Blogs from Sierra Leone, Africa - page 2

Dear All, A very wet and warm hello to everyone. We hope this finds you all well, and thank you as ever, to those of you who have left us messages. No one mentioned that Andy Murray had won Wimbledon though or that a royal baby had been born! Life in Masanga seems to be flying by in a blur of ward rounds, teaching, management meetings, and groundnut based food, with the nights a blur of pregnant abdomens and febrile infants I am now diagnosing typhoid perforations of the terminal ileum at a distance of twenty feet…. So its been a while since we last blogged but we celebrated Jo's birthday week with a beach break on the first weekend, and a trip to one of the national parks, Tiwai Island, the following weekend. Home to ... read more

As this is a travel blog website I feel like I should take some time to talk about the occasions when I have been a tourist in Sierra Leone and not only the work that I am doing here. I was lucky enough to be able to take two weeks off work to travel around the country with my boyfriend who flew over to visit me. Sierra Leone has endless hidden treasures and massive potential for tourism in the future. Some places that we went to were difficult to reach but every where we went was well worth the effort to get there. Our first stop was Banana Island which is south along the peninsula from Freetown. A private car organized by the hotel we were staying in offered to drive us there for $100 plus ... read more

Forest Schools is a growing initiative in the UK and a number of other countries. I was lucky enough to go through the Forest Schools Level 3 Practitioner training in 2010 when I was working for the RSPB in Essex. The programme is an inspiring one and really highlights the importance of natural stimulus in childhood development and the need to get children learning outside of the classroom. While with the RSPB I worked with a wide audience from tiny tots and teenagers to adults and saw first hand the benefits experienced by those individuals. The number of children in the UK getting regular and meaningful interactions with nature has reduced greatly over the years; however the importance of this interaction is gradually being recognised so hopefully this will improve. The situation in Sierra Leone in ... read more

At some point this day or the day before, Danny DeVito got a text from the President's people requesting to meet the Marathon ladies. Mark was offended so went back to Makeni and Em, Martha and I got very excited that he wanted to see us again. Mondays seem to regularly start in Freetown. We went to a place called Arabika to work – another place that Danny DeVito owns. It had wifi so we were able to get on with some work. I also had a lunch meeting with the man himself who has decided to be an official Marathon sponsor and donate all the chickens required for when the international runners are here! What a great man! We tried to get to the Hash early to make sure we had sign ups for the ... read more

Right – I am getting busier and this is getting harder so very sorry for the brief updates. Perhaps I can do 2 in 1 to play catch up! Monday another day in Freetown and I spent the day working. In the evening was another night at the Hash, again I stayed behind as my foot was still giving me grief, but I chatted to the Mismanagement committee while everyone was out on the run – I really need to suss out the Hash in London and get involved there. There are a couple of runners coming out from the Hash in London so maybe that is my lead in. When we got back we heard the horrific news about the Boston Marathon. Very sad story and just a week before London. One of our security ... read more