It feels like I've been in another world for the last 6
months. As I walked through Gatwick airport on the escalator
floors, caught a train into London (which left at 9.13 on the dot, as
scheduled), travelled on the London Underground (trains travelling in tunnels
under the city of London!), bought a brie, tomato and basil sandwich, and
caught an air conditioned train up to North Wales, with a power socket next to
my seat (!!); it really struck me how basic life has been in Sierra Leone.
Travelling around Sierra Leone on
public transport usually meant sharing a car with 6 other people (the driver, 2
in the passenger seat and 4 in the back seats); which set off when the car was
full, and involved multiple stops at police check points. Often the car would
stop before the check-points, and the second front passenger would have to get
out and walk past the check-point, and get back in after it, or the driver
would be fined for ‘overloading’ (although four passengers in the back did not
seem to count as overloading?!).
Nobody in Kambia had a good
supply of electricity. At the base we were very privileged to have the
generator on for a couple of hours every evening, but along with the power came
the loud chugging of the generator…Our water was also pumped into a big tank by
the generator, so we didn’t have to collect water from the taps or pumps like
most other people in Kambia, and at the base the boys cooked for us on charcoal
stoves, more advanced than most people around who cooked on a three stone fire.
And the hospital…quite a contrast
to the NHS…we are so lucky to have free healthcare in the UK.
I couldn’t help but feel guilty
to be leaving the paediatric ward. After 6 months I have just got to know the
staff, the system, and started to understand some of the many issues they face
in providing care. Equally they have got to know me, and trust my decisions and
suggestions of ways of doing things. It seems a shame to be leaving them now.
Especially as the ward is becoming so busy in the ‘hungry season’, with the rains, more cases of diarrhoea, malaria and malnutrition...
Thankfully Hannah and Noemi are still in Kambia, and more volunteers are expected in August. Hannah has ‘taken over’ the paediatric ward (the local medical superintendent is not really interested in paeds, and as the only official doctor in the hospital often has other commitments that prevent him from ever making it onto the paeds ward.) So it’s reassuring for me to know that Hannah will be on the ward, and continuing to tackle some of the issues I have been working on.
We had a busy last few weeks,
with a trip to Banana Islands for Lorraine’s birthday, and then two Kambia
Appeal trips, where groups of staff from the NHS came over to provide training
to peripheral health unit staff. We were also finishing off our Volunteer
Nurses Foundation Course and had their final exam and certificates during my
last week in Kambia. Awollo, local artist and secondary school teacher also
painted some amazing pictures on the wall of the ‘soon to be’ malnutrition
ward.
I am now continuing my GP training, about to start a rotation in Orthopaedics in Elgin, will be quite a contrast! I have learnt so much during my time in Sierra Leone; clinically, about teaching and development, and so much from my fellow volunteers Mary, Lorraine, Hannah and Noemi, who added so many different perspectives and ideas into the work we were doing in Kambia, and have been amazing friends throughout.
Just finally, a couple of links – a film made about the long term volunteer programme in Kambia made in December 2012, http://vimeo.com/64000244 and an interesting article about “improving health home and abroad” through volunteering: http://www.appg-globalhealth.org.uk/ (The long term volunteers in Kambia are funded by a DfID Health Partnerships Scheme grant)
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