They are doing some incredible things in the world's most deprived areas.
Here's an example of Brad's time in Sierra Leone after he left us in Senegal.
-That's Brad in the middle-
Monday,
We repaired another well in an even denser area/village. The spiritual darkness was overwhelming. The adults and children were totally out of control. The kids drove the workers crazy during the hygiene training. The filth in that place was indescribable.
Tuesday:
The workers had a wonderful time in a Christian community teaching health and hygiene to 17 women. It went great and I think renewed their energy.
We also took the guys on a tour of the streams in 2 different villages. The garbage and pollution in the streams, with latrines right beside them and then all of the people taking baths and I'm sure drinking out of them was horrifying. Somebody asked me if I've ever seen it this bad. I said no, it's probably 4 times worse than Haiti.
It was overwhelming today and all of us were very sad. The malnutrition was so evident it was frightening.
The container of pumps finally arrived at 8:30 pm. We unloaded it and finished at midnight. :)
Wednesday:
At one place we saw twins probably 9 months old that looked emaciated and horrible. They spent some time with the mother, made an ORS solution (re-hydrating solution) for the babies and then encouraged the mother to give it to them. They seemed to immediately take to it, but I had the feeling the mother wasn't going to keep giving it to them. I also heard that her husband had died 2 months ago.
However, we went to a well today that was sponsored by a LWI donor. When they repaired it 3 weeks ago there was a baby there (Ester) that was close to dying. Because they stopped drinking out of the polluted hand dug well and because I believe they taught the mother ORS, that baby looked very healthy and vibrant today. We got great video of the mother telling the story.
I think the things that are different this time are:
1.) The crush of people, the intensity, the smell and the noise (today we were farther out in some villages and it was quite peaceful)
2.) the amount of garbage everywhere is overwhelming. It smells everywhere and when you see any streams, gutters, or runoff areas it is completely filled with garbage and muck and it smells.
(I've seen similar in Haiti slums but this is everywhere in the Freetown area. It would be kinda like in the Houston metropolitan area.)
3.) this is the peak of the dry season so people are forced to go to the streams; but they wash themselves, clothes , seem to dump as much trash in the streams as possible. Just gets worse and worse the further downstream you get.
I've also seen multiple leaking latrines sitting 10-20 feet from these streams.
4.) I am absolutely convinced the worst areas we have seen is a result of evil being completely in charge. (especially in the village with witches that had human waste all over the river bank.) It is basically a picture of a whole country of people who have no hope.
5.) However, the incredible Christians we have spent time with have a great peace about them. All of them suffered greatly in the war but have found peace with God.
Go to Living Water website and if you can help them out....please make a difference in someone's life today!
Living Water International - Providing a Cup of Water In Jesus Name - Drill Missions, Water Missions, Water, Clean Water, Water and the Word, Shallow Water Drilling, Drill Training, LWI
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