Everything is going very well in Sierra Leone right now.
I have received back-up, in the form of the wonderful Nad
who is now working alongside me in Maternity and also helping out with the
Fistula work in AWC. As he says, very different from the NHS or private work in
Mauritius, but he is enjoying the challenges. And any problems shared are a
problem halved.
We still have some stormy days but I sense that the rainy season is reaching an end, hooray!
I thought that instead of writing at too much length about what has been happening day-to-day, I would give a little rundown on my impressions of Freetown so far.
I thought that instead of writing at too much length about what has been happening day-to-day, I would give a little rundown on my impressions of Freetown so far.
This is what I call “Senses of Salone”:
The sights:
- People carrying huge baskets/logs/bicycles on their heads.
As well as pencil cases or small plastic bags.
- Women with babies tied on their backs, sleeping or watching
all around them; men stripped to the waist and working on their boats, on the road or just relaxing under a palm tree; children everywhere: playing, sleeping or working,
generally without any adults controlling them!
- Brightly coloured Afrikana prints and fabulous dresses
- Beautiful empty beaches with rolling surf.
The sounds:
- The beeping of horns, from okadas trying to ride the wrong
way up the street, to taxis speeding round blind corners, to 4x4s just showing
they are the biggest.
- Hawkers selling their wares: “cold drinks, cold drinks,
cold drinks”
- People shouting at each other. Having fights, or just
making conversations at top volume.
- The music of P-Square, Emerson or any other groovy tunes.
- Dogs, the midnight barking and then the howling.
The smells:
- (Downtown) rotting rubbish in hot, humid conditions
- The pervading odour of soaked-in sweat from the grubby
fibres of the taxis as you sit in the heat.
- (In AWC) bulgar getting prepared from the kitchen; soap
suds from the laundry!
- The smell of bleach, blood and liquor from labour ward
(applies round the world)
- Fresh, green smells of the earth after the rain.
The tastes:
- Gritty, spicy taste of cassava leaf stew
- Crunchy, fresh fried fish from the sea
- Juicy, sweet pineapple
- Cold and crisp South African cider
- A not-so-fresh semi-fungal flavour in most packaged
cereals and biscuits in the shops here
The feel:
- The crunch of suspension-less cars sinking into pot-holes
along the Aberdeen Road
- Soft, warm sand on the beach
- Beds that sag in the middle after 1 night sleeping in them
(VSO)
- Cool and calm (and scary) in the OR
- Hot, sweaty and sticky on the wards or just walking
out on the street