Wednesday May 31, 2017

Safety! Not a concern in Africa. There are no safety procedures here in

Africa. The African people are so careless with their lives. They do so

many dangerous things. Three weeks ago at one of our work sites the

workers work in flip flops or barefoot. While digging inside a spring

capture box, one of our workers put a pick axe through his foot and was

bleeding profusely. Samuel Samba took him to the hospital and he got

19 stitches, antibiotic shots and pills and had to go back to the hospital

for 5 days to get another shot each day. Don took his family a 50# bag

of rice because the man was unable to work. Monday, the man was

back at work and wanted to thank Don for the rice. Don said it was

very awkward. The man did not know what to say but Don fully

understood his gratefulness.

I heard a man yell at another man to "hurry up". The man's reply was "I

am in full haste".

While driving down a mountain we came upon a very old land rover.

We could see through the back window and the man driving the vehicle

was so small he had to look through the steering wheel. He drove

erratically so we thought it must be a child. At an appropriate place,

Don passed the vehicle and I could see it was an adult - he was just

small. For some reason we thought this was so funny and took great

joy in the experience. Are we weird or what?

We are enjoying our mission. We work with many people and many of

them are good people who are just fun to be around. The country of

Africa is absolutely beautiful. This time of year is what we would

consider "Spring". The rains have come and all the trees, bushes,

houses, air & everything has had a good washing and spring flowers and

new growth on bushes and trees are blooming. Flowers bloom here all

year long. But in Spring, there are many more flowers. During the dry

season many trees and bushes go into hibernation.

We are in Kenema today attending a WASH (water & sanitation)

meeting. We will have dinner tonight with the Corbaly's who are the

MLS Senior Missionary Couple here in Kenema.

We have heard from SLC that they are having trouble finding a

replacement couple for us. The one couple who specifically requested

to come to Sierra Leone was denied due to health issues. There are no

health care facilities here in Sierra leone that can handle anything more

than first aid needs. SLC told us they are looking at another application

from a Senior Couple and they may be a possibility. We can not extend

beyond our current time offered. We can, however, go home and

reapply and come back. We have been considering that but then

again, we have been talking a lot about going home, re-establishing our

goat herd, and how we are going to rearrange the usage of our

buildings. We have been talking about getting on our motorcycle and

visiting family and friends and stopping in to see the other Senior

Missionary Couples we went through the MTC with. There were 7

couples and we all went to Africa, Asia, or the Mid-East. It will be fun

to sit and compare notes. We have wondered together what the Lord

has in store for us next. We are healthy and willing. We are confident

the Lord will use us to continue to bless his children. What joy there is

in the service of God!