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.

Welcome..

Welcome to my adventure - Now I have finished my education as a nurse – proud and happy - and now I think it's time to start my adventure. Therefore this Blog…

This is the place where I first of all will tell you (the ones who are interested) about my trip to Masanga, Sierra Leone – Spring 2010..

Right now I'm working on the plans for the big trip – description about my project, searching for foundation, packing up my apartment and my bags, getting the needed vaccinations etc.

As the plan looks now, I will leave in the first weekend of March 2010 and be back in Denmark in the beginning of July.

I will be telling you a lot more about my project soon – right now I have started up my blog, as I wanted to.

Good night!

/Charlotte