Geneba and Elder Carley making fishballs pictures !

Geneba making fish balls. Getting ready to add the fish.

Photo: IMG_0276

Tuesday, November 15, 2016 4:02 AM

Pounding onions and hot peppers for the fish balls

Don doing his part of making dinner

Fish has been added to the onions and pepper - more pounding

Ready to eat

November 13 2016

Elizabeth's 5th birthday! (Cholena's youngest child)

Geneba came over after church and made fish balls for lunch. It was quite a chore. That is not a meal you make without a lot of time.

November 12 2016 - Porcupine for supper?

OH NO! Brother Thomas called to inform us the price of gas has gone up 86% from yesterday. We are now going to have to pay 6,000 Leones per liter! The people cannot afford this. This means everything is going to cost more. Many people are now only eating one meal a day and that is mostly a cup of rice. About a month ago rice went up from 150,000 Leones for a 50# bag of rice to 220,000 Leones. The people are having a very difficult time managing with this high cost. Now rice is going to go even higher.

I went over to the Doe's outdoor kitchen looking for Geneba and Michaella was there with Aminetta and Souley and Michaella had some very black meat in her hands. It looked like a leg and thigh from a chicken except bigger than a chicken and the foot was a paw instead of a 3-toed foot. She was waving them around like a flag. I asked her what they were. She looked at Aminetta and Souley and they all agreed they did not know the English word. But they called it something in Kreo and said it was smoked. Later when I was with Geneba, I described to her the meat and asked her what it was. She laughed and said she had seen it earlier and smelled it and it was bush-meat - porcupine. They were going to pick the meat off the bone and put it in with their rice and cassava leaves.

November 11 2016

Veteran's Day. Awesome people serve their country in the military. Thanks to all of us.

We spent the morning at the banks trying to find 13,600,000. Leones that was suppose to be deposited into one of our contractors account and had not arrived. Accra sent the money to our bank (which is the clearing house for all out-of-state transactions) on the 24th of October. It was received and passed on to the contractor's bank on the 25th. His bank sat on the money. We were nice, but firm. The bank put the money into the contractor's account while we were standing there.

 The project for the bridge has been approved. We will be starting that very soon.

November 10 2016 - There's a person in the well

"THERE'S A PERSON IN THE WELL!" Seven heads swooped down to the well opening. We had just hiked down Hill Station to a natural fetching point and determined that this community is desperate for water and has a nice site to develop a spring box with a clothes washing area. We can do a nice project with them. It will be a large and difficult project but our contractor is excited about it. We hiked back up to the top of the mountain and someone mentioned there was a functioning well not far from where we parked the truck. We wanted to see it. We had many of the community people with their community leaders with us plus our site manager, Brother Thomas and our contractor, Samuel Samba. We were standing around this fetching hole that was just a hole in a concrete slab that had a lid that opened up. People drop a jerry can tied to a rope through the hole and lower it to the water and pull it back up. The lid was open and two men were peering in to see how deep the water was and one yelled "There's a person in the well!" Immediately 5 more heads had their faces in the well opening. 7 butts up in the air. My response was "alive or dead?" One of the 7 said "alive". The opening to the hole was barely an 18" square. They peered into the hole for a while when one of the 7 reached into the well and pulled out a Jerry can that barely fit through the hole and a moment later a man popped out of the well. The well had not been used in many days because the rope on the Jerry can broke and the Jerry can was in the well and they did not have a replacement Jerry can. So this man decided to get it. He went into the well with no one knowing where he was and he did not have a rope to tie himself onto something to get himself out. I remember when I was a kid and my brothers and sisters and I would stand in a doorway and put our feet and hands on either side of the door jam and shimmy up to the top of the door. This is what this man did, carrying a Jerry can to get out of the well. He had no idea the crowd that was gathered around the well. We applauded when he emerged. He had to squeeze to get out of that hole. The community asked if we could put a Milla Tank here. We discussed options and we plan to do something there. Don gave the community an assignment of collecting enough money to fill a 10,000 liter Milla tank with water before we start the project. They said they would do that and we told them we would be back in two weeks to check on them. When they have the money collected and in the bank, we will do a project.

We had a very frustrating day. The banking system here in Sierra Leone is broken. We have a contractor whom Accra paid on Oct 24th and the money still has not shown up in his account. The banks hold American money they receive and speculate with it to get the best price. In the meantime, people who live hand-to-mouth are suffering with hunger and thirst because the bank is holding their money. This happened once before and we went to the bank and as Don says "I had to stand on someone's desk to get them to put the money in the contractor's account". We are going to have to do the same thing again. Plus, another NGO we hired to put in a hand-dug borehole has not been paid by Accra. We have been barking at them for more than 2 months only to be told today they need more information plus the NGO requested to be paid in US dollars. When they made that request over 2 months ago, Don called Accra and they said "yes, we can do that". Today they informed us they cannot do that. Don called the head accountant in Accra and told him about our plight and sent him all the necessary forms via e-mail. We gave him a few minutes to absorb all the information and called him back. He got permission to have the contractor set an exchange rate from USD to Leones and then Accra is going to put the money into our working fund account and I am to write the NGO a check.

I started the Kenema School Districts table and benches project today.

November 8 2016

At about 1:00 we packed up and was leaving Makeni to go back to Grafton. As we were going down main street there was a bus pulled off to the side and was loading and unloading people. I saw a man stoop down as if he were looking under the bus and then he fell over and had a grand-mall seizure right on the road and people were walking past him and looking at him and cars and ocatas were swerving around him. I was terrified for him. He was laying on a very hot, black, hardtop road and there was a lot of traffic. Don stopped and I jumped out and directed traffic around him. I asked the people on the bus if anyone had a towel, blanket, anything we could use to put under him and no one did. Because I was there many people started gathering around to see what was going on. The man had a huge gaping tear from the corner of his mouth to his cheek and big chunks out of his knuckles. There is nothing you can do for someone in a seizure except protect them. Once they come out of it all they want to do is sleep. When this man came out of it that is exactly what he wanted to do. I asked the people around if he was a passenger on the bus and they told me he was a local. I suggested picking him up and laying him under a tree to sleep. A man on the bus said, "look at this place, he will not be safe". Don asked some of the men standing around to help the man to our truck. 3 men picked him up and tossed him up to the edge of the truck like you would pick up a dead body and throw them on a pile of dead bodies on a cart. I was appalled! But once they got him on the edge of the truck, they gently lowered him into the bed. He woke up and started to fight, he had no idea what was happening to him. The 3 men jumped into the truck and held him down. He was so tired he could not fight long. We took him to our compound where we have a security guard 24/7 plus Bishop Marcus was there building a shed for our generator. The 3 men who came with us got the man out of the truck and tried to get him to walk up 2 steps but he was so tired he just passed out. Bishop Marcus had a big piece of cardboard and he put that in the shade on the porch, Don got a pillow, I got some cool wet towels and the 3 men carried him onto the porch. There was a breeze. We left him some water and Bishop Marcus said he would get him something to eat at the market. He slept for two hours, ate, drank, and rested a while longer before leaving.

