First week in Sierra Leone

I was not planning on blogging but I have too many people on my mass e-mail list for yahoo! to keep up with...so blogging it is. I think blogging is rather odd or at least this specific experience. You are supposed to sit down in a large steryle feeling room and instantaneously dive into your thoughts and emotions about all that is going on around you and that you are experiencing. Don't know that I can do that just yet...so my blog will probably be more informational. Maybe once I know better what I am feeling, I will be able to articulate it more clearly. It is Thursday afternoon right now. We have been here since Friday night,so almost a week. It is really hard to wrap my mind around the fact that it has only been 6 days that we have been here! I will be happy once we are in our own rhythm of a schedule. The Lighthouse kids (I feel odd calling them kids because I think a lot of them are in their early 20s, but I will call them kids for consistencies sake) are probably going to be the highlight of this trip. I feel bad though because servant teams come and settle for 4 months, build relationship and then up and leave them. Yes, pictures and cards get sent but I just can't help feeling like they have a protective wall up... and justifiably so. I am sure that it will slowly come down...just in time for us to leave. We went to Kroo Bay our first day in town and it was not what I expected. I am not sure what I was expecting but that was not it. This is SOOOO American of me to say but it was much dirtier than I had anticipated. You might be rolling our eyes at that, but until I can unpack more depth from my time there...that is what you get. One little boy was so sick, he couldn't even scoot down on the bench...he was burning up. No docs or clean bed for him to sleep in..I just can't unpack that right now...So, dirty is the best I can do. Well, I will write more in a few days. Love and miss you all!!