Another Day in Paradise (w/ Sarcasm)

After living here for two and half weeks, I am sort of starting to get adapted to things around here.  Despite the malicious humidity and temperature, I tend to focus more on the events around me.  I had another great week of working experience, despite of being dehydrated almost every day, it can’t compare to the pain and sufferings that many of the people experience here in Sierra Leone. 

It amazes me that many of the problems could be easily prevented, with minimal funding; yet, a lot of people can’t even afford the minimal. 

In spite of the people not having the basic needs to make it through the day, I notice something different in all of the people I meet or run into, when comparing to the more upper class society.  Many of the natives tend to always have hope for what is to come, and they hold onto that hope to help them make it through the day.  The people of Leone are always trying to look forward.  They sing all of the time, while I am working on patients, on the street, and during lunch break.  Another thing I observed is that the natives to tend to put more emphasis on family and on each other.  Instead of television, the people entertain and spend a great deal of time with each other.  They are also very thankful for every day they get to live.  They realize everyday is a gift and that we don’t deserve anything, despite if we worked for it or think we "deserve" it.

A reality television show, "Destination Unknown" from the Netherlands came and did some filming in our dental clinic.  Let’s just say that reality TV is not reality.  Staging everything, supposedly they have two people on the show brought into an unknown destination; they come and experience a day of work with the Mercy Ship program.  So I am on TV (in the Netherlands that is) with the contestants in the dental clinic.


On a Sunday afternoon, a group of us from the Mercy Ship went to visit the Hope Center.  The Hope Center is the building where all of the patients stay after having surgery on the ship.  The patients reside there until they are completely healed from surgery.  Walking into the building, you can see the children faces light up, and immediately surround us.  Especially the kids, they become too attached not wanting to let go.  I gave one of the kids my camera and they starting to take pictures of each other.  They would scream and laugh after seeing their picture show up on the back of the camera.  It doesn’t take much to entertain them; they are easily amused by the simplest things that we take for granted every day in America.