Hands Free

Besides running, or rather, dragging myself up to the 8th floor to go back to my room (this altitude is killing me!) we didn't get much excercice during the 2 weeks course in Addis. Elevators are tricky, can't risk to be in a box like that when there is a powercut, which is quite often, hence my claustrophobia is resulting in an increased red blood cell count. 

Every night after classes we have been storming into a cosy local bar for a cold Ethiopian beer, right next to the hotel where we were staying (Bole area). We only needed some good old P-Square songs to get us dancing the daily research questions away: 'Personally' and 'Chop My Money' always works! It didn't matter that everyone was watching and laughing at our crazy moves, because it resulted in free shots (at least for the women) from the barman and a lesson in Ethiopian shoulder dislocation movements.

I think I was getting the hang of it, because when I now pass by the bar the guards are always smiling, showing some brown, but happy teeth. Yesterday he even stopped me and wanted to shake my hand. All of a sudden I froze and didn't know how to react. This kind man with twinkling eyes wanted to shake my hand, probably to congratulate me on my great dance moves, and the first thing I thought was: 'no, don't touch me, ebola is real!'

But I pulled myself together, took his both hands in mine and stood there for a good 2 minutes, enjoying the normal human friendly contact and smiling back, white and happy teeth. 

*thx Django

Addis Ababa, March 2015

Operational in Ethiopia

origin of mankind
origin of the Rastafari
never been colonized (although the man remind me of Italians)
intriguing traditional dances
different types of beer
delicious food
wonderful coffee
beautiful women (and men)
familiar churches

and

a crazy team with researchers originally from: Ethiopia, Italy, Belgium, Rwanda, Guinea, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Ivory Coast, Kenya, India, Bolivia.

Trying to finding the energy again to write scientifically about Ebola, but often drifting off to what has happened the last months and what is still happening in West-Africa.

All operational in Ethiopia.

Holy Trinity Church, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (March 2015)

Temperature is rising

I like Belgium for its diverse population, wandering around in Antwerp reveals a glimpse of what the rest of the world might look like. At the same time the intolerance towards this diversity is increasing. I thought it was a joke until I actually saw the military standing guard in the Jewish quarter in Antwerp!

Imagine the surreal feeling I had during a meeting with Liberian ministers about quarantine measures taken for families of confirmed ebola patients. They started comparing with the military presence in Belgium, so how could we be against coercive measures taken in Liberia? High time to come out of my ebola bubble and see what is happening in the rest of the world!

The 2 months in Liberia were interesting, there was hope the last chains of transmission could be stopped and the outbreak could finally be declared as over. Unfortunately this was not the case and until the day I left the country there was still a lot of work to be done. So many children lost their parents, so many parents lost their children, the economical and social consequences of this outbreak only start to reveal now.

But I am back home, packing again to continue to Ethiopia next week. First making a stop in a western corner of Belgium, enjoying voluntary isolation, peace, quiet, silence and red wine (yes, I am a village girl!). 

The temperature monitoring sheet has some blanks here and there, it seems these months of working in ebola context are slowly fading.

Vébola, over and out.

Elwa 3, MSF Ebola Treatment Centre, Monrovia, Liberia (January, 2015)

2015 Wishlist

A new year, a new mission, no big plans besides eradicating ebola...starting in Liberia.

It is a strange situation in Monrovia. I don't want to say it is the end of the outbreak yet, but numbers are numbers and they say that we have 1 patient in the treatment centre as we speak. I can't even imagine what the centre must have looked like when I go back in the data and see that there were weeks with more than 150 admissions in one week!

I was a bit worried to come here because when I was struggling in Sierra Leone good friends told me the stories they lived through some weeks ago of refusing patients at the gate, the 200 bed treatment centre was not big enough and dead body management was more necessary than anything else. I can't express the respect I have for them, attending to the patients as good as possible and trying not to get infected themselves. Definitely worth to be the people of the year 2014!

