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Wednesday, September 21, 2011

New Donors Page

With longer Field Services in Africa it is becoming more & more difficult for crew to get home to fundraise. So Mercy Ships has been trying to find different ways to help crew members raise their support base.  One of their new developments is to set up fundraising webpages for all crew.  So here's ours.  If you already donate on line you can continue to do so on the old webpage for a short time, but it would be good to change over to the new page.  You can click on the picture to take you to it, or if you ever need it in the future you can also find it on our blog under the tab "Support Us" 
Thank you for partnering with us, we couldn't do it without God using you!

Friday, September 16, 2011

At the Beach

The other weekend we had the opportunity to go to the beach. Nathanael misses out on many things so we try and give him a fun day out now and then. It was about an hour to Bureh beach and as with all trips out, other Mercy Shippers had also decided on doing the same trip as us and before long another few landrovers turned up which delighted Nathanael as one of his friends from pre-school joined him. They had fun together building sandcastles and playing in the water.
A small lagoon at the end of the beach

Many support English football teams here, I took this photo for my Dad!
You need to keep you food under cover, away from these vultures!
Food is ordered 3 hours in advance so they can catch it if they have to and cook it. This is our food coming from the village.
It was very yummy, fresh tuna fish, rice and onion tomato sauce, topped off with freshly squeezed lime
.
We even got to eat off a plate with "cookies for Santa", just love the things that pop in Sierra Leone
These are probably the guys that caught our fish that morning.

Saturday, September 03, 2011

Mighty Ships Showing in the USA-4th September

AT LAST - To all our USA friends. The Mighty Ships episode featuring the Africa Mercy & Tim will be shown this Sunday night (4th September) on the Smithsonian Channel at 9pm (EST) or click the link to find out times (also shown on Monday morning) - http://www.smithsonianchannel.com/site/sn/show.do?episode=137194
Sorry you've had such a long wait to see this - hope you enjoy it!

Friday, September 02, 2011

Exploring Freetown

Well we've been back just a few weeks and are finally caught up with things that are going on. We thought we'd show you a little of Freetown life. A couple of weekends ago we visited the local bakery in town then Sharon and her friend went off "exploring". They love to just mingle with the people of Sierra Leone, talk with them, find out about their lives and this day they ventured into some of the back streets and met some more interesting sights and people.
This is a church that was destroyed in the civil war. As we looked at all the overgrowth inside, wishing we could just step in, we were fearful of it collapsing and maybe rats biting us, locals started asking us if we were going to rebuild it. They seemed quite disappointed when we said no. It seems that they still hope that one day this church will be used again. Meanwhile life just carries on around it.
From the fabric alley (those in the UK will now be familiar with our fabric alley after the slideshow) we took this narrow passage off to the side and entered life in the back streets. It was a world of food, chicken, fish, chillies, people grinding cassava and a view of Freetown that we had never seen. We found this chicken market and we walked through and saw the fishing villages filled with tin and wooden shacks. Locals gathered around us to talk to us offering us a live chicken to take home. Unfortunately we had to decline, it would make too much mess in the cabin.
Further down there were these big steps leading down to a small river, where there were loads of pigs. We asked why were the pigs here, and the reply was, they live here.
This man was sitting on the side of the street carving wooden spoons.
So if you're ever wondering if you can live in Sierra Leone and have all your needs, just look at a few of the things you can buy.
Chicken feet - great for soup
No need to go to the neighbour for a cup of rice, just take your cup to the market.
Always nice to have some cooked fish with your rice, straight off the shelf in an open air market. It's probably good too. (don't worry the womans feet aren't for sale, she was just having a sleep whilst waiting for the next customer)
and finally after a good meal, pick up a toothbrush to clean your teeth.
Another day in Sierra Leone.