November 7 2016

We met with Mr. Abdul Manasary at 11:00. He wanted details about the vision project and was appalled to learn of the 22,000,000 Leone bribe. He said he will personally take care of this. He has a staff meeting to attend Thursday and a government board meeting on Friday. He asked us for copies of all the documentations and he will present all the paperwork to the members of the board and he will personally get our equipment out of customs. He understands that this equipment is all free and the training of the doctors is free. He is not about to lose this opportunity for the people of Sierra Leone to have better vision. However, he did tell us that the President has commissioned him to open a school to train doctors here in Makeni and he could possibly use some help. Understood! You scratch my back and I will scratch your back. But that is OK. The church is very interested in helping in this kind of project this man is going to do. It was no accident that Don and Mr. Manasary were in the material store at the same time. When we got back to our apartment, we sent a text right away to Dr. Turley in the States giving him a written list of what Mr. Manasary wants and then called him. Dr. Turley will gather all the requested items and e-mail them to Mr. Manasary today. The electricity did not come back on until 1:00 a.m. And then went off again about 10:00 a.m. It was blistering hot out. When we went to meet Mr. Manasary there were people wearing down-filled coats and winter stocking hats. Don and I were sweating so bad we had water running down our backs and Don had sweat dripping off his nose and my hair was soggy and dripping sweat off the ends.

 The electricity came back on at 6:30 p.m.

A note from cholena

Hello everyone, I am happy that many of you are reading this. I apologize for the large amounts of posts all at once, but between Jeanne and I things tend to pile up.

If any one reading this is on social media (i am not) please feel free to post links from this blog there so others can read.

also i have requested more pictures from my parents, but don't have any yet.

thank you all for you prayers for my parents.

I sure do miss them, but i am grateful for the work they are able to do for the Lord.

Cholena

November 6th, 2016

The electricity came on at 8:15 this morning. It was a really hot night until about midnight when the rains showed up. It was Torrential! But that is good. The wells will be filled.

We had 2 young missionaries (Elders Turner from Arizona and Baddo from Ghana) over for lunch today. I made a Texas sheet cake and Elder Turner took one bite and said "Texas Sheet cake, ummmmmm!" His favorite. We got talking about thanksgiving and how we miss our American holidays. We decided to get together for Thanksgiving but will have to celebrate a different day because Don accepted an invitation from one of the other American NGO who is having all the Americans he knows over for dinner that day. Since Elder Turner wants Texas Sheet cake for our celebration, I asked Elder Baddo what he is hungry for and I immediately said, "I am not making foofoo!" Oh, that started such a fun discussion. But, after the fun, he did not hesitate to say "Pizza". Really, when did Africans start eating pizza? I asked him what he likes on his pizza and he said "onions, only onions". A man after my own heart. Elder Turner said he likes BBQ Chicken. Ah, another man after my own heart. So, I told them I could make the crust and the only expensive part would be the cheese. But, for Thanksgiving, who holds back? No one. We will have our pizza.

6:00 p.m. The electricity is off again. It looks like another hot night. I hope the rains come.

November 5th, 2016

The electricity stayed on until 1:00 in the afternoon and then went off for about half and hour, came back on for about an hour and has been off ever since. The house is so hot! Nevertheless, It has been a very relaxing day.

We sat on the porch tonight and I got 11 mosquito bites. Itch itch itch. Yes, I do have repellent but forgot to put it on. Dumb! The electricity is still off. Good night.

November 4th, 2016 - Praise be to God, and a little to the Carley's

Getting out of Freetown was a chore. Don went next door to see Sahr and he had a violent muscle spasm that caused him to fly out of his wheelchair and the wheelchair tipped over. Sahr was scared. Don helped him and someone is going to sit next to him all the time. Don has become the voice of reason to a lot of people. The last 3 nights he has been sought out for counsel by a young man called to be the branch mission leader of the Grafton Branch and has no idea what to do. Don got out his handbook 2 and they went over his responsibilities item by item. Then an 18 year old missionary came because he needs help adjusting to being a missionary and is miserable. Then another young man came with a business plan he wanted to run by Don and asked for some money to start the business. Then a young man sent Don a text and said he was in pain and things were not good and asked to speak to him. Don tried to get him in to visit with him, but Don's time was totally stretched and he could not do it. On our way out of the compound this morning, the young man showed up and Don asked if they could talk next Tuesday when we get back to Grafton or if he needed to talk right then. The young man said it could wait. I know this young man has been working for several months and has not been paid. He may need financial help, too.

