I’ve decided that I should really only blog when I have something interesting, useful or pertinent to say. However life carries on here much the same as it does in the rest of the world. However, its been a month since I blogged! Things do pop into my head sometimes ‘that would be a good thing to write about’ and actually as I sit here, the reason I decide to blog has frankly escaped into the ether! So… I’ll just talk a little bit about my last month here.
I have been upcountry twice. Once to a workshop with the top Docs in Taiama (near Bo). It was an interesting day, a topic I knew a little bit about and could contribute and the place was nice (aircon and hot water now make me feel totally spoilt!!) however, my driver, Peter drank some dodgy water and ended up on a drip in the nearby clinic. Never have so many Drs tended to one patient! The poor CHO (Community Health Officer) was overwhelmed! They did have some drugs but no electricity (or running water, in contrast our hotel 500m away)), so I had to hold Peter’s hand in the dark while he slept. The poor chap was a bit pathetic and therefore this was the source of major teasing for the next week! The next day he was a lot better and off the drip and I got to drive him almost home (from Moyamba Junction to Waterloo). We stopped just before the police check point and swapped over (I am unsure about all the legalities here, like insurance etc!!)
The next time I went up country was to Makeni for 5 days. I was facilitating a workshop with Patricia, my colleague. We were developing a Community Health Worker national programme and a number of representative from NGOs and donors were there. It was hard work but by the end of the week and lots of group work and discussion, we had a draft training manual and programme. I got to know Makeni a little better. I’ve been there at least 5 times but never spent this long there. I stayed with some of the Makeni VSOs and discovered that they also have a good social life which is centred around eating delicious food! I put on weight! Thanks Alice, Kim and Angel.
Work has therefore picked up a lot since I came back from the UK and I’m quite busy. Just over a week ago, I facilitated the Ministry retreat with John and Nathan (Tony Blair guys).On the second day I did most of the facilitating and I enjoyed it. We came out with useful plans to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of how we work in the Ministry and some have already been put into place. That evening there was a big dinner, hosted by the SL Medical and Dental Association (a bit like the BMA here) and it was all incredibly familiar. Men dressed in smart suits, ladies in beautiful outfits (the Salonean women know how to dress up!) but the only difference was that the main meal was served at 11.20pm and the speeches finished at 12.30am and then there was the dancing…. I sloped off about 1am and cadged a lift from one of the Drs who is also a Reverend. He had a sermon to do for the next day!
Socially there is always loads going on. An irish bar O’Caseys has just opened here! One of the new VSOs (Beth) does yoga lessons. We had a party last Friday and loads of folks came. Apparently it was a good party, photos to come. This weekend I’m organising a beach trip to Samso’s (named after Samso in Jutland Denmark, the guy lived there for a while) on Hamilton Beach.
For some reason I cant load photos anymore. The internet disconnects! Its probably a salonean bug! My USB stick is so infected that I don’t like touching it… I’ve lent it to John instead. He does the equivalent of sticking it in dettol every couple of days…. So no photos for a while. I’ll try again soon.
So sorry for the rambling blog but I'll try and remember what I was originally going to write about! Its a muslim holiday today (hence time to blog at 7.30am!) and there is going to be a big carnival in town later. I'll try to cover that! I'll also cover the massive road building programme and the interesting technique of simply bulldozing the front of people's houses if they are in the way. Folks just rebuild a front wall and live in a smaller house! This is a topic where photos tell the story....
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