When they come back here, they will see a different Monrovia and Elwa: number of beds is down to 30 and dismantling and desludging (worth googling) has started!

Besides running around from meetings to the clinic and back again, changing from regular clothes to the strangest scrubs and boots, it is not bad to end the day with a beer and some crazy attempt to play beach volleyball with the ebola team! FYI, gloves can be the perfect excuse to touch another human being without breaking any rules...

500th Survivor at Elwa 3, Monrovia, Liberia (Jan 2015)

Always go on a second mission

I look outside the window, it's pitch black with only the comforting orange light on the wing flickering in a distance...showing the world down there that people cramped in uncomfortable positions in a small Airbus are flying over their houses. On our way to a next adventure. 

We are 5 people from Médecins Sans Frontières flying to Monrovia, Liberia. Next to me a young couple who are going to spend their end of the year in Morocco and I want to ask them if I can go with them instead of going to an ebola epidemic. I feel kind of connected to this woman because she also grasps the armchairs while flying through a heavy zone of turbulence....oh God, I still hate flying and the Xanax is not working properly!

Getting out of the plane and being hit by the instant heat, humidity and sweet smell of Africa is usually one of my favorite moments since I started working here. But I didn't smell it this time, something was different.

Outside there were no enthusiastic men trying to get your attention to offer you a taxi or to carry your luggage, the streets were empty and dark. When the epidemic hit the capital some weeks ago, a curfew was put in place and although the daily number of new cases has gone down, there are still new patients every day. This epidemic is far from over.

Arriving at the hotel we realized we forgot to give each other a last big hug before entering Liberia! No touch policy back in place and a new day at work tomorrow.

First day at work: epi team Monrovia, Liberia 2014

Business as usual

It's nice to put on again my shoes, after months of running around on sandals and wearing the same clothes every day (proudly showing a dusty mustache during the dry season) you feel like a new person walking on heels, trying to look elegant ... probably failing in every way but I couldn't care less because I just came back from an ebola mission!

Life continues as usual and I am trying my best to smoothly fit in again. Now that my 21 days of incubation period (no quarantine!) have passed I feel more relaxed and don't think too much damage was done to my mental and physical state. Besides the unforeseen and difficult circumstances I feel kind of good about my first experience as an aid worker and the curiosity of 'what else is there' is slowly making its way again to my head and heart. I knew the moment I signed my contract that this would change my life (again) and now I realize that there is no way back...I have become one of these strange expats, giving friends and family the impression to be a bit lost in life but actually knowing very well which direction to go. 

Does it matter that I don't manage to plan more than 3 days ahead since I got back? That I don't really care where we go for dinner or what the plan is for today, but want to leave all options open? Is it selfish that I can feel so close to someone for some precious moments and the next day want to be on my own again, planning my next biking holiday in Thailand? Or is this what it means to be an aid worker and finding ways to deal with the things you experience during life in a mission and the person you want/need to be in the outside world? 

No damage done...

Announcing that the paediatric and obstetric hospital was suspending activities due to the current ebola outbreak, Bo, Sierra Leone (Veerle Hermans, 2014)



              

The daily updates

Dear disease surveillance officers and CDC colleagues,

Included the daily update for the treatment centre in Bo:

- 4 new admissions:
      2 from Freetown (1 confirmed, 1 suspect*) + 2 from Port Loko (probable)

*1 baby came with its mother, who is confirmed. The baby is negative, but was breastfed by his mother for some days so we will keep him in the suspected tent for observation. He also has nowhere to go for now...

- 1 confirmed patient died last night > burial team alerted

- 2 patients cured and discharged! They will go back to their family today
    (if they will let them go back into the quarentined areas)

Any news on the outreach activities to the area of the new cluster today? Than I know if I need to chase the GIS officer to update the maps.

Thank you!

Kind regards,

Veerle Hermans

Epidemiologist, MSF

Bo, Sierra Leone

Staff member, wandering around the treatment centre while it was under construction, Sierra Leone, 2014