Liberia, Elections, Fourth of July in Sierra Leone, and Reaching the One Month Mark

Hello All!

Thank you so much for the updates, emails, forwarded messages, e-cards and world news! It's really nice getting all of your emails – please keep them coming, although I'm terrible at responding. I'm trying to keep up but thus far no luck!

Life in Kenema is almost becoming normal. There's a routine to my day now and everything doesn't seem so strange and uncomfortable. I was sitting in church today and realized I'd been here over a month, yet it doesn't feel that long at all. While there are some things I miss (hot showers, boneless chicken, milk), I am really enjoying my time here. Even the "annoyances" become fun. The other day, another Tulane student (who's not staying at the Pastoral Center) came over to visit and marveled at our everyday life. She lives at the Tulane Research House, which is gated and walled (as many houses are here). She was surprised by the people we knew around the Pastoral Center and by the children who greeted us as we walked up. Many kids know us now – we have bubbles, paper and pencils, and in general, treat them kindly (some other people don't necessarily). They're really funny because they know most of our names but are confused with the name 'Katie.' There are three Katies here right now – and we all introduce ourselves by saying "my name's Katie." So, now we're known as "skatie." It took us a very long time to figure that out!

These past few weeks have been very interesting! Last week, I was able to take a ride to Liberia. For those of you who are interested, a disease called Lassa fever is endemic in parts of Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea (making up the Mano River Union) and Nigeria (don't ask me how that happened). Lassa is a viral hemorrhagic fever and, while the mortality rate is not too high, the morbidity rate is and the disease can have some serious complications (hearing loss just when you're getting better). But don't worry – it's transmitted through a rodent's urine which I won't be coming in contact with. Anyhow, there is only one facility in the Mano River Union that has Lassa diagnostic capabilities and guess where it is – KENEMA!!! So every few weeks, the Lassa car drives to the Sierra Leone – Liberia border to pick up samples from the Monrovia clinic (10 points if you can tell me who Monrovia is named after). So I (and a couple other students) went along for the ride. It was pretty cool to see more of the country (including rubber trees, who knew?) and to get a glimpse of Liberia. The security around the border was a little crazy – first SL customs, then SL guards, then the bridge, then UNMIL (UN Mission in Liberia) checkpoint (with Pakistani soldiers), then Liberian guards, then Liberian customs. Ei!

Also that weekend, I was also able to take a day trip to Bo and Pujehun (two districts bordering Kenema). We saw some diamond mines, which are actually just holes in the ground and people sifting through mounds of dirt. But, the experience made me never want to buy a diamond… I'll tell you more when I'm back in the states. Nevertheless, it was an interesting experience.

Then this weekend was the Fourth of July. We made "hot dogs" and gumbo and invited our friends to come celebrate America's Independence Day. The party guests were an interesting mix: MPH students (us); undergrad scholarship students; Mormon missionaries (one from the US, one from Liberia); one Irishman; three ex-pat NGO people (one American, two Brits); and several Sierra Leoneans. Trying to explain Independence Day was fun, although fireworks don't translate well.

I think that's about all the updates I have. I'm still looking for postcards here - there isn't much of a tourist economy, but I'll keep looking. Thanks again for the messages and well-wishes! And for reading this long email!

Katie