St. Simeon Skete, Taylorsville Kentucky USA

With St. Simeon, the God receiver, as our patron, the skete seeks to practice the ideals found in our Rule, The Thousand Day Nazareth. In simplicity and poverty, the skete embraces the struggle of inner life through the practice of the Prayer Rope.

See our website at www.nazarethhouseap.org

Donations should be addressed to: Nazareth House Apostolate, 185 Captains Cove Drive, Taylorsville, Kentucky 40071.

Important Notice: All writings, posts, graphics & photographs in this blog are the copyrighted property of (unless otherwise indicated) Nazareth House Media, a division of Nazareth House Apostolate and cannot be copied, printed or used without written permission from NHA Media, Taylorsville, KY.

Friday, April 9, 2010

Day 2: Nazareth House Lenten Mission, Sierra Leone


The third day of our arrival (2nd in Freetown - First day spent in Lungi), we found our chores were requiring attention.
Emily and I started the laundry -
a hands on task that takes up the better part of the morning. Kadijah does laundry everyday to keep it from piling up.
Without washer or dryer, it is a chore you must not let get out of hand.
Emily and I, washed, soaked, scrubbed, rinsed and re-rinsed (jeans are real bear to do) and finally we got the clean laundry
to the clothes line to dry.
Kadijah repositioned some of the clothes
on the line for us for better drying under the sun.
With the laundry out of the way for today, we decided it was time to sort the medications
and hospital supplies for distribution.
We were excited to find we actually brought in a lot more
supplies than we thought.



It was close to lunch time and
Kadijah showed me the proper way to fry plantain. The plantain in America certainly pales to what you have in Sierra Leone.
After lunch we went to buy rice,
loading up to distribute
to our neighbors at St. Laurence House.
There are several families living in one compound
across the street from us.
I love these families, we have "grown up" together and I will miss them
when we move to Kabala.
However, we will always visit them
continue to help them out.
And when we are not in Freetown,
I know NHA can count on Sanu, Emmanuel, Betsy & Simithe to check in and care for these neighbors.
I love the kids, this is Adama.
She has always been a favorite of mine and I am so happy to see that she has grown from a sickly little sad girl to this happy, healthy child. A credit to the generosity and caring nature of our NHA supporters.
The children (as always) were so happy and excited to receive rice.
They hugged the bag, huge
smiles on their face. ....
and then quickly, they lug it into the house
for safe keeping and immediate use.

I miss James, Kadijah, Lucy, Ann Marie and Roo, of course. We miss Pa Foday, Mako, Sanu, Betsy, Simithe, Emmanuel, Pa Sorrie, Albert, Maranda, Joseph, Johnny... we miss all of our family in Sierra Leone.
...and I especially miss the children.
Children who have little to nothing to count as their own, yet always happy, always content.
I love the children.

Thanks for helping to put smiles on so many faces.
As NHA moves forward into an exciting future please continue to give your support. The quicker we can get the house and land paid for, the faster we can provide more for the people.
Please contribute today to the Compound Fund. Thank you.