The last days of April and into May we were encouraged by the visit of some friends from Yuma, AZ. It was a full week but we were able to get them around the country to see all of the projects for the purpose of building a vision for their future involvement. The plan and hope is that next year they will be able to form a group to come and support the work.

Clinics: Unfortunately the clinic we had sched-uled for April was not able to happen due to the flight disruptions over European airspace. We thought it might happen when the team was able to reschedule after the first cancellation—however as time got closer, their rescheduled flight was also cancelled.

Rice: April and May have kept us occupied with planting rice. We have finished planting with one community and are in the finishing stages of the second community. We have received several more requests from other community groups but we will have to evaluate these based on how long the seasonal rains hold off. Relationships with these communities are being formed that will allow us to affect their lives in many more ways. We have been asked by the Ministry of Agriculture to consider a community vegetable garden project in the communities we are currently working in. Next month we will be assisting a local pastor to relo-cate to one of these communities to begin speak-ing spiritually into the lives of the people.

Water: This week a series of meetings will take place with the government to continue discussing a contract that will allow us to occupy and rehabili-tate a government-owned dilapidated water delivery site (there are 42 such dilapidated sites throughout the country). We are hoping for an outcome soon as the people of this country desperately need clean water. In addition to providing water, the property will also afford us a place from which to launch the other health and development initiatives that WMT is involved in.

Thank you for your interest and support of the people of Sierra Leone.

Chad E. Courtney

The Willamette Medical Team group spent a week in Sierra Leone the first part of March 2009.  We repaired the generator building that had been damaged since the initial repair two years ago and installed a pump and secured the generator in the generator house.

We installed three 2,000 Liter  tanks. One is located at the top of the dam, one is located at the Jefferson Baptist School, roughly a mile from the dam, and the third is located on the airstrip roughly two miles from the dam. We installed two miles of pipe and connected them to the tanks. By Saturday, March 7th, 2009 we were able to pump water to each of the elevated tanks. It was noted that the tank at the dam, which is roughly 20 feet high, had considerable pressure.

We also did a sampling of consumption rates based upon the amount of water that is being carried from the dam by local participants. We estimated that the present consumption rate is one gallon per person per household. This would likely increase as water becomes more available. Assuming that we will be filling the tanks at least twice a day, we expect that the potable water available to the community out of these tanks is sufficient for roughly 3,000 persons per day.