Hello Bo

Tuesday June 21st – Part Deux

Traveling to Bo wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Mohamed and I managed to find a ride with a couple who were going to Kenema and since Bo was on the way they agreed to take us…and 2 other people (24,000Le each). As I was now used to public transportation it didn’t bother me that 4 of us had to fit in the back of the SUV…however, it did bother me that the wife of the driver couldn’t go 10 minutes without requesting a stop. First she wanted to buy a stereo. Next we went out of our way (about a 20 minute ride) to get her some fresh fish – fish that wasn’t even available when we got to the dock. About 30 minutes after driving on Bo road, we saw a man on the side of the road holding up two dead animals – they looked like beavers but I was informed that they were called cutting-grass, or at least that’s what I heard. Needless to say the wife wanted both of them, so we threw them in the back. As I was slowly beginning to realize, Sierra Leoneans hold the speed limit in very low regard. Going 90mph past a sign that said 70, I was sure that the 3 hour trip would be over in no time. I wasn’t complaining either since the guy Mohamed was next to seemed to know every gospel song that came on and had no shame in letting us know although he didn’t quite have the voice to pull it off. When we finally got to Bo, Mohamed and I checked in at our uncle’s house and went straight to Bo government hospital. As it was 3pm, we didn’t plan on interviewing any women but I did want to get all the facility information that I could – with Jordan here, she and Mohamed would interview patients while I gathered data on the hospital and facilities. This usually cut our work time in half, but since she wasn’t here I realized it was going to take twice as long as usual. What made it even more frustrating was the fact the hospital tried to hide data from me. When gathering data, I’m able to check the quality of responses as high, medium, and low: high meaning that I’ve looked at an actual recorded statistic and can write down a number for myself or come up with a percentage, medium meaning that the necessary data doesn’t exist entirely but we can infer or estimate what I want based on what we have, and low meaning that the data isn’t recorded at all and somebody is giving me their own interpretation of what I want. Bo government hospital gave me a lot of lows and mediums; I had to look at the delivery books over the matron’s shoulder as opposed to taking into a corner and looking at it myself. They also got touchy when asked about the average number of deaths per month and replied with 0. Although I do commend the work that these people are doing, and I have faith that they are doing their job to the best of their ability I was sure that in the last year somebody had died in childbirth. Apparently no matter how I phrased the question, this was not the case.

Heading back to the house on separate ocadas (it was pretty much the only form of transportation available in Bo, but the bikes went a lot slower and were much more careful about running people over), I noticed how quiet Bo was compared to Freetown. People still sold food and merchandise on the streets, but the atmosphere was much more relaxing. When I got back to the house, I tried to pass out but heard country music playing outside. Real American country music. I could pretty much taste The South. I’ve never been much of a fan of country music but I stayed up and listened to the song – it was nice to have a reminder of home. I listened until I realized that the guy playing the song only had that one track and had no problem putting it on repeat. After that I passed out – tomorrow we would go back to Bo Government Hospital, this time to interview the bele uman dem.