Blog month 3 (March)
The poda poda are the little minibuses which provide transport for maximum passengers in minimum space on the roads of Freetown. In structure, they are quite comparable to sardine cans, and it is doubtful whether any of them have seen the inside of a garage since they were assembled, however they do have a bright and cheerful array of designs and logos on their front.
The words above are equivalent to “God willing” – gree is agree in Krio. Other good mottos I have seen include: “Pray for the Travellers”; “Allah is in Charge” (you would have hoped the driver had some control!); “Pity the Children” but also “Nor Moless Pikin” (do not molest children) and the more self-centred “God bless Mr K”.
I have not quite managed to get a picture of these good logos – they are normally whizzing past at high speed on the wrong side of the road – but do have some photos taken from a car of how busy and how laden the poda podas get.
Life is very busy in Freetown – big city pace – but I was happy to get out and visit the 2nd city of Bo last week. There was a workshop for all the health volunteers in the country there, and it was lovely to meet up with everyone and enjoy a slower, more peaceful way of living (no 2hr commutes).
Work at PCMH in Freetown is still pretty tough and I haven’t managed to work out if they have or could have any system for getting the work done more efficiently. True, “African time” means that all appointments are pretty flexible for the timing, but my hospital takes that to the extreme. Clinics, theatre and scans do not proceed in any organised way but just seem to happen at random (I don’t know who is deciding – it’s not me!) There are no internal phones but I get called on my mobile to ask me to go here and there, quicker just to do it and see what comes next. But I promise this random arrangement is not coming with me back to the NHS…..it will be no good at all for all our colleagues with OCD (you thought that was me, didn’t you?). The teaching schedule I was trying to put in place is quite disrupted by all the time-keeping problems and I’m not getting through what I hoped to do but just remember: high standards, low expectations. There is a very fatalistic approach to everything – I think they feel that “Allah is in Charge” here too!
No comments:
Post a Comment