Freetime in Freetown

Charlotte and I set our alarm clock at 4.30am to get the bus from Kenema to Freetown on Sunday morning. Although it was early, we thought we had had a lucky escape from a 4 hour church service. However, as soon as we were on the bus, there was a pastor, giving a sermon. Then after our 6-hour bus ride on the government bus, we hopped on the ferry to cross the estuary to pick up our friend Rosie who was arriving in Freetown that day to join us on our elective. The ferry (A rusty, slow moving, hulk of a ship) ride took an hour and we were instructed to clap for Jesus during this time. Meanwhile around us, there were babies crying, dirty nappies being thrown overboard, people selling mussels, lobsters, watches, pants, cheeseballs; you name it you can buy it. We managed to pick up Rosie from the airport, but couldn’t face the ferry ride. There were other options, such as a helicopter (US$60), Tourist speedboat ($40) or local speedboat (£2). We chose the local speed boat, where we were directed onto the beach, followed by a swarm of locals, and were told at first it was $100. After a good barter we paid the local price and were shown the boat; a wooden boat, with faded paint that could probably seat 10. We agreed to get on and were suddenly picked up off the ground by some of the guys. We screamed and shouted with not much dignity. We were put back down on the sand and told that we couldn’t step in the water as it had salt in it and that it was poisonous. The boat was 2 steps away from the beach and with pleads of independence that we can get on ourselves, we were once again scooped up and dropped in the boat, and then asked what the tip was. Cheeky bastards. However once the boat got going, it took 10 minutes and was awesome!! We got back to Freetown, checked into the YMCA and went for a Chinese. The next day involved getting money out. The ATMS do not have VISA and we had run out of cash, it took over an hour to get some sort of VISA transfer, which cost about £30 to do, but there wasn’t any other choice. Money sorted, we decided to go to a Chimpanzee Sanctuary, which was only 8km from Central Freetown. After 15 minutes of discussing directions to the sanctuary and agreeing on a fair price, we were on our way, in possibly the worst car we have ever been in. No windows, boot door wouldn’t close, the floor felt like it was going to cave in, and our asses were getting v. hot on the seats in the back. Although only 8km, it was a bumpy ride which took 45 minutes, with a very grumpy driver who apparently did not actually know where we were going and no longer wanted to drive us. We drove though the hills, past the US embassy and the IMATT (Army training with UK Army officers) in the posh part of town and then we were in the jungle (or what an English bumpkin would describe a jungle, not sure if its actually a jungle).

The Chimpanzee Sanctuary was fantastic. There were 100 chimps that had been rescued from the domestic market, some were pets, some were used in industries such as welding and some were used as entertainment. Willie (hehe) showed us round, he knew every chimp by name and called to them in Chimp language (we did have to stifle giggles) and we saw them being fed their dinner, fart a little, groom each other, which included one of the chimps inserting a finger into another chimps ass. After our tour, we got back in our taxi with our grumpy driver, and crawled back to Freetown, with the car feeling as if it was going to collapse in a heap. We had a quick dinner with the most delicious fish I’ve ever tasted and some plantain and rice. I tried to ask what type of fish it was, several times. She just answered ‘grilled.’

On arrival back in our hostel there were cockroaches in our bed, including in our pillowcase and PJs. Gross. We managed to change rooms but felt very itchy all night. Again we set our alarm for 4.30 to get on the bus back to Kenema. 6 hours later, we arrived back in Kenema. It felt like arriving home, our friends/colleagues from the UK met us back at our house, and the family gave us a warm reception. After a delicious dinner of BBQ chicken like no other, we were back at work in the hospital that afternoon.

Back at the hospital, we found one of our patients on the general ward had died of heart failure. Charlotte and I were put back to hard work, starting with clerking a patient in a critical condition with cerebral oedema post giving birth to a stillborn baby. If we were in the UK, we would have called intensive care and got her transferred to the specialist ward as an emergency. Unfortunately here, we could only give her drugs to reduce her blood pressure and reduce her cerebral oedema, but we had little equipment to monitor her. We went home at 7.30 after seeing several other patients, including a C-section. We worried all night that our critically ill patient would have died in the night, and we were relieved to see her this morning, although there had been little improvement.

By Alix