Script and Service: Field notes from a travelling pharmacist on global aid, work, and adventures

As humanitarians would say, I 'deployed' three weeks ago with a suitcase full of alcohol gel from dad, a 6-pack of Handy Andies from mum and a guitar, a last minute purchase from Amazon. In hindsight, I'm not sure that teaching myself how to play the guitar in the middle of an epidemic was the best idea I've had, but it certainly wasn't the worst. Connecting in Casablanca, my initial thoughts were that the plane to Sierra Leone would be empty as who in their right mind would be heading that way? I was wrong - the airport was full of young, white, European NGO workers all congregating in eager huddles talking about life post-Ebola. So here I am in Africa again. West Africa this time, with a humanitarian NGO not a development one and during the 18th known outbreak of the viral haemorrhagic disease, Ebola. In truth I see very little of the real Sierra Leone. For an hour each day on the drive to and from the Ebola Treatment Centre (ETC) I see the country that...

There is no denying Sierra Leone has had a tough past. Having not long established peace following a ten year civil war followed by years of UN peace-keeping and overseeing of elections, in July 2014 a state of emergency was declared in response to the latest Ebola outbreak in West Africa. For the past 8 months schools, cinemas, nightclubs and football grounds have been closed. Gatherings of more than 5 people have been banned (except for church) and a curfew has seen shops have restricted opening times and no-one permitted on the streets after 10pm. Hand shakes and hugs are forbidden, temperatures are checked and buckets of chlorine are found everywhere for hand sanitisation. A journey from Freetown to Kailahun where the first cases of Ebola were reported has increased from 5 to 7 hours due to the 14 mandatory temperature checkpoints along the way. The healthcare system has buckled under the pressure. Eleven Sierra Leonian doctors have died of Ebola since the start...