On My Way

So it begins. With my HR briefing in New York City completed and my mission specific briefing in Brussels over, I fly to Sierra Leone tomorrow at noon out of the Brussels airport.

My role for this next mission will be Midwife Supervisor and is for 9 months. What I have learned so far is that I will be visiting several different clinic sites each week to support the local Ministry of Health (MOH) staff. Doctors Without Borders (MSF) are not currently active in these clinics, that is to say, we provide support, guidance, trainings, supplies etc. so that they may become autonomous at some point in the next few years barring anything unforeseen, like war, disaster, or another Ebola outbreak. I will not play an active clinical role in this mission, which means I will not be on call, which makes me very happy! I love my sleep! This isn’t to say I will not do anything clinical. If I am called due to an emergency or short staffing, I will be on hand to pitch in and of course I will do bedside teaching when needed.

Sierra Leone is about the size of South Carolina. It is among the poorest countries in the world. The 11 year armed conflict ended in 2002 but Ebola hit in 2014 and it is estimated close to 4000 people in Sierra Leone died. The country is currently still recovering from that Ebola outbreak, which ended 3 years ago. It hit hard in the area where I will be so there is a serious deficiency in trained medical personnel. It is estimated they lost about 200 medical staff to Ebola.

Aside from that, Sierra Leone has the highest maternal and infant mortality in the world. Due to Ebola, a lot of people are still mistrustful of clinics and health centers so often they will not seek care when they need it.

Malaria and Lassa Fever (another hemorrhagic fever which presents like Ebola) are endemic to the area. I will be addressing both of those in later post when I have stories to share that will make the topics more interesting! In the meantime, I started my malaria prophylaxis yesterday and will continue through the 9 months and a couple weeks after my return. There is nothing to take to prevent Lassa Fever.

Other required (by my employer) vaccines were Rabies, meningitis, typhoid and booster of tetanus and Yellow Fever – all very real dangers in the environment in which I will be. There were several other vaccines needed but I had already had them so I am good to go.

We are allowed 20kg to bring on mission with us. I use a Osprey pack which is easily carried on my back. Very little of what I pack is actually clothing. It is in the 90’s in SL so the standard MSF t-shirt and some lightweight pants/scrubs are all that is needed in terms of clothes. The rest are creature comforts and necessities like coffee, travel French press, nice smelling handmade soap from a friend, a journal, photos for my room, coffee, gifts for the staff on arrival, binculars, my Birds of Africa South of the Sahara book, for my bird watching addiction (don’t think all my posts are going to be about maternal/infant health!), and coffee!

I don’t know what my time, internet or electricity access will be like yet so I am not sure how often I will be able to write. But stay tuned, I will write when I can. I also post photos on Instagram (honeymother64), in case you want to check them out. I will post what I can here. I have never blogged before, but feel free to ask questions or make comments. I will answer when I can. Next post from Sierra Leone, West Africa!