 We have to go right by 5 5 school in Waterloo to go to Makeni so we stopped to see the finished product (a hand-dug borehole). This was our first attempt at this. The borehole is 65 feet deep and has 32' of pure clean water. When we got there the children and the headmistress and principal all came running to us. The Headmistress threw her arms around me and thanked me profusely. We went to the well and they asked me to pump water. I did. It was wonderful to have such precious water available right in the middle of the school yard. The headmistress and the principal asked us if they could talk to us and took us to the head mistresses' office. They thanked us profusely and reiterate all the wonderful benefits. Then they started talking about houses and clothes and the Carley house , and parliament and the local chiefs and a "turn-over" ceremony on December 4th and everyone has been invited and has accept and asked me what my favorite color is. I looked at Don and asked him "what are they going to do to our house and what are the clothes they are talking about?" He shrugged his shoulders and made a face that said "I don't know". Neither Don nor I could follow what they were talking about. We were both confused. Luckily, Brother Thomas our site manager was there and he explained to us that the school is broken down into 4 houses. Each house has a color. In honor of us they are going to create a fifth house which will be called "The Carley House" and this house will be forever called "The Carley House" for as long as the school is in existence. They wanted to know what color is my favorite so the house will have its own color. In my mind I am going "yikes! We are getting too much credit. We are serving a mission for the Lord. We can't do this. How can we slow this down without offending them?" I did not know what to do so I asked what colors the 4 other houses are and they said "red, yellow, blue and green". I looked at Don and asked orange or purple? Mrs. Scott, the headmistress, said very enthusiastically, "Orange". Then a man walked in from an adjoining room and told Don to stand. Don stood up and the man whipped out a tape measure and started taking measurements of Don and then me to make us something they are going to put on us at the ceremony. Whatever it is, it is going to be orange. Somewhere in the ceremony Don is going to become an honorary member of parliament or an honorary chief in the local tribe. We are confused on that. But the one thing we can both remember is he will be the honorary (?) and I am "the woman who supports him". REALLY!

November 1-3, 2016

We worked hard and long in the office. We submitted 2 more projects for approval and two giant projects that will take some serious consideration by the West Africa Area Presidency. The two smaller projects are: 1. Dwarzak has a spring box that is located at the bottom third of the mountain and the heavy rains during the rainy season washes trash and sewage down the mountain and it washes over the top of the spring box and the fetching point. We are going to build a wall around the spring box and put ditches on both sides to divert the water & debris away from the spring box. 2. We are going to take what is now a fetching point (water flowing out of the rocks and collecting in a small area where people come and catch the water right from the rocks. We are going to build a spring box and place a 10,000 liter Milla Tank next to it so all the water is captured. This is going to be a very difficult project. The spring box will be way down the mountain in the community called "Down The Hole". 50 bags of cement (80# each) will be carried down on the heads of men. They will also carry the sand and gravel and everything else they will need to work down there. And I do not know how they will get the 10,000 Liter Milla Tank down there. I imagine a group of men will man-handle it. African men are extremely hard working (when they can find a job). And remember, they work for 10,000 Leones a day ($1.40). The two giant projects we are asking for consideration are: 1. a 14-stall toilet at the local bus stop. The only reason this project is being seriously considered is we asked for 2 stalls to be wheelchair assessable and a 3rd being big enough for a pregnant woman or women with children or women who are disabled. There are no handicap assessable anything in this country. If someone is handicapped in any way they are considered "broken" or "spoiled" and are thrown away. They struggle mightily to do their shopping and business. 2. We want to build a bridge in Kenema. There is an area that has a broken down bridge and it is the only way in and out of the community. The bridge spans a small stream but during the rainy season the stream floods most of the community and there is no way in or out of the community. We have had contractors out to look at the situation and to give us bids with drawings on how they would rebuild the bridge. The local government has been involved and things seem to be moving along. We submitted all our documents to our immediate supervisor and John Buah was here last week and we ran the whole idea by him. He was intrigued and told us to submit it. There are 4 men who have to approve each of our projects. John is the 2nd one. After he approves it, he takes it to Brother Francis who is the director of temporal affairs, and then to the West Africa Area Presidency (Elder Stanfill). The hand-dug borehole for the Treeplanting community was approved last week and that will be started next week.

This has been a brutal week. With John coming last week and leaving Monday night and the last 3 days we have been running on a treadmill we are very tired. We have not had a day off since a Oct. 26th. Tomorrow we plan to go to Makeni and take a break.

October 31st, 2016 - it's not halloween in africa

Don went to pick up Brother Buah from his hotel and then picked me up. They had to go right by here. So I stayed home and packed a lunch. We went to the 5/5 school to check on the progress of the hand-dug borehole and it was great. They have gone down 65 feet and have 30 feet of water in the well with a 13 gallon a minute recharge rate. Yeah! Tomorrow they do a water test to see how pure the water is. We are crossing our fingers. We then went to Lungi and visited the hospital we want to put 5 pieces of expensive equipment into and Brother Buah was delighted with this project. He said this is exactly the kind of project the Church likes for us to do. Lungi is a town that is remote from all other towns and the hospital serves 15,000 people and does not have an x-Ray machine, anesthesia equipment, oxygen concentrator, blood testing equipment nor a fully working (I can't remember what it is called) machine that they rub over a woman's stomach to see the baby and look for defects, gender, etc. They use old out-dated techniques. Dr. Sesay is a very humble man full of compassion and every person is important to him regardless of their ability to pay. He is loved by everyone who meets him. If ever there was a person on this earth that was/is "Christlike" it is him. People are drawn to him. From here we went to the military base to discuss their project of building a trade school. Only to find out the man we were working with was transferred and his replacement came last night and had no idea about it. We told him about the trade school and he is all for it but we told him to think about it and talk to the enlisted men as well as the other officers and to get back to us in a couple of months and let us know what they would like to do. From here, we took Brother Buah to the Lungi Airport and dropped him off. Then on our way home, we stopped at the 5/5 school to check on the project. The workers were done for the day and were making spaghetti for supper. They have two huge tents and stay on site until the project is done. They do this to make sure none of their equipment is stolen. They are really nice men. Very hard working and, oh my goodness!, you should see the muscles on these men. Their bodies are sculpted! We sent Brother Buah a text telling him of the progress.

 This was his reply: From John Buah via text: Elder and Sister Carley, we have just arrived at Accra. I'm on my way home now. I hope to get home by 9:30 p.m. Thank you so much for making my visit to Sierra Leone very successful and a wonderful experience. Thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate your generosity. I'm glad to know that the hand-dug borehole is successful. Please convey my appreciation to the local priesthood and auxiliary leaders. I appreciate their time and desire to learn. Thank you once again and best regards. John

It has been a full week and we are grouchy tired. Good night.

October 30, 2016

Judy's 61st birthday.

