Country Roads, Take Me Home

And the roads took me home....sound and safe. And I am happy to be back, to see my family and the friends I missed while I made one of the experiences of my life..
But it was a sad good bye. These four months were an outstanding experience and I will never miss them. Filled with loads of great things I learned and figured out, sometimes also filled with things which made me sick, tired and sad.
The last day was maybe the worst one. It was not only the good bye making me sad, but something really bad which happened to one of my special friends there - to the lady who taught me how to cook the African way, the lady who let me into her life as I would be one of her sisters, the lady who shared her perspective with me....
It happened about 10 days ago when a little 5years old boy fell into her pot with hot pepper soup. People are cooking on the ground on small charcoals and the boy played with a puppy, did not pay attention and slipped backwards straight into the poz. Burned all over the bottom part of the body they brought him directly into a quite ok emergency and started treating him. He started recovering and my friend started to lose some of the guilt and shame she felt although it was an accident which could had happened anywhere and anytime. She was happy and promised him a football when he would be allowed to leave the hospital. But then, three or four days ago, she told me that the mum took the boy out of the hospital - against the recommendations made by the doctors, other community members and even the boy's father. She took him out and brought him up country and I can only guess about the reason....maybe she was believing a traditional healer could do better than the doctors. The reason does not matter anymore, since it was Friday (the day I left) when my friend learned that the small boy just passed the way...somewhereup country far away from where he could get proper treatment. One might imagine the guilt my friend felt and still feels and it almost broke my heart to leave her alone in this situation. I have hardly seen her crying before, but on Friday it seems that she would never stop.....
You can now guess of the reasons of his death....maybe the injuries were too heavy anyway, maybe the wounds got infected up country, maybe the immune system was weak....who knows. But what I know quite for sure is, that leaving him in hospital would have increased the chances to survive. Now, there is nothing left than to wonder why.... There is nothing else to do than to to grieve and I do it with all my heart.

And I am sad to leave all the great people I met. I can only say thank you to all these amazing men and women I met in the past four months. And thank you to all of you anywhere on this world, following the blog and commenting of my life. I would not know what to do without all your support, critical remarks and positve thoughts you send me over.

This blog will continue - maybe not from Freetown yet, but from whereever I will be. Right now I spend some time with my family in my hometown, but will be back in Sweden beginning of April. And later on....well, we will see....

Thanks for everything and take care or yourself and your beloved ones!