Since today is friday, it was the last day to spend with the school kids. In the morning we arrived and split up into teams to complete 3 tasks that we had to complete before we were able to spend time with the kids. Chris and Matt went on a hike up to a water source; they did not return till noon, they left at 9. Dr. L and Bobby went up to a site that was given for the possiblity of new school construction to do a percolation test. Mike and Rich finished up collecting some final data of the area surround the school to create an accurate map. Sandy and Meghan got to use glo-germ. Glo-Germ is a system to teach kids how to wash their hands by putting artificial germs on their hands, which can only be seen when using a blacklight.
After the official business was finished, the team had some time to spend with the kids and there is nothing better than that. It is hard to explain how much the kids love interacting with us, we may be among the first "white man" they have ever seen. Actually, it seems like everywhere we go people stare and wave at us. Anyway, we gave the students all of the gifts that we bought for them. It turns out that that the school was in desperate need for some school supplies and they were very thankful for everything that we were able to give them.
The team left at noon and crammed into a single cab to get back to the hotel... quite the bonding experience. We stayed in the hotel an renergized for a little bit and them went on a taxi adventure. Although we intended to go to a restuarant that was about a 10 minute taxi drive, the guy who negotiated our taxis directed the drivers to a restuarant with the same name but about an hour(at least) away. It took us roughly 45 minutes of going in the wrong direction to realize that it was not right.
Eventually we managed to turn the drivers around... after a lot of confusion... but we had a very nice dinner. If anyone has been wondering what we have been eating, dont worry, Mike has taken a picture of just about every meal so far.
The internet connection here makes dial up seem speedy, so uploading pictures is turning out to be quite a challenge. I apologize but am going to try to find some way to do it now. Cheers.
The stages of poverty
1. Shock
2. Acceptance
3. Sadness
4. Crazyness
This trip is really showing us about the real world and the poverty in third world countries. Above is the stages that we have been going through so far. When we first arrived, I think we were all in shock at what we were seeing. Then we accepted how bad it was and were focusing on solutions. After going through some of the health surveys, we really saw into the lives of the people and it was very sad and depressing. Now, It is safe to say we are all going crazy. I dont think we can go more than ten minutes with cracking up with laughter.
Friday, July 23, 2010
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Fun in Freetown
Our stay in Freetown so far has been amazing, but the enormity of the problems of the community that we are working with are overwhelming. It is very had to explain everything that we are seeing. As Americans we are always shown what African poverty is like on television, but seeing it first hand is a completely devestating experience. That being said the people are very optimistic, happy and willing to work to improve the future for their children.
Today we went into the community again to finish up taking our technical data for the trip. We have everything mapped out and tested and have completed our community service. It is nice because we also had some time to spend time with the school kids and bond with the community. One thing we did that was different then the scheduled events was we took the names, age, height and weight of each student. We are going to be able to compare them to the average kids in America and also set up each member of EWB with a pen pal.
Dr. L is really experiencing the dynamics of napping. He has found all the best napping spots in Freetown, including nice wooden benches.
Rich is secretly a soccer star and managed to skillfully steal the ball from a group of African children... He is also great at trying new foods and drinks...example Vicco Malt.
Bobby (Auntie Bobbie) managed to use his medical kit for the first time on a boy with a really bad burn from boiling water. Dont worry, we have it all on film.
Uncle Matt is the water expert and successfully used his muscles to lift many many children in the air.
Uncle Chris enjoyed weighing each kid and was an excellent assistant water man. He is also doing a fantastic job of filming all of the most critical happenings of the day.
Sandy has purchased a wooden giraffe and elephant and has successfully disinfected the entire hotel room.
Mike looked like Indiana Jones trying to draw his maps, made friends and has a new girlfriend named Rema... who is 2 and now Chris is fighting with Mike over her...
Meghan has sucessfully managed to give serious sass to the cab drivers "it was a short distance, we are white, not fools" and is looking forward to showing off her "football" skills tomorrow morning.
Today we went into the community again to finish up taking our technical data for the trip. We have everything mapped out and tested and have completed our community service. It is nice because we also had some time to spend time with the school kids and bond with the community. One thing we did that was different then the scheduled events was we took the names, age, height and weight of each student. We are going to be able to compare them to the average kids in America and also set up each member of EWB with a pen pal.
Dr. L is really experiencing the dynamics of napping. He has found all the best napping spots in Freetown, including nice wooden benches.
Rich is secretly a soccer star and managed to skillfully steal the ball from a group of African children... He is also great at trying new foods and drinks...example Vicco Malt.
Bobby (Auntie Bobbie) managed to use his medical kit for the first time on a boy with a really bad burn from boiling water. Dont worry, we have it all on film.
Uncle Matt is the water expert and successfully used his muscles to lift many many children in the air.
Uncle Chris enjoyed weighing each kid and was an excellent assistant water man. He is also doing a fantastic job of filming all of the most critical happenings of the day.
