Screening Day Mourning

Monday, March 7th, was our first big screening day in Freetown. Lots of preparation had gone into mobilizing all the people and resources we would need to screen thousands of potential patients. Our team assembled (mostly between 4:00 and 5:30am) at the national stadium, including a large number of local police, security personnel and translators, and so did thousands of people seeking what we could offer. At past screenings there had often been some isolated problems in the crowd, but this time things were very different. The following is my personal account of what happened. By 10:00am as our screening process was progressing the crowd outside the stadium had become agitated and the security forces present were struggling to maintain order. The crowd pressed in toward the area near where people were being brought into the stadium grounds. At around 10:25 a large, steel car gate at the front of the crowd burst open under the pressure. The lock was broken off and the steel bars in the concrete were bent back and dislodged. The result was heartbreaking. As the people in the front of the crowd suddenly flowed through the gate, those in the rear pressed forward causing people to stumble and be trampled. One man was killed and 12 people hospitalized. Several minutes later the police were able to get the gate closed and restore some order. Many of our medical crew immediately began treating the injured and preparing them for transport to hospital. Screening was discontinued and our crew packed up and returned to the ship much earlier than planned. Among the first to leave the stadium were the Academy kids who had come to help entertain the children of adult patients who had come to the screening. It was a very tense and very sad day for all involved. There is a statement on the Mercy Ships website at the following link: http://www.mercyships.org/blog/entry/screening-day-update#

There are also a number of newspaper articles that can be found online (keywords that worked well for me in finding articles: "stampede freetown stadium"). There has been a great deal of effort poured into analyzing the event since by our leadership to identify ways to improve safety at screenings. It is a far more complex event than one might think. They have also been trying to come up with stategies on how to reach those still in the city who we were unable to connect with at the screening. There were a large number of people in the crowd on Monday who had very visible evidence of some of the kinds of problems we can treat. It seems clear to me that the crowd at the screening and the tragedy there highlight the extent of desperation that the people here feel. The crew have been processing this past week and working through the emotions and questions that have come with this event. It hasn't been easy at all, but we have to move forward. I trust that God will give us the grace to do that.

John

Arrivals

A couple of days after leaving Durban we arrived in Cape Town. (Above are photos made by Airserv as the ship left the shipyard in Durban.) The ship refueled in Cape Town and the crew had about 24 hours to visit the city. We were docked at the V&A Waterfront, a very active and interesting part of town. There were lots of sea lions in the water in the area and the kids really loved watching them interact with each other. We had a chance to visit Table Mountain and to get acquainted with the city bowl (downtown area). Others ventured further afield and went to see a penguin colony on the peninsula. We really liked Cape Town and would have loved to have spent more time there, but the ship needed to get to Sierra Leone as soon as possible. We considered ourselves very fortunate to have had a day in Cape Town and left with thankful hearts, some photos, some groceries and a take away pizza. (Below is a video still of the ship leaving Cape Town that was sent from the Mercy Ships South Africa office.) After leaving Cape Town we sailed for about two weeks across pretty remote stretches of the Atlantic. We didn't see very many other ships, but occasionally would pass some dolphin pods. We crossed the equator and passed through a little squall simultaneously on February 24th. The captain let us know on the overhead announcement that we wouldn't see the dotted line you usually see on globes because we would be passing directly between the dashes. He was kidding of course! I like that he has a sense of humor. Most of the crew gathered on the outdoor sections of deck 7 to mark the occasion, but other than that there wasn't much to see. We arrived in Freetown, Sierra Leone early in the morning on February 27th. There were large numbers of people on the dock, many of which would be coming to live on board the ship. They were part of the advance team and Gateway (Mercy Ships' long-term crew preparation program) participants who had been working in country during the weeks and months prior to our arrival. There was a lovely local band there that played a number of songs and the Minister of Health spoke. We all really enjoyed being reunited with friends we hadn't seen in a long time. There is a nice slide show of the arrival made up of some of my photos and the photos of the other photographers present (at least four of us - two on the ground and two on the ship) at the following web address: http://www.mercyships.org/blog/entry/the-africa-mercy-arrives-in-sierra-leone

After the arrival, everything was very very busy on the ship, as we had fully expected, getting ready for the screening and the beginning of surgeries and putting all the pieces together to do the work we had come to do - an enormous undertaking I must say! Fortunately some prior upcountry screening had already been done and land based facilities had already been prepared for support of hospital, eye and dental functions. A large team of local day volunteers had already been assembled and prepared to join us as well. The advance team always works so hard to prepare the way for the ship's arrival. They did a great job! It's a little hard to believe that we are here. It's really nice to be back in West Africa. Sierra Leone is a predominantly Muslim country. It is full of friendly people and overflowing with need now nine years after the end of a bloody, eleven-year war. Freetown is so full of people, in fact, that it is difficult and dangerous getting around in town. Driving is very difficult due to the narrow roads, which often have deep concrete trenches on either side, and the enormous number of pedestrians using the roads not only to move from one place to another, but for any number of daily activities like selling items and even bathing children. It is a lot like Monrovia only the roads seem much more narrow and crowded. It will be an interesting field service.

John