 We went to church in Grafton today but only stayed for Sacrament and Sunday School. We left early to go to downtown Freetown to pick John Buah up and get him to Kossoh Town for his 3-hour welfare training. We delivered John to Kossoh Town and picked up the Heckels who attended church and did training in Kossoh Town and delivered them to our apartment. Then we went back to Kossoh Town and attended the welfare meeting that Took 4 1/2 hours. It was excellent training. The leaders all got into it and didn't even want it to end after 4 1/2 hours. We took John back to his hotel in Freetown and were suppose to have dinner with him at the hotel. But it was close to 8:00 when we got there and much too late to eat because the wait to get food here in just about any restaurant is 1 hour. That is because most restaurants don't keep food on hand. When you order, they send someone to buy the ingredients in the market and you have to wait for them to bring the food back and then for the cook to cook it. John said one time he ordered fish and he waited well over an hour and asked the waiter why the wait was so long. His reply was "the fish aren't biting". John left. We are very tired tonight.

October 29, 2016

Welfare training in 3 districts this weekend. Brother Buah is training Don to train the 3 outlying districts. They have two 3 hour meetings today and one tomorrow.

I am too tired to enjoy the meetings today. I stayed home.

 Don left at 6:45 to go pick up Brother Buah and take him to a meeting with the Stake President of Freetown before their meeting at 9:00. I packed them a lunch. After the Freetown meeting they have 2 hours to get over to Kissy before the next 3 hour meeting starts. They will have to eat in the car. I sent a loaf of bread and a jar of peanut butter with Don to feed anyone else hopping a ride to Kissy.

I had a nice relaxing day started until Geneba and bob showed up to clean my house. That blew a hole in my whole day. But the house got clean.

The Heckels showed up about 5:00 and going to stay overnight. They are the literacy couple for West Africa and are working on a pilot program. They have meetings in Kissy and Kossoh Town tomorrow and those towns are very near us. The brought spaghetti and sauce and I did bread, salad and dessert. It was very nice.

Don arrived home at 8:00. He took Brother Buah to his hotel before coming home. He was very hungry.

October 28, 2016

Another full day.

We picked Brother Buah up at 8:30 and headed out to the 5/5 school. We have a project of a hand-dug borehole starting today. This is the first one that we are putting in. When we pulled in the children (250 of them) were at recess. When they saw the truck, they all began jumping up and down and screaming. They were so happy to see us. To keep them from stampeding us there were older children using the canes to Flog anyone within a few yards of us. Little children were crying. It broke my heart. I should have stayed in the truck. We have been to this school several times and we had a turn-over ceremony here in June. At that time, the children warmed up to me and wanted to shake my hand and touch their thumbs to my thumb and then they would kiss their thumb. That must be some kind of bonding ceremony because ever since then they are drawn to me. There were enough children crying from being flogged that Mrs. Scott ordered all the children back to their classrooms. I think today they were especially excited because they know we are helping them to get a water well and they will have to stop going down to the stream to fetch water. Unfortunately, the children have been drinking unfiltered water from the stream and diarrhea and cholera are prevalent. The well will provide clean drinking water and it is in the middle of their compound. As we were watching the men get started on the borehole, Don and I Both noticed three little boys were standing on the edge of the porch urinating into a ditch. There were half a dozen little girls watching and judging which one could urinate the furthest. Children can make a game out of anything. Competition is good for the soul.

From here we went over to Jonathan's Kiosk water business and introduced Brother Buah to a whole new idea in providing water to the poor. He was fascinated. We spent about 45 minutes here.

Then we went to welthungerinternational. This organization provides wells to households instead of communities. They have developed alternative, toilets, showers and tap water into homes. We were there for about 3 hours, talking, seeing slide presentations and then taking a tour of their whole facility and seeing first-hand demonstrations on their products. Again, Brother Buah was fascinated.

When we left here, Brother Buah asked if we would be going by the 5/5 school. Yes we are. So we stopped to see the progress of the hand-dug borehole. We watched for about an hour. School was out so there were not many children there.

I had invited Brothers Buah and Thomas to stop at our house for dinner. We go within 6 blocks of our apartment. I asked Geneba to make dinner for us and to start it about 3:00 so it would be ready to eat when we got here. We arrived at 5:00 and she was just starting it. I was not happy but this is so typical of Africans. I jumped in to help her and she was not happy. I only knew there was too much to do and we had to get Brothers Thomas and Buah back into Freetown and Don back home before it got too late. We have a full weekend ahead of us. We made groundnut stew, rice, fried plantain, and a plate of raw vegetable. It was very good. But we made everyone wait for almost an hour. Don was not happy. But everyone enjoyed the very good favors.

October 27th, 2016

We picked Brother Buah up at 8:30 and went to the Mission Office for a meeting with President Clawson. We discussed many things about humanitarian efforts here in Sierra Leone but, also, Brother Buah has been assigned to do welfare training in every stake and district and unit in West Africa. He has been given 2 years to accomplish this but has completed it in 1 year with Sierra Leone being his last stop. He is going to train Freetown Stake on Saturday morning, Kissy district Saturday afternoon, and Kossoh Town on Sunday Afternoon. It is a 3 hour training. He is training Don to train the 3 districts out in Kenema, Bo and Makeni. These 3 areas do not have district presidents but are under the stewardship of President Clawson.

At 10:30 we had a meeting with BioFil. We wanted Brother Buah to meet with these men because we are going "outside the box" on this project and really would like to know if this is something the Church would approve of. BioFil is a company that builds toilets and uses digesters. We want to build a 14-stall toilet at the bus stop in Wellington but we want it to have 2 handicap stalls and a stall large enough for a pregnant woman or women with children. There will be a very small fee collected to use the toilet. There will be a care taker to collect the money and to keep the toilets clean. He will be paid from the collection. The rest of the money will go into a savings account and when enough money is collected, BioFil will build another facility somewhere else. They will continue to do that to increase sanitation facilities throughout the Freetown area. We are asking BioFil to pay for 30% of the project and LDS Charities will pay 70%. BioFill wants this to be a business for them. The Church does not support businesses. There are many more details and we ran them all by Brother Buah. He asked many questions and told us to submit the project. He is only one of the 4 people to approve a project. But he did not tell us "no". We will submit it next week when we are back in the office. After this meeting,

Don, Brother Buah, and Brother Thomas, our site manager, walked up to Bellair Park to view our completed project up there. While they did that, I made lunch. When they came back we ate lunch and then headed to Hilltop and Boundry #1 At Hilltop, we hiked down about 1/2 mile (very steep) and viewed two areas that water is flowing out of the ground at a very fast rate and is basically running off. We want to build 2 spring boxes to capture the water and create fetching points. Then we went to Boundry #1 and hiked down about a mile that was also steep and full of rolling stones (not a fun hike). In this area we want to put in 3 spring boxes with a 10,000 liter Milla Tank between two to capture water. These two areas have a lot of water that is just flowing down to the ocean because they have no way to capture the water.

