As I noted in a previous post, Kroo Bay recently experienced intense flooding. Instead of me describing everything from that night, I found this article that describes what happened on Sept. 12 : http://allafrica.com/stories/200809120734.html. Kroo Bay is located at the low point of the city, and everything from the city – trash, sewage, runoff, etc., all flow towards it. You literally have to walk down steps to go down into Kroo Bay.
In the days following the floods, once the water had receded, we had to go down to look at the damage ourselves. We went to the medical clinic and had the opportunity to talk to the Community Health Officer (CHO) and another man, Saidu Turay, who works and lives within the community. They sat with us for about an hour and talked about the floods, the community, and issues they were facing. It was heart-wrenching to hear a first hand account of the flooding from Saidu. He said in his room water was up to his chest. Everything he owned (clothes, bed, etc.) was under water that night and was still wet as we were speaking six days later, because the sun still had not come out. That night many residents (including many children) were literally swimming in a mixture of rainwater, street runoff and overflow of the open sewers, to get up to higher ground. Many had to gather at the community center to wait out the floods.
After sharing about the flooding they began to share about the lack of relief and assistance they received. No one had come to bring any type of assistance up to that point (6 days later); however they said that many organizations had come down to view the damage. They sadly shared that this was typical. Many people come down to view the poverty and are moved emotionally, then make empty promises to do something about it. They explained that so many people and organizations over the years have come and promised to make a difference, but have simply exploited Kroo Bay in the process (too much to write about this here, more to come in another blog).
Anyways, as we left Kroo Bay we were overwhelmed with feelings of compassion, sadness, and helplessness. There were only 3 of us and the needs were so great, we just started asking “What can we really do?” As we were wrestling through this, we were discussing the saying - ”The Need is the Call”. Later that evening, we remembered that the CHO had mentioned during the conversation that one of their many immediate needs was basic cleaning supplies to clean and disinfect the clinic, which had also flooded. We remembered one thing that Saidu had said, “A drowning man will grasp at a straw.” We decided that even though our resources were small, we were going to offer what we could and pray for God to bless our feeble efforts. So to make a long story short we went out and spent $50 American dollars (150,000 leones) on cleaning supplies. A few days later we took it down to the clinic and simply offered it to them, apologizing that it was not very much, but offering them the supplies and telling them that we would love to help them clean.
Saidu, the nurses, and a group of birth attendants (about 20 people in all) gathered in this small room and began looking through the cleaning supplies we brought. They went through each item, one by one, and talked about it and what they could use it for. In the end, they all gathered together and began singing to us. They sang with so much joy and thankfulness. The words to the song were simple, simply saying “We’re welcome”, but their faces expressed so much more. They clapped, they smiled, they sang, they danced. Honestly, there’s no way to express into words what happened in our hearts during those few precious moments. Tears immediately came to our eyes and are coming to me now thinking back about that morning. As I think back, the only way I know to describe it is a saying that came to my mind that morning: “Heaven came down and glory filled my soul”.
It’s absolutely amazing to me that God could bless us and the people of Kroo Bay so much through just $50, but it doesn’t end there. For all of you have supported us through this journey, the money we spent was extra support money that we were given before our trip. I pray that God blesses your heart as you read this, knowing that through your faithfulness, God has given hope to these people of Kroo Bay and blessed us beyond anything we could have imagined. We thank you all from the bottom of our hearts.
There’s so much more I want to share about this experience as well as others we have had in Kroo Bay, but I feel like I would be writing all day to simply paint a tiny glimpse of how I truly feel. So hopefully there will be more to come in the future……we want to continue to work with the medical clinic during our time here. While down there, they showed us the ”delivery room” and said they had already had 19 births there this month alone. Trust me, this was no ordinary delivery room. They told us that if we could get them some candles that would be greatly appreciated, as they need them when they have deliveries at night! Unbelievable. These people are amazing.
-A couple on staff here recently adopted a Sierra Leonean baby, who was in need of a family. She was born on Sept. 15th, but the couple had a trip to head back to Nebraska for a month on Sept. 22 and they couldn’t take the baby with them……. so we immediately became parents for a month. We’ve moved in with Cami (field director) and the 3 of us will be taking care of beautiful Keyara for the upcoming weeks. Something tells me after caring for a newborn baby in Freetown for a month, having a baby in America will be cake (or maybe not!).
