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Hi everybody,

In many ways Sierra Leone is a country in total contrast to the entire western world. In this blog post I will highlight some of these contrasts through what I’ve experienced for the past week. New updates, reflections and achievements concerning the project can likewise be found in the second half of this post.

I arrived in Freetown airport Friday evening a couple of hours delayed. Not very convenient as Ishiaka (my former roomy from RCN), his 1st year (Prince), and two uncles of his were waiting for me… They picked me up, we rushed to the ferry but were too late. One guy stayed behind with the car and the rest of us boarded after a couple of steps through the water. The ferry was packed!

It was not possible to see much of Freetown as it was dark, and there is no permanent electricity supply in Freetown. The ferry was quite cozy; there wasn’t much light, the temperature was tropic and the air was very humid. It’s the rainy season. From the center of the ferry a few hens jumped out of a bag and started crowing. No-one seemed to pay much attention.

The ferry entered the dark harbor solely guided by a lantern placed on land. We pushed through the crowds of people to disembark the same way as the cars, which seemed to be a bit tricky, but obviously not a problem here in Sierra Leone. We went into a little office by the harbor front and further into a little office with a sign saying “Ferry Manager” where another of Ishiaka’s uncles was sitting by his desk. The first thing he said was: “Welcome home”, just as many others I’ve met in my first hour in this very hospitable country. We Danes could learn a lot from this part of the mentality!

Later, we rode through the city, which seemed very busy even though there wasn’t much light. Driving through Freetown seems quite hazardous. A little bit like driving through the walking streets of Copenhagen in fourth gear on a Saturday night, with the horn honked almost constantly. We arrived to Ishiaka’s place where we got something to eat. Nice spicy food with fish, rice and potato leaves called “Crincrin”. There was light here. Prince left a bit later, and I went to bed early. We needed to get up at 4-5 am in order to catch the bus for Bo.

We got up at 6 am, and were late for the more comfortable public busses. We had the option of either waiting till Monday for the next bus or rush to a clay factory nearby to catch some smaller busses, which seemed like they were made of tin plates and soft-drink cans. I was told from beforehand that the road was rough, but I would never have imagined that it was in such a poor condition. To put the trip into a frame of reference it felt like being in the middle of a richter 7 scale earthquake. Nevertheless, the trip was a quite educative experience, and I especially enjoyed the stops we had to buy roasted corns and other foods.

Ishiaka and I arrived safely in Bo where Mathias, Morten and David where waiting, Jacob though had a hard time dealing with a throat infection… The day passed with more nice food, talking and a deeper introduction to Bo Town.

Over the weekend we mainly relaxed, visited family members as well as friends in Bo. One of David’s friends is running for parliament in the coming elections (first round will take place on the 11th of August). There is some rising tensions before the election, so far with a single violent episode in the east. Otherwise the situation seems calm, and it’s very unlikely that the situation will get unstable. We also spent some time on planning and discussing our next trip to Sahn Malen where the project is taking place. I had an idea about trying to investigate economical effects of the implementation of the nets, which some of the others were a bit skeptical about, mainly given the circumstances in the village and the lack of pre-planning. Of course I don’t know much about the scenery till I’ve been there. We might find a method of how such a research can be conducted. Another thing we’ve talked quite a bit about is how to create a reliable control group.

Our main objectives the next two days in Sahn are to ensure that the nets are properly installed, to help those who havn’t installed them yet and then to run some interviews… We will buy string and hooks for the nets tomorrow morning before catching the bus. They have told me that this road is even rougher than the one from Freetown. Oh no…

I’m going to bed now, need to get up early… Amu kpokoh (good night)…

Next morning, we got up early so that we could pack our stuff, eat breakfast and buy equipment to suspend the nets for those people who hadn’t done it yet. For many people it’s even a challenge to get hold of string and nails to hang up their nets. We were discussing back and forth what the best method of hanging up the nets would be, some thought it would be best to use nails, others that it would be better to use screws, as mud houses may be too fragile when hammering in the nails. We bought plenty of both screws, nails and string.

From Denmark I had brought some water-cleaners which look pretty similar to tea bags, and could be rather effective. However, the use of them is limited as they cannot clean all of the bacteria and chemicals which are commonly found in the fresh water here. So, before we left I bought a 12 pack of half-liter water bottles so that we would be able to take water samples from different locations around Sahn, Bo and Freetown. We will then get the samples analyzed either in Denmark or at a hospital up north which I’ll visit after the others have left Sierra Leone.

