End of week 1

Hey thanks for the news...we don't get much here. I was able to wangle some energy out of a short-wave radio currently used as a bookend here and now we can get BBC-Africa. So I have heard about (the flood of) New Orleans, but without the depth of information you provided. Thanks for that. It is surprising that there has not been a faster response to the disaster, yet it is not surprising at all. You said it; in America if you are not rich ya get nothing.

Today was my first full day on the job. It was quite a calm day mostly involved with organizing my workspace in the shared office. Not until late afternoon (1830 ish) just as I was getting ready to quit the day the compound water pump sprung a leak. So there ya go, all the staff is off for a Fri night and boom the fan is flinging the stuff. I wangled a fix and will leave it up to our compound fellows in the am to fix it right. Wouldn't you know it had to be Friday evening AFTER work hours??? Am I a plumber now?

Ya we get rain here. Funny, we have been without rain for over 24 hours. But it did pour down on us...so heavy and so long that Wed night we had to retire to our rooms as it was so loud as to prevent screaming conversation around the dinner table. Insane amount of rain. Of course the rain adds to the logistical nightmares...the roads are near impassable during the dry season, and the red clay mud just becomes soup with the first pass. We are often getting our Toyota Land Cruisers stuck in the thick of the mud repeatedly. We have five vehicles on base and in the last 5 days we have had 3 days where we have had to do a rescue of a vehicle, and each rescue has cost us two other vehicles to the tow-job. I can coordinate vehicles!

We had a funny moment just a couple of days after my arrival. One of the trucks was on a track in the bush and traversed a log-stringer bridge. Just six logs lay across a creek. No ties and no supports simply levered into position and left. The truck went over ok, yet on the return one of the logs failed and voila...one Toyota high and dry yet canted disconcertingly dangling the two wheels of the passenger side in mid-air. I am sure they were there all day before deciding to call in for a rescue...and the rescue vehicle was there for over an hour before calling me. They wanted me to call UNMIL and get them with their heavy equipment help us out. I had to see for myself (before calling in the 'enemy' as we sure try to stay distant from all military forces) and lo there was the truck, surrounded by about 10 of my drivers (how come they are not at work???). Lots of yakking was going on...this is a land where the men yak a storm before moving on with the work. Much yakking, small movement, more yakking some movement. Imagine a dogsled with 10 dogs pulling at all angles with a slow gentle creep forward. Of course, I am a white guy and new at that so what did I know. My suggestions were shrugged off as they yakked a plan. Finally, I was able to coerce them to use the jack-all, lever the front of the vehicle way high in the air and PUSH it over back onto the bridge so that the two front wheels were solidly on the bridge. Hmmm you could see the gears turning in their heads and for sure the concept was a new one (i think for two reasons 1) they never push anything. It works or it doesn't inshallah; and, 2) jacks go up and are not supposed to fall over). It worked (I been there done that BEFORE). Repeated the procedure for the rear end and voila we drove clear. I am hoping that this generated something akin to respect and understanding inasmuch as to facilitate success in the NEXT problem - more work less coercion? I am a mechanic and a tow specialist?

I was able to visit our hospital here in Sanniquellie. I wish you could come for a visit. I think it would astound you. The OPD and the IPD are tiny in our 32 bed hospital. Yet the halls are full of truly sick folks. Malaria, TB, HIV/Aids abound, let alone the simple stuff (a tree fell on a boy's head!)- Many many mother/child issues (birth problems - just yesterday our MD had to break the bones of a still-born baby to remove it from the mother's body). Women here have little say, no different from most of the world and certainly the developing world. So they have too many children, less than 7 are uncommon and numbers like 11 and 13 are common. You can imagine in a land where the war has caused disease and famine and tough times just how hard-used the women are and so they have such little resiliency for sustained pregnancy and labour. Yikes. These same women to are quick to smile and just as quick to dance a storm when given half a chance. Just today a mother desired to give blood to assist her ailing child, yet the father refused saying something like: 'this is my wife, I feed her and take care of her...her blood is my blood and I do not give it freely'. Holy cow I am glad I am not part of the medical staff and only serve to make their life flow easier during such tough demands. I could easily be consumed by such frustrations that the med staff struggle with.

