Weekend

Saturday the 13th of March: Now we are at a Hotel in Makeni, we have been shopping today, and now eating lunch by the pool. Nice.. Here, our internet connection is working, so now it’s time to let you all know that I’m all right, enjoying my adventure…A beer just came to me, so cheers. My African telephone no. is +232 78579873 My Danish telephone is ill, I think it’s the heath.. So a lot of your numbers I have lost. If you write me, feel free to do, that’s at the moment the easiest way to communicate. I will write e-mails as soon as the internet works again in the jungle. Miss you all, but I’m having a great time here in Africa.. Love Charlotte

First experience with a green Mambo

Friday the 12th of March: Today (morning), just teen-fifteen minutes ago, I was sitting working here at the veranda together with Camilla. Then one of the other girls, Julie, called and asked if I wanted to see a snake. We both ran outside and there was this very colourful snake, half of it where down in the ground (in a mousehole). We asked our kitchen-ladies if they could tell us if it was dangerous. It was a green mamba – the most poisonous snake that Africa have. All the ladies were screaming when they saw it and shouted on the local guys, also working here. One of them came with a big stick and he killed it – drama in the beginning of the day. I didn’t have time to get scared, but afterwards looking at a dead mambo and the film that I got of it all, I got a little scared anyway. They say that it doesn’t happen that often that a snake is this close to our house - very nice to have the locals around. Now it’s evening, the rain and thunder came again tonight. Danish thunder is nothing compared to this African-crazy weather.

Laundry-project and Africa life has started

Thursday the 11th of March: Now work has started. Monday and Tuesday has been quit. Both days I went around and was introduced to everyone at Compound – the hospital area. I had a look in the “Big Store” where there suppose to be some things that I maybe can use in the Laundry. Tuesday afternoon we (Anne Mette, Caroline and Lærke (the two medicine students)) went to an afternoon teaching of the nurse aids. It was about traditionally believes. A very interesting subject, because there is some funny believes down here, that sometimes makes it hard to run a hospital. Some of the most funny believes I will mention here (in Danish): - Mens man ammer, må man ikke have sex, da barnet vil få diarre. - Hvis en kvinde har kløe i skridtet er det fordi hun har spist for meget sukker eller fordi hun har lyst til sex. - Det er helt normalt at et barn hoster/nyser. - Hvis et barn har diarre, er det pga. et dårligt ammebryst og beskidt modermælk. - Der er intet der er farligt for et barn at spise, fordi det er et barn. Hvis et barn spiser afføring, vil det få en smuk sangstemme. - Får et barn diarre betyder det at moderen har haft sex med en anden mand end hendes ægtefælle. - Spiser et barn appelsiner, får det malaria. - Du kan få TB af at drikke komælk. - Feber skyldtes altid Malaria. Gravide kvinder: - Må/bør ikke spise rester fra dagen før (dette svarer til normal morgenmad)– da det vil sætte fødslen i gang. - Bør ikke bade udenfor, specielt om aftenen, da onde ånder kan gøre barnet handicappet. - Bør ikke spise æg, da barnet vil udvikle sig til at blive tyv. - Bør ikke udføre hårdt arbejde, som at hugge brænde eller rengøre fisk, da det vil medføre at barnet fødes med en flækket frontalis/pande. - Skal ikke blive stående for længe i en døråbning, da det vil medføre en lang fødsel. - Hvis man bærer bh, vil barnet ikke kunne bevæge sig tilstrækkeligt og det vil medføre en lang fødsel. Both Monday and Tuesday I have tried to get in contact with my laundry ladies. To meet them and find out how they do the hospital laundry, but they have not been easy to find. I might not be up early enough to find them. The laundry is getting washed and dried, but the working hours haven’t been easy for me to figure. This morning and yesterday I got up running at 7, yesterday together with the two male volunteers. The heath is not that unbearable at 6-7 o clock in the morning, so it’s has been lovely to run early. This morning I ran to the Laundry to see if there were any laundry ladies to find, after having no success I was running the same run as yesterday, together with Anja, the volunteer working in the tailor shop. It’s nice that so many are running down here, nice with company, even though it’s hard for me talking while running at the moment. Hopefully I will get use to the humidity soon. During the daytime the temperature is around 35-37oC. It’s lovely, but sometimes a little hard working. The heat makes me sleepy. But we have already had some rain and thunder, and that makes the air a little fresher. It’s difficult to believe that it’s still cold and winter-time in DK. Hopefully the spring will soon come. Yesterday, Wednesday, I joined the morning teaching at the hospital. Every Wednesday there is morning teaching from 8.15-9, somehow like on at Danish hospital. The CHOs (Community Health Officers) and Dr. Frank is on shift teaching in different medical subjects. Yesterday it was about pneumonia. It was a little difficult for me to understand everything, because of their English dialect. Then at 10 am Dr. Frank had asked me if I wanted to join my first operation – a legamputation. It was very interesting. And suddenly in the middle of the operation Frank was called to the maternity ward – there was complication in the delivery of a second twin, the arm came first. He explained that he delivered the child like a veterinary would have done it (he just put the arm back in and found the head, putted a cup on and pulled the child out…), because there was no time for a Caesarean section. I’m very impressed of our Doctor, you can tell, especially because it’s hard work to keep the people alive down here. They don’t come to the see a Doctor before it’s almost too late. In the time that I have been here now, not even one week, four people have died, two of them properly of Meningitis. That must be hard for a Doctor to experience. But somehow he manages to distance and still trying to saving lives…

