Our February 2017 Sierra Leone Team
We recently traveled with six other team members to Sierra Leone. Our team included two of our Africa Uplifted Board Members, a retired pastor, a retired teacher, a dentist and a small business owner. Everyone brought their own special skills to the team.
We learned the very first day that we were not in control when we arrived without our luggage. We spent the first five days of the trip recycling clothes but were not worse for the experience.
Dr. Chris Fondell spent most of the trip seeing dental patients at the Doris Acton Community Health Center in Manonkoh. Access to dental services in Sierra Leone is quite limited and demand for Dr. Fondell’s services was therefore high. Team member Tiffany Fesenmaier, who was making her first trip to Sierra Leone, worked along side Dr. Fondell.
The rest of the team engaged in a variety of activities in and around the UMC Primary School in Manonkoh. These activities included visiting classrooms to help teach, assisting with school lunch, and making Valentine’s Day cards. We also facilitated additional field trips to Makeni for Class 6 students and provided funds for a two-day sports meet for the kids. Pastor Don Eslinger even made synthetic snow in the classrooms.
As usual, we took a day to visit the small villages surrounding Manonkoh.
Our Board Members also took some time to visit with our Project Liaison Officer Paul Fornah and the Nurse-in-Charge at the DACHC Peter Kamara.
On our drive back to Freetown, we stopped for a meeting with the Kapiroh community in the Kambia district.
Overall, the trip was very enjoyable and strengthened the bonds between our team members and the people we serve. We appreciate your interest in and support of Africa Uplifted.