Warning, the photos below are graphic. Use discretion in allowing young children to view.
We all look forward to receiving our messages from loved ones on Christmas morning. We expect to hear excitement, joy ... but that's not the case, especially in Sierra Leone. Tragedy doesn't discriminate between Holy Days or any other day. On Christmas morning, James and I were having difficulty connecting - phone lines in Sierra Leone were overloaded, Internet server intermittent - typical frustrations of working together separated by an ocean. Still and all, we did make connection and enjoyed a Christmas Phone Conversation. However, just prior to our telephone call, James managed to fire off the following quick email to me with photos.
As many people were opening an over abundance of gifts under the tree, these words opened my Christmas morning...
"Hello Mama Hicks,
the pic of the old man was an accident. he was returning from the BO hospital to visit his sick wife together with his son and grand children. On their way home late at night to raise remaining money to pay his wife hospital bill, he was pushing his old bicycle when an Okada rider riding a motor bike with no head lights hit this poor man. I was in a car with some friends visiting his village (to bring Christmas cheer from NHA) so we help rush with him to the hospital, he lost so much blood and with no urgent help, nor ambulance to bring him to Freetown, he died this morning. So so sad.
MERRY CHRISTMAS."
This is how James' spent his Christmas Eve,
struggling to save a man's life,
fighting against all odds to make a wrong into right.
James begs for medical attention for this man......there is none available...
And as we close another year, James tells me.... "mama, we still need so much here, it is so different from America, it no easy"
And since the goal of NHA is to make a village self-sufficient, not in need of our help..... we have a lot of work to do. Join NHA today, become a regular monthly contributor. We can't change it all, some things are so battered and messed up we can only bear witness to it and bring awareness to the need. But we can give love, person to person, bit by bit and that will seed the change.