Greg Gourley is dedicated to helping Sierra Leone overcome ravages of war

He had, of course, read about the savagery of Sierra Leone's civil war before visiting a United Nations refugee camp in the capital city of Freetown in 2000, but words hadn't prepared him for what he encountered: men, women and young children whose arms and legs rebel soldiers had hacked off with machetes.

"It was the most horrendous type conditions I've ever seen people live in," Greg Gourley recalls. "It was an eye opener. I knew God had a reason for me being there."

Following God's plan would leave Gourley, 61, crippled, broke and homeless but with a reinvigorated sense of spirituality. "My faith has grown since I've been to Africa," Gourley said. "I'm a stronger Christian than I was before."

And he's not through yet. Gourley's planning his sixth trip to Sierra Leone this spring.

Traipsing around the jungles of Africa delivering humanitarian aid, Gourley could not be any farther from the U.S. Senate, where, as a young man, he once imagined himself.

After graduating from Lebanon Union High School in 1965, Gourley earned a

degree in business from Willamette University in Salem while also participating in the Air Force ROTC program. Commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in 1969, he worked as a protocol officer until leaving the service as a captain in 1975, but not before earning a master's degree in international relations from the University of Arkansas.

Gourley spent the next 25 years teaching history and citizenship classes to immigrants at community colleges in the Seattle area.

When the World Trade Organization scheduled its 2000 meeting in Seattle, he volunteered to put his Air Force experience to work helping to coordinate VIP visits. Despite the fact protesters rioted in the streets, causing conference talks to collapse, representatives from the Sierra Leone government invited Gourley to visit their country.

"I had the time and the money, so I went," Gourley said.

During that first 30-day visit, he traveled to the remote village of Wara Wara Bafodia in northern Sierra Leone. There, he met with chiefs of the Limba tribe to ask how to help. He left promising to return with a shipment of food.

Back home, he raised $65,000 by sharing his experiences in Africa with church and civic groups. The money filled 10 large trucks with rice when he returned to Freetown six months later. A decade of fighting had left much of Sierra Leone's infrastructure in tatters, including the roads. Drivers needed a bit of cajoling before driving their big rigs across the rickety wooden bridges on the way to Bofodia.

The Limba people later made Gourley an honorary chief and presented him with a robe made of royal cloth. Although a bit sheepish over the accolade, Gourley said wearing the robe gave him extra-credibility when asking Sierra Leone government officials for assistance.

During the war, rebels would intimidate villagers by chopping off limbs. If they intended to cut off an arm, they would sometimes ask their victim whether he or she preferred "a short sleeve or a long sleeve," meaning did they want the arm severed at the wrist or the elbow, Gourley said.

Eleven-years of fighting left so many victims that Dee Malcho of Seattle helped start an amputee soccer league in Sierra Leone.

"Greg went and filmed our soccer player. We've used his photos and collaborated in our desire to help folks," Malcho said. "He got me connected to Rotary, and that's been very helpful."

With little money for carefully manicured fields, play is often on dirt fields littered with stones.

Asked by Gourley if playing on such a surface wasn't painful, the players explained that nothing compared to the pain of having an arm or leg cleaved from their body by a machete-wielding soldier.

"Moving on one leg down that field, they were mean, rough, aggressive and feared nothing," Gourley said.

Before returning to the United States, Gourley secured a letter of support from then Sierra Leone President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah. The letter proved useful in persuading pharmaceutical companies to donate medicine to Sierra Leone aid organizations, Gourley said.

For a man of robust size, a month traveling the remote country came with a few health benefits. Gourley said he lowered his blood pressure after losing 30 pounds during that trip. His clothing fit so loosely that his coveralls fell off in the airport while he was waiting for his flight back to Seattle.

"My pants are down around my knees and everyone was laughing at the crazy white man," Gourley said. "I took a bow and laughed at myself too."

He returned to Sierra Leone in 2003, this time bringing sewing machines and setting up a vocational training program for women. Surviving is a particularly tough struggle for women amputees. They cannot count on marrying and being supported by a spouse.

"For girls, their life is basically ended Š she's not a whole woman," Gourley said.

During that trip, Gourley met Bishop George Biguzzi, who has spent over two decades in Sierra Leone. Once rampaging rebels, many of them just children, killed nuns and priests and cornered Biguzzi and the remaining clergy in the rectory. As they battered opened the door, Biguzzi faced them down by holding out a large wooden cross.

"I kept thinking of Daniel and the lions' den, Biguzzi told Gourley, and as I thought of that, this feeling of peace came over me, and I saw a circle of angels all around us. The rebels must have seen them too. They dropped their weapons and fled."

On that same trip, Gourley injured his hip in a fall. Sierra Leone has a seven percent AIDS rate and he was too frightened of dirty needles to seek treatment until after returning home. The hip became arthritic as a result, and he now walks with the aid of a cane.

Between his trips to Africa and raising awareness and money, Gourley neglected his teaching and lost his income. After the 2003 trip, he found himself living in the Aloha Inn, a Seattle transitional shelter for the homeless.

Disability pay for the hip injury and Air Force benefits covering medical expenses gives him enough money to maintain an apartment while continuing his work to aid the people of Sierra Leone, Gourley said.

Contaminated water is the cause of many illnesses in Sierra Leone and Gourley says that is now where he is concentrating his efforts. Working with the Brynmawr Rotary Club in Great Britain, he plans to return to Africa in a few months with 500 FiltaStraws.

Manufactured in Denmark, the FiltaStraw is a 10-inch long drinking tube that can filter up to 700 gallons of dirty water a year. Gourley demonstrates the device to civic groups by using it to drink from a jar of dirty slough water.

To raise money for the straws, Gourley has grown a flowing white beard, and plans to work as a mall Santa during the Christmas holiday.

But how much can one person do to help such a poverty-stricken nation?

Gourley acknowledges his efforts have made "only a very small dent" in a very large problem, but remains undaunted by the challenge.

"I determined when I first got over there I wasn't going to be able to save the world, so let's pick out a few and do a good job with them, and just hope somebody else will do the same thing with some of the others," he said.

Interested in helping?

More information about the FiltaStraw and the Brynmawr Rotary Club's water project may be found at www.filtastraw.org.uk

Greg Gourley can be

contacted at:

H2O For Africa

Attn: Greg Gourley

9844 NE 190th St.-J204

Bothell, WA 98011