Kissy Renovation Photos

Building a sound cabinet.

Balancing buckets of sand. Yes, they walk with them with no hands!

Paint crew of young ones. Some held buckets for hours on their heads so the painters could get paint.

Patient little one, hanging on.

Preparing cook area.

Kissy Renovation has gone very well, it is the first one we have worked on here with the new program. The friends have been so hardworking. Many of the young ones come and work until time to go to school. There are so many children and not enough schools. Most schools have two sessions per day, morning class or afternoon class. They often have lessons on Saturday as well.

It was amazing to see little ones helping carry heavy buckets of sand on their heads. A couple of the sisters came with little 2 year olds, they were well behaved and patient while their moms worked. These sisters came everyday of the project.

Cooking is done outside over a wood fire, the pots we had for cooking rice hold, thirty cups of rice. Each day myself and two other sisters would go to market and purchase the needed ingredients for that days cook. It was fun to learn the new markets. I am learning the names of the different fish and fruits and vegetables. I did see mackerel and catfish and sheepshead fish that we are familiar with.

We are coming into dry season now, so the Mangos are coming to market more, oranges and grapefruits are starting to get scarce as are cucumbers. Carrots are hard to find all the time, and are expensive. We have been able to find large green sweet peppers, a bit pricey but worth it to have something familiar once in a while. Pineapples are amazing, we eat them nearly everyday. We enjoy Pawpaw too. We have a garden area around our home and are hoping to get seeds to plant rhubarb, zuccini, summer squash and other familiar summer food! We have grown some onions and spinach and lettuce.

We are enjoying our travels and getting to know different missionary couples in the country as well as the special pioneers. There were 8 special pioneer couples assigned to Sierra Leone and they are in outlying congregations or groups away from the city. It is a priveledge to see them and we are continually amazed at how they persevere in hard to reach territory.

Last year we posted pictures of our field service experience in Sussex, we are so pleased to let you know that they now have a congregation there. They don't have a Kingdom Hall yet, but they have an Elder and two Servants, about 20 publishers.

Please read the lower posts, I wrote the other one earlier today before posting pictures now and it explains more of our goings on.

Take care, Lorie

photos

Lorelle working at Kissy Kingdom Hall.

Visiting group in BO, they are part of one of the two congregations in Bo, but there are so many in attendance on Sunday that the Kingdom Hall is too full. Therefore Sunday meetings are split between Kingdom Hall and this school classroom.

Internet Anyone?

Hello,

Yes, we are here! Internet has been soo bad, we didn't have any for a longggg time.

The girls keep correcting my english.... the first sentence i did wrong three times..... who knew I could get sooo mixed up!

Please forgive any typos or mixed Krio english.

We have had an exciting month. Dennis has been asked to oversee the renovation of Kingdom Halls here in Sierra Leone. We have been asked to travel and inspect every Kingdom Hall, what a marvelous task. We have been traveling all over and still have much more to see.

We have currently been to Port Loko, Makeni, Bo and Kenema, as well as to 3 of the 7 in Freetown. This weekend we are traveling to Lunsar to join the group for preaching on Saturday and then on to Makeni, Sunday we will travel to Kabala and Monday to Mabroka.

Some of the congregations meet in school rooms. It has been fun to meet so many friends. When in Bo we were able to go to a wedding. We met 2 missionary couples in Bo and 1 in Kenema. Every year they send more missionaries, the preaching work here is going wonderfully. Often while conducting a study passerbys will sit and join in. This past month two of the passerbys have become regulars at sitting in on the studies. I am glad their schedule works for them to join the existing study as my schedule is so overbooked already.

The past four weeks we have been helping with the renovation of Kissy Kingdom Hall, it has been a great joy. We thought there would be 10 to 12 volunteers a day, for the Thurs, Fri, Sat. project over four weeks, but the first day we had over 35, second day 50 and third over 65..... needless to say the cooking had to be increased! It has been great fun, I love going to the markets and bartering for dry fish, raw hot pepper, peanuts to be ground in paste for the stews and many other wonderful ingredients.

