A special someone forwarded me the following link from MSNBC/Washington Post. The story details a young girl's loss of her hand during the Sierra Leonean civil war. This story is all too familiar here in Freetown. Thankfully, this instance has a moderately happy ending … or at least present situation.
Plane tickets are expensive; TVs are much more reasonably priced. So turn on your TV and get a taste of Africa tomorrow (Tuesday, May 23) evening as you watch NBC Nightly News. Brian Williams will follow Bono around through some of the world's poorest countries. You can always count on Bono for a good show, so it will be worth your time. (Somebody please TiVO it for me 
)
Image shamelessly stolen from http://www.one.org.
So I never thought I'd utter the phrase, "why don't we grab a meat pie and get you a malaria test." But I did just that earlier today. Ben was not feeling well and had similar symptoms to what he had with malaria, so we went to get him tested. The fact that getting a malaria test is a viable and prudent option when feeling achy/tired still strikes me as humorous. There's nothing quite like a tropical disease to keep life on its toes.
Twenty-eight days from today I will be somewhere in the continental United States. Comforts of home will surround me: language will be clear, coffee will begin to work its magic once again in my gullet, and culture will be understood. I’ve passed the three month mark; it’s hard to believe that I’ve been here so long. While still far from fluent, the language “clicked” a couple weeks ago. I speak in Krio much more often with my friends and strangers. If my attempts further anything, it is probably our ministry of laughter that is ever-present. We are fairly goofy, and people let us know.
The last few weeks have been really good. Relationships seem to be deepening. Conversations are deeper as well. The midway retreat helped me come back focused to make the most of these last few weeks. Rereading my journal, praying, reexamining priorities, and good conversation helped to prepare me for the last several weeks. Sometimes you need to step back for a short time and take a look at the bigger picture.
Despite an increased focus during these last several weeks, my mind has been drawn to home more often. This apparent dichotomy is facilitated by the copious amounts of time I spend in transport vehicles and walking to get places. It is hard to not think of the people you miss when your mind has time to wander. Most, if not all, of our team is struggling with this. We want to be fully present, but our minds are drawn to people we miss dearly and wander to ponder the “what’s next for me” question. We’re aware of our tendencies to wander and are helping each other to stay present. I hope we do this well as these last four weeks have much in store for us.
Hey there folks. I'm alive. Things are really going well these last couple weeks. It's hard to convey all of what I'm learning, experiencing, seeing, and thinking to you … but I'll keep trying. Thank you all for your patience in my delay and your grace in my writing. It is difficult to put into words what I really want to say, and I don't really do the drafts that I'd like to do with these blog entries. So please read, ponder, pray, and try to understand just what I'm trying to get across to you in my imperfect snapshot.
I want to say thanks to some friend and family who recently sent care packages over to me and my team here. Would Mom & Dad Prentice, Grammy, Natalie Moore, Melinda Coomer, Pam Roberts, Tim Tang, Tim Miller, Tracy Toumi, Brian Jennings, Roderick Johnson, Ashhar Madni and anyone else that was involved in sending the chocolate, candy, notes, pictures, toys, pens, and other goodies please stand up to be recognized? Thank you all so very much for your generosity and willingness to send packages that you weren't sure would even get to their recipient!
The trip to the post office to pick up my bounty was an adventure in itself. The package carrying unmentionables from my parents weighed a bit much (or maybe it just appeared thick enough) to go through customs. A post office employee collected the package and opened it before the customs officer and what appeared to be his girlfriend in a small room. I signed for it and prepared to leave behind the employee when the customs officier called me back. He explained that he had graciously let me leave without paying a duty for my package, seeing as the contents were not very valuable (undergarments — oops, mentioned the unmentionable — and bandannas). The humorous part of this is that there is no duty required on any package – he simply wanted to prepare me to give him a bribe the next time. Coincidentally, he is the only overweight person that works in that part of the post office. Apparently he receives "duties" on a lot of packages!
Ok, this is a fairly lame entry, but I need to do a few shout outs. I am ever so thankful for some of the gear that I've brought over here. The fact that I got most of it on clearance only makes donning it that much sweeter. But yes, I'd like to thank the following companies for making quality, trustworthy gear: 
Ex Officio shirts and pants are lightweight and dry very fast. Their BUZZ-OFF line of clothing that integrates bug repellant into the clothes has kept me from countless bites. Sadly, I doubt that I was wearing it on the day my malaria mosquito took a drink.
Chaco sandals are ever so comfortable and leave an intricate tan line for you to wow your friends. They dry quickly and are lightweight, yet they are durable. Their following is borderline cultish; I've yet to hear anyone respond negatively or with anything less than passion to "so, how do you like your Chacos?"
My Mountainsmith Day lumbar pack has traveled with me all over Europe, the plains and valleys of Indiana, and now West Africa. It is trustworthy, durable, handy, and its design makes it very difficult for anyone to steal anything while you're wearing it. I would highly recommend this pack!
