Sierra Leone, Day 2

We're in Sierra Leone!

I am currently with the rest of my project team on the Mercy Ship in Sierra Leone. Brad (my project leader) and I left early Sunday morning, met the other 6 members of our team in Washington DC, and flew from there through Brussels to Sierra Leone. The travel adventures didn't stop there! Upon arrival our team along with the other twenty-some Mercy Ship volunteers were herded into taxi cars. The cars drove us in the pitch black through dirt roads to a local ferry to take us across the bay. Mercy ship cars were ready to pick us up when the ferry landed at Freetown. After a quick drive through town we arrived at the Africa Mercy…

And what an incredible ship it is! I share a room with another team member, Geoff, and upon arriving to our room we found closets, drawers, sweet bedding, working shower, and best of all… Air Conditioning! We're really roughing it, huh?

We headed to bed right after we got to the ship, attempting to recover from a full two days of travel. This morning was ship orientation and a meeting with the Mercy Ship representatives. Included in orientation was an extensive tour of the ship, which led me to the conclusion that this place is HUGE!

In the afternoon we toured the three hospitals which we will be suggesting renovations for. Traffic is a huge problem in Freetown, as the city of nearly two million people has expanded far more rapidly than the infrastructure has. As a result, we spent over an hour driving 4km to our first site, Connaught Hospital. We got a tour of the facilities from the hospital manager and then moved on to the Maternity and Children's hospitals, which share a campus only 1km or so from the Africa Mercy.

Initial impressions from all three hospitals are there will be a lot of work to get done in the next 9 days, and prioritizing which services (plumbing, electrical, sewage) need to be renovated in which buildings will be critical.

After an entire day of work, I'm even more excited about what we're doing here. The goal Mercy Ships has of improving the entire medical infrastructure from the bottom up is an exciting proposition. The goal being to not only train local doctors, but provide them with the facilities to maximize the skills they've been given. Sierra Leone is the pilot country for this program, and our results here will determine how Mercy Ships proceeds with future projects.

Please pray that God continues to provide safety and health for the team. The scope of this project is very aggressive, so an energized and enthusiastic team will be important to continue the momentum through the rest of this trip.

Also, pray for personal encouragement, as not many (if any) of the assignments I will be working on relate to Mechanical Engineering. I know God has me here for a reason, I just need to trust that!

Many blessings and thank you for reading this. I look forward to updating more about the trip in the near future!

-Mike