Baby Rescue Center and Driving through town!

Here on the ship there is a department called Mercy Ministries. They run weekly programs to a number of local NGOs to allow crew members to get into the city and work with locals in a variety of ways. Today I ventured out with a few of my friends to the Baby rescue center!

Last Saturday we were privileged to sleep in, since the Nurses onboard re having a Pot Lick Brunch! Crystal and I made banana cake muffins the night before. There were all sorts of goodies from custard scones, to fruit salad and pull apart bread! It was delicious! After Brunch we met in Mid Ships (an area in the middle of the ship were the Starbucks and Ship Shop are locate and a number of tables and chairs.) and headed into town to make the long drive out to the Baby Rescue Center. The drive takes 90 minuets due to the congestion here in the city. The streets seem to have limited rules, and the ones they have are strange. For example the person entering the round-a-bout has the right of way! So this obviously backs up the round-a-bouts! While we were in the Land Rover we were able to snap a few pictures of the scenery as we passed by! After driving down the main road, passing the Soccer playing Elephant, Giant Book and Coffee cup we made a turn to the left. The road from here becomes rutted and rocks the size of a basketball scatter the roadway. Upon arriving to the center we were greeted by two ruff looking dogs and babies! 

The center is run by a lovely missionary named Colette. She is from Canada, and is supported by her home church and sponsors. The center is set up to take in abandoned babies from newborn to 2 years of age. The youngest one is 1 month old. There is a 1 month old up to 18 month old at the center currently. There was a little one named Steve, he was around 8 months old. He was a very unsettled baby. After eating some pourage he was a bit happier, but would quickly start crying once again. Another boy who attached himself to me was Bryan. He was a little cute boy, about 14 months old. He had a twin brother. Both of them are suppose to be adopted however the legal side of things has delayed their departures. Bryan was very affectionate and whenever I tried to sit down to play with a toy with him he wanted to just crawl back onto my lap! It melts your heart. There was a little one there, he was around 18 months, he had cerebral polsiey. A child with developmental disabilities are not valued here, and are often set off to the side. But with attention, and physiotherapy this little boys muscles have improved vastly recently. Our time playing with the kids and helping with the 12 feeds went by quickly. Before we knew it we were back in the land rover heading back to the ship! 

The Taxi driver showing us the damage

Traffic continued to be heavy as we made our way back to the port. Right as we were at the People Palace (It so happens that tonight there is a big concert and the streets were lined with people and cars parked on the highway!) our Land Rover got in a little fender bender. Our front right hand side gently hit a taxis rear left tail light. Oops! Driving is crazy over here! It looks like fun actually! Im surprised that more accedints don’t happen, well I guess we were rear-ended two days ago too. (the traffic is so jam packed that when something does happen, we are moving so slowly that the damage is minimum). Upon hitting the Taxi we called back to Reception on our radio and got direction to have the man come to the

Our limited French Skills Came in Handy after the fender bender

Port on Monday or Tuesday for our Transportation Crew to assess the damage and handle the situation. Well, try to tell this to a man who speaks limited French from us two girls (Nadine and Myself) who also speak limited French! After getting his contact information, and attempting to give him our Mercy Ship number and instructing him to come on Monday or Tuesday, he was unsettled and not allowing us to leave. I asked a group of men walking by in they spoke English. To our surprised a gentleman who lives in Toronto who is here in Conakry visiting relatives was in that group and was able to help us. He was from the Fula tribe as well so he was able to have better communication with the Taxi driver. After calling the owner of the car and reassuring him we would see the

Stopped on the side of the highway talking to the 

 

Taxi Driver (i'm in Pink)

repairs of the car threw later in the week, and Nadine writing a “guarantee” on a piece of paper, the Taxi driver followed us to the port to see where he should come on Monday. After the hour delay we arrived to plates of dinner that had been set aside for us. I hope that’s the only car accident that I need to translate for while here in Conakry! I do plan on returning to the Baby rescue center in the weeks to come!