We were all very tired and we dropped Brother Buah off at his hotel and we headed home.

 Stopped at the grocery store and then stopped and ate at our favorite chicken place (they say they are comparable to KFC. That depends on who you ask).

October 26, 2016 - Jeanne's Birthday and ceremonies!

My 66th Birthday.
 Before I even got out of bed I received a text from my native twin - John Blackie. He is one of our contractors and his birthday is also today. He sent me a video that was so funny of 8 men & women dressed in white singing happy birthday. What a great way to start my day. I received lots of birthday wishes. Thanks to everyone who remembered me.

This morning we had a 10:00 turn-over ceremony (closing ceremony on a completed project where we turn the project over to the community so they can take care of it). We had installed two 10,000 liter Milla Tanks on basements and platforms in two different areas. The program is put together by the community leaders. It was very well done. It was suppose to start at 10:00 but people didn't start arriving until 10:30 (Africans have their own time and come whenever. It is frustrating to me that they don't start their programs until they think they have enough people.) So we didn't start until 10:45. By 11:45 most everyone was there and the formal part of the program was just winding down. The man conducting the meeting was definitely not new at it. He was very good. He told the people "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is a church that gives back. We have many churches here in Sierra Leone and they all take, take, take. This is the only Church that gives back". They had a number of speakers and on the printed program they had Don down as the Keynote speaker. Don was not asked to do that but he has the ability to stand in front of a group of people and speak from his heart. He did very well. When we first sat down with the program, I pointed out to him he was the keynote speaker. He smiled. When it came time for him to speak, they introduce him like this, "now we will hear from our keynote speaker, Brother and Sister Carley with the woman first." I popped right up like I knew I was suppose to speak and gave a very simple talk about being a humanitarian missionary and how much Papa God loves his children in Sierra Leone. One thing I have learned being here in Sierra Leone is the people here are so new to the gospel/or are not members that the simplest you can make it, the deeper it touches their hearts. At the end of the ceremony they presented us with presents; Don received a plaque that says "greetings from Sierra Leone" that has African pictures on it and I received a pretty, very strong basket. After this, we walked up to the 2nd site for a ribbon cutting ceremony. I cut the ribbon and opened all 4 of the taps so water came out of each one. With the opening of each tap their went up a roar of gratitude. Then the community leaders each came up and drank water out of their hands and turned off the taps. A young reporter came to me and asked if he could have an interview. I told him "yes, after we finish at the next site".

 From here, we walked back down to the first site and did the same ceremony of cutting the ribbon and opening the taps. This time they handed me a glass. When I opened the last tap, I put my glass under the flow of water and got a glass full of brown water. YIKES! I gulped, but took a drink to the roar of gratitude. I think they did not test the taps before we had the ceremony and the water that came out was flushing the manufactured tap. Then the community leaders came up with glasses and filled their glass, drank and turned off the taps. After the water ran for about a minute, the water became clear. They then had Don remove a dark piece of plastic covering a sign that said, "In partnership with the New England Ville Association funded by LDS Charities, Strengthening Families" with the. LDS Charities logo. Again, a roar of gratitude. After this, I motioned to the young report, who had been lurking in my shadow, that I was now available. We walked across the street to the shade of a building and he did a very nice interview. He was from a radio station. Don was scooped up by a TV station and was interviewed and his interview was on the local news tonight. Don's interview took a lot longer than mine so I found a chair in the shade and a woman in a very beautiful African dress sat next to me. She put her hand on my arm and said, "I am coming to your church".

On the way back to the office, we stopped at the New Brookfield Hotel to confirm the room for our boss, John Buah, for tonight. The reservation was made 6 weeks ago. Yes, it was ready for him. Great! Brother Buah is from Ghana and flew in on the 5:05 flight. In order to get to the airport from Freetown, you have to either drive 3 hours around the bay or take a speedboat across the bay. It is much faster to take a speedboat. John came by speedboat. We were on our way to seabird to pick him up when we got a panicked phone call from Sister Clawson. The hotel called her and told her that the room reserved for John was now not available because the person who stayed in it last night decided to stay one more night and they were 100% full. Sister Clawson said she would put John in the General Authorities apartment for tonight and he could move to the hotel tomorrow. "OK, but we were planning on having dinner with John at the hotel so we are still going to do that." We received another phone call from Sister Clawson a few minutes later and she had called Haja at the hotel, who manages the LDS account (we use that hotel a lot because it is westernized and is close to the Mission Home.). Haja was very apologetic and told Sister Clawson for us to tell the waiter we are from Latter-Day Saints and our meals would be free.

 We picked John up without any problems only to find out he came in on the 3:00 flight and had been waiting for 3 hours. Not Good! We explained to him the room mix up and he would stay the night in the General Authorities apartment and he threw his had back, laughed and said "I am no where near that level". He is a very humble man. He has been a bishop, stake president, mission president he is now a patriarch in his stake in Accra and his employment for the Church is Area Director of West Africa. Spending one night in the General Authorities apartment seems apropos to me.

 By now, it is 7:00 so we go to the hotel and yes our meal was free. As we were leaving, we passed the check-in desk. There was a young woman sitting there that recognized Brother Buah. He recognized her as someone he knew but couldn't place her. She called him "President Buah". He apologized and told her she looked familiar but he could not place her. She said, "you were my mission president in Nigeria". "Yes, Yes, I remember now." He explained we were only there for dinner since his room was not available. She scrunched up her face and said "did they check the other side?" The 3 of looked at each other and none of us knew what she was talking about. She poked around in her computer and said, "your room is available and waiting for you". So, he stayed. A happy ending!

