Sierra Leone update

Hello everyone, Another 92 degree day in Makeni, 8 degerees north of the equator. We had an interesting walk through town last night. I was looking for a pair of croc’s to wear home allowing me to leave my sneakers and boots in Maboleh Village. Couldn’t find any but did see dried bats and monkey meat for sale. Only 20,000 leones for a monkey quarter (just like a chicken quarter only bigger). That would be less than $5. It was as dark as charcoal and looked positively unappetizing. The dried bats, same price for a handful made me gag. I also purchased inner tubes for our pastors bicycle, 20,000 for two. 4300 leones = $1. I will also be buying some tires, 11,000 leones each. Good price. Today in the village we finalized some building plans for the holy, holy, holy latrine (3 holer, duh). Local workers will be getting the granite for the founation and will also be bringing sand from the river and cutting bush sticks for shoring up the foundation. This will save us a lot of money, since we don’t have to buy it at the local store. We also purchased school supplies in Makeni. The village primary school, grades 1-6 has 227 children with no supplies. For $69 we purchasd 105 theme books, 6 boxes of chalk, and 20 personal size slates for the children in grades 1-3. Yes, they still use slate boards, and do a lot of rote learning. We bought lunch for all the children, 227 and the 6 teacheres and principle. Total cost $7. There is a group here from Minnesota and we have joined with their leaders for dinner tonight. They are going great work in a neighboring village, building a clinic, (approved by the gov’t) and providing solar power. Now they will be able to keep medicines that need refrigeration (insulin) and are authorized to give innoculations. we were able to purchase a bed net for every family to prevent mosquito bites during the night. Thank all of you at CrossPoint church for your donations. The villlagers greatly appreciated them. Most homes now have more than one. This is very important for the villagers. I gave a demonstration on how to use the grinder we brought here. We made peanut butter, which they had never eaten before. There eyes were as wide as saucers at the first nibble. They absolutely loved it. I showed them how to dissasemble, clean and reassemble it. They will be grinding corn, rice, coffee and ground nuts (look like our Spanish peanuts). Hopefully they will be starting a business and make money grinding grains. I suggested they make Corn bread from the flour we made from grining corn. They really like that idea. They also thought it was good they we eat corn bread in the USA. A little boy, about 8 yrs old came to us with a small Greyish Eagle Owl, that was soon to fledge. It must have fallen from the nest. He carried around all day, and I am sure it won’t make it throught the night. Several children also carried around small rats as pets. At least I think it was more than one. One was blind and just clung to their clothing. Yech. We will be heading home on Thursday. I guess to cool weather. what a contrast.

I will add pictures when I return to tnternet here is slow.

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