A very thankful and proud daughter

The absolute highlight of my time in Sierra Leone and the highlight of 2013 was being able to visit the village where I had lived as a child. After a long bus ride and hairy motorbike ride (first time on a motorbike..and of course there was no helmet or proper road for most of the journey!!) I arrived at the village.  The local Methodist minister happened to be available as we drew up on the motorbikes and when he knew about my family history he immediately stopped what he was doing and took us to the hospital where my father had worked as a doctor and we had lived as a family.

As I stepped onto the hospital grounds memories came back to me and the tears started….and the very first man we met was a gentleman who had remembered my family from over 30 years ago and said with a big smile ‘your father was a great man and a good surgeon’ – I thought my heart would burst with pride!  He also said that I had grown somewhat!!!

After meeting new and old friends I was able to walk round the grounds and visit some of the wards and take plenty of photographs for my parents.  And then we were offered free accommodation in the hospital overnight as we had nowhere else to stay!  The effects of the civil war can still be seen from the holes made by very large bullets into the village’s water tank to the hospital’s generator now locked in a shipping container, hopefully preventing it from further attacks.  Thankfully with generous funding from the West, the hospital is now back on its feet and is training local nurses and treating patients.  My only regret was that my parents were not with me in order to be able to share in the experience but it was still an incredibly special time.