able to write for themselves very soon.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
****Other details*****
By the way, we just realized our Telus email account is no longer activated since we are no longer customers of Telus (ajoe@telus.net). If you want to email us, you can do so through the ever-so-great adog6@hotmail.com!!!! Also (thanks to Jeanette), we changed our blog settings so that anyone can comment, not just registered bloggers. xxoo.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
On the road to Kabala
As I write this, Adrienne, Balalie and I are on the road to Kabala. If you are reading this, it means we were able to upload this file to our blog at an internet café in Makeni, which is about 3 hours outside of Kabala. We heard that the internet in Kabala is down, so we are not sure when we will be able to provide another update or pictures. We might have to make another trip to Makeni next time we want to use email.
Although not without a few hiccups here and there (somehow our flight reservation was deleted), traveling went very well. We arrived safely in Kabala with all of our 8 pieces of checked luggage (all weighing just under the allowed 70 lbs.). Balalie and co. were extremely helpful at the airport, and that quality has not tailed off since.
After a ferry ride, we arrived at Jay’s guest house for the night.
One highlight yesterday was buying bikes in Freetown. They are pretty good bikes (matching red in color, much to A-Lo’s chagrin), but they were actually quite pricey (70$ each approx). I guess the used bike market in Freetown is definitely a seller’s one. At any rate, we were off to Kabala, but before we got out of Freetown (thankfully this did not happen later), Balalie noticed that the “motor car done broke.” Long story short, we made what ended up being a 3 hour journey back to Jay’s for another night.
We are looking forward to meeting everyone and seeing our workplaces in Kabala for the first time! Freetown was extremely interesting (an “eyefull” for sure), but it was also very noisy, smoggy, and somehow tiring. (On a side note, it is interesting that we got tired so quick because it seemed like people were constantly doing things for us – unpacking and packing vehicles, for example – I’m blaming it on the jet lag as opposed to wimpyness).
How are we feeling? Currently really good, but please stand by. Our emotions have been changing almost as much as the weather, which is often. Examples – Adrienne (typically) got 3 huge mosquito bites on her face almost immediately, which didn’t put here in the balmiest of moods. I woke up this morning feeling sick already, and I thought it was because I wasn’t being diligent enough with our hand sanitizer. Luckily, I’m feeling good now, so I’m assuming it’s nothing.
Overall, we are feeling a combination of feeling nervous and being out of our element, but also excitement to have started this journey together. If Balalie is an indication of the hospitality that we will receive, I think we can look forward to an awesome year.
Thank you so much for all your thoughts and prayers. We truly felt supported in every sense of the word in the weeks, months, and days before we left.
Missing you all already,
Love,
Joe and Adrienne.
On the road to Kabala
As I write this, Adrienne, Balalie and I are on the road to Kabala. If you are reading this, it means we were able to upload this file to our blog at an internet café in Makeni, which is about 3 hours outside of Kabala. We heard that the internet in Kabala is down, so we are not sure when we will be able to provide another update or pictures. We might have to make another trip to Makeni next time we want to use email.
Although not without a few hiccups here and there (somehow our flight reservation was deleted), traveling went very well. We arrived safely in Kabala with all of our 8 pieces of checked luggage (all weighing just under the allowed 70 lbs.). Balalie and co. were extremely helpful at the airport, and that quality has not tailed off since.
After a ferry ride, we arrived at Jay’s guest house for the night.
One highlight yesterday was buying bikes in Freetown. They are pretty good bikes (matching red in color, much to A-Lo’s chagrin), but they were actually quite pricey (70$ each approx). I guess the used bike market in Freetown is definitely a seller’s one. At any rate, we were off to Kabala, but before we got out of Freetown (thankfully this did not happen later), Balalie noticed that the “motor car done broke.” Long story short, we made what ended up being a 3 hour journey back to Jay’s for another night.
We are looking forward to meeting everyone and seeing our workplaces in Kabala for the first time! Freetown was extremely interesting (an “eyefull” for sure), but it was also very noisy, smoggy, and somehow tiring. (On a side note, it is interesting that we got tired so quick because it seemed like people were constantly doing things for us – unpacking and packing vehicles, for example – I’m blaming it on the jet lag as opposed to wimpyness).
How are we feeling? Currently really good, but please stand by. Our emotions have been changing almost as much as the weather, which is often. Examples – Adrienne (typically) got 3 huge mosquito bites on her face almost immediately, which didn’t put here in the balmiest of moods. I woke up this morning feeling sick already, and I thought it was because I wasn’t being diligent enough with our hand sanitizer. Luckily, I’m feeling good now, so I’m assuming it’s nothing.
Overall, we are feeling a combination of feeling nervous and being out of our element, but also excitement to have started this journey together. If Balalie is an indication of the hospitality that we will receive, I think we can look forward to an awesome year.
Thank you so much for all your thoughts and prayers. We truly felt supported in every sense of the word in the weeks, months, and days before we left.
Missing you all already,
Love,
Joe and Adrienne.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
