Hey! Today is Sunday, August 20th, 2023. This was the Ukweli 2023 team’s fourteenth full day in Sierra Leone.

Today felt like one of our longest days yet; it was a truly packed work day. Our team woke up at 6:30am today, hopping on board a 7:00am ride to Gladys Hospital with the Sickle Cell Education & Diagnostic team. Gladys Hospital is a great facility that we have not had the chance to see yet, but have heard about a great deal. A lovely thing about Sierra Leone is how people allow their day to flow naturally; the day begins when the sun rises, and all work is done an hour or two before the sun sets. 7:00am felt feverishly early for us, but kids were up and playing hopscotch, using their washboards, and eating breakfast.

The head matron of Gladys greeted our team and showed us around the facility as we waited to begin our interviewing. As usual, the kids were very interested in us. Lorraine Rwasoka and Brooke Lee hopped in a 7:30am game of hopscotch… Sterling Salmini needed some time to wake up on the bench. By 8:00am, all of us and our translators were on our way in four directions through the town, introducing ourselves to locals, getting to know women, and speaking with many. Sundays are great days for interviewing because of how many women are around and available. It is a day of relaxation before the work week. Although it probably doesn’t seem so relaxing to talk about cervical cancer in the morning, we think the women have felt it has a nice part of women’s days to have the opportunity to speak about private issues and get a sense of support for reserved topics.

The people in town were talkative today—although we only had about two hours to talk, we logged over thirty-five interviews collectively! During a bit of waiting for a ride home, we had some fried beans and snacks under a palm tree. Reeza Chaulagain gave the translators their own photo shoot. Photography has become an unlocked passion of Reeza’s this trip.

We headed back to the World Hope International office for photo day. The program and all teams got photos together. Translating took all afternoon for us, as it usually does. We all agree that the translating is definitely much more draining than the interviewing itself, as we aren’t interacting with anyone, and it’s quite meticulous and tedious. Sterling and Memunatu were incredibly tired today from no breakfast, so went out to grab bananas, apples, popcorn, and an energy drink for the rest of the afternoon. They powered through most of their interviews, but nobody was able to finish up today.

 Around 4:00pm, most Fellows headed over to Mambolleh to attend a memorial for Samara Everman. Samara, a two-year Ukweli member, passed away last month. She was planning to join us for this trip. Words on a blog post do no justice to detail the character, love, and determination of Samara. Her memorial at the Mombolleh peripheral health unit shines a tiny light on how caring she was to her core.

Tonight, our team began working on our presentation for the General Hospital staff on cervical cancer. The valuable information we are providing from last year’s interviews, research paper, and this year’s findings are something we greatly hope can motivate more stakeholders to invest in cancer education and HPV vaccination throughout Makeni. Memu came to the hotel tonight to help Sterling wrap up today’s interviews. We all have some to finish up tomorrow.

It was another long and tiring day, but a greatly appreciated one. Every day we are here is a beautiful opportunity to meet new, bright minds, play with children, and foster a great passion and work ethic to exercise our dedication to maternal health. On the hardest of days, we have the most love for Sierra Leone. We know tomorrow will be busy and we are excited to see the new connections it holds.

Until next time, yours truly,

Ukweli 2023