More than half-way: Freetown, Bonthe, and Conferences!

A-wuah! That (phonetically speaking) is how you greet 2+ people in Mende. Bu-wuah is greeting to one person.

Since I last wrote, much has happened. I reached the half-way point of both my time here and my practicum. I had very mixed feelings about reaching the half-way point but ultimately, I was a little sad. I'm having a great time and learning so much!

A few weekends ago, I was able to attend a human rights conference training and sensitizing traditional leaders. The traditional leaders were paramount chiefs from three districts in eastern Sierra Leone (Kenema, Kailahun, and Kono). Districts are like states in the US. Paramount chiefs are technically elected officials but most of the leadership is hereditary, and they are in charge of each chiefdom (chiefdoms are like parishes or counties in the US). There are conflicting opinions about the permanence, efficacy and quality of paramount chiefs, but, regardless, they are in charge of each district and their approval is necessary and extremely helpful when visiting or working in a chiefdom. Anyway, the conference was mostly made up of men, lead by the most charismatic, capable, diplomatic woman I've ever met. She was speaking the entire time about how women and children should be given more rights and they, as the paramount chiefs, should champion these human rights. The conference was over two days and I didn't see her falter once. It was awesome!

The following Monday, I left for Freetown (the capital) for another conference. This conference was for all of the district surveillance officers (of which there are 2 for each conference) to meet and report on their quarterly findings. The surveillance officers keep records of immunization rates and actively look for specific, mainly epidemic-prone, diseases (polio/AFP, yellow fever, measles, HIV/AIDS, diarrhea and vomiting, Lassa fever, neonatal tetanus, TB, etc.). The conference highlighted many of the challenges people face in healthcare daily. For example, in the United States, we know exactly how many people have tuberculosis and, for the most part, we treat everyone (even those who have latent disease). In Sierra Leone, testing for the disease is extremely difficult. The normal test we use
in the US is a PPD test. In Sierra Leone, everyone gets the TB vaccine (BCG) so everyone tests positive with the PPD test. So the only way to tell if someone has TB is if they have clinical symptoms! And, this is just the scenario for one disease! Add in poor road conditions, weak reporting at the local level and poor access to health facilities and you'll begin to understand some of the challenges surveillance
officers and healthcare workers face.

This past weekend, I went with several Tulane students (and a few Irish guys we've met here) to Bonthe Island. Bonthe Island is two districts west of Kenema and the island was once the headquarters of the British anti-slavery post in West Africa. We took a bush taxi to a town called Mattru Jong and then a four-hour boat ride down the Jong River to Bonthe. If any of you have read "Long Way Gone: Memories of a
Boy Soldier," Mattru Jong is where he waited for his family after his village was attacked. Mattru Jong, however, is a beautiful place and we met the paramount chief's eldest daughter, who took care of us while we were there. We had a bit of an adventure getting to Mattru Jong (there are random police checks, only some of which are faithful to their honorable jobs). Although I got a bit sick while there, the
island is beautiful. It looks completely different from the rest of the country. Instead of red dirt, they have white and black sand. The town is a mix of run-down British-style buildings and small typical Sierra Leonean houses. The food is also quite different – they definitely don't use as much pepper and there's more seafood. All in all, it was a quick, but memorable, adventure. We arrived back late
Monday night and Tuesday got back to work.

I think that's about all for my update. Three weeks from today I'll be back on US soil! :) :(

Katie