We got our stuff attached on top of the “bus”, which was something like a minor VW Transporter from the early 80s, only with home made seats etc. We were sitting 21 people inside, two persons were hanging on the back of the van, and three were sitting on the roof…on top of the 21 people’s luggage. It was even more painful than the ride from Freetown to Bo.

We arrived to the village four hours later, and started to plan for the next day. Our job this time was, as mentioned earlier, to ensure that people had suspended their nets, possibly to help them with it. We visited the health center to ask if they wished to have a representative with us around in the village, as well as to investigate a possible volunteer option, which, though, seemed not to be possible. At the health center we found detailed records of all malaria from two years back; such data is being recorded for all villages where the district health team is operating. That enables us to compare the next three years of records with the data from the past two years in Sahn, and likewise compare all the data with one or more “control villages” which may match the infrastructure of Sahn Malen’s. Hence, we’ll be able to evaluate the change in Sahn itself as well as an overall change in malaria cases by the implementation of the LLINs.

Additionally, we spent some time discussing a method of how to investigate an economical change for the village and in each household after the LLINs has been given. At first, the main challenge was that we couldn’t just ask people about their average income per day, week, month and so on, as they mainly were subsistence farmers, and don’t have the same system of money as we have. Furthermore, collecting such data from a “control” village would seem to be even more of a challenge as no preparations nor an official agreement had been made. The second thought was to count all mud houses and stone houses in a village, as stone houses are significantly more expensive, and it tend to be “richer” people living in these. Plus, such data would be more easily obtained from another village. The idea was dismissed after thorough discussion. This was partly because most people living in these houses have family members in the bigger cities which they depend on for remittances, as well as people often have other priorities than building a new house, such as sending their children to school, buying fishing nets etc. A useful method could have been to observe changes in the productive sector, but that would require we maintain the data collection for enough years ahead for children, from two different villages, to grow up, enter school, and graduate, which would be far beyond the scope of our project.

Next day, we finally went around to see the nets. We were followed by 30-40 kids either calling us “Pmui” (‘white man’ in Mende - the local language) or “Jacob”. Jacob seemed to have astounded this little society with his brilliant football skills… We figured that most houses already had put up their nets, which was a great relief. The ones who hadn’t yet, we either helped, or gave string, so they could do it themselves. We likewise figured that we needed neither nails nor screws to put up the nets, they could simply be tied to poles and planks in the houses’ structure.

When we came back I made a “Devil Stick” - out of two guawa fruits, some palm sticks, string and some leaves - for the kids who followed us around. A Devil Stick is basically a stick with a certain weight balance that enables it to be thrown and spun around two other sticks which you’ll hold in each of your hands. It was quite a success.

Some went playing football, and Jacob’s team lost.. HA!

We spent the most of Tuesday evening entering the data on our computers, evaluating the past days and extinguishing a fire in our generator which almost exploded.

We woke up at 5 am next morning to catch the “bus” back to Bo. We left the generator behind. The trip back was pretty fine and I got to hang outside the bus for a part of the tour, which was a lot of fun!

Now we are back in Bo, and are at the moment trying to plan the rest of our stay here in SL. Our project is almost finished, we only need a couple of more meetings. We’ll head for Freetown Wednesday.

So long for now…

- Gustav

LLINs - as they’re commonly abbreviated - is at the core of our project, so I figured I’d tell you a bit about them.

Treated with an insecticide which kill or repel mosquitoes for 3-4 years these nets are truly ‘long lasting’, and they can even be washed several times without any decrease in their efficiency. To put it in short, LLINs are superior mosquito nets.

You use the net during the night - the mosquitoes prime breeding time - where you sleep thus normally an easy victim, but with these super nets, a mosquito killer for years!

LLINs actually originates from ITNs (Insecticide-Treated Nets), a treated mosquito net that’s neither washable nor long lasting; they have to be re-treated every half year, what a mess..

The effect of using mosquito nets (no insecticide) to fight malaria, was already proven in 1914 with the building of the Panama Canal. At the first attempt in the late 1900th century more than 20.000 workers died, mainly due to malaria, and the project had to be stopped. At the second attempt in 1914, scientist had found that malaria is transmitted through mosquitoes, and a major effort was made to prevent the mosquitoes in reaching the workers; both through draining of swamps, but also, more importantly, through the use of mosquito nets. (You can read more about the Panama-intervention here).

Unicef, Red Cross and alike are currently distributing LLINs - through big centers - to pregnant woman and children under five; the two most vulnerable groups. An initiative that greatly cuts down on malaria among these two groups but not much on the disease in general.

