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For our last week here in Kono, Henry and I have three main goals: to paint a mural, set up an Open Medical Record System, and assess for a new project. After building a small room to house the batteries and other solar equipment, we were left with a large, drab, brown wall in the waiting area simply begging for some aesthetic relief. Being the artsy type that I am, I jumped at the idea of painting a mural. After acquiring five bottles of paint, four brushes, and a gallon of kerosene (the standard here instead of paint thinner), I started on an underwater scene for the wall. We threw around ideas for the mural that ranged from Akon to the First Family (both are huge superstars here) but we finally settled on an underwater theme with a submarine with our faces looking out the windows. Taking a cue from the Beatles, I graced our underwater scene with a large yellow submarine with nine windows-four for us EWBers, four for the Princeton interns working with the Global Action Foundation, and one large one to be shared by Dr. Barrie and Dan Kelly. Currently, I have our eight faces up on the wall with cheesy grins. The paint is difficult to work with so painting faces has been quite the challenge but I’m happy to say that even after all of us return to Princeton, we will live on the in the yellow submarine. I get quite the number of quizzical looks from patients but they are curious and excited for some color in the room. I am thoroughly enjoying the process and happy that painting is something I can do anywhere in the world.
The installation of the Open Medical Record System has been, in short, a frustrating nuisance. The clinic has four donated laptops that are eventually to be used for an electronic medical system that is linked by a local network. The program, Open MRS, is supposedly designed for use in developing countries but it has proved to be the exact opposite. Henry has been working on this while I have been painting, and the four programs that must be downloaded in order to make the system run cannot seem to find each other on the computer. Henry has been playing around with the code but our lack of computer science/engineering backgrounds aren’t helping us. The program recommends that an IT tech be on hand for the first three months of usage for troubleshooting, a requirement that is rather preposterous given that it is supposed to be for developing areas. Luckily, Dr. Barrie has an IT person coming in November to help out around the clinic so if we can get the basic software and local network set up the IT tech can then help the staff through transitioning to electronic medical records. With their growing number of patients, an electronic