Wirrell Family | In Missions
June 2011
What a crazy first few weeks we’ve had since getting back to Sierra Leone.
We arrived back in the evening of May 31 from Germany via Paris and London. We spent the first few days in Freetown getting the basic necessities of living, a stove, kitchen utensils other odds and ends and of course an internet modem. On the 4th of June we arrived at the house in Mokanji. It’s livable but not complete yet, there’s still a fair bit of work to do but it seems that with our arrival the urgency is gone or maybe it’s simply this slow to get things happening. Since our arrival two weeks ago we have seen the completion of exactly two mosquito screens. We’ll need to start to push the completion of the rest of the screens so we can sit inside without being plagued by insects at night. If we simply close the windows then we sit and sweat but with the windows open it’s really quite pleasant.
On the 10th we were called over to the Section Chief’s house where his wife, who apparently had a stillbirth a week or two previously was not doing well. She had been to the Serabu Hospital for a blood transfusion a week earlier but was again in rough shape. We were able to speak with a doctor at the Moyamba Hospital, a government hospital about an hour and a half away by vehicle where the doctor advised us that she needed to be admitted for a D&C. The only ambulance was otherwise busy and unavailable so ambulance duty fell to us. The chief and some others rigged up a shade in the back of the pickup and then the chief’s wife was carried out and placed in the back of the pickup. I can only imagine the uncomfortable ride she had for the next hour and a half as we coaxed the truck to the hospital. I say coaxed as the Ford F350 might be a fine vehicle in North America where the fuel is nice and clean but here in Sierra Leone the fuel is very dirty and the Ford was constantly starving for fuel on this trip. We managed to get the patient to the hospital where it was determined that she needed two units of blood. I’m not medically able to give blood any longer due to the heart surgery a few years ago but Petra and the Chief both donated a unit of blood. Many of these hospitals do not have a blood bank so if you need blood you’d best bring along a few trusted friends to provide for you! After donating blood it was getting late in the day and the first 10-15 miles of the return trip were single track it was important to get started back to avoid a potential collision.
Well the return trip had the Ford complaining all the way. At times we could easily walk faster than the Ford would drive! There were several times on the uphill sections that I truly thought we might be spending the night out on the road! After repeated prayers and coaxing we finally made it back to Mokanji about 3 hours later.
It was obvious from this and prior trips that something needed doing and it needed doing soon. Fortunately we had been expecting this for some time and had already sourced a fuel filter to filter the fuel for the Ford. The next day we spent dropping the fuel tank, cleaning the tank, the in-tank fuel pump, in tank filters and changing the main fuel filter. While Immanuel, one of our workers here, and I pulled the tank and cleaned everything we had others who cleaned out a few jerry cans and were filtering the fuel so we could once again drive the truck. We got everything reassembled after getting probably a measuring cup full of dirt out of the tank and mostly out of the fuel pump. I was surprised that with that amount of dirt we were actually able to drive at all! Now the Ford is once again running just fine and we hope no permanent damage has happened due to the dirt in the fuel. Only time will tell if we are able to filter the fuel well enough.
The next day we were called upon to “rescue” the government nurse who was returning from a conference. The car that was bringing her had suffered a breakdown a few miles outside of Mokanji. We headed out and ended up being the tow truck to bring the car with the nurse back to Mokanji. It was good that we had spent some time to fix the truck the previous day so we had sufficient power to move not only the truck itself but also another vehicle.
A few days later we awoke to wailing from a few houses over. We had not heard that before but we had a pretty good guess what was happening, someone had died during the night. In this case it was a young child who apparently had malaria and the government nurse didn’t have any medication available.
Just the other day Petra was out walking past “Mama William’s” house, the village pharmacy when she was summoned to help a young teen who had been bitten by a snake. When Petra was summoned it was already 3-4 hours after the snake bite and, again, there was no medication available. The boy died just a short time later as it was already a long time since he had been bitten. Unfortunately the people had done a few things wrong starting out with not carrying the patient in and then using various traditional remedies which might give some emotional comfort but do little to counter the snake venom.
In between all this misery we had a social visit from the local paramount chief to welcome us to the chiefdom and a visit from the town chief and section chief as well. It is quite an honor to have a visit from the local chiefs and there are customs and protocols to be followed which we are trying hard to learn and understand.
It is quickly becoming clear that if folks here are to have a chance we will likely need to buy a small supply of some medications that seem to be otherwise unavailable locally. Petra will be communicating with her doctor friends both here in Sierra Leone and in the U.S. about the best medications to have on hand so we can pick up some when we are in Freetown in a few weeks.
Today Petra needed a short break so we came up to Mobimbi, the mining camp where we stayed from February till we returned back home in April. The last two weeks have been quite mentally taxing on her and at the mining camp she is able to simply relax without a constant stream of villagers and their health issues coming by for a visit, not to mention eating a meal prepared by someone else which is not the traditional African diet of rice and cassava.
For you at home reading this on your nice fast broadband internet connection, we’re blessed with an internet speed that might be equal to the old 56k dial up modem on a good day (if you can remember that long ago)! And that only if you have a good cell phone signal otherwise expect a lot of drop outs if you get a signal at all.