Water, but no soap: Teaching workshops, health and crochet in Sierra Leone - Shelbyville Times-Gazette

Second of four parts

Part 1

---

Workshop participants try out a "tippy-tap," a foot-operated water dispenser designed to encourage hand-washing.
(T-G Photo by John I. Carney) [Order this photo]

LUNGI, Sierra Leone -- LEAMIS International Ministries has evolved over the years; I first connected with the organization by going on team mission trips, which the organization really doesn't do anymore. Now, it mostly places individual missionaries for short term assignments of a few weeks or months.

LEAMIS's philosophy is one of collaboration and partnership. The idea isn't to throw money at a situation -- LEAMIS is a tiny organization and wouldn't have much to throw -- but to try to empower churches in the developing world with tools they can use to improve the lives of their members and communities.

Several objectives

The trip that LEAMIS executive director the Rev. Debra Snellen and I took to Sierra Leone had two main components. For the first three days, we led a leadership seminar for a couple of dozen pastors who'd been invited by our host in Sierra Leone, the Rev. Gregory Bangura. LEAMIS has been doing pastoral leadership seminars for quite a while now, since at least the time of my first LEAMIS trip in 2003. Many pastors in the developing world have gotten some kind of Bible training, but they may not have opportunities to improve things like their leadership and management skills.

Debra prepared a curriculum which she and I took turns teaching.

The second component, which we planned for Thursday and Friday of our week, was workshops on topics like soap making and water purification.

Sound service

Pastors relax in front of the church during a break from the leadership training seminar.
(T-G Photo by John I. Carney)

First, though, on Sunday, the morning after our arrival in Sierra Leone, we attended services at Gregory's home church, Rabboni Worship Center in Lungi, where the training would be held. Like most of the churches I've been in on these trips, it was a rough, open building. And yet, I'm always amazed at how churches in the developing world always seem to have a sound system -- even some churches that would seem too small to really need a sound system.

It sounds a bit condescending to talk about the amazing rhythms and harmonies that you hear in African and Latin American churches, but it's true -- there's an amazing, ecstatic quality to the music.

Pastor Gregory introduced both Debra and me during the service and we shared brief greetings. Pastor Gregory preached. When it came time for the offering, Gregory -- knowing that we hadn't had a chance to change money -- walked over and secretly slipped both me and Debra some small-denomination note that we could put into the basket.

To tell you the truth, we never did get around to changing money. We paid for our rooms and for our meals through Gregory, and there was only one occasion, late in the week, when I was in a store where I could have bought something in Leones.

Seminar

The leadership seminar was, for the most part, well-received. The curriculum Debra had chosen this year for the bulk of the seminar had to do with various personality types and how to recognize and deal with them. We also talked about marriage (which was funny, since both Debra and I are single, and a few of the pastors were too), and about budgeting -- which I'll come back to in the next installment.

The pastoral leadership training had been done in the sanctuary, where a number of oscillating fans had been set up. Sierra Leone is hot year-round and humid during the rainy season, which continues through November. It mostly rained overnight during our visit; I don't think we ever had rain during the day.

SODIS

But for our workshops, Gregory for some reason had us in a sweltering-hot classroom at the church. On Thursday, I explained SODIS -- a method for killing germs in water by laying it out in the sun in plastic bottles. UV rays from sunlight kill the most dangerous and troublesome microorganisms. The method only works with clear water; if you have dirty water, such as many Africans dredge out of puddles and ponds, it must be filtered or the dirt must be allowed to settle out before SODIS can be used. I handed out pieces of paper with the SODIS logo; if you can read the logo through the bottle, the water is clear enough.

The bottles -- such as used soda bottles with the labels removed -- are filled with water and laid on their sides in direct sunlight for two hours, or in clouds for six hours. If corrugated metal (a common roofing material in the developing world) is available, you can lay the bottles on it and get even more efficiency, because the metal reflects the UV rays.