News from the Jungle

Sunday the 7th of March Now I’m in the jungle!! Yesterday at 1 o clock in the afternoon, I arrived in Masanga village together with the Dutch doctor Anne Marie and her husband Martjin. I had only had three hours of sleep, because of my late arrival to the hotel in Freetown (at 2 am), so I was tired, but I had a very nice and warm welcome. The driving to Masanga was beautiful, the landscapes here are breath taking – even though it’s the warmest season, everything is green. It’s weekend so it’s quiet in Masanga. A lot of the local people are away, some goes to school in Makeni in the weekends. Three of the volunteers and a boyfriend (on visit) are away as well. One Sunday every month there is “women’s workshop” at the school. Julie, who works on the grown-up educationally part of the project, had arranged teaching in agriculture by one of the local teachers and in health care and food for children, witch Pernille were teaching in. Pernille is also a volunteer and she’s having a bachelor in nutrition and health. To get the women to show up at the workshop is hard work – even though Julie were around in the village yesterday to remember the women to show up, we had to walk around in the village and get the women to come along. The workshop was arranged to start at 3 o clock pm, but it didn’t start before 5 o clock. When it finely started the women were very interested, and in the break everyone were dancing and singing – that was a big experience. It’s really Africa I’m experience now – an Africa that I like. All the kids are running after you, asking for your name or shouting “oppodo” which means white man – I have now learned to say “unibe” back, which means black man. Very funny, the kids love it, and they laugh when you answer them back. Now it’s bedtime. We got electricity from 7 to 10 in the evening – it was a little delayed to night, but now it’s off again and it’s dark – very dark everywhere. Tomorrow morning works starts – I’m going together with Anne Mette to the Pharmacy, and I have to meet my employees at the Laundry, talk to them and start my rapport and make a plan for the Laundry. Dr. Frank, the Dutch doctor, who Dr. Anne Marie is going to work together with, has also a plan about using me at the hospital – I’m pleased to hear that they actually will be using my educationally experiences.

The adventure has started

Finally getting on the internet, since a week before I arrived there has been no connection to the internet in Masanga, now we are on shopping and internet tour to Makeni.. Now you will get a long report about what has happen the last week and about my project here. Friday the 5th of March Now my adventure has finally started, but right now I’m stocked in Heathrow airport – delayed two-three hours. Something was wrong with the first aeroplane, so they had to find another one, that one has also problems, so now we are waiting for them to fix it. My African-life has started.. Yesterday I came to Copenhagen, where I had a goodbye-lunch with my friend Cathrine and her/my little sister. Then I had a meeting with Peter Bo Jørgensen alias Dr. Peter. We had a quick and very nice meeting about my time in Masanga.. I stayed overnight at my cosine, and her wonderful husband drove me to the airport this morning.. This will probably be quite a long ‘story’ because I want to give you some information about the project: Masangas Friends was formed in 2005 by the Danish doctor Peter Bo Jørgensen. The purpose of the association is helping to rehabilitate Masanga hospital in Sierra Leone. Masanga Hospital was before the civil-war in 1991-2002 a reputable hospital, but it was unfortunately destroyed during the civil-war. The Hospital's vision is to create growth and development, which provides access to health care to the population. The aim is to get local employed to run and manage the hospital itself in the future. The operations at the Hospital are done in cooperation with national and regional health authorities in Sierra Leone. The purpose of my project; ‘Masanga Laundry’ is to help building a high hygiene standard in the hospital, in an environmentally sustainable way. My mission is figure out an acceptable way to wash the laundry from the hospital. I have to organize, make a plan for now and the future and try to run the laundry. Maybe I have to recruit and train suitable staff to continue the operation of the laundry. Also I will have to assist Anne Mette, a pharmacy student, in the further development of Masanga Pharmacy. Yesterday Peter told me about the educationally part of the project, and told me that we (the two medicine student, Anne Mette and me) might have to start up the education of a class of nurse aids. There is a program ready to be used it is just a matter of time. That’s quite interesting and I hope that it’s going to happen. Then Peter also told me about his plan about using me as a nurse down here, even though they in the beginning didn’t wanted me to work here as a nurse (because of my non-existent experiences as a nurse). That part of our talk I really liked. Now I’m off to Sierra Leone, only three hours delayed.