Unlike Unicef and the others - that use LLINs as a way to protect specific target groups - we’re taking a more Panama-like approach, using the nets as a weapon against malaria. Something you can read more about here.

-Morten

I am aware that when you read this several days will have passed since I wrote it. None the less I feel compelled to share the following with you. We do not have any internet nor do our phones work here in Sahn, so we have not been able to upload anything since we left Freetown. So when you read this, we will be in Bo and have acces to a computer.

Sahn has a stunning location. It matches all my imaginations of a ‘Tropical African village’. There are big palm trees everywhere, and the environment is extremely fertile. Except for the mosquitos, there are many amusing and beautiful insects. David talked about a gorilla settlement a few miles down the road, and Morten has already seen a monkey. In some way it is a true fantasy oasis.

Most of the houses we visit are made of clay and bamboo (Until recently I thought bamboo only existed naturally in Asia) for walls and palm leaves for roofs. Wherever we go there are people cooking over open fire, and there are always loads of kids running around between the houses.

But everything sweet has a sour side. It is very sad to see the state the village itself is in.The village was nearly destroyed during the war, the biggest buildings are still ruins. I can’t stop thinking what the village would have looked like if the rebels hadn’t burned down all the buildings, and so abruptly reversed development.

In spite of this, many people have impressed me. Everyday I see people carrying gigantic items on their heads, be it a big log or a container with water. It looks really convenient though. You can carry a big load, and you have both hands free to use for other purposes. Perhaps I should introduce that carrying skill in Denmark.

Another thing I’ve come across that I find strange is some of the eating habits. Or maybe “strange” is a wrong word to use, maybe I should say surprising. For the most part we’ve eaten rice. Not that there is anything strange in eating rice, but it turns out that the rice which is a daily part of a sierra leoneans meal is imported from China. This means that it is  more rentable to grow rice in china for then to ship it to Freetown, for then again to drive it 7 hours through the country on bumpy gravel roads and sell it in Sahn, than it is for a local farmer to grow rice or another eatable wheat. In one of the worlds poorest countries, I find it odd to see that it is still cheaper to import rice from china. Go globalisation…

The chinese must do something right.

-Jacob

That is how I feel at the moment. We’ve been here for 3 days now, and already our names are known by most of the inhabitants of the village. Every time we walk through the village children yell our names and wave. It really is quite amazing. Especially Morten’s video camera and my photo camera attract a lot of attention - the children simply love seeing pictures of themselves.

Apart from that little personal anecdote, the project itself is going well. We had a meeting with the District Medical Officer (DMO) of Pujehun today, and we’ve started handing out the nets to the households. People are very grateful and it feels very good to make a difference for some people that are really in need. Before that, we spent two days conducting surveys to figure out, among other things, how many people who live in the different houses, and how many people that have been sick (fever) within the last two weeks. The numbers are mind-blowing. Of the 50 households I asked, at least 40 of them reported sick 1 family member sick in the last two weeks. In many cases fever is a symptom of Malaria.

On the same note, it’s worth mentioning that our youngest GMin team member Hopanda, a 12 year old boy who is a good friend of David, is having 40 degrees Celcius in fever - we are pretty sure it’s malaria, so even in our own team we are affected by the disease.

However, one thing is to provide the mosquito nets to the inhabitants, another thing is to create awareness about their importance and usage. We have therefore started a big soccer cup with the name “Kick Malaria Out of Sahn Malen”. Before each game Mathias and David make speech about the importance of using the mosquito nets every single night. A lot of people watch the games and people seem to be very interested in our message and listen when we speak.

I played my first match yesterday, and the fact that a white boy is playing football has not gone unnoticed. Even though I personally don’t think I played that well, a lot of people has come up to me today and said “Hey Jacob, the footballer, good playing yesterday”.

Tomorrow we are continuing the distribution of the nets. Though we have a bit to go, we expect to finish tomorrow.

-Jacob

KNOCK!!! KNOCK!!! KNOCK!!! I woke up by Morten knocking on my door 4:30 in the morning. We had to get ready to catch a bus bound for Bo Town.

We took our packed bags, and David’s dad drove us down to the bus station where one of David’s brothers, Mustafa, kindly helped us buy tickets. (We paid a little extra in order to get our bags on board as well).