Our little hospital has a little OR which is almost constantly busy and the surgeon laments the lack of an AC unit. I was able to kick around the scrub room and the instrument kits number about 5, a mixed bag of amputation kits, cesarean kits and suture kits. The autoclave is new though but already it is considered too small to keep up to the demand. From the logistics side, it is too big and consumes so much energy that it can only be used when the generator is running - which eats up fuel which is a commodity in demand as it needs to be trucked up impassible roads from Monrovia. And the cycle closes in.

The nurses are haggard, yet remain such good solid folks in the midst of such a rip-tide of illness and ailments. The Ministry of Health may or may not pay them (likely not much more than 1000 Liberian dollars per month (at 58 LD per USD)) so we offer 'incentive pay' to them to keep them on staff and functioning. Our pay rates per month are between 150-300 USD per month depending on experience and function. Pretty good deal when the average unskilled labour here runs for about 2 bucks per day, skilled labour - say carpenter- gets 4 bucks per day. There is no x-ray machine and we send our patients 3 hours EACH WAY to another hospital who does have one. Imagine being sick and having to bounce in the back of a truck such a duration? On the other hand, the internal strength and tolerance for pain is staggering in these Liberians. I remain weak.

We are getting, I understand, a new ultrasound machine. It was nip and tuck about getting this machine I understand as we didn't (and still don’t) have anyone with skills to use it and train others. It was a great struggle to justify such an expensive machine, but the maternity issues are so demanding that the justification won out. Because this new addition is requiring real power, I will be rewiring the whole hospital to deal with the power demands, meaning I will install a series of batteries which will work off an inverter. The generator will provide power while charging the batteries and when the generator is off, the machine automatically switch to then provide stable power at 220 volts (household AC from 12 volt DC deep cycle marine batteries). This means I need to replace all other appliances currently set up on the simple 12 volt dc system to accept AC power at 220 volts...yada yada yada. Bored? Any way, it is a big job to do in a short time to limit impact in a place where nothing works right, and certainly nothing works on time. Good luck to us in the next month or so. Imagine, I'll have to do calcs regarding power usage for the lab equip for example the agitators and microscopes, the fridges, the VHF radio system (awaiting installation), new light assemblies to provide 24 hour light (waiting room, hallways, latrines) HEY since when did I become an electrician???

But the hospital remains the center of the community. Yesterday in the midst of such turmoil we had a celebration for the departure of the Project Coordinator and the Logistician whom Annette and I replaced. I find the attempt to follow 'the program' and fix a schedule a childlike effort to duplicate western protocols (ie Robert's rules of order) endearing. The MC gave the rundown, introduced the folks, and made sure the long rambling speeches of gratitude were punctuated with West African music. Here, food and gifts are given to the departing folks because "you have to go to come back". Often they are the colorful and embroidered batik tunic and I look forward to finding one for myself in the market. These same people who struggle to live on one USD per day in a region closing in on a green famine sure have the freedom to dance and celebrate with joy and give gifts to the rich white brethren. It is too heart wrenching to think too deeply on this conundrum, and the best position is to 'be' in the moment and share the true joy of brotherhood.

Ya a green famine. It is because the roads are so poor, and because the rains started early and are now coming on in force, it is getting harder and harder to find food in the market. Veg harvests have been delayed at best, and many products will be unavailable. Rice, a sometimes two or three crop per season is in short supply due to the unending and deep rain. Folks have begun to sell off their assets which are the primary indicator of impending hardships. Today the cook came to me saying there was no chicken available in the town. Yikes. Chickens breed like crazy yet there are none available. Gone. Eaten. No more. It bodes badly. Yet we continue to eat well...today our Dr Phillip (Sri Lanka via Germany) did up a nice curried dhal which went well with the fried rice with egg. The cook provided fresh buns (I figure because she felt there was not enough food and wanted to provide bulk) and deep-fried sweet potato. It was a great and healthy meal. Meanwhile outside our compound, just against our western wall is a family maybe eating potato greens at best. Conundrums abound yet the truth is that we cannot do our service should we be sick. It doesn't make it right....

I am sorry to hear that your vacation to Boston did not go off as it was supposed. I wish you could have some freer times to enjoy you space and time. I am also sorry to hear about Margaret and I hope that things go well for everyone. Bummer about the gas prices too. Guess I will not soon become a RV-ing gypsy-boy. C'est la vie, I am not sure I ever really had that in me.

Thanks for your note; it was a pleasure to get it. And I have only been on base for 7 days now.

Peace and love (all with new meaning to me)
Chris