The delivery of the Mercedes clinic was very successful. It came off the boat and was taken to SLAWS. The theft that was carried out on the boat was limited to the first room and the reception. Most items such as operating tables, medical equipment and supplies, food, toys etc etc were still there. They took tools, some food, the projector and random things like the torch, but not its charger, which means it will be useless by now for them. Very frustrating, both for them and us! We brought a new one though as Mark had an identical at home. We also brought new tools and a new projector (paid for by my boss so won’t affect the WSPA budget, woohoo!) so all in all they more or less got everything that was in the truck initially.

The thieves also left random bits and we picked out a few useful things like an adapter and some other electrical things (I think it was, don’t quote me on that, Paul will verify later!)

Mark has shown the drivers and Sulaiman how to operate the truck and how to park it up safely with the stabilizers and how to take the awning out to make the reception.

Dr. Jalloh told me that they have done several clinics out in the regions in the past and most of the time it’s the children that come with their dogs. Most, not to say all, are far too poor to pay for the vaccination and the sterilization which is why it is so incredibly important to support WSPA. If it wasn’t for the WSPA-funding Dr. Jalloh wouldn’t be able to carry out his work.

He has vaccinated and sterilized several thousands of dogs in Freetown which means the stray dog population is now a lot lower. Every female dog can have up to 6 puppies which means that it doesn’t take long before it gets out of hand if it’s not controlled.

A lot of dogs carry diseases such as rabies which humans can contract. As children are the ones closest to the dogs they are also the most vulnerable. They are the ones that get bitten and if rabies is not treated immediately the child will probably die. You can read more about rabies on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabies

With this truck they will now be able to travel further and it won’t cost them as much. The clinic is equipped with two beds and there is room for more to sleep on the floor. That means they don’t need to find anywhere to stay and pay money for hotels/hostels or anything like that. They have sinks with running water and a toilet in the clinic so all they need is a place to park.

The toys we brought Dr. Jalloh is intending to give to the children that come with their dogs as an incentive and thank you for taking care of their animals. He wants to change people’s attitude to animals and make them understand that animals have feelings and emotions just like humans.

The old LDV, the mobile clinic they had from before is also on track to recovery. It turned out that the engine computer was faulty and therefore the new engine that was installed wouldn’t start. This is not a big problem however and we have linked up with IMATT (International Military and Assistance Team, a British initiative; http://www.operations.mod.uk/africa/imattsl.htm)

This means that Dr. Jalloh has backup from mechanics he can trust. Unfortunately that is one of the problems in Sierra Leone, they don’t have access to the same education and training as we do and hence lack skills in some areas. It is difficult to get hold of a mechanic who knows what he is doing.

Mark and Jules trained Sulaiman who lives with Dr. Jalloh so he can maintain and look after these two vehicles. Sulaiman is very bright and Mark said he picked up the skills very quickly. He is keen to learn and works hard, which is very reassuring for us. We don’t want this clinic or the LDV to deterorate as it is very robust and with maintenance should have at least 10 – 15 years worth of use left. Once the engine is gone it can be parked up and used as a stationary clinic, but before that happens it would be great to get as wide reach and much use as possible out of it.

We also went to a national radio station that broadcasts over Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia. They are very keen to promote animal wellness and to spread the word that animals should be treated as well as humans and not as second class. It was quite scary as we weren’t briefed beforehand and had to answer the questions there on the spot, on live radio! I think we all did well though, considering the circumstances. We have a copy of the interview and will publish it here as soon as we have converted it to mp3 or whichever formats this website needs. (May need to publish it on Youtube or something instead, but if so we will put a link here.)

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Update: Here’s a link to a video panning SLAWS yard and showing some of the two clinics. Apologies for the poor filming – I’m not used to this!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCzuw5dNMXM

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Sierra Leone as a country is amazing. They have a lot of assets, but unfortunately they don’t seem to be able to draw from them. The country is very poor and infrastructure is more or less nonexistent. The people are happy, friendly and very helpful. We made lots of friends and they weren’t harassing us just because we were white.

Off course, the beggars perhaps lingered a bit longer by our car than by the other cars, but when walking the streets people just looked and smiled at us, waved and said hello. They wanted to make friends with us, but they weren’t pushy or aggressive. If we stopped and talked they spoke with us, but if we just smiled and walked on they let us be. Wise from other African countries this was quite a nice change.

They don’t seem to produce anything, everything is imported. Even fruit juices like orange and pineapple comes in glass bottles from Egypt, Morocco etc. This means prices are almost as high as in England. A can of coke costs approximately 30p if you buy it in a shop, 60p if you buy it in a cafe and about £1 if you go to a swanky place. Bearing in mind that most people don’t make more than a few pounds a day, if even that, prices are very high. Even for me with a British salary I thought things were expensive. Two hot dogs and two portions of chips came to nearly £10 for example!

On a more positive note, Sierra Leone have some of the most amazing beaches in the world. Freetown’s main beach is called No 2. White sand, palm trees, warm sea and tropical jungle behind you. Think paradise and you will be close.

There is a river and you can go up it in a wooden canoe. You travel through mangroves and the peace and quiet is so calming. All you hear is the small splashes the paddling makes. You see exotic birds and if you are lucky – which we were – you see wild monkeys. We heard a lot of them and we also saw one or two running and swinging in the trees.

We saw chimpanzees at the Tacugama Tescue Centre (http://www.tacugama.com/) but it’s not the same thing when they are in an enclosure. To see monkeys in their real habitat is just jaw-droppingly amazing.

