New home

20th May
It's just a month since we left Scotland
Several people have emailed to ask about our living environment, so we enclose a few photos of the team house that we stay in. It’s recently been re-painted and looks quite glamorous, but in the coming 5 months of rains the paint will turn grey, and eventually black from the humidity & mould.

The steep road is1:4 or more and full of potholes (and currently road works), plus dogs, and people.

Please keep emailing – david. (or helen.)lyth@mercyships.org
Double click on the photos to enlarge them

A wan lan krio - I want to learn Krio.

For the first 6 weeks Dave is theoretically taking time out of his challenging medical work in order to study Krio, the pidgin English language, which spoken properly it is completely unintelligible. We are using the learn-sentences-from-a-helper,-go-and-practice-with-ten-people-in-the-street method that we used successfully for Arabic.

Today we sat on a bench on a veranda in the rain looking at the exercise books of three 9 year olds, while we explored the subject of schools. This family just outside the hospital has become our ‘padi’s’ already. Apparently you have to buy your own uniform, books, pencils, lunch etc. The teacher salaries in Freetown are usually paid by the government, but up country they can work for nothing. Some children are beaten by the teacher if they don’t bring money with them.

People are keen on helping us and conversations sometimes take an unexpected twist; today a lady exposed both buttocks to show us her bullet wounds from the civil war!

PS Please email us with brief news and greetings, and any suggestions for the blog. Please send small sized messages; anything over 0.5 MB can take hours to download.

Hospital in 2005; hostel & accommodation being built

Going to the Theatre (Musical)

At three minutes notice on Friday night Helen & were included in a trip with others in the house to a musical at the British Council in town. The journey in the big 4 x 4 Toyota range rover took nearly an hour through the dark crowded streets. At one sharp corner one wheel came off the road and plunged into a three foot deep storm drain. Within seconds, half a dozen boys were at the corner of the vehicle, lifting, and in no time the vehicle was back on the road. The boys were at the window clammering for payment and our driver pulled 15,000 leones (£3) from his pocket and thrust them into the hands of one of them to distribute. Others rushed to the scene to cash in, but he drove off, the whole event taking less than 30 seconds!

The musical was well choreographed and entertaining. It was the story of a teenager who was lured into street life by a loudmouth. The choral team tried to correct his ways, but unsuccessfully. His mother died and he then he repented, but too late, and his father also died. Fun! We understood hardly a word of the Krio, but got the gist of the story.

Safe Arrival & Welcome

It’s Saturday, just a working week (5 days) since Helen & I arrived on this new start in our lives. How momentous? Each day has been full of emotion, new sights and sounds and people.

There are many reasons to thank God

In the house, that we share with six other singles from four nationalities we have been given a wonderful master bedroom. It has a balcony that overlooks a snap of African village life at a distance of 30 meters away. Privacy exists for only the few in urban Africa.

With the help of four members of staff we started language lessons on Wednesday and we practiced the sentences we learned around the shops just 100 yards from the hospital. The people are incredibly warm and friendly, and we made firm padi’s (friends) already with the family by the hospital gate. Staff around the hospital also help us with 'sabi Krio'

Dave had a gentle start to work. Because of a surgical trainee (from Alaska) being here for two weeks he haven’t been in theatre at all, which has given time to think, read the fistula text books, envision the work. On Thursday however there was a massive influx of patients, 16 to be ‘screened’ (examined and questioned to determine their diagnosis and treatment, which might include surgery), and then 10 more on Friday. My job will be to screen these on Monday, and then do two major operations on Tuesday.

Helen has had good discussions about the rehabilitation work. The vision, however is very limited and there is a lot of dreaming to be done. What can be achieved will depend on building relationships with some key people, especially Florence who is employed as a councillor for the patients. Yesterday I had lunch with the Orphanage Director, and made plans to go there on Mondays for the first six weeks.