House Keeping in Mattru

Some of you may wonder how keeping house in Mattru compares to keeping house in Atmore! In this blog we will introduce you to some of the differences:

One of the main differences is of course the frequent absence of electricity. This is worse in the rainy season when our solar panels struggle to charge. But I (Heleen writing this time!) am not complaining - in Freetown I have gone for many more hours without electricity and it makes for nice romantic candle-lit dinners and early nights!

Headlights, Rechargeable Lights and Candles - always within reach!

It also means we don't have a fridge or freezer which I sometimes miss. However, our neighbours have one and every once in a while we use it to keep some leftovers. If not, there are always hungry mouths to feed around us!

Another difference is the water supply. The hospital has its own well and water is being pumped into the water tank several times a week. However, money for fuel to run the generator and pump is not always available so we have to be prepared at all times! There are buckets with water hidden under counters and sinks and in the bathroom we have a big container. When there is no water we take “bucket baths” while standing in a tub so afterwards the water can be used to flush the toilet! Of course we don’t have hot water which is fine in the hot, dry season, but in the rainy season we sometimes dread getting our bodies cleaned! So every once in a great while we boil some water on the stove and indulge in a nice warm “bath”.

Although the water from the well is relatively clean, we do have to filter it before drinking. Again, compared to Freetown we are much better off, since the water over there is so dirty that the filter gets clogged up frequently while here we can go for months without cleaning!

When I moved to Atmore I was so excited I got to own a dish washer for the first time in my life! But alas, it is back to doing dishes by hand, and here we even have to boil the water to get all the grease removed from our plates. Many dishes here are cooked with palm oil and it leaves a thick, orange film of grease on anything it touches. We use a bar of locally made soap called “72% soap”. We have no idea what the 72% stands for but it smells so good I wish I could ship some to America!

We are blessed with Kadi, a girl who comes in for a few hours three times a week to help clean and do laundry. She is very good at her job and it frees us up to do our work as everything here seems to get dirty a little faster and takes more effort to clean up! The main challenge in the rainy season is to get our things dry. It can take many days, sometimes up to a week, for clothes to be dry enough to wear again. At the height of the rainy season (July/August) nothing will ever be 100% dry and we have had to adjust our standards of freshness as we stick our noses in our clothes and towels to decide if they are fit to be used J

Culturally in Sierra Leone, you can never give your underwear to others to be washed, so we have to do that ourselves. Many years ago my missionary sister taught me the trick of using a plunger to give our undergarments a good scrub!

So far we have survived our stay without ironing any of our clothes, but since ironing will also help to get our clothes to dry, Jon fixed our charcoal iron today. I hope Kadi knows how light it because I don’t have a clue!

I will keep our cooking adventures for another time, but from Monday through Friday we are blessed to have this basket arrive on our doorstep every day around 1.00 pm. It holds two cute bowls with our rice and plasas (sauce) for the day. Thank you Yealie, for taking care of us!

Decorating and creating a “nest” has been a bit of a challenge but I am so happy with the large selection of fabrics with beautiful African prints on the local market. And hey, I read on a Dutch website that bright red, yellow and blue are expected to be the new trend in home decorating so we are setting a trend here!

Thanks to several donations we have on special occasions been able to treat ourselves to a real cup of coffee. It takes some extra effort but the result is worth it! However by now we have almost come to appreciate Nescafé just as much, so we are quite content with that! We can’t wait to have some of you join us for a cup some day!

Well, just before I completed this blog my dear husband came in with some Zinnias from our garden! Now we don’t only have candles but even flowers to grace our table!

We are grateful for a house that has become a home! Much love from both of us! 

Jon and Heleen

Joy & Lament

    In the space of two days, we had three maternity cases that brought to the forefront all kinds of positive and negative emotions.   Sierra Leone has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world, and for a lot of reasons, Bonthe district, our district, is at the bottom.  One of the main reasons is difficult access to care, plus only 2 hospitals to serve a population in the whole district of more than 200,000 people.  Bonthe district consists of an island, Sherbro Island, which is only reachable by boat ride of 1-2 hours, and many villages that are 4-5 hours away from the hospitals.  The current rainy season increases these numbers as boats and roads are unreliable.

 On Thursday evening, we had a lady referred from a neighboring PHU (peripheral health unit) who went into labor, and the umbilical cord of the baby had prolapsed.  Often when that occurs, the baby dies, but fortunately the cord still had pulsations which meant the baby's heart was still beating.  (The 2 umbilical arteries carry blood from the baby's heart into the placenta, where it receives oxygen from the mother, and then returns the blood to the baby via the umbilical vein--our bodies our fearfully and wonderfully made as the Bible says.) The treatment for this problem is relatively straight forward, unlike some of our medical decisions here--the pressure needs to be kept off of the cord, and a C-section needs to be done.  The best way to keep pressure off of the cord is to press up on the baby with a gloved hand while preparations are done.  I had a difficult time getting anyone to persist in this job. Although I had several nurse volunteers, no one seemed to get the idea of staying there, so eventually I assumed the position.  My hand and fingers all went to sleep, but I stayed put, while my capable assistants, Pa French and Michael Josiah actually did the C-section. Soon we had not just 1, but surprise! 2 babies crying healthily.  A success story that makes everyone feel good, since the possibilities initially were not good.

Jon and his team preparing for a C-section.

 Less than 24 hours later, a lady due to deliver was brought by ambulance from a village about 5 hours away with respiratory distress and she was having bloody, frothy sputum.  This is a sign of pulmonary edema, or fluid in the lungs.  She had a very low oxygen level, and was unconscious due to that.  Her blood pressure was extremely high, so with our limited equipment (no xray, but it is coming, PTL!) we felt that she had pre-eclampsia (high blood pressure during pregnancy, or toxemia) with resultant pulmonary edema--a rare complication of untreated pre-eclampsia.  Once again, the decision to proceed to C-section was made, but this time before the patient could be transferred to the operating table, she went into cardiorespiratory arrest.  In an effort to save the infant, we did surgery right there, and although the baby was pulled out in no time while doctors and others were performing CPR and resuscitative measures, we were unsuccessful in saving either one.  As I went to talk to the father to tell him that his firstborn and wife had perished, this stoical father burst into tears.  To see an man cry in Africa is quite soul wrenching, and my heart and soul were crying with him.  

   The same day, a lady with term pregnancy was laboring, and although the labor was proceeding slowly, she was making progress.  I checked her with ultrasound in the afternoon (to rule out twin pregnancy which was a question) and saw the heartbeat of the baby, strong and reassuring. She was making progress, so a couple of hours later, I popped into the labor room. No nurse was present but I saw the mother of the laboring patient holding a baby in her arms, and felt that wave of relief that everything had come out okay.  That is, until the mother brought the baby to me and said, "Bebi don day" (The baby has died) with sorrow in her voice, and I looked at a perfectly formed stillborn child.  Once again, that thud of weight landing at the bottom of the stomach, and the questions came, "What happened?"  No answers from the nurse--an unexplained happening here in Africa..

   Laments from the Psalms speak to the despair I felt, "How long O Lord?", and " Will he never again be kind?  Is his unfailing love gone forever?  Have his promises permanently failed? Has God forgotten to be gracious?  Has he slammed the door on his compassion? But then I recall all you have done, O LORD;  I remember your wonderful deeds of long ago.  They are constantly in my thoughts.  I cannot stop thinking about your mighty works.  O God, your ways are holy.  Is there any god as mighty as you?  You are the God of great wonders!  You demonstrate your awesome power among the nation." (verses from Psalm 77) In this hope we go forward....

A little baby girl who arrived safely.