Thursday Nov 17

The miracle happened. Mr. Manasary went to the Minister of Health about our
problem of having very expensive medical equipment in customs for months and
customs wanting 22,000,000. Leones to get it out (a bribe). The Minisiter was very
unhappy he did not know about this medical equipment and the bribe was outrageous.
He contacted the country's Chief Medical Officer and learned that he has been sitting
on this since June 10th. He ordered the Chief to get the equipment out of customs and
there will be no fees of any kind. Don offered to pay the transportation costs from
Customs in Lungi to Connought Hospital in Freetown. The Minister would not hear of it.
The equipment is to be delivered tomorrow.
We hiked down the mountain to the community called "Down the Hole". Believe me, it
is called that for a reason. It is way down and quite steep. Part way down a man came
out of his home and told us he is a member of the Church. He has been a member for 2
years. Don asked him what his calling is in his ward. The man thought about it and
said, "I am a full tithe payer and I partake of the Sacrament regularly." Don
congratulated him and gave his shoulder a squeeze. The man beamed.
We are going to put in a very large spring box and two 10,000 liter Milla Tanks in Down
the Hole. While there, I asked about a stream running along side the spring that we are
going to capture water from. They said that stream is sourced from 5 small streams.
Don asked them to show us. That meant another hike up the other side of the
mountain. I chose to stay at the spring area and watched the people fetch water. They
were having a lot of fun. To them, fetching water is a very normal thing and they enjoy
their association with their neighbors who draw water there, too. It was quite
entertaining. Don and the crew came back and Don said we needed to put a spring box
up higher and connect it to the spring box and Milla Tanks down below and let gravity
fill the spring box which in turn will fill the Milla Tanks. Our contractor was with us so
they laid out a plan.
We received 3 more requests for assistance today.