I have to admit that I am a bit envious of all of you back home who gets to experience the spring time. But actually it somehow resembles spring here as well. When I arrived here, there were dead leaves falling from some trees and they were laying all over on the ground. Some leaves are still there on the ground, but suddenly new green leaves and fantastic flowers emerged on the trees that otherwise looked completely dead with no leaves at all. Everything starts to look greener now because of the small life giving rains that we get during the night some times.
Besides this, the weather has also gotten somewhat warmer since I came in January.
During Easter I had visit from Denmark, Mads and my parents. The first five days was amazing relaxation at a beach hotel with Mads. We did almost nothing besides relaxing and having a good time together. Very nice!
When my parents came, we went to Makeni, where we had our base for three days at the Wusum Hotel. During these days we went to visit Masanga. In Masanga we saw a gold mine and shortly stopped by the Easter party in the village.
The next day we took a trip to Bumbuna to see the dam and the day after, the day of the 50th anniversary of independence in Sierra Leone (the 27thog April), we stayed in Makeni where we witnessed some nice parades.
After Makeni we drove all the long way to Tiway Island that lies in the middle of a big river. The island is said to be rich in animal life with many different kinds of monkeys, birds and even some elephants. There should also be an endangered pygmy hippo, though the chances of actually seeing it are minimal. Unfortunately we only had one night at the island, and no forest walks or anything else, because my mother god really sick and we had to leave the island early in the morning to drive the 2.5 hours to the MSF hospital in the city Bo. My mother was checked for Malaria which se fortunately did not have, but she was quite dehydrated, so she was given half a liter of saline iv, which made her feel a lot better.
We stayed in a hotel in Bo for one night. The next morning we went back to Freetown because Mads had to leave the next day. My parents still had two nights in Freetown before they had to leave.
Just outside Freetown there is a Chimpanzee Sanctuary, where chimps that has been kept as pets are taken care of. Slowly they try to get them used to take care of themselves and not be dependent of humans. They plan to reintroduce the chimps to freedom when at some point the chimps are ready and they have a qualified peace of forest to release them into. It was nice to see the funny and cute chimpanzees and I caught some nice pictures of the young ones.
Despite stomach problems for all of us and troubles coping with the heat, my parents got to experience the markets in the center of Freetown before they went home.
Despite various problems and unexpected episodes, everyone had a fantastic trip. But nowhere is as good as home, and my room here in Masanga has become my home now, although temporary. Still I miss Mads and I am looking forward to going home on June 1st.
The humidity down here is getting up by now, and even though I did get used to the heat, I now sweat quite a lot again. Unfortunately it only gets worse during the coming 3-4 months. I think I chose the right time to go home ;)
Masanga Hospital has become really busy during the last month or so because the nearest hospital in Magburaka has been closed down for renovation. At the same time there is only one doctor in Masanga at the moment, as the other is home on leave. This means that the wards are overcrowded and there are plenty of births at the hospital. So there is no need for us to talk anymore women into giving birth at Masanga Hospital at the moment.
Late next week the two new volunteers, who are going to take over our project, are coming to Masanga. I look forward to meet new people with new energy on this project.
This time you get LOTS of pictures (see the Danish version), enjoy!
Hugs from Anne.
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