Ailantha
  • Blog
  • About
  • Contact

Flying Worms

1/19/2015

5 Comments

 
(N.B.: Again I was late with Friday's post, which I didn't get out until Saturday.  So if you missed "Port Loko", just scroll down from today's).   

   On Saturday I received a call from Claire's husband Miguel.
Picture

    Miguel at the La Fleur orphanage in Haiti during a medical mission trip last October.
(See post from 10/24/2014)
  

     Miguel had spoken briefly to Claire, just long enough to get a few snipets of information, mainly that she had arrived safely in Kono District from Port Loko.
    As it turned out the trip took only 6 hours, not the potential 11 hours, but it was a hard 6 hours all the same as the roads were so rough and rutted that Claire and her travel mates  -3 others came with her from Port Loko - spent most of the trip being thrown about and against each other in the truck in spite of seat belts.
    When the team finally arrived they were shown to their quarters at the Diamond Hotel - aptly named, as Kono is the location of Sierra Leone's diamond mines.
    Claire learned that the Diamond Hotel is owned by Russians and that Paul Farmer has rented out the whole hotel to house Partners In Health medical workers.  She told Miguel that it's a beautiful  hotel - there was hot water and electricity when she arrived but unfortunately no internet - and that she thought that this location may be her permanent assignment while she's in Sierra Leone.
    And that was all Miguel could tell me.
    I tried doing a bit of internet detective work to see if I could put together a little more information about where Claire might be and what might be going on there.
    I started by googling "Diamond Hotel in Kono, Sierra Leone."  I found nothing at first - the hotel apparently has no web page - but after scrolling around a bit I came across a publication put out by the State House Communications Unit of The Republic of Sierra Leone on November 25, 2014 entitled,
"Enforce the Bye-laws to Eradicate Ebola, President Koroma urges Kono Chiefs".
    Within the article was the following text and photo:    

"The issue of the role of paramount chiefs and religious leaders in the fight against Ebola was once more the focus of the town hall meeting held by President Ernest Bai Koroma with Kono stakeholders at the Diamond Hotel auditorium, Yengema, in the eastern diamond rich district of Kono".  
Picture
...from which I deduced:
    1.  This must be a photo of the auditorium of the Diamond Hotel where Claire is staying.  Unless the Diamond is a chain of Russian-owned hotels in the Kono district, which would blow my whole deduction, but assuming there's only one Diamond Hotel and it's located in Yengema, then
    2.  Claire must be in Yengema.
    I tried to locate Yengema on a map but couldn't find it marked anywhere.  In fact all I could find out about Yengema was this from Wikipedia:
     "Yengema is a
diamond mining town in Kono District in the Eastern Province of Sierra Leone, lying approximately 30 miles  from Koidu Town  (the largest city in Kono District), and about 260 miles east of Freetown. The major industry in and around Yengema is diamond mining. The town is home to Yengema Airport, the main airport serving Kono District. The population of Yengema was 3,621 in the 2004 census and a 2012 estimate is of 13,358 people.The population of Yengema is largely Muslim."
    I also learned after some internet research that Kono District appears to be the up-and-coming Ebola hotspot, but that it's been hard to assess because there are no Ebola treatment units in the district yet, only local clinics  to treat the sick.  But the numbers of sick and dying in Kono have been on the rise.
    And so I expected that's why Claire's team has been sent there.
    As it turned out the opportunity popped up yesterday, Sunday, morning for Claire and I to Skype again. 
    It was afternoon for her, as Sierra Leone is 5 hours ahead of us, and several staff members including Claire had traveled during their work break  from their clinic to a another nearby clinic where it was rumored that there was internet.
    The rumor turned out to be true, and so Claire and Tom and I were able to skype, though without any video, as the video would eat up too much charge on Claire's iphone, which she wouldn't be able to re-charge until after work when the electricity came on in her hotel that evening.
    I asked her if she was, in fact, now in the town of Yengema.
    Claire didn't know exactly where she was.  All she knew was that she was about half an hour outside the city of Koidu (which reminded her of a much smaller version of the city of Leon, Nicaragua), in what she described as "the outback of West Africa".   Her hotel is close to the diamond mines and she's seen the workers entering the mines with their picks.