Sandy has purchased a wooden giraffe and elephant and has successfully disinfected the entire hotel room.
Mike looked like Indiana Jones trying to draw his maps, made friends and has a new girlfriend named Rema... who is 2 and now Chris is fighting with Mike over her...
Meghan has sucessfully managed to give serious sass to the cab drivers "it was a short distance, we are white, not fools" and is looking forward to showing off her "football" skills tomorrow morning.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
From Freetown With Love
Today, we woke up early around seven to eat breakfast and get on the road to Baoma. We walked up the trail to the children's school and were greeted by Pastor Martin and his school. The students presented their daily opening exercises to us with great exuberance. We broke up into three teams; one for water sampling, another for site mapping, and a third for community health assessment. The water sampling team visited and mapped three main water sources. Rich, Bobby, and Mike surveyed and mapped the school site. Finally Dr. L and the girls did a community health assessment where they asked a series of questions pertaining to food, health, family size, etc. We had a great lunch thanks to Mohammed and his wife Mildred. It was a very rainy day but a productive one. Sorry for the long periods between blog posts but internet is difficult to find. Talk to you guys soon.
Monday, July 19, 2010
The Village
Today the travel team made their first voyage into the sierra Leone culture. After an interesting boat ride from the airport to the city of Aberdeen(suburb of Freetown)we finally met our on site contact Mohammad. He set us up in our hotel for the night, and we finally got some much needed sleep.
We had a late start this morning, but we started by shopping and exchanging some money. Now we are all packing some serious dough... the exchange rate is $1=40000. Then we went to lunch near the beach and ended up staying there for awhile and we hoarded by local artisans on the beach.
After lunch we made our way into the community to see the site we would be working with and meeting the people of the community. We had a positive meeting with the chief and the community is excited we are here.
Tomorrow we start the dirty work.
We apologize for the lack of details.... when we get more time we promise we will share more of our experience so far.
We had a late start this morning, but we started by shopping and exchanging some money. Now we are all packing some serious dough... the exchange rate is $1=40000. Then we went to lunch near the beach and ended up staying there for awhile and we hoarded by local artisans on the beach.
After lunch we made our way into the community to see the site we would be working with and meeting the people of the community. We had a positive meeting with the chief and the community is excited we are here.
Tomorrow we start the dirty work.
We apologize for the lack of details.... when we get more time we promise we will share more of our experience so far.
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Ello Mum,,,, I'm in London!
Good morning USA!!! It is 12:30 here and we are area all half asleep,,,,actually I believe 3 of us are literally asleep! We have safetly completed the first portion of our journey and will be boarding our next flight in about 30mins! Our flight was delayed 45 minutes, but we should arrive in Freetown at about 8:15! We hope to update tomorrow!!!
Other things to note,,,,,,,
- Matt had a terrible pizza wrap,,, no pizza ingredients were involved
- Rich is greatly enjoying his ham & mature chedder baguette
- Sandy is passed out on the bench,,,but she has read all of her sierra leone packets
- Chris is dominating the Pokemon front
- Everyone is in love with Bobby's shoes (they are the shoes that look like feet)
- Dr, L enjoyed watching crouching tiger hidden dragon with no sound on the plane
- Mike and Meghan are so bored they are updating the blog,,,, and paying top dollar to do so
ps, I apologize for the overly large number of commas,,, the period button is broken
Other things to note,,,,,,,
- Matt had a terrible pizza wrap,,, no pizza ingredients were involved
- Rich is greatly enjoying his ham & mature chedder baguette
- Sandy is passed out on the bench,,,but she has read all of her sierra leone packets
- Chris is dominating the Pokemon front
- Everyone is in love with Bobby's shoes (they are the shoes that look like feet)
- Dr, L enjoyed watching crouching tiger hidden dragon with no sound on the plane
- Mike and Meghan are so bored they are updating the blog,,,, and paying top dollar to do so
ps, I apologize for the overly large number of commas,,, the period button is broken
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Publicity
We are very excited to have made Penn State news! Check it out!
(I apologize if you got to this blog by first seeing this article and are now being redirected to it again)
2 Days!!!
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Preparation!
There is a lot of excitement among our group for our upcoming trip to Sierra Leone. We will be traveling to Sierra Leone July 17th and staying for about ten days in Freetown, the capital. Because we have such a short time in country to do surveying, soil, and water testing, we arranged a meeting at the house of our advisor, Dr. Lamancusa, to get prepared both mentally and technically for our trip. At this meeting, we practiced surveying Dr. L's driveway to determine the change in elevation and the distance it was from his garage to the road. It was a good learning activity, and everyone was able to try the different tasks of surveying. We also discussed our safety and club rules that we will follow while out of the country, so that we remain safe while maintaining focus on helping the school children in Baoma, a village about ten miles away from where we are staying in Freetown. There will be internet cafes that will be at our disposal in Freetown so that we may keep you all updated with our trip's progress. So look out soon for a new posts every day while we're over there!
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