October 25, 2016

Tomorrow is my 66th birthday.

 Today at our 9:00 all-staff devotional Sister Clawson served chocolate chip coffee cake to celebrate. Very nice. Then she had invited Don and me to have a private dinner with her and President Clawson. OH MY! It was so good. She got a roasted chicken, made mash potatoes and gravy, peas and a decadent chocolate cream pie. Then she gave me a loaf of banana bread. She had balloons, candles and the birthday song. It was very wonderful. We celebrated today because tomorrow is a jammed packed day. Tell you about it tomorrow! Good night!

 I saw the suicidal woman that came to see me last week and she was very happy. I did not get a chance to talk to her so I don't know what changed.

October 23, 2016

Walked to the Makama Branch for church today. It is about 100 yards away.

 We were asked to bear our testimonies. This branch felt so good. Sacrament was done right, Sunday School was done right, Relief Society was done right, Elder's Quorum was done right. It felt like home.

I want to record something from our Sunday School lesson today that has a lot of meaning to Don and me: "President Joseph Fielding Smith said: 'Every person who embraces the gospel becomes of the house of Israel. In other words, they become members of the chosen lineage, or Abraham's children through Isaac and Jacob unto whom the promises were made. The great majority of those who become members of the Church are literal descendants of Abraham through Ephraim, son of Joseph. Those who are not literal descendants of Abraham and Israel must become such, and when they are baptized and confirmed they are grafted into the tree and are entitled to all the rights and privileges as heirs."'

October 22, 2016 - Dad, the forever salesman

8 Months ago we began our mission.
Don had a very frustrating day. We have a well here at our apartment in Makeni that pumps water into a 3,000 liter Milla Tank. When he turned on the spigot to fill the tank the pump was pumping but the tank was not being filled. He called our landlord, Sahr Doe and he sent Mr. Davis out to see what the matter was. Mr. Davis was the plumber who did the plumbing. Mr. Davis, Don and Brother Jones decided that the pipe was too big for the pump and the pump could not put out enough pressure to get that much water all the way up to the tank. Then, the electrical work is thoroughly messed up so Don called Sahr Doe again and explained the problem. Sahr Doe sent out an electrician. Mr. Davis and the electrician had to take a taxi 3 hours one way, do their work, and go back to Freetown. Now that's a day! Don hauled Mr. Davis and the electrician all over the place getting parts and whatever.

 Makeni is known for its sudden windstorms. We had a severe one this afternoon. All of a sudden there was an horrific wind and things were flying through the air. People selling things in the open markets and outside of their storefronts lose a lot of merchandise. This is the first wind storm I have seen here.

Don and I went shopping early this morning and we had a good laugh. At one of the Lebanese grocery stores they were selling cans of De-icer. When we got to the checkout stand, Don asked the manager if he would sell him the one and only yellow mop bucket that has the squeeze handle for less than the asking price. The manager asked Don what he wanted to pay for it. It had a price of 370,000 Leones. Don told him 170,000. The man said no 250,000. Don said no 170,000. The man said "OK, I will make up the difference". I blurted out "out of your own pocket?" Don grabbed my arm and pulled me aside and told the man "it's a deal". I was appalled. I told the man that this store was now the store I was going to do my grocery shopping. He smiled so proud of himself and said, "I am a good business man".

 Don later told me he had the same discussion the other day with the owner and the owner told him he paid 250,000 for it and would not go below that amount.

President and Sister Clawson came for dinner tonight and stayed overnight. This was the first time they have seen the apartment from the inside. They were amazed. Sister Clawson has a degree in interior design and she designed the complex and the contractors made everything to her specifications. She made it something "western" couples would want to live in.

October 21, 2016

Left for Makeni at 9:00 this morning. We have to go through a police check point and because we are an NGO they just wave us through. But today, we were stopped and the police officer wanted a bribe. Don asked him what he wanted and he reached over and pinched my shirt and said, "I'll take her". Don's response was, "You are going to have to fight". He smiled and Don opened the glove compartment and handed him two bags of peanuts. We keep small bags of peanuts in the glove compartment to hand to the people who tell us they are hungry. Most of the time they are very grateful. This guy looked at the two bags and said "this isn't enough". Don asked him "how much do you want?" His reply, "5,000 Leones. I want rice from the market" (which was across the street". Don handed him 5,000 Leones and off we went.

1:00 - The moving van showed up with our furniture. We have a beautiful office/home. We are excited to get out of Freetown. The driving there is so bad. And this is why - all a person has to do is give the DMV money and you can get a license. You don't even have to personally show up. You can give the money to anyone and they can get you a license. There are no learning permits, no lessons, no books outlining the road rules nor tests of any kind. So a person gets a license and because they don't know the driving rules, there are NO RULES! No traffic lights, no stop signs, everyone passing on the right and left, making 3 lanes of traffic on a two-lane road, passing on blind curves, going the wrong way around roundabouts, going the wrong way in a lane, turning whichever way with no thought of anyone else. Everything is "me first". It is a monsterous mess.

October 18, 2016

Got a contact for a professional American psychiatrist and e-mailed it to the woman I met with last night.

We are scrambling trying to get some projects in before the end of the year. We have unused budget and the Church is requesting we use it. We received approval yesterday to provide a hand-dug borehole at the five-five school in Waterloo, we have submitted a project of a hand-dug borehole at Treeplanting, are going to put in a request for a springbox and Milla tank at "Down the Hole" which is in lower Treeplanting, are going to build a diversion wall around a springbox that in the rainy season is covered with trash and sewer from down-the-mountain run-off that washes over the springbox in Dwarzak Farm, and we are building a small bridge in Kenema (which is a very interesting project. This is a first for the Church in West Africa. There has been a lot of consulting with professional bridge people. All the men involved, are excited about this project). The City of Kenema has requested tables and benches for 65 schools. Don asked me take this project. I will start on it next Tuesday when we get back into the office. We have a list of about 12 other projects that have been put on hold until we can catch up with ourselves. We meet with a lot of people requesting help, with contractors, politicians, community people and individuals who just want some relief in their community. If the project benefits a community of people, we explore the options. If it only benefits a person or a family the answer is always "no". We have lots of meetings. We also visit the site of a project several times before starting work then several times during the work and at the end of the project. Then we have a "turnover ceremony" where we turn over the project to the community for them to watch over and take care of. We are quite busy. Time is going so fast, every other day feels like Sunday.

