Starting work and the strike is over!

I started work last Monday with slight reservations about my role and what to expect, especially as the strike was the subject of debate over the weekend. Thankfully, by Monday the salary offer had been accepted and the health staff started to return to work. So I started on a really hectic but positive day. The salary offer was approximately to double staff salaries to compensate for the elimination of informal patient payments to health care workers.

Well I'm sat at my desk in the Deputy Chief Medical Officer's office in Freetown. He's my boss, Dr Seisay (all very formal here). All the directors in the Ministry are medically qualified and these guys, I think are all extremely bright, often with foreign degrees too and carry huge responsibilities and are all men. My VSO collegues have given me a figure of 150 or so Drs in the country of almost 6m people and hence I guess they have almost God like status.

Its my 4th day and I am starting to learn who some people are. My role it seems is going to be strengthening the relationships between the Ministry and the 13 Districts in general but particularly comms, planning and performance management. I dont even know how to begin this task yet but the advice is to take it slowly, listen and learn. Dr Seisay called me his strategist and also managment advisor, hope I can live up to these labels! My office colleagues are Patricia(Public Health Sister), Mbalu (secretary) and Jane (nurse). Photos to come!

Some things are familiar here in comparison with the UK but other things very strange, like lots of people sitting around in the corridors outside the office for no apparent reason, The Youyi Building where I work houses some of the government departments and is very run down, but its amazing how quickly you get used to things. In a week I will hardly notice!

The highlight so far was the trip to Cline Town (part of Freetown city but took over an hour to drive about 5 miles) and we met with the Western District Management Team and the heads of the PHUs (peripheral health units). So I was in a room with almost 100 local health care workers and it was really interesting experience.

So almost the end of my first week at work. I dont have alot to do yet but lots of documents to read and I am trying to attend meetings and events to find out what's happening! Lets see what next week brings. Happy Easter from Freetown.