What’s happening in the Weekends?

The weekdays are going fast and a lot is happening, but the weekends in Masanga can be a little long if you do not plan to do something. It can be so quiet here and also, it’s so nice to have some luxury, compared to life here. So two weekends ago Camilla (architect volunteer) and I spend the loveliest weekend on a Hotel in Makeni. We arrived Saturday at lunch, spend the day at the pool and using the internet, and then in the evening we had a nice dinner and went to a night club Apax, that was very good fun. Last weekend four of the girls were going to Freetown to experience the Independence Day and a weekend there. I got the offer to join them, but I actually felt more for a weekend home. The week had been so busy so I needed a relaxing weekend. Saturday is church day, and from 9 am until around 12 am the Adventists are going to church and bible school. Mr. Fortune had invited me to join. So I decided to go and experience, I went there at 11 am - didn’t felt for bible school ect. I got there in time for the sermon and the hymn. Good experience. I sat next to one of the HOC’s (almost a doctor) from the hospital; B.S and he was so kind to translate when they didn’t. He also wanted me to sing, but had to disappoint him. Sunday, suddenly, wasn’t that relaxing. We (Emil, Anja, Caroline and I) decided to go on trekking, we climb the mountain; Masamank - the big mountain that we are looking at every day, our view from the hostel and from Masanga. It was a very nice trip, good view over the area that we live in - breath taking and hard work for the muscles. This last weekend we had arranged to go and see Bo, the next biggest city in Sierra Leone. We wanted to go and visit the MSF (Læger uden Grænser) Hospital. We have a good contact there, but unfortunately they didn’t have the time to show us around this weekend anyway – so I think that I want to go there again. The hotel where we stayed was very lovely. We enjoyed our self both by the swimming pool and on the tennis court – my arms are now as long as a monkeys arm. The city was a very nice city – the people there are used to white/Western people, so we were not that special, and that is nice to experience once in a while. We also went out to a night club and had good fun with live African music – meet some Norwegian people from the MSF hospital.

Football mach in Magburaka

Life in Masanga is nice, but sometimes it’s also nice to experience life outside. Luckily it doesn’t have to be far away from here. Magburaka (half an hour from here) and Makeni (45-50 min. away from here) has also a lot to offer. At the moment the guys from Masanga are often driving to Magburaka to watch football matches and they think it’s great if we want to join them. Tomorrow we are going again – Inter against Bayern München. It is good fun, even though football doesn’t interest me that much. Some weeks ago we even went to see a football match live, that was fun and different. We are often going to Makeni, to shop and to get some luxury at the hotel; Wusum – here is the internet working - our connection to the world around, it’s nice. And some weekends ago I experienced that it’s possible to use Skype – excited..

Shopping with Mr. Fortune

Friday the 16th I had a very nice meeting with Mr. Thomas Fortune, the Hospital manager - A meeting about sanitation at the Laundry and in general at Compound. And Monday two weeks ago we suddenly went on shopping getting laundry baskets and waste bins for the whole hospital. Beside Laundry and sanitation I now have work to do in the new Waiting ward as well – a ward opening in continuation of the maternity ward. A ward where pregnant women from villages far away can come and stay before delivering.

Work and everyday life in Masanga

I have now really gotten use to my new life in Masanga, work is good, but sometimes difficult. We got some problems because of the langue barriers between me and the Laundry employees. And I have also felt that it has been difficult for me to deal with the slow tempo down here. But somehow I have managed to get use to it and try to get the best things out of it. It doesn’t help me not to. The engineer David, an Irish/Sierra Leonien guy from Freetown, who is going to help me with a water heating system for the Laundry, who were suppose to come three weeks ago, but didn’t, arrived Tuesday two weeks ago and stayed until Friday morning. He was very nice to talk to, and had good ideas about how to build a water heating system for the Laundry. Now he has started thinking and drawing, and hopefully we will soon start the actually building work. Excited to see how much of the building work I actually will manage to experience while I’m still here. Beside my work at the Laundry we (Lærke, Anne Mette and I) has started a clean-up in “Big Store” some weeks ago. We have spent quite some time there now, and it seems to work. Now we are in a waiting position, waiting for the carpenter to build us two new shelves. Now been waiting and asking for the shelves for two weeks.. Hmm..