Not all hard work
on Freetown Blog (Sierra Leone), 08/Apr/2010 20:13, 34 days ago
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I just looked back over my last few entries and realised it sounds like I'm not doing much apart from work. On reflection, there hasn't been much time for sitting around. We were scheduled to get back from Bo at lunchtime on Friday in time for the Easter weekend. In the event, there were so many recruits to process that we got back at 10.30pm on Saturday night. The grand total for the tour was 755 new staff on the payroll and that figure is still climbing since we got back to Freetown. This is far more than we expected and the main reason is the scale of the pay increase, which is pretty substantial, though still modest by Western Standards.USD per monthGradeOldNew349156<< MCH Aide455183<< State enrolled nurse562211<< Community Health OfficerThe figures above relate to the grades we were recruiting; the raises
for senior medical grades are greater - e.g. Consultant pay goes from
an average of $490 per month to over $4000 per month. It will be
interesting to see what impact this has on motivation for exiled Sierra
Leonians to return.I felt like I deserved it by the time I made it to Lakka beach on Easter Monday. The Easter holiday is a big deal in Sierra Leone, with carnivals, dancing devils and a general exodus to the beach. The grilled snapper and chips washed down with some Star beers at sunset put a pretty good cap on a week that achieved more than we could have expected and set me up for another week that has brought a new set of challenges, of which more later.