October 17, 2016

At 6:45 this morning there was a knock on the door. There was a friend wanting to talk to "Elder Carley". Don visited with him and the man wanted Don to go with him to help settle a domestic/business dispute. Don counseled with the man and sent him on his way. He was not going to get in the middle of it.

At 9:00 we went to the PVA to pick up Saidu Thoronka to go visit a school that wants handicap ramps and toilets. We were just leaving when President Sesay (the district president) called and said he was at the PVA and wanted Elder Carley to come and have a discussion with him and a man in the community but who is also a member of the Church. We were going out the exit and President Sesay was going in the entrance and there is a building separating the two. So we went around the building and back into the compound. The man is a man who is probably the wealthiest man in the entire PVA. He owns a tailor shop, has 3 men working for him, he has a car, and you see him all over downtown Freetown. But somehow he thinks we should pay for his children's school fees, get him a generator, new sewing machines, material, supplies and build him a new building. He was given a generator and his children's school fees were paid by a previous humanitarian couple and he spoiled the generator by not taking care of it. He was trying to use President Sesay to get us to provide these things for him. It was not a pleasant meeting. We are not going to fund this man.

We went over to the school that wants handicapped ramps and handicapped toilets. It is a very worthwhile project and the school leaders have thoroughly thought through their ideas. We will start collecting the contractors etc. and get some bids. While there, I was approached by a man who has a terrible toothache. The whole side of his face was very swollen. He wanted 40,000 Leones to go to the dentist to get medication to reduce the swelling and to have his tooth pulled.

It was brought to our attention by our site manager of the New England Site #1 & #2 that things were not right on Site #2. The work of the platform, basement, and plumbing were complete but the vendor says the Milla Tank would not be available for 4 more days (Friday). We had already paid for the Milla Tank and was guaranteed the tank was available. There was no reason for the Milla Tank not to be delivered. We have the performance invoice and the signed receipt from the vendor saying he had received the money. We gave the vendor until Friday to produce the Milla Tank. He was not able to produce it. We gave them until today (Monday) at noon to produce it. He was not able to produce it. The Site Manager indicated that he felt there was a money issue. We asked the contractors to come in this afternoon to discuss this issue.

 In attendance were Elder and Sister Carley, humanitarian couple, the site manager, the vice-chairman of the community, and the partner of the contractor (the contractor has an absessed tooth and was at the dentist). It was a very intense meeting. We started and ended with prayer. Don asked for the truth. The workers were not being paid and threatened to stop work. Instead of coming to us to get the labor payment we owed them, they went back to the vendor who sold them the Milla tank and requested the money back and then used that money to pay the workers. They were intending on using the labor payment to pay the vendor for the Milla tank. The timing of them requesting the money from the vendor and receiving the money for the labor did not coincide so the vendor did not get money for the tank. We were very relieved that the money for the Milla tank stayed within the project and there was no theft. Unpleasant consequences were given for the manipulation of money and keeping the truth from us. But, they are temporary and a spirit of honesty and trust is being developed.

9:00 this evening there was a knock on the door. There was a woman wanting to talk to me. We sat together and she bore her soul to me. She is so depressed and feels so hopeless she is suicidal. Her problems are too big for an untrained person, such as myself. I asked her if she would accept some professional help. She said she would. I told her I would get a contact for her tomorrow and e-mail it to her.

Letter for the Concerned Women of Treeplanting

Concerned Women of Treeplanting.
The Concerned Women of Treeplanting asked me to write a few words for their big celebration on the 29th of their "launching" of their association for another year. This is the beginning of their 2nd year. I am not able to attend their celebration because our area supervisor, John Buah, will be here from Accra, Ghana, the 26th to the 31st. We have welfare training on the 29th. The following is what I submitted:

 My dear Sisters of Treeplanting. It is with joy in my heart that I call you Sisters for we are all children of God and you are my sisters. My name is Sister Carley and my husband and I are humanitarian Missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Our home is in the United States of America and we are both retired. My husband worked for 40 years in the telecommunications business and I worked for 26 years with the mentally handicapped. After we retired, we decided to raise goats for food. We love to breed the nannies and to birth the babies. We have 3 children and 9 grandchildren. Our job as missionaries in Sierra Leone is to help communities become stronger through basic needs such as water, sanitation, education and medical. At the moment we are beginning two projects in Treeplanting. We are installing a hand-dug bore hole and are working on a springbox in what is referred to as "Down the Hole". We are investigating doing two more well projects in Treeplanting as well.

 About 2 months ago Mrs. Blake, Mrs. Turay, and Mrs. Conteh visited me and shared with me the constitution and desires of the Concerned Women of Treeplanting. I studied their constitution and asked if I could attend one of the meetings that are held at 5:30 every Sunday evening. It was very comforting to be part of that meeting. In my Church we have a world-wide women's organization called Relief Society. Our goal is very much like yours; to bring relief and comfort to the poor and needy. The President of our Church, Thomas S. Monson, has often reminded us that we are "surrounded by those in need of our attention, our encouragement, our support, our comfort, our kindness - be they family members, friends, acquaintances, or strangers." He said "we are God's hands here upon the earth, with the mandate to serve and to lift His children. He is dependent upon each of us."

 All of us can incorporate some service into our daily living. We live in a contentious world. We give service when we don’t criticize, when we refuse to gossip, when we don’t judge, when we smile, when we say thank you, and when we are patient and kind. Other kinds of service take time, intentional planning, and extra energy. But they are worth our every effort. What must we do? We must counsel together, use all resources available, seek the inspiration of God, ask for His confirmation, and then roll up our sleeves and go to work.