The friends have all been eager to learn new skills, and the Kingdom Hall looks amazing. We hope to finish tomorrow. Every weekend we have had the great turnout of volunteers.

On the homefront,
Our little monkey "Dexter" ran away a couple weeks ago. He was always so scared and shy, still not getting personable. We thought maybe he would do better in the bush. But the next day we heard people yelling, they were trying to stone "a monkey". Our neighbor stopped them and they tried to catch Dexter but they couldn't. He ran into the bush, so we figured he would be okay. Two days later we got a call, Dexter was home. We were working at the Kissy Kingdom Hall when Dexter decided to come home, but when he was coming through the neighborhood people started stoning him, luckily our neighbor heard and ran to his rescue. He carried him home and put him in his cage. Dexter is so thankful to be home, he is a totally changed monkey, he puts his arms in the air for scratching and pushes his belly to the cage for a belly rub. He even "talks", he is so adorable. When the little kids say come to him he puts out his hands and holds their hands.

I will try to add pictures from time to time, hopefully internet will hold up. We can no longer open emails with FW. forwards, so please if you have emailed a forward in the past and we have not answered please understand we cannot open or respond to them. Thankyou for the personal little emails and notes. It means alot even to just get a quick "Hello".

Take Care, Lorie

January 99 degrees

Hi Friends and Family,

Hope this note finds you all doing well. We have heard of some awful winter storms, please keep safe and warm!

The thermometer on our vehicle reached 99 on Sunday coming back from the "bush" villages.

We had a wonderful weekend visitiing Makeni, Lunsar and Port Loko.

Bill, Norman and Van arrived last weekend and it has been onstop activity. They came during convention and then Monday had tour of Bethel, Tuesday Fieldservice, Wedsnesday Visit into Freetown City and the markets, Thursday Service, Friday,Saturday and Sunday travel and staying upcountry in villages.

I wont give too many details, cause I know they will want to tell all.

Dennis and i have our Sierra Leonean Drivers Licences now so we can get around much easier. We still have our driver David though, he really helps alot with errands and helping watch the children if they come back to the vehicle from service before we do.

Our vehicle was overloaded with supplies for the weekend, so I rode a motorcycle. driven by our driver David, from our home to Makeni, a three hour plus ride. It was lots of fun. Riding through the mountain roads was amazing, and then the African Plains. Jah is wonderful! Norman rode the motorbike home Sunday Night.

Lunsar was amazing. There are three publishers there, all sisters. The one Elder from Port Loko conducts the watchtower and bible study on Saturday afternoon for the small group. We joined in the morning for service, mostly working the market area with the tract campaign. We were swamped by people and placed every bit of literature we had in our bags, could've placed much much more. Most have never been preached to. It was good doing the market, because some of the buyers will carry the message back to there more outlying villages. So many are still unasigned, the area is just so vast.

I am trying to attach photos, one of the outdoor meeting in Lunsar, one of the friends in Port Loko where we went for Sunday, and one of the service group in Port Loko kingdom hall after meeting. Hope they upload, if not I will try another time. Our internet has been acting up again.... sorry for missing IM times and emails. Thankyou for the comments posted, those we know for sure made it through for communication.

Convention was fabulous! Kadi, who lives with us, was baptized. She has made such wonderful progress! We had over 2000 in attendance everyday! Last year our goal was to reach 2000, we reached it Sunday afternoon. This year we were passed it everyday, how wonderful to see so many new ones learning the truth.

Little Monkey Dexter is doing good, he is very layed back and easy going. Very very quiet. He really likes his cage and will stay in even with the door open. He is able to wander around the house and wont get into things, he is really good. We had the vet come a couple times, because the previous owners did not care for him well and he had sores and abrashions, he is doing very well now and has healed fine. He is even starting to make little "talking" sounds.

