Lungi Airport Hotel Sierra Leone

Finally managed to get online!
Story so far, arrived in Bo on monday after a 3 day journey (london, nairobi, freetown then a 5 hour drive upcountry)
Katy and I are the only volunteers at the moment and have the whole WAFF house to ourselves! (besides some chickens, who we have named tikka, combo, tonight and sandwich...ahem)
SL is very, very different. I wasn't quite prepared for such poverty, it's like a ...

i got back onto the smooth roads of Freetown yesterday evening, no worse for wear, actually if anything, maybe a bit fitter, considering my attempts to tame the wild bronc that is The Bush. it felt good to have my feet back on the ground, in fact, real good; real, real good. my eye began to twitch. my bruised toe nails began to ache. my runner senses began to tingle. from the bottom of my suitcase my running shoes began to flutter, and my bandanas began to ...

They call him Ishmael, and he is my driver. He took over for Sulu once we got into "the bush." He told me he got an award for his driving last year. Well...I'm still alive, so I guess I believe him. I wrote to you last time about the rough roads we had as we moved into the up-country, at least we had roads then. Moving east of Koidu, is moving into what is known as "the bush." Have you ever walked part of the Superior Hiking Trail? Well then, I've just one-upped you ...

today was my first experience "up-country" in Sierra Leone (and it's not even remotely similar to going up to Duluth, i've found). but, before i continue, an observation. Remember the whole making a fort thing? with a blanket draped over the great infrastructure that is couch cushions? i was never huge into it (a bit of a claustrophobia thing), but nevertheless i feel a bit transported back to those days. i write this to you from the confines of Fort ...

Apologies again for the unseemly gaps in my blogging, but internet is bad at the best of times, and with so many volunteers around at the moment, my net time is pretty limited. But I thought I'd better make a little time to lock myself in the office with a computer and tell you a bit about my African Birthday Experience. We actually got to have a bit of a double birthday extravaganza, since our Administrator, Julia, has her birthday the ...

Sorry again for the time between updates. It's been a busy week or so, and it hasn't helped that I've been a bit under the weather with some form of chest infection. My dad was good enough to provide me with the Lonely Planet's Guide to African Health, which is a wonderful book, but could also be titled, "The Hypochondriacs Field Guide," as I've been convinced over the weekend that I've been infected alternately with either malaria, lung fluke, hook worm ...

My appologies all, but I just realized it's been about a week since my last post. Things are progressing steadily here, but with plenty of ups and downs to go arround. Here is a rundown of the last week. 1) Our cook may be giving us food poisoning Ok, not really food poisoning, but we've had enough sporadic gastric upset to suspect some lax kitchen practices. We've given our cook a week off in preperation for mid-February ...

We've begun to have a bit of a unique problem down on the fistula ward. For the third time in less than a month, one of our patients has been accused of being a witch. The occult is something that is deeply ingrained in most Sierra Leoneans. Though the country is about 60% Muslim, 30% Christian, and only 10% Other, most everyone I've spoken with about the subject believes in magic of some form or another. Our housekeeper had medicine placed in his hand as a child ...

So we got a little bit of extra excitement here on Thursday afternoon. We were just wrapping up for the day, waiting for everyone to gather for the ride home, when we noticed a lot of smoke coming from the field on the far side of the hospital boundary wall. Now this is not an unusual thing to see here in Sierra Leone, it's the middle of the dry season, and it's customary to clear fields, gardens, lawns, and trash piles by burning them. Over the ...

Yesterday we went on an excursion to Mile 91, which is a tiny village east of Freetown, where a cultural festival was due to open. It was the most amazing experience! To get there we had to tackle huge stretches of road that were littered with massive car swallowing potholes, created be the RUF rebels during the conflict. When we got there the festival organizers insisted that I walk at the front of the parade (through the center of town, which ...