December 1
Today I boarded a plane for Boston — the first leg of my journey to Sierra Leone. This is a trip I have made several times a year for the past seven years. But this time it is different. Instead of traveling or leading a group as Executive Director and co-founder of Greatest Goal Ministries USA (GGM), I am traveling as part of a team of medical professionals with an organization called Partners in Health (PIH). The founder of PIH, Paul Farmer, is the subject of the book “Mountains Beyond Mountains” by Tracy Kidder about his work with tuberculosis patients in Haiti. He is also the chairman of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School.
As a new part-time employee of PIH I will have a one day orientation at their Boston headquarters before I head out. At this point in time I have limited information. I do know that I will depart for Sierra Leone on Tuesday afternoon traveling to Newark, NJ then to Brussels, Belgium. We will arrive on Wednesday December 3 about 7:00 pm in Sierra Leone. I know that PIH had hoped to send 50 of us to Sierra Leone over a three week period. I don't yet know where we will be working in Sierra Leone or how many will be on my team and traveling with me.
To prepare for this adventure I updated my vaccinations; yellow fever immunization is mandatory to enter the country and hepatitis, typhoid, Polio, MMR and DPT must be current. This was all verified and a thorough physical examination form was completed by my primary care doctor and faxed to PIH. Ten days later a physician from PIH reviewed my medications and health history. He informed me that, provided there is no breach in protocol, I will be considered low risk upon my return. This means I will have some movement restriction for 21 days. I will not be able to go to restaurants, grocery stores or the health club. I will also not be able to provide patient care at my nursing job until after my 21 day monitoring period is over. I will need to take my temperature twice per day and I will be called for those temperature readings each day by a physician from PIH and one from our local public health department.
December 2
Orientation began at 8:30 a.m. in Boston at the Partners in Health offices. Introductions started the program and we all soon discovered that we had traveled from all over the country. There were about 14 of us in the room; six of us are headed to Sierra Leone and the other eight are going to Liberia. My cohort consists of myself and another female nurse, two physicians and two male nurses. We come from a variety of backgrounds, but we all have the same general reason for going to Sierra Leone — we know that someone needs to do this work, so why not us? Aside from myself, no one in my group has ever been to West Africa.
The orientation consisted of an overview of the current situation in Liberia and Sierra Leone and a very general review of protocols. Our safety was stressed again and again. We were told that the maximum length of time in our protective suits is 45 minutes to 1 hour. During that time we will lose an average of one and a half liters of water. Therefore we must drink a liter of water before entering the suits and another liter after the work is completed.
December 3
Today we left Boston heading to Newark for our flight to Brussels. We were delayed by several hours which meant that we might not make out flight out of Brussels to Sierra Leone. However, the shuttle bus that was to take us from one terminal to another was in an accident and we were delayed again for another hour. There were hundreds of us affected by that time, so most flights were held on the ground to allow us to board. We are now in the air headed to Sierra Leone. Tomorrow (Thursday) we begin our Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) training at Connaught Hospital in Freetown. This is called “cold” training and then after a couple days we begin our “hot” training as observers in an actual unit. Once that is over we head out to our assigned Ebola center where we will be working for the next four weeks.
December 4
We arrived at the airport last night only to learn we would not be going to Freetown at all. All our training will take place at our Ebola site. We spent the night at the Lungi airport and this morning after breakfast will take our 45 minute drive to our new home. We have been told to expect very rustic conditions.
Peace, hope, and love,
Lynn Pelton
Executive Director
Greatest Goal Ministries USA
Web: www.ggmusa.org
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