So much more I could tell, but don't want to spoil it for our visitors, we will wait til they have returned to divulge too much more :)

Take care, Lorie

Baby Monkey "Dexter"

Hi Friends and Family,

Shelby and Lorelle invited a couple young ones from the congregation over today to play cards. They arrived with a totally unexpected wonderful gift. A new baby monkey! His name is Dexter.

From the pictures you can see he is very shy right now. We are sure he will warm up soon, Jack too was quiet the first couple days. We have a vet coming on Saturday to give him a check-up and vaccinations. We will also know better approximately how old he is at that time. I am thinking 7 or 8 months.

The two little girls, who stayed with us over summer vacation, Rachida and Samuella, came to meeting this week with bags packed. It is school vacation. They will be with us for two weeks. It has been a very easy transition now for them to come and stay. They are used to our home and routine. They were so cute this morning practicing there presentations for the truth campaign. We are still using the campaign in outlying villages and army barracks. Tomorrow, X-mas, we will be going to the army barracks down the road from us. All the little ones are excited, they even set their clothes out the night before. All the little girls wanted to have skirts, not dresses. Oh, to be 8 years old again..... It was fun to hear them practicing there presentations, a complete mix of Krio and English.

Not sure how much African news gets to the US, but just in case you are hearing of the news from Guinea, please don't worry. The Guinea president died the other day and the military has given notice that they are taking over the government. We have not heard anything bad in regard to the missionaries or friends there and we personally are very far from the Guinea border. We are on the ocean side of Sierra Leone, Guinea is the inland border country, so we are on the complete opposite side of the country. The US embassy sends regular emails to all US citizens updating us on everything, we have not had anything to worry about.

We have been busy getting ready for convention. Dennis, Shelby and I have all been asked to help or take part in various aspects of the convention. It is a great priveledge. Shelby has really come a long way with her sign language and has been asked to interpret seven different parts.

Dennis was working on one of his talks today when a brother showed up at our house to rehearse some, he came by bicycle! He is from the Sussex group, the group we went and worked with last summer. It is farther than the Godrich congregation that we visited last weekend. The Sussex group is 22 miles from our house, and it isn't flat countryside! We also learned that he uses his bicycle to go to meetings and he has a wife with a little baby, she also rides bike.

Sorry to hear of many still out of electricity, hope you can get it back soon!

Thinking of you lots,

Lorie

December 08

Hi Friends and Family,

Didn't really know how to title this one.... our baby monkey "Jack" died on Thursday, it was sudden and so unexpected. It has really taken me by surprise. We thought he would be our "baby" in the family for 5 to 10 years not just 5 months, he was really affectionate with the children. I hadn't realized how independent our children are until Jack came, he was a such a cuddly baby. He will be missed dearly. I don't think we will have another one for some time, if ever. We don't want to take one from the wild, Jack was already in Freetown and in need of care when Shelby brought him home. We were priveledged to be able to give him some happiness and a "family". I know he was just a monkey, but we had never had a pet that was so personable before. He was even having sounds to say different thing, like, "thankyou" and "goodnight" and he was always making sorrowful cooing sounds if we left him alone without a night light. We had a little solar chargable light we would put on for him at night so we didn't have to worry about our not getting electricity. :)

Jehovah is wonderful with his many creations. It has been a priveledge to see his many marvelous animal creations distinctly different to different parts of the earth. Here there are so many different kinds of lizards, with such variety of colors. Also so many birds, many small birds with bright colors. We caught a baby bird the other day, before Mason our cat did, we kept it safe from the cat for a little while. Its parents were sitting on the wire above our house calling for it, when I released it, we all enjoyed seeing the happy little family reunited. It was such a soft little yellow bird, so tiny and delicate.

We have convention in two weeks! Wow how time flies. Dennis' father and brother and a friend are visiting in January for two weeks. We are so excited to be having visitors!