No, really. It is. And it takes about 10 hours to get there. It’s called Otamba-Kilimi National Park and it’s in the far north of Sierra Leone. The four servant team members, our faithful leader, and our guide Charles from the Conservation Society of Sierra Leone began the journey in a (at the time) trusty Dihatsu jeep.
The jeep was a two-seater, requiring that we sit three in the back on backpacks and sit three in the middle – an arrangement that I believe is illegal in all 50 American states. However, in Sierra Leone, it is almost encouraged. Though a little cramped, we were all excited to go “up country.” The purpose of the retreat was to (in my estimation) threefold: to relax a little, to see another side of the country other than the city, and to process what we’ve learned thus far so we could focus our remaining time in the country.
The first 3.5 hours of the trip were a comfort cruise on a paved road to Makeni. We picked up some last minute supplies. The remaining seven hours of the trip were on a “non-tarred” road – translation: gravel road with large potholes. At one point in the trip we crossed a river using a ferry. The trip was not the most comfortable, but it really added to the flavor of the adventure.
We arrived in the park about an hour before sundown. A few of the guides and a couple of monkeys greeted us upon arrival. Lola and Sophie were ever-present during our time at the camp, a joy at first, but monkeys become quite mischievous. We settled into our dwellings, huts for the guys and a tent for the girls – all by choice. All of us slept on mattresses two by two – very biblical like. The huts were rudimentary – a concrete floor, tin roof, and wicker sides. There was also a wicker ceiling that set the stage for entertainment: a lizard and a monkey were trapped between it and the tin roof at separate times. Such situations are all fun and games in retrospect, but being woken out of a deep sleep by a monkey panicking above your head is quite the experience!
Our days at the park were made up of hiking, canoeing, talking, and swimming. Charles, our guide, is an ornithologist, proving to be a treasure trove of information on wildlife and plantlife. His sense of humor was top notch as well. We canoed down the river early one morning to see a hippos. They are not as hungry hungry as previously thought. The river provided us several venues to relax and talk, both in canoes and sitting in a tributary.
We had several good conversations throughout our time at the park. I took a canoe out several nights to watch the sunset and look at the stars, each time with different team members. It was good to get some time with each person to talk about our experience so far: what we’ve learned, how we’ve seen Jesus moving in Freetown, what we miss about home, and the things we believe we should focus on for the remaining time here. The team also had several good conversations around meals and the fire. We managed to ascertain a bag of marshmallows which we combined with Nutella and vanilla crackers to form a Smoresque treat.
Wildlife was abundant, as you might expect in the jungle. As mentioned above, we saw hippos and monkeys (the Sophie & Lola kind as well as vervet). Our guide pointed out dozens of birds. Unfortunately, the elephant researchers were hoping to camp with had gone, and with them our chances to see the cuddly beasts. Single tear. Lola and Sophie were provided much fodder for pictures and good times. Sophie was quite shy when we arrived, but I was happy to leave her and her mischief behind when we left. She enjoyed stealing food making a mess most of the week. Lola, on the other hand, was a calm, sleepy monkey. She was not without her mischief, but compared to Sophie she was angelic. (As a side note, we mistakenly called Sophie “Tola” until our last day. Upon return to Freetown, Michelle named the three female pups that Cami’s dog Tango birthed while we were away Lola, Tola, and Sophie.)
We packed up the car on Friday morning and prepared for the ride back. The journey provided several levels of adventure. On the way back we helped pull a large truck out of the ditch on the side of the road, collected and purchased fresh mangos on the side of the road, and bought fabric in Makeni. I drove for the last half hour on the bumpy road for fun. As a result we determined the seating configuration with me (the largest) driving along with Faye and Micah in the front seat provided the most comfort throughout. I ended up driving the next hundred miles on the paved road until we arrived at the outskirts of Freetown. I enjoyed driving – a task I haven’t performed since February 17! Charles took control of the wheel after I drove, but he didn’t make it too far. A fan under the hood malfunctioned and the car overheated. We sat with the car on the side of the road for about an hour and a half before friend of Charles arrived to take the guys home and a friend of Faye’s arrived to tow the car. The guys completed the last leg of the journey in a Mercedes listening to Norah Jones – a surreal experience.
In a nutshell, the trip was good. We relaxed, saw what some of the life outside of Freetown is like, and got some good time to process our experience here in such a way as to make the most of our remaining time. Thank you all for your prayers!
I’ve received a few emails from a friend in the Darfur region of Sudan over the past week. The situation there is very, very tense. The warring factions have started their fighting anew, including attacks on civilians. The result has been described as one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. Hundreds of metric tones of food are delivered through the fighting to the hundreds of thousands of internally displaced peoples that need it, if it can get through at all.
Please pray for this situation in Sudan and that my friend can get her exit visa for a period of rest with her family after several weeks of serious security scares.
The situation in Darfur is one of the most tragic in the world today. Learn more about it at:
Flip the switch. I'm back. The week "up country" was an adventure filled with animals, good laughs, mosquito bites, and fodder for many a good story. I don't have too much time to write now, but the stories will come. I've uploaded a few pictures for your viewing pleasure. And yes, that is a monkey in my arms. It's name is Lola.