In Which A Kangaroo-Impersonating-Goat Is Not The Strangest Sight Of The Day
on Zoe Page (Sierra Leone), 18/Oct/2010 19:24, 34 days ago
The IRC Team Meeting is scheduled for 8.30am. I am there at 8.15. It finally starts at 9am. The different supervisors update on their work over the last week and plans for the current one. This is more like it. I am sitting in an office that has graphs on the notice board, files on a shelf, newspapers on a table and people actually doing work occupying it. The whole IRC building is rather lovely, like a massive Hacienda. Outside there are 7 white trucks which confuses me when they talk about having 2½ vehicles at their disposal.One of the team shows me their data that is reported in to the NYC office on a monthly basis. I don’t mean to pick holes in it, but by the end he’s writing notes of what to add to their collection. The push is to have at least 15% of births taking place in an IRC-supported unit. The problem is they aren’t monitoring how many are taking place elsewhere, so although the numbers go up and down, there’s no way of knowing if the overall percentage does too. After all, you can't have the same woman giving birth month after month. Even my limited medical knowledge tells me that much. Later on, Maryline tells me that the TBAs (traditional birth attendants, somewhat frowned upon by the big chiefs in the cities) don’t get paid, per se. Instead, the family give them a gift in kind – like a chicken or some rice – but it depends on what the baby is, as boys require a far higher gift that girls. I love that they ‘blame’ the TBAs for the sex of the baby.We go to the hospital to see Dr S, but he’s not there, so we reverse out and pop in to some training instead. They have brought in the 30 ‘worst performing’ PHUs (out of 65 whom they support) for a remedial action class. There is only one woman in the room. The walls have the earlier agreed ground rules for the session taped up. These includerespect others’ opinionsandput your hand up when you want to speak. How ace would it have been if we’d done the same with the GPs, and made them raise their hands to talk? Maryline is hungry. It’s noon, but they have some breakfast left over we can have: fish and cucumber rolls, that have probably been sitting out since before 9am. I settle with a bottle of water, instead. Once again, all thedelegates have massive 1.5 litre affairs each. The meeting is taking place in the Community Centre at the end of my road. It has a swimming pool outside! I’m super impressed and also miffed no one told me about it, until I peek in and realise it’s probably not had water in since before the civilwar. Maryline gives them a rousing speech, I am introduced to a round of applause (once again, making me feel like a performing chimp) and then we’re off.Back at the hospital we have to tell them where to put the generator IRC are donating. This takes some time though it’s not too complicated a decision. Rather than get involved, I watch patients’ family members washing their relatives’ laundry and hanging it out to dry. Maryline drops me back at home ‘for a rest’ and says she will be back in an hour to take me back to the hospital. No one has the DMO’snumber, so we can’t ring him to see if he’ll be there. We’re just crossing our fingers...She comes back only 30 minutes late, and we find Dr S in the hospital, so it’s all good. She asks him for a letter to explain my presence, like the opposite of a note for skiving school. He backtracks a little and says I will spend some time with them, but mainly be at the DHMT. He doesn’t care to clarify with regards to what I’ll be doing.We collect Alice from the training and then head out to visit one of the PHUs (Peripheral Health Units). The organisation’s VP is jetting in from New York and will be visiting there on Wednesday, so we need to make sure everything is in order. The PHU is a shack. It has a waiting room with benches, and a very cramped consultation room. They have a prenatal room with a regular double bed, albeit one whose mattress isstill covered in plastic. Wipe clean, y’see. They also have a scary looking labour room. It is all tiny, all very run down, but all very cheerful with the government issue posters. I want to take some photos but sense now would not be the best time. I’ll have to come back.We look round the grounds, spotting the incinerator (what every good clinic needs...sadly this one isn't working) and the water source which is only usablewhen gravity is okwhatever that means. There is ginger growing in the garden. It makes me think of how I used to add it to grapes and yogurt, neither of which exist here. We do some‘supervision’ which is basically like a PBC practice visit. We check their paperwork, and with that we’re off. It is the fullest day I’ve had yet, and one of the most interesting. It’s just slightly off putting that it’s not with my alleged partner organisation.Random Clothing Spots Of The Day#1 A man wearing a top with Tesco embroidered on, which looks potentially like it could be storeroom uniform from circa 1995#2 A pair ofCheershorts, drying in the sun, identical to the kind sold at BCC last year.How on earth either of these items got here, I don’t knowRandom Animal Spots Of The Day#1 Various chickens running through the PHU with no one giving them a second glance#2 A crazy (think BSE-style) goat let loose on my street, bounding after me like a kangaroo on steroids much to the delight of my neighbours