5Crawfords

Downtown Freetown, Sierra Leone. The stormy clouds pack a punch - on average, Freetown gets over 26-inches of rain in the month of September alone! Part II of V Thurs Sept 8: Today I went with the civil engineering team over to the far site, Connaught Hospital. Connaught is considered the top medical facility in the country. There is so much I could write today from our 4 hour visit to the site – the wastewater conditions were some of the worst I’ve seen on a trip: Raw sewage flowing out of the septic tanks right where the workers walk to hang laundry. The small amount of sewage that makes it into the designed system simply drains out into the ocean at the bottom of the site. Believe it or not, this is the road we took each day to get to the far hospital. At times we had to stop for several minutes while people cleared their stuff out of the way so we could pass through. Remarkably, it's a two-way street! But instead of telling all the stories related to that stuff, I want to shar...

Part I of V Travel days Sept 4-5: Leaving for trips is never fun for me. My past fears of leaving home come crashing down on me as the hours tick down to departure. I know the term ‘depression’ is a very real condition that plagues people so I don’t want to minimize that by using the word flippantly, but the dread I feel of having to leave Alisha and the boys sets me into a depression-like state. I know it’s irrational and not what God would have me feel, but it’s very real and a real area of growth for me to pursue. It’s far worse than the actual leaving itself, which is quite ridiculous when I think about it after the fact. Overall, the travel was fine. All the flights were fairly smooth and uneventful – exactly how I like them! We had 5 flights in all, so it was a very grueling trip. Denver to Chicago to DC to Brussels to Banjul (Capital city in The Gambia) to Freetown. Including our team, there were 31 Mercy Ships people arriving on the flight – all but one of us got our bags (a yo...

This Sunday, September 4th, I fly out on my next project trip to Freetown, Sierra Leone! I described the project in my previous post so if you want to learn more about it, see below under 'Late Summer Update...". The 'Africa Mercy' - Mercy Ships' floating hospital that has been docked in Freetown, S.L. since January 2011. We'll be staying on the ship and heading into town each day to assess the three hospitals (pictured below). ...It goes without saying that our accommodations for this trip will be "slightly" more comfortable than on most other EMI trips. As always, please pray for Alisha and the boys who are left behind. In many ways, the sacrifice they make during these trips far exceeds anything I have to endure. The craziness of our Summer has now given way to the even crazier-ness of the Fall! School and soccer are both back in full swing so free time is at a premium and just getting through the day is an achievement. With me gon...

Summer Haiti Project Interns Brett and Stacy did a great job of finishing the project report in a very shortened semester. It was completed, bound and sent off to CEDAN by the end of July! The report will make it's way to Haiti in the coming weeks as a CEDAN team heads back to the site. Fall Project My fall project trip is to Sierra Leone to work with a well established ministry called Mercy Ships. Up until last week, it was looking like it would be postponed until early November. However, in the 11th hour, I found an electrical engineer to round out the team so we are back on schedule for departing September 4th thru 16th. We have a smaller team of 8 due to limitations on accommodations since we'll be staying on the Africa Mercy, Mercy Ships' primary floating hospital ship. Mercy Ships docks their ship all over Africa for months at a time, providing medical care for the local people with the help of volunteers doctors and nurses. They also provide training for the ...

The main highway that bordered our site - the line of buildings at middle left is the CEDAN compound. So lush and green and full of potential. (the rest of the pictures in this post are below, after the text) Saturday June 11th The only word I think I need to describe today is HOT. It was a clear blue sky all day for the first time and we suffered for it! The humidity is still alive and well though maybe a tad less, but the sun made it very hot. Nonetheless, we took a ride into the nearest town of Limbe, which is about 15 minutes up the road. We all piled into the back of the pickup truck again, which actually felt nice since it was at least moving air! The town seemed a lot like a typical African town, with lots of motorcycle taxis and a big market selling everything under the sun. We walked all around the town, visiting a local church, hospital, and lots of smaller little streets. It really was a good look at a typical Haitian town. One significant happening this morning was that the...