In Which You Shouldn’t Need To Be Seven-of-Nine To Understand Seven-of-Nine
on Zoe Page (Sierra Leone), 26/Oct/2010 21:45, 34 days ago
I have been told today I am being taken to see the Chief, the Mayor and the head of the Police, so I dress accordingly and put on a nice dress, plus pack some ballet flats (commuting in anything other than hiking sandals has long been proven impossible). Pius, on the other hand, has dressed down for the occasion. Yesterday he was in a suit but today he is in jeans, a polo shirt, and a baseball cap. Maybe there is a secret dress-code for meeting head honchos that no one has told me about...The day begins. Power is on (I can’t get used to saying ‘light’ like they do, meaning all electricity) but there’s no work for me to do, so I sit there, and read a random newspaper that has appeared. It is dated yesterday. That’s pretty good going, but aside from a few weird articles it’s mainly full of adverts for different jobs and tenders. The finance guy who was absent yesterday shows up and wants to see my office. He looks in and says I should bring my laptop in to use it there. Besides the fact there isn’t a single socket in the room, I’m a little put off by his assumption that I want to use it for work,not least because yesterday, with no sense of double-entendre, Pius told me his stick was infected and he wanted to stick it in my machine to clean it. I tell him it will be difficult since I am walking in and it is 30 minutes on foot. He says he will see if he can sort out transport. Another battlewell and truly lost. He asks me what the VSO recruitment criteria are, and I’m about the launch into the selection dimensions (highlightingMany YearsofProfessional Experience) when he cuts me off and says it must be good looks, as all the VSOs he has met are as stunning as me. Barf. He then tells me he will have a ring on my finger by the end of the year, and though I try to laugh it off, this appears to be the wrong reaction. After all, what’s so funny about that?A delivery arrives. It is a few boxes of Bibles. I ask if they are for patients, but this is nonsense: they are for general stock. Just what every good hospital needs. Yesterday I was asked if I were Christian or Muslim and when I made non-committal noises, was quickly baptised a Chris-Mus...I get out my paperwork and wave it in front of Pius, but although he insists‘we are saying the same thing’ we are not. There’s a box marked ‘objectives’ and he wants me simply to write the word‘Stores’ in it. As things get increasingly frustrating, I say that although I appreciate them giving me an office it seems to me there is no work to go with it. Remarkably, he agrees, and suggests I speak to VSO. Someone seeing the light at last, though in the process I am uninvited from the trip out to see dignitaries. He's just going to take the new doctor instead.But, first, I have to go and see DMO Dr S as he left a message with Junior that we wanted to see me. Never mind the fact that he lives directly opposite me, much better not to have to speak to the girl directly when you can seek out the neighbourhood mascot and use him as messenger instead. So I go and see him, and suddenly he decides an orientation might be a good idea, so gives me a list of people I should see. No advice on where to find them, mind, but a list nonetheless. I locate one of the friendly faces in the UFC and he calls on one of the random members of staff always sitting around doing nothing to be my guide.30 minutes later and I have a vague plan of action for the rest of the week, though only thanks to the 3rd and final person I locate since no one else seems to be doing anything at all for the next 3 days... I have invited myself along to anEpilepsy Dayon Thursday (It’s not demonic! It’s not witchcraft! Bring your epileptics to the hospital and we will deal with them!) and to the house-to-house Polio drive on Friday (it’s going on Saturday and Sunday too, but I’m not that desperate). While I am sorting this out, the Gideons come round handing out the bibles from earlier:they’re free of charge, you just have to give us a little something for our transport...I head back to my office for a break but the power is off, so it’s rather warm in the warren. I ask Work Experience where I can get some water and she tells me I drink too much but goes off to get me some when I hand over some cash. She comes back with some ginger cakes for us too (really more like dense biscuits) which are rather yummy. I have been told to return for training at 2pm but it’s already in the prayers stage by the time I get there at 1.45pm. This is training on how to be a Polio vaccinator. We are Marklate-ing all the under 5s in the area, whether or not they have previously had a dose. We are going door to door, and going to mark both the buildings and the children (with indelible ink) once they are done...The training is never ending. Literally, it just goes on and on, with every point being explained by