The bus was completely stuffed. It soon became clear to us that the famous computer game “Tetris” never made it to Sierra Leone; they started packing the bus from the front (in opposition to Tetris where you pack from the buttom), so people had to stand and wait for ages before they were able to enter. We finally got on the bus.

The ride out of Freetown was slowed by heavy traffic, but when we first came out of the center the ride went smoothly. Sierra Leone’s nature is absolutely astonishing; rivers, wide open spaces of grass, tall palm trees, high mountains - simply fantastic.

After an hours drive and 2 stops the quality of the road deteriorated drastically and we were exposed to a narrow, uneven, very bumpy gravel road. It was a bit strange to think of that what we drove on, was the main road between the capital, Freetown, and the 2nd biggest city, Bo Town.

After 5 hours ride we were received by David’s family in Bo Town. They were very very nice to us, and we quickly settled in in David’s house. Next, we went to eat down town in Bo at ‘Black & White’ and afterwards we went to a workshop to buy tools for use in Sahn Malen tomorrow. We bought different kinds of hoes and machetes which we will use to cut down grass and bushes tomorrow in Sahn Village - in order to deprive the mosquitoes of places to breed.

A long ride, the journey continues tomorrow, I hope you will join us.

-Jacob

So, I arrived in Sierra Leone 2 nights ago, and was a part of a the nation’s most popular radio Show. What a start.

My flight went well, and the entire original GMin Team is now gathered in Freetown. Yesterday we had some meetings concerning another project which David is also working on. So far it has been really interesting. Just walking down the streets of Freetown is an experience in itself. Despite the fact that the city is very poor, people are really friendly and people don’t seem to be out to cheat you when you are shopping as a tourist (unlike many other countries I’ve visited).

We had a small accident last night that made it even clearer why Mosquito nets are so important and essential for Sierra Leone.

Last evening, we went to the beach to chill out and have a nice time. We took a swim in the warm and salty water and everything was perfect. All our of a sudden a big wave caught Mathias by surprise and he was smacked to the ocean floor and had a small concussion as well as a wound in his head. Fortunately, some friendly people helped us, and we got him to the hospital where he got three stitches and a bit of rest. The doctors were very skillful and Mathias was walking again within 2 hours, but the hospital itself was in a terrible condition. Mathias was put in a ward to rest with 8 other people, where 2 suffered from malaria, and 1 from yellow fever. The rest of them I do not know.

The place had no mosquito nets, so mosquitos flew around in the room all the time, transferring malaria from the sick people to the healthy people.

After 5 minutes of rest the room went dark and the nurses lit candles. Initially I thought it was a kind of ritual or something like that - but it turns out that Freetown hasn’t had electricity for 3 months and everybody is therefore highly dependent on private generators, which the hospital, in order to save money, turned off in the evening. They only kept it on for our sake…

Except for that little accident, all is good. Mathias os fine again, and so is his head. So no worries. Elections are coming up in a month’s time, and all over the streets people are campaigning for their respective parties. It seems like it is going to be a close race between All Peoples Congress (APC) and Sierra Leonean People’s Party (SLPP). The parties are each allocated specific days for campaigning, and on those days the streets are filled with the party colours red (APC), green (SLPP) and orange (People’s Movement for Democratic Change).

We expect to see many more parades when we come back from Bo Town later this month.

The mood is very high in our team and we function well together. We are all looking forward to starting the project itself - which will hopefully be on Friday when we go to Sahn Malen via Bo Town.

We are trying to shoot a lot of video and pictures, but uploading them onto the blog is a bit difficult since the internet is very slow and unstable. We will do our best though. Do keep on reading.

-Jacob

It’s July 9th 22.30 and Jacob arrives to our hotel-like guest house, he’s 2 hours late..

We throw him into a cab and race off. Destination: UN. We’re waaay to many squeezed into such a little cab but nobody seems to mind–our thoughts are elsewhere. Jokes fly around, some a bit harsh others plain silly.

The cab stops, we stuble out and walk over to the UN guards who let us in after looking at our passports. We’re close now. Just a few meters in front of us is the UN radio station where DJ Base - old war hero, now radio star - welcomes us. We’ll be on Sierra Leones most popular radio show in 20min.

Jacob and I do media; taking pictures and recording video. David and Mathias do radio; talking - with two other Sierra Leoneans - about community service and volunteerism, and the idealogy that everyone could make an impact on their community, including youths.

It’s a huge success. People call in from all over the country to ask questions and the number of text messages is sky-rocketing. The show goes on for about an hour and a half.

We took a cab back to the guest house and go straight to bed. What a night!

-Morten