Back to the UK...

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.

Four Weeks Left!

This week myself and Kadie, the district nutritionist, ran two one-day training courses for all the paediatric ward staff on assessing and managing acute severe malnutrition. The Kambia Appeal kindly paid for refreshments (a spicy egg roll and tea for breakfast, and a cooked meal of ground nuts and meat the first day and plassas (spicy pounded cassava leaves, a local dish) and rice on the second day. Apparently training events without food will not be well attended! The food went down well and I think everyone enjoyed the training, the feedback was all very positive. It was so good doing the training with Kadie, who could teach in Krio, and also had a much better idea of local ideas and practices. 

The Rains Have Arrived!

The rains have arrived! Initially with some spectacular nighttime storms, but they have gradually extended into the days; it has rained on the past 3 days (not continuously but for quite long stretches). Apparently Sierra Leone is the wettest country in Africa… and since it’s hardly rained in the past 4 months so there must be a lot to come! It’s much cooler when it’s raining. It was pretty unbearable just before it rained, and even after the first few storms, very humid and muggy.

Half Way!

Another few weeks have flown by and I have now passed my half way point in Sierra Leone, despite still feeling like I’ve only just got here!

There is a team of obstetricians and midwives from the UK out this week, delivering teaching and training to the staff at the hospital. Everyone seems to have enjoyed it but it has left the wards pretty devoid of staff, so it’s been a busy week on the wards for those of us trying to keep the wards running! It’s coincided with a busy week on paediatrics, so I’m looking forward to getting away to the beach this weekend!

Mt Bintunami and the Banana Islands

It feels like a long time since I updated my blog. As I get more involved with life here I have less time to sit and write about it! 

We have just had an amazing weeks holiday, we climbed to the highest point between Morocco and Cameroon, Mt Bintunami, in the Loma Mountains, and spent a few days relaxing on the Banana Islands.

Kambia Resources

This weeks blog is in pictorial format to give you an idea of the level of resources here in Kambia.

Kambia Hospital Outpatients and Theatre

Rat Catchers, Training, Diarrhoea And The Twins!

So another few weeks have flown by… another weekend at the beach, and the NRD (Network for Rural Development) training weekend, more paediatrics, and more teaching.

We now have 2 kittens at the base, Simba and Alfie. We kept spying a rat popping its head out of our toilet, which was quite disturbing, so action has been taken! We have been told that we should stop feeding them now, and ‘let the battle begin!’