Re-focus

Last sunday I had every plan to walk into town with some friends seeing some sights and getting a bite to eat at a local bakery. Reality was that I awoke to a phone call in my cabin at 6:40 am with a request for me to work due to some people being ill and the ward was short some staff...in my sleepy state I felt guilty and said yes. Hanging up the phone I became bitter with my decision, angry that this means I will be working another 6 days straight ugh how annoying! Frustrated, I arrived at work slightly bitter ok well I was bitter. After some interactions with the people I would be working with for the day I realized that I needed God's help to change my frame of mind if I was gonna make it through the day. After spending some time with God during breakfast pleading with Him to change my heart along with my mindset and attending a church service on the ward He slowly starting working on my heart. I had this realization that I had come here to work not to make plans for socializing, its needed and is important but my sole purpose of being here is to work in the hospital and to assist where needed. God calls us to do all things with a joyful heart and by mid day I was there. It was awesome to see how God completely adjusted my outlook which I couldn't have done on my own. I was able to work in a different ward, meet some new nurses (who are awesome) and use skills that I haven't utilized since being in the states. Right now the times I enjoy the most are the times that I am working. I enjoy interacting with my patients, really enjoy getting to know my translators and my fellow co-workers. Overall the entire week turned out to be a good one even though by friday afternoon my brain was done! It was time to recharge for another week.

After having been in the hot humid mid-day sun on a search for the "fabric" market its the little things you learn to appreciate. Such as the walk up the gangway opening the glass doors and having a rush of cold air meet my face, refreshing. A small group of us went on a search for what is considered to be a "stellar" place to get local fabric for some great prices. However this was where I learned about...."White People" tax. Ok so reading this seems a little ludicrous to me even now so I can only imagine the thoughts going through your head. Well this is reality here in Freetown and unless you have a local with you or you are aware of the true prices you can easily be taken advantage of which can also be true of many tourist locations. From what I've learned Sierra leones believe that because we are white we are rich. There were a few times that I found myself a little frustrated however I than did the conversion in my head, $1.05 = 4,500 Leonies, I than have a re-focus of heart.

Following my excursion for fabric the second half of my saturday was spent at Don Bosco. It is a youth home for street boys that puts them through a 10 month rehabilitation program. Within the last month of the program the boys are either integrated into their families or another family which is all set up with a person similar to our "social workers". It was pretty neat to get to know some of the boys, we were able to play some sports with them, play games and they even sang a song for us which was pretty phenomenal sounding really, they could have a boys choir! After spending a couple hours here I was really impressed that here in Freetown a system like this was established to help out the youth in the area.

In conclusion to my week a group of us nurses attended a local church that one of our "day volunteers" or translators attended. The church wound up being on top of a...we will call it a mountain that the "poda-poda" was unable to drive up so we walked/mini-hiked about 10 mins up to church. The pastor greeted us and from encouragement from the congregation we contributed to the praise service that was that sunday. Unrehearsed we sang "Lord I Lift Your Name On High" which the congregation loved and were thrilled that we contributed regardless of our apprehensions to singing because we weren't "prepared." (Picture above is of the group leaving church)

One month is already behind me, honestly I am not sure where the weeks escaped to?!? Time here on the ship goes by so incredibly quickly however while in a day or week time seems to be slowly floating by....others here seemed to have the same conclusion, it is odd. In four weeks I have learned so much about myself, God and the people here in Freetown. Within the next 6-7weeks I am so excited to continue to grow an be stretched, see God continue to work an answer prayer and experience whatever it is that God has planned in this time.