withoutborders

Dear colleagues and friends,

I have now spent my first twelve days in my new country and home and it already feels like a month due to all the intensive days. Every day has been a challenge and I have already managed all the different phases of stress management.

To begin with, I spent my first three days in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone with beautiful beaches, green environment, high mountains.. I could tell already in Freetown that I had entered one of the poorest countries of Africa, and the traces of the civil war, were evident in every corner of the city. Despite of this, I did not get my proper chock, until I arrived to the second largest city called Bo and to the hospital where I will be working the next coming six months.

My first reaction of the hospital, from my comfortable Toyota Land cruiser was: ''this was not as bad as I thought.... quite organized in fact!'' It took me another three days to have a real break-down and the digestion process has been on full speed ever since.

Every day has been a challenge on it's own, and I am slowly starting to adapt and find my way around. 

In this project, we are 26 expatriates from 15 different nationalities, and 370 local staff. The expats, including myself, share five houses which are all located outside of Bo. The living conditions for the expats are moderate and we have everything needed for the daily use...well everything except for regular electricity. There is no city power anywhere in this country at night time, so, we are forced to use our own generators. The regulations for these precious machines are many and tough, but fortunately, we are allowed to use them between 19:00-06:00 weekdays, which in this country is PURE LUXURY, even for me!! Let me explain shortly about the weather before I move on to the hospital where I am working. The average temperature is around 30 degrees day-time and 28 night-time, but it is the humidity that is nearly killing me! I am constantly sticky, and my face is shining 24/7 and if you take a careful look, you may even see you picture on my cheeks and forehead! My best friend now-days is the fan (which of course, it is not always turned on due to the lack of electricity). Believe me friends when I say that I have never experienced this type of humidity anywhere else in the world, not in India during the monsoon season, not in the jungles of Venezuela, nowhere else!  As I spend most of my days supervising people outdoors and right under the sun, the heat is currently one of my biggest issues.

The hospital where I work is located approx. 12 km outside of Bo and it is one of the biggest projects of my organisation. They have a bed capacity of 200, focusing mainly on maternity, malaria and malnourishment. Since most of our patients are children, almost every patient has a care-taker. These, often bring along other children, since no one else is taking care of them, meaning that we have always minimum 400 people that need to be supplied with food, water, beds and other necessities. During the rainy season, which we are currently approaching, the number increases with approx. 30%. In most wards one bed is shared between two families and the beds are not ''King-size'', I promise! As most patients are admitted for months, we have a small school (very small in fact), a garden to keep the ladies busy, and something called a cooking hut to teach young mothers how to cook. The average age for the first birth is around 16-17, and the average number of births given during their lifetime is around 10 where usually only 7 survive, I have heard.  Please note that the statistics are not 100 % reliable, but the situation is nevertheless critical, with malaria being the number one killer! 

It is real difficult to put all the sceneries on paper, my feelings, my thoughts, my confusion, frustration... in fact, it is a full time job to digest them in my own head!

Furthermore, we have only two communication channels with the outer world, and none of them are reliable. The internet can go off for days and sometimes weeks, and even when working, it takes hours to download and attach pictures.

The cell-lines, have a story of their own. There is reception ONLY under two trees in the hospital, forcing me to use a Walky-talky for most conversations with the office. So if you guys try to call me during week-days and you don't get through, it is because I am not standing under any of the two trees.

I will try and write when internet allows, and maybe, I will even manage to publish some photos some day...

Until then, enjoy, wherever you may be, and whatever you may be doing!

Setareh