When you get to the end you can swim in  natural lake with sweet water and we were lucky to see some locals washing their clothes in the river. The children were mezmerised by us and kept waiving.

Mark climbed up on the mangroves which was something he’s always wanted to do. Apparently he saw a program with Ray Mears where he said that it’s not a good idea to get stuck in mangroves as you will have trouble getting out. They are not strong enough to walk on and you get tangled up quickly.

Mark can confirm that they are not easy to climb on and you certainly need proper shoes. (Which will then be wet and weigh you down.)

We were a bit late and took a little bit too long up at the end of the river so when we came back the tide had come in. It was very dark and the waves were high and the current very strong. We got to a point and then we just couldn’t get any further. It was very frightening as we were 6 people in a very small wooden canoe and the ocean waves were hard and strong. We fought for 20 minutes and then managed to get to a different shore where we could leave the canoe and walk back.

It turned into a proper adventure and walking back in the pitch black African jungle with some of the locals was a great experience.

We had food there, grilled barracuda and chips/couscous and I had grilled shrimps. Very tasty food and such a beautiful night. The moon was full and we could see the silhouette of the mountains around us and the sea in front of us. Stunning. No words can describe it.

We are so lucky to have had this experience. Mark has been the driving force but we all chipped in to make it happen and it has given us so much in return. We think we have made a difference, which is important for us. We have taught Sulaiman mechanical skills and he’s adopting Mark & Jules attitude to maintain things rather than fix it when it’s broken which is a great start. We are also going to send down A+ and networking books for him as he wants to get into IT.

We’ve also equipped Dr. Jalloh with not one but two mobile clinics. (Ok, the LDV is 95% there but we’ve established links with IMATT to ensure it gets going.) The amount of work he will be able to carry out is fantastic. He will be able to get to the regions which otherwise wouldn’t have had any chance of getting their dogs vaccinated or sterilized.

A HUGE thank you to everyone who has made this possible either by donations or support in other ways. You know who you are. The comments on WSPA’s facebook page has been amazing and really kept us going when it was tough. It’s been very hard work, but so worth it. It certainly has been a trip of a lifetime.

Thank you.

Mark, Jules, Paul and Vivi

Paul sorted out 4 laptops yesterday, installed programs, cleaned them up and got them to talk to the wifi.

Dr. Jalloh showed me a video of one of the events where he goes to a village somewhere and the people can bring their dogs to him to get them vaccinated for rabies and if they want they can also have them sterilized. He promised he’ll get that video on a cd for us and I’ll see if I can put it up here.

The food yesterday was lovely. It’s so nice to experience real african life!

Cheers
Vivi

We’re looking to do the press launch on Monday or Tuesday, which will be exciting.

Sierra Leone is all what I expected, hot, dusty, beautiful, women with colourful clothes and huge fruitbaskets on their heads, dogs running around, playing, children by the roadside, the palmtrees, the dust, the heat. The red sand.

It’s beautiful here, the people are lovely and we are having a great time. It’s hard work though, very hard. The heat is at times unbearable. We are coming up to the hottest time of the year for Sierra Leone so it’s very dry and dusty.

I better go back to the room now to wash my clothes and have some of the army rations. Dr Jalloh keeps getting us food and drinks but it’s so expensive here we rather eat the army rations to save as much money as possible for SLAWS. They are very nice to us.

We’re also very friendly with the people working with Dr Jalloh and it’s such an experience to live and work this close to the locals. They tell us about their lives, what they do and how they live. Such an opportunity.

Not sure when I can post next time as Internet is very wobbly here. Twitters seem to work fine and both Paul and I do tweets so if you are following SL_Rangers you can follow me as well on
www.twitter.com/vivi.

I’ve got lots of video diaries but I can’t upload them here so will do that when I get home.

Cheers
Vivi

We’re staying in a hotel close to Slaws. We were supposed to sleep in the truck but it’s just too hot and dusty. Even at night it’s stupidly hot! We like it though, it’s a nice change to the rain in Britain.

Dr. Jalloh took us out for a meal last night when we arrived. He’s a really nice man.

We’re at Slaws today working on the old clinic and the new one. It’s looking really good and whilst there is some internal damage it’s not as bad as I had imagined and its only limited to one door. Most items are still here and Dr Jalloh is really pleased with it. We’ve set up the scales Mark’s mum Janet got and they work really well.

We got the new tools through customs after a few hairy moments and the replacement projector Paul got is a lot better than the one that got stolen. It was originally £1700 and we got it for £100 which my boss paid for. Success!

Freetown is very poor and some of the shanti towns we drove past looked awful. It is such an eye opener, despite having been in Africa before. The people are so nice and friendly though, and apart from the airport there’s not much touting for business and hassling. My first impression is really good.

We’ve done video diaries that we may post later.

Cheers
Vivi

Sent from my iPod

He also says he’s looking forward to seeing us and for us to see Sierra Leone. He says it’s an amazing place, everyone’s so friendly and cheerful but the country is very poor.

I can’t wait to get out there! I bought sunscreen factor 50 today and will go to Wimbledon tomorrow to see if I can get an Arsenal shirt for this guy that has helped Mark and Jules a lot.

Cheers
Vivi

Mark said it’s general wear and tear combined with limited care for the engine that has made it break down. They need some parts which he’s ordered and will have delivered so Paul and I can bring them.

He’s now given the go ahead that it will be worth me coming down which I’m so excited about. As mentioned, we had agreed that in order to save money I would only come if there were jobs I could do. (I’m no mechanic so if all there was to do was mechanical I would have been as useful as a snowball in hell.)

Better dash, now have lots to sort before going!

Cheers
Vivi