Crocheting with plastic

Then, Debra made some brief explanatory remarks about crocheting with plastic bags. This cottage industry was suggested to me by Jane Prince-Nengu of Shelbyville, and we've had great success with it in Kenya. It involves cutting plastic grocery bags -- easy to find even in developing nations, and even more of a problem in places with no infrastructure for waste disposal -- into strips, and using them to crochet bags, mats or other items. The resulting products look great, and don't even hint at the fact that they were made from, basically, garbage. In one instance we're aware of, a grandmother was raising her granddaughter but could not afford to send the girl to school. Both of them began to crochet, and were able to sell enough products to send the girl to school.

One possible roadblock going forward is that some stores here in the U.S. are beginning to convert to biodegradable bags -- better for the environment, but not for this particular craft item, since they're designed to break down over time. If the biodegradable bags begin to catch on overseas, it could spell the end of this particular cottage industry.

Debra had understood in advance of the trip that she would be talking privately to Agnes Bangura, Gregory's wife and partner in ministry, about plastic crochet, and then Agnes would be in a position to teach the skill to others. But Agnes was under the weather with a mild case of malaria during much of our visit, and Gregory surprised Debra by announcing that there would be a workshop on crocheting. Debra had not brought supplies or made any preparations for a group workshop, and when we got to the church she realized she'd even left her plastic grocery bags at home. So she asked which women could already crochet -- there were several -- and attempted to explain to them how to use the plastic bags instead of yarn. She also showed off one of the finished products. It wasn't a full workshop, but it was at least something.

Unexpected moves

It happens often on such short-term trips that your host pastor will throw a curve ball like that, and the essence of short-term missions is flexibility. Sometimes you just have to roll with the punches and then vent about the situation later.

Sometimes, this means teaching a workshop you didn't expect. But sometimes, it means not teaching a workshop for which you'd planned. I intended to teach cold process soap-making in Sierra Leone. Debra and I had consulted about a materials list for the workshop. I was going to bring relatively little, expecting the supplies to be bought in-country. For one thing, I wouldn't want to carry a container of lye in my checked baggage. For another, if the supplies aren't available in-country, there's little use in teaching the skill.

But there were some crossed wires between Debra and Gregory, who said he did not receive the materials list in advance of our arrival. From our perspective, he could still have gotten the materials together during the first few days of our trip, although it might have involved Sierra Leone's capital of Freetown, four hours' drive or an hour's ferry boat ride away. But he showed little interest in doing so.

Later, after we'd given up on the soap-making worship, I left Gregory with the few utensils I'd brought, along with the sample soap that I'd planned to hand out to the workshop participants. Gregory tried the sample soap, and suddenly he was enthusiastic about me returning at some point to teach soap-making. He hadn't been so enthusiastic earlier in the week, when it might have done some good.

A few problems

We also had problems with a workshop Debra had planned to teach, making something called a "rocket stove," a particularly hot-burning stove built from concrete blocks. Debra's plans were based on the type of concrete block available in the states (and in some of the other countries where we'd worked), but the block available in Lungi was solid and of a slightly different shape. By Thursday, Debra thought she'd figured out a way to make the stove work with the available blocks, but as it turns out we never got the chance.

After the crocheting, we moved outside, where both Debra and I spoke about "tippy-taps." This is a very simple device in which a water bottle or jug is hung in such a way that you can step on a pedal, tipping it just enough to give you a slight stream of water for hand-washing. It's meant to encourage hand-washing in places without running water, and intended to be placed near outhouses, places where food is prepared, or what have you.

The tippy-tap presentation went well, but by this time it was obvious that Debra wasn't feeling too well. Between the hot classroom and the hot sun, she was becoming weak and feeling ill. We rushed back to the guest house where we were staying so that Debra could rest. But, despite its name, the Cool Guest House was none too cool that day. I'll tell you more about that in my next installment....

THURSDAY: Where's the beef?

http://ift.tt/2fCWMPP

Best Product Soap
Defense Soap Bar 4 Oz (5 Pack) All Natural Antibacterial Antifungal Therapeutic

Kirk's Original Coco Castile Bar Soap, 4 Oz, 3 Count

Raw African BLACK SOAP Organic From GHANA Pure Premium Quality CHOOSE

Dial White Antibacterial Deodorant Soap, 4 Oz, 10 Count