On the Way Home

I am taking advantage of 30 minutes of free Internet in the Amsterdam, Holland, Airport. Since the last post we traveled 10 hours from Kamakwie to Panguma on Sunday. About half of that time we were on some rugged dirt roads, but the rest of the way was very pleasant. Panguma seems to have been affected more severely by the civil war than most areas we have experienced in Sierra Leone. There are many buildings in Panguma that were destroyed by the rebels and are still in ruin, all of them missing at least their roofs. The electrical system in Panguma was destroyed seventeen years ago and the evidence of that was everywhere as well. We met with the town leaders the evening we got there and this time of interaction was very good. On Monday morning we proceeded to walk the town and register GPS coordinates of poles and other entities we are planning on assisting in reconnecting. Just before noon on Monday we then headed back to Freetown where we spent the night at the new Companero Hotel where we had been short of a week ago. We had dinner there and then crashed for the night. Tuesday morning we were picked up by Dr. Karen Asher and her driver, Steven, who took us into Freetown to meet with an NGO contractor who installed some solar at the Kamakwie Hospital in the past. This was a good meeting and we then went to a local electrical supply house in Freetown to survey what kinds of materials we may be able to purchase in the future when these projects materialize. While we were in the electrical store there was an explosion outside in the street and some shattered glass came flying through the open door of the store. A can of Air Conditioning refrigerant had exploded in a parked car at the curb and smashed into the door of the store, removing the paint. Fortunately no one was hurt. Earlier we had witnessed a high truck snagging some electrical lines in the city of Bo and at least one electrical pole came crashing down onto some people at a kiosk and in the street. It did not appear that any of them were seriously hurt. (In Bo, we met with the Electrical Utility that will eventually service Panguma, and this meeting was very helpful.)
Now we are no longer in Africa and having left Accra, Ghana, which was 80 degrees F., it is much colder here in Amsterdam. The transfer in Ghana was a real pain and we will avoid going through Accra on any future flights out of Sierra Leone.
It has been a very good but overwhelming three weeks and we have a lot of work to do to complete our proposals to the five hospitals we surveyed. Please pray that we can keep our focus on them. We are now anxious to be back with our loved ones in the USA and expect our flights from here to be anti-climatic. It is 6:00 AM in Amsterdam, 12:00 midnight at home. We arrive back in Harrisburg around 4:00 PM today, Wednesday. Thank you for your concern and prayers!