I really miss working in service with car groups and sociallizing. The other night I reread the cards and letters sent by family and friends, thankyou so much!

I thought my schedule would get a little easier when Dennis came back and took up his studies again.... I was wrong! But a good wrong :) Four more people started studying. Two are from when I went on a Return Visit to offer a study, her sister was visiting as well as a friend. All three accepted books and we started the study that morning.

I had had a study back in 2006, that I would call on when I visited Sierra Leone. When we moved here the study became regular. Up until 5 months ago when the shop she worked in closed, We had been studying during her work time. For the past 5 months I couldn't find her. Then last week on my way to an RV, she came running to me along the road. She told me of her new work place and we will resume the study. I told her I had tried to call her, she said her cell phone had been stolen. She had a new number and gave it to me.

The lady mentioned in the last post that Lorelle invited to meeting and had started studying is doing very well.

All the activity in the preaching work helps me not get too homesick. It helps me to see the big picture of the span of time we are living in. I also really enjoy reflecting on the kingdom songs and watchtower articles and realizing the united worldwide brotherhood. We all are singing the same songs on the same day! It helps me feel close to friends and family, through our united service to our loving and wonderful heavenly father Jehovah.

May Jah be with you,
Lorie

Hello

Hello Friends and Family,

Yes we are alive and well. Our internet service has been out for a while. It came back on line today.

Dennis and Lorelle arrived safely, the luggage arrived a couple days later :) All was well though, including the delicious homemade cookies from Granny! Thankyou! We are still enjoying them.

Thankyou to all the friends and family who sent back gifts and greetings via Dennis and Lorelle, it means so much to feel the love of our worldwide brotherhood.

It was a real treat to get the new convention releases. Our convention is coming begining of January.

The "truth" campaign has been marvelous.

Many people wait in long lines for taxi rides, so if we have room we often will offer a ride. People are often amazed as most private vehicles do not pick up passengers, then when we speak the Krio they are even more surprised. It give a fine opportunity to witness. As many of the foreign workers do not learn Krio and reguire their workers to speak English they are really thrown off by our speaking in their native language. We have had some great conversations. Shelby placed a tract with a women and the next Sunday she came to the meeting.

Lorelle placed one with a young women last week and she came to the meeting this past Sunday, she gave me her phone number and Tuesday I met her for her first study. She said she will be at meeting again this Sunday.

We had Circuit Overseer visit this week, lots of activity. On Sunday Dennis counted over 20 that came to the special talk from our having the priveledge to invite them. I was a little unsure about my scedule once Dennis and Lorelle returned as I had been filling in for them on some of their studies. Well no worries, Saturday I got a nice RV with a neighbor just down the road. And a brother met a woman near our home, who said she used to study. He told her our address, she came by that afternoon and we resumed her study, she recently moved to our neighborhood. She had been attending Godrich Congregation. I invited her to meeting but she said it was too far for her to travel with her two daughters. We offered for her to ride with us, she came early Sunday morning with her two girls and we packed in the car like sardines. But happy as clams :) It is not easy to get transport from where we are living. It is a good 1/2 hour walk to where you can access taxis, and then you have to have two taxi stops to reach the Kingdom Hall. Often the wait to get a taxi can be very long as there are just more people than taxis. Many friends walk over an hour to meetings because paying for taxi is just too much money. We are so thankful that we have a vehicle and can give rides. We would not be able to live in the neighborhood we are in without a vehicle, with our little ones the walking would just be too difficult. Fuel prices came down this month, it had been 18,000 leones a gallon but is now down to 12,500 leones a gallon. This converts to about $4.00 a gallon US, not great but much better than the $6.00 it had been.

The temperature has been upper 85 to 98 degrees during the day. Evenings are in the 70's, with nice breeze so sleeping is good even without a fan.

Keep warm New Englanders.

Your in our thoughts and prayers,
Swifts