Update on broken wrist

Helen’s wrist has done well and is now in a POP/stuckie. In this climate of constant rain & dampness the smell after only four days is not pleasant, plus she gets white plaster over everything. Thank God for patience in the next six weeks.

The slow-down at work (elections and wet weather) gives us time for study and settling down of the new members of Mercy Ships team.

General elections 10th August

The first general elections since 2002 at the end of the war are causing a lot of nervousness in Sierra Leone. There is speculation that there may be widespread rigging and possible violence at the polls. The hospital is emptying and only one person had surgery in the past week.

Some Westerners have left the country, and we have been advised to avoid wearing the colours red, orange or green, as these have strong political significance, and to avoid the centre of Freetown. Incidentally the current vice president and predicted future president lives at the end of our road 200 yards away.

Pray that leaders will be restrained, elections will be honest, and that the fragile peace will be preserved.

Stop press – broken wrist

Yesterday on the walk home Helen unfortunately caught her sandal in a sharp bit of piping and fell hard onto her left wrist, causing a fracture. I sat her down in the roadside and reduced the deformity with Christa providing counter traction. No hospitals are open after 6 pm for the likes of fracture treatment, so we got a lift home and bandaged it up with the aid of a wooden spoon. This morning’s Xray showed a perfect position, so we got plaster applied by a paediatric surgeon (badly). We are so thankful that it was her left wrist, and also that Christa is here to support her for the next three weeks. Thank you God!

Visit to UK & Austria

Our most important supporters in Africa are the family. Our daughter Christa was leading the 30 strong ‘Spartans’ Dunfermline team in the ‘World Gymnastics’ festival in Austria, so we had to be there. The 22,000 gymnasts made it the largest sports event in the world. Two teams only came from Africa. We also had a week with other family members in South of England. Thankfully travel went safely, though there were dramas, and we are back in action, refreshed.

We now face a quiet four weeks with little surgery due to rainy season and national elections which will keep people at home. We shall concentrate on language study & other preparations. In the latter half of August we visit the Africa Mercy ship in Liberia for two weeks of surgery.

Teaching drawing & writing

One of the activities the women love is colouring. Many have never held a pencil in their hands before and they fumble to control it’s movement, bewildered at what this stick can do. We give each one a colouring book and crayons. The results are fascinating. This week Zainab proudly showed me her colouring. Each page was coloured all one colour. I sat with her and got her to look around the ward to see that the world was made up of a variety of colours. The next day she again proudly showed me her efforts. This time the picture was coloured in bands across the page. I took the next uncoloured picture and pointed to the picture on the man and asked her what it was. She looked intently at the page and then to my astonishment said “I don’t know”. When I said it is a man, she scrutinised the page again and then gradually a look of amazement crept over her face. “Oh it is a man!” In the corner of the picture were some African huts, and again she had no idea these squiggles on the page could represent the house she lived in. Wow, it’s me that’s getting educated!

Sesse Conteh

Sesse Conteh (in red shirt with logo ‘school of hard knocks’!) is 25 years old. During the civil war six years ago his parents were attacked by rebels and killed. In going to their rescue he was shot twice in the pelvis. One bullet severed his urethra (water pipe below the bladder) which resulted in a permanent urinary outlet between his legs (which doesn’t function too well and also renders him sterile). From the look on his face you can see he is downcast and has little hope for his future.

Mohamed, an English speaking trader met Sesse in his local market, took pity on him and brought him in his car to our urinary fistula (females only) hospital. Dave was called to the gates and was told the story.

In the past month I have been befriending the only other urologist in the country, Dr Kamara, whose main area of surgical interest happens to be repairing urethral strictures. I called him and he agreed to doing a small op on Sesse’s bladder followed by dye Xrays, from which he will judge whether he can do a major repair operation (possibly in two stages). Helen and I feel that we should support Sesse for his surgery, without which he would face a lifetime of shame. The £250 (or more) will come out of the money which you supporters have contributed.

Thank you for helping this man who has had too many hard knocks already in life!

PS contributions may be sent to Vine Church International Relief Fund (http://www.thevinechurch.com/)