Cliff, re-explained by another member of the team and then explained for a final time by a member of the audience, to show comprehension. We get stuck for ages on how to complete the pre-printed sheets, in particular thesheet ___ of ____bit.So if you use 2 sheets, you writesheet 1 of 2on the first,sheet 2 of 2on the second.If you use 3 sheets, you write1 of 3on the first,2 of 3on the 2nd, and3 of 3on the 3rd.And so on and so on until, quite literally, we get to when your are on the 7th of 9 sheets, you write7 of 9, and I’m saddened that probably no one in the audience gets the reference.This is then repeated, in triplicate, just in case it’s not been understood.Every so often, to perk us up we do energisers, but they’re like none I’ve ever done before. One involves ‘increased clapping’ where you use one hand plus one finger, two fingers, three fingers...I hope you don’t need me to explain the rest. Now and again they will also drop in a rousing statement likeYou will be able to say that you helped eradicated Polio!I suppose if I’m going to save the world, here is as good a place as any to start, if only they’d hurry up and finish the training. At least I’ll have the wonder factor on my side: this is an oral vaccine (two drops, regardless of age, for 0 – 59 month olds) and there’s nothing that makes a local Pickin's jaw drop than a Pumwi coming within touching range...Theresa rings and I’m delighted as it means escape – very important, these VSO phone calls, you know. I couldn’t possibly let it ring out and call her back. In fact it’s a good thing I don’t, because the first thing she says is she thought my phone had been stolen as she tried to call me yesterday and I didn’t answer. Needless to say it’s not been stolen, I just sometimes put it on silent...On the way home, I pass a guy wearing a t-shirt with, no sense of irony, that has a picture on and the wordsI am a slow learner. I wonder if we can get a bunch printed for the lot who were in the UFC today. Back home, I decide to research Polio because, well, why not? An extract from today’s WHO press release:Africa seizes chance against polio26 OCTOBER 2010This week, Africa seizes an unprecedented chance to drive out polio when 15 countries across the continent launch a synchronized mass immunization campaign to reach 72 million children, capitalizing on gains made this year. A total of some 290 000 vaccinators have been mobilized to go door-to-door to deliver two drops of oral polio vaccine (OPV) to every child under five in areas considered at "highest risk" of polio transmission.Africa's leaders demonstrated unprecedented cooperation and commitment to carry out a series of synchronized immunization activities in 2009 and in March and April, 2010, following the spread of the disease from Nigeria which came to infect 24 countries across west and central Africa and in the Horn of Africa. As a direct result of these immunization campaigns, the polio outbreaks have slowed to a trickle. Across west Africa, only Liberia and Mali have recorded any cases in the past five months, while Nigeria– the only country in Africa never to have stopped polio transmission – has slashed polio by 98% in the past year.Many volunteer vaccinators in these vaccination campaigns will be Rotarians, who have themselves given almost US$ 1 billion to the polio eradication effort since 1985. Mr Ambroise Tshimbalanga Kasongo, chair of Rotary's African PolioPlus Committee, called on international donors to stay the course to finish the job by filling the US$ 810 million funding gap in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative Strategic Plan that aims to eradicate polio globally by 2013."Rotary's catch phrase is 'End Polio Now'," he said. "In Africa, the end of polio is in sight, but we are not there yet. To think we could not reach the finishing line because of lack of financial resources is unacceptable."The 15-country synchronized activities will cost approximately US$ 42.6 million, and are funded by the Bill& Melinda Gates Foundation, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), USAID, Rotary International, UNICEF and the Governments of Germany and Japan.DR Congo and Angola will launch immunization activities from 28 October and 29 October, respectively, while the 10-country synchronized campaigns are being launched from today (26 October) in Cote d'Ivoire, from 28 October in Benin, Burkina Faso, Gambia, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, Senegal and Sierra Leone, and from 29 October in Liberia. Chad and Sudan will launch immunization activities on 1 November, while last week (from 23 October), Nigeria immunized more than 29 million children in 20 high-risk northern states.It’s kinda scary to see how it all fits together, and how what I saw thrown together today is part of a global effort. Reading the press release, I wouldn’t doubt the programme will be effective, but it will be interesting to see what it feels like on the ground on Friday.