Picture
 A Kono diamond mine, theguardian.com images.

    Though the Ebola epidemic has shut down most of the country the diamond mines are apparently still up and running.     
    Anyway, Claire's hotel is, in fact,  the same Diamond Hotel mentioned in the above article.  She described it as a "palace" used by the "diamond heads", as she called the diamond magnates, when they came to visit the mines.  She has a beautiful private room with a huge bed and for about 12 hours a day there's running water, electricity, and air-conditioning, but no internet.
    Claire will be working as a clinical mentor in a community care center staffed by local nurses.  Her job, among other duties, will be to help the nurses learn how to effectively triage suspect Ebola cases, treat them if they in fact have Ebola or send them elsewhere if they don't.  She'll also try to determine what their educational needs are and what they would like to learn. Claire says everyone is so nice, the Sierra Leonean nurses are lovely and enthusiatic and call each other "Sister".  And so Claire is "Sister Claire."
    There is heavy security everywhere, soldiers armed with rifles and pistol-shaped forehead-scanner thermometers which they don't hesitate to use (the thermometers, not the rifles). 

Picture
time.com images
      Claire said during the trip from Port Loko to Kono District their truck was stopped at least a dozen times by soldiers for temperature screenings.
    And so Claire says she feels safe and in good hands and all has been well with the exception of one harrowing experience the night she arrived in Kono.
    She was getting ready to go to bed and decided to open the window as the air conditioner was on down time.
    As soon as she opened the window a small winged worm-creature flew into her room, headed straight for her bed and zipped  under her bed sheet as if that were his planned destination.
    Claire calmly procured a glass from the bathroom, carefully pulled back her bed sheet, deftly trapped the worm in the glass, escorted him to the window, gently dispatched him out the window, then slammed the window shut, ran to her bed and whipped the mosquito netting over her bed like a house afire.
    As Indiana Jones would say, "Why'd it have to be flying worms?"
   
   

   
   
5 Comments
Romaine
1/19/2015 12:27:30 am

So happy to hear that Claire made it ok to the Kono District and glad that it didn't take the entire 11 hours. Also good news that she has a nice place to stay too and is surrounded by nice people. It figures that people who would want to help each other would also be nice to one another too. I guess that flying worm was looking for a place to bunk down for the evening - she must be seeing all kinds of new and different critters running around over there. Give Claire my love the next time you Skype with her!

Reply
Patti
1/19/2015 03:05:55 am

Yes, I imagine she will be seeing new kins of critters, hopefully none so scary as that flying worm - she was pretty rattled by that little fella! I imagine she'll also be interested in the flora and fauna. Claire always was a tree person - when she lived in Queens for a year working with Mercy Corps she got a volunteer job on the side inventorying the types of trees in Queens! Thanks so much for your good wishes, Romaine!

Reply
Romaine
1/19/2015 03:15:45 am

I wonder if this is what she saw:
http://www.ispotnature.org/node/602409?nav=related
This critter in the picture has been identified as a red diver ant.

molina oros
1/19/2015 07:24:25 am

Patti, I am getting an education from your posts. So relieved to hear Claire is in good hands thus far! She will be able to write a book about all of her experiences and have great stories to tell her children. Thanks for sharing!

Reply
Patti
1/19/2015 07:50:58 am

Thanks. Molina!

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Picture
    "Hail Mary"
    by Patti Liszkay
    Buy it on Amazon:

    https://www.amzn.com/1684334888

    Picture
    "Equal And Opposite Reactions"
     by Patti Liszkay
    Buy it on Amazon:

    http://amzn.to/2xvcgRa
    or from
    The Book Loft
    of German Village,
    Columbus, Ohio
    Picture
    Or check it out at the Columbus Metropolitan Library
    Picture

    Archives

    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013

    RSS Feed

    I am a traveler just visiting this planet and reporting various and sundry observations,
    hopefully of interest to my fellow travelers.

    Categories

    All


























































































Proudly powered by Weebly