Upcountry Mission: Billy's Story

It took us 20 hours to go 750 km which is an average speed of 37.5 km/hour or 23 mph.  Given the state of the roads that is actually a good pace.  The village we stopped in was called Kissinae, which translated means "the New village".  The people are a forest people called the Kissi.  They are a fairly large  group that stretches into the northeastern part of Sierra Leon.  We setup our clinic at a brand new school that had recently been completed by a NGO.  The village had not yet had permission to use the school so the building was being used for the first time. 

We used one of the classrooms as a treatment room.

Camp was setup just across the road.

The people of Kissinae were extremely receptive and friendly.  The men of the village spent 3 days working on some of the worst parts of the road to the village so we would have an easier time getting there.  Probably the most suprising thing was that the village presented us with 3 bags of rice and a young male goat.






A village elder presents us with a goat.

So this is the story of Billy.    After being presented the goat was taken back to camp.  I wasn't able to catch up to him till lunch.  By that time the goat had already been given a name.  proper etiquette dictated that the goat be eaten so there was nothing to be done but make the best of young 'Billy'.  So...

Billy was our first patient screened and I would like to announce our first, successful Mercy Sheep's surgery.  Billy's problem was that he was a goat, specifically a young goat.  Rejected by his village it was only right and proper that we help poor Billy with his problem.  We put Billy in the capable hands of our culinary specialist, Ms. Lorinda.


Before

After

In the coming posts I will put up some pictures of the people of Kissinae and the surrounding area.  They were a really loving and beautiful people.  We were not able to find as many surgical patients for the ship as we would have hoped but there were plenty of people with dental needs.  Also, Kissinae does not have a local church like many of the villages around it.  So some of the local pastors under the leadership of the Pastor from Ouende-Keneama (local big town) used our trip as an opportunity to go door to door and speak with people.  They were hoping our activities would generate questions and interest in the Christian life.  I believe this is the true power of these types of missions.

Today We Took A Walk

In the states we would have lunch with Mark at least three times a week.  It is one of the small things I miss here in Africa.  So, since the boys had the day of school I thought we would take a picnic out to the dental clinic and have lunch with Mark.  It is about a one mile walk down a very busy and dusty street. 

We are in full on dry season so it is also very HOT.  Really, today it felt Texas HOT.  Jacob staid behind on the ship to help his friend celebrate his birthday so I only had Matthew and Caleb with me.  They were real troupers. When we arrived we realized I had the wrong time for lunch and we were a half an hour early. 

We took the opportunity to visit the school for the deaf next door to the dental clinic.  The newest Gateway group is doing some repairs, cleaning, and painting.  I was impressed how hard they were working after only being in Africa one night.  All the children at the school were excited to see Matthew and Caleb.  We must have shaken hands or hugged at least 50 children.  They also ruffled the boys hair.  For a moment I thought that they were going to get upset with all the attention.  It was a bit overwhelming, but the crush of the crowd soon subsided and we bought two cold cokes in glass bottles found a shady spot and waited for Mark to finish working. 

 We had a lovely lunch and it felt like a quicker walk home.  All-in-all it was a very nice day.  It was absolutely nothing like the lunches we had in the state...different but GOOD!