Hello Ukweli Fans!
We had a loaded and interesting day. Rohan and Zach split off from the rest of the team this morning to visit two different peripheral health units: Makamp and Mapaki. Although the meeting with the Nurse in Charge at Makamp ended abruptly because a women in the process of delivering a baby arrived on a motorcycle, we got some good information about their operations and they seemed very interested in our product. Similar to Makamp, the health workers at Makapi were interested in our product, and were excited for our team to eventually come back and train their CHWs. There was also a Peace Corps Volunteer from Pennsylvania (small world) working at the Makapi clinic, and she provided us with very good insights about the health care system of Sierra Leone.
A photo from the Makamp Community Health Post in the Bombali District.
A photo from the Mapaki Community Health Clinic in the Bombali District.
While Rohan and Zach were at the clinics, the rest of the team was back at World Hope figuring out the rest of the operations for the trip and pushing to get our Marketing License for the test strip approved. During that time, the team found a pretty cool tree to climb, so Ukweli now has a fun thing to do during breaks from work.
After Rohan and Zach returned from the clinics, the whole team assembled to lay out the strategies for the rest of the trip. We decided on how to conduct trainings without being able to actually sell the test strips, which appears to be a likely scenario with the marketing license being held up for a little longer than expected, and decided on three Community Health Clinics (Binkolo, Kamabai, and Makamp) to target for Hassan to officially train while the Lehigh team is still in Sierra Leone. After calling Hassan to tell him about our plans, a few team members made their way over to the local hospital so Jordan can get his ear infection looked at. Ukweli is glad to report that he is on the road to recovery. After that, the team had enough time to start planning out which song to sign acapella to for the GSIF talent show on the last day in Makeni. We’re not going to spoil what songs we’ve narrowed it down to, but needless to say it will be great.
Cassidy, Jordan, and a Malnutrition team member in front of the hospital where Jordan got his ear looked at.
While most of the day was fairly calm weather-wise, around 3:30 Greenwich Mean Time (11:30 Eastern Standard Time), it started raining very hard (maybe even four ‘hards’ according to Hassan (inside joke for Ukweli)).
*Side Note: Lights just went off in the hotel lobby, I’m going to power through and write this in the dark.*
Obviously, going outside and playing tag in a downpour is the best thing to do in the rain, so Ukweli and team members from various other projects took part in a round of tag that lasted 15 minutes and left everyone soaked and very uncomfortable. It will be interesting to see if the clothing will ever dry due to the high humidity Sierra Leone has during the rainy season.
*Side Note: Lights are back on in the hotel lobby.*
A few of the GSIF members who took part in the game of tag.
Dinner tonight was pretty good also! After eating pretty much exclusively rice and beans for the whole trip thus far, tonight we had rice and beans… but also potatoes! Having a little change in the meal made being soggy and cold a little better.
Sage was also very excited that her outfit matched Mark’s outfit pretty well (the kid who couldn’t open the tuna can for all those readers who have been following along with the blog post), and made sure a picture was taken.