lizards on the beach

 Tom helped his Daddy take pictures of lizards this weekend while we were waiting for a ride. Now we have ten times as many pictures of lizards as we might really want and some random ones of African dogs lying in the shade. It kept him happy while we waited though, while Josh made a new friend and played games on her phone!

on the beach

 These are some views from where Grace Community Church had their baptism service on Sunday.

 We had to hop over the wall you can see and then we were on the beach by the sea

It was a bit grey and overcast which was a blessing. None of us turned into lobsters despite a few hours outside.

baptisms on the beach

 We were invited to the beach this weekend to join friends at Grace Community Church for their first ever baptism service - and it was in the sea! Baptism is an outward sign that people have become Christians and want to follow Jesus. Going under the water is symbolic of death and then having new life in Jesus.

We weren't the first or last church group to be having a baptism that morning! And there were tons of people on the beach enjoying their Sunday, as you can see here, some just floating by the action!

driving around

 These were a couple of shots I took last week while Tommy was driving. This is a two way road believe it or not. I thought about doing a video of driving like we did in Benin, but the speed of traffic is so slow it would be pretty dull, you hardly move anywhere!

Although a little quieter further on there are still people everywhere! There are big ditches on each side of the road too hidden by the people.

Screening

Screening has gone really well. Tommy finished work early on Friday to go with the security team on Friday afternoon to set up the lines and came back aboard on Saturday after working the night.

By 10pm on Friday night there were already a couple of hundred people in line, with many more having been sent away who we were unable to help. People kept arriving, and continued to be pre-screened to send away people we can't help. The security team worked hard all night walking up and down the line to make sure that everybody was calm and kept informed. Tommy had a great time interacting with the many people he met, both those we could and couldn't help. He saw some heartbreaking conditions that we don't have surgeons to help with and hundreds of hernias when our hernia list is already full for now. By the morning there were a couple of thousand people in line and the nurses in the screening team began to screen around 7am. The line was so calm and moved so smoothly that the line was gone by around 8:30 and everybody we could help was in the compound beginning the long process that results in an appointment for surgery.

It was a very long day for Tommy, but also a very enjoyable one. It was a fantastic opportunity to see a different side of the Sierra Leoneon peole than what we saw at the Stadium screening. Alongside the desperation, this time we were able to bring hope that with an orderly line we would be able to see everybody in the line.