Arrived in Freetown late Monday night and made our way to a
simple, pleasant guesthouse, recommended by a couple of Sierra
Leonean friends.
Today and yesterday we have been trying to find our feet.
Freetown’s a big sprawling city and it’s a little difficult to
find your way around when you don’t have your own transport.
However, people have been really helpful and so far we’ve
managed to catch a couple of free lifts from passing cars, one
from a Lebanese woman and the other from three brothers on their
way into town. Already we’re starting to like this place!
It’s a city of contrasts where smart houses and
air-conditioned supermarkets are located right next to rickety
shacks and street stalls. It’s pretty hot and the city can get
pretty stuffy. We’re looking forward to taking a walk along one
of the many beaches that line the coast later this afternoon.
We’ve had meetings with Dr Foday Dafae, the former District
Medical Officer in Kambia and with the head of MSF-Holland
(Doctors Without Borders). Both of them were helpful and are
trying to find ways of getting us to Kambia. It’s good to get
different people’s opinions on our project here in Freetown, but
we’re looking forward to going to Kambia and hearing what’s
really going on from the people that live and work there. It looks
like we’ll either go up there on Thursday or early next week.
We get the impression from some of the Sierra Leoneans that
we’ve spoken to that Kambia hospital is now one of the best in
the districts in terms of facilities available. However, do have a
staffing problem and are heavily reliant on the MSF team working
there at the moment. We’re hope to be able to report first hand
on our impressions soon.
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