 There is a hunger among many women in the world to be valued and to find purpose for their energies. We have a lot to offer those around us and being able to be associated with a women's group can be very fulfilling. Not only for helping those who are in need but to help with our own feelings of self-worth. There is so much satisfaction and feelings of joy associated with truly helping someone in need. The added benefit of belonging to a group of women who are all focused on the same goal is the friendship that is developed between each other. Women NEED women. Every woman needs a female friend. Someone she can talk to and share her most private thoughts and feelings. Someone she can trust, laugh with, cry with, and just be herself with knowing she is accepted for being just the way she is. That is what being part of a women's organization can do for you; to serve God by helping others, create new friendships, and enrich your own life by using and developing your own talents and skills while you are blessing the lives of other. I have come to know that it is through love of God and neighbor that gives meaning to life.

I am so honored to have been asked to share a few of my thoughts this afternoon. I am sorry I cannot be here to look into your beautiful faces.

My dear Sisters, may God Bless each of you with His choicest blessings.

Love, Sister Carley

October 16, 2016 - a little insight into the African mind

We walked into church today and as I went to sit down, I turned and there was Junior. I sat down and picked him up and set him on my lap. He sat very quietly until after Sacrament was passed and then he slipped off of my lap and went to his mother.

A different perspective: Our Sunday School teacher told of the following experience which sheds so much light on why so many African people are the way they are. He and two other men were cleaning up the chapel after church was over one Sunday when all three of them at the same time noticed someone had left their purse on a chair. They all went to get the purse. They were standing there looking at the purse and one of them picked it up and opened it and saw there was money in it. A second man said they should take the purse to the clerk's office for safe-keeping until someone claimed it. The man holding the purse told the other two men that it was his because God was providing for his needs. The teacher did not tell the end of the story. But it sure made me think. If this man truly in his heart felt that God was providing for his needs and this money was a blessing from God, is it stealing to take it? To me, yes it is stealing. But how would the Lord look at it? The Lord knows the intent of someone's heart. If this man truly did not feel he was stealing, was he? I wouldn't want to be the judge. Many of the African people feel that whatever is in their hand, it belongs to them. If you loan them a pen to sign a contract, as far as they are concerned, the pen is theirs. If you put a strap on their propane tank in the back of your truck to keep it from falling over, the strap is theirs. If they need a drink of water and you give them water in a cup, they think the cup is theirs. If it is raining and they need an umbrella and yours is sitting there they take it. It is not stealing it is God providing. Only the Lord knows the intent of ones heart.

Today at Church, I was asked for medicine (which I don't have), to help with school fees, to buy a woman a small hymnal from the distribution center, 400,000 Leones so someone could get medical treatment, and a sandwich. I said "no" to everything except the sandwich. I brought the Sister home with me and made her two sandwiches and gave her two bags of water. She was beyond thankful.

Oct 15 2016

I could say I have not written much because life has been dull. But it has been anything but dull.

 Don and I finished shopping for apartment & office furniture we will need in Makeni and then we took Sister Clawson with us to get her approval for what we picked out. It is cheaper here to have furniture made than to buy something that has been imported. So we are having two beds, 2 wardrobes, 2 study desks made and a couch reupholstered. All couple apartments have two bedrooms so they can have the mission president and his wife, or other senior couples, stay with them. It isn't cheap setting up an apartment. Hopefully, this apartment and all its furnishings will be used for many years to come by many senior couples. We were told in one of our meetings with the general authorities that 78% of all senior couples who apply to go on missions do not qualify to go out of the country they live in due to health. That is really too bad. Africa, and I am sure other places in the world, are in desperate need of senior couples. There are many different kinds of missions and the Lord will use everyone according to their capabilities - whether in the country they live in or abroad. People need loving everywhere.

 We spent two days in Makeni this week with an overnight. The appliances were delivered and Don connected them all. We were so excited to get a washer and dryer. In Makeni we will be on electricity. Here in Grafton we have a generator and it only runs at night. The generator isn't strong enough to power all the electricity we need to run the appliances so in order to wash one load most everything else has to be turned off in our house and the house across the street. And the dryer never did work, so we hang our laundry all over the house. So we sat in front of the washer and watched it wash clothes and pretended it was a sci-fi movie and then we watched the dryer and the washer both work at the same time. Amazing! It felt like we were at a laundryMat.

 When Don is out running he sees all kinds of people and one young man called to him and asked him about the red rag he was carrying. Don explained it was used for wiping the sweat off the top of his head. That was OK because that meant he was not a member of a rival gang. Don asked him what color his bandana should be. The young man pulled out a blue bandana from his pocket and said "it should be this color". Don replied "I'm a Chelsea (a premier soccer team) Fan, I am blue (their team color)". The young man responded happily "I like Chelsea, too". Don continued his run in peace. He was almost home when he was passing a house and he heard "Mr. Don, I need to talk to you". Don invited the young man to walk with him. The young man asked Don to help him with his school fees. Don gave a heavy sigh, and told the young man that we get so many requests for help with school fees that we just can't help everyone. We are sad.

When we are at the office, we go to a nice little garden in the mission compound that has concrete benches to eat our lunch. The Mission Compound sits on a hill so we can look down and see a lot. Yesterday, we were having a peaceful lunch when suddenly there was a lot of commotion and people were running from all directions to a basketball court adjacent to the mission compound. There were men with canes (switches) and they began beating on one man. There were a lot of people, many with canes, but only a few used the canes they were carrying. We have no idea what made everyone so mad. They were all talking/yelling at the same time and even the native on-lookers could not understand them. It was "mob-justice".

Just as I am writing this, the young woman who came last week to ask for help with her school fees came again. I explained to her again that her mother had already made arrangements with the school to pay for her books and that we are not going to buy them. She cried. I asked her if she could share books with someone and she said "yes, I share but I cannot bring them home". My heart broke, but I stuck to my guns. After she left, I told Don that I am going to go see her mother again. He agreed I should.

Oct 9, 2016

His name is Junior. Today during the Sacrament a very small child appeared at my knee wanting up. I picked him up and set him on my lap. He sat perfectly still during the entire meeting. Don looked at me and asked who he was. I shrugged my shoulders. I didn't know. Don asked me who his mother was. Again I shrugged my shoulders. After Sacrament the child slid off of my lap and found his mother. During Relief Society his mother was sitting in front of me and I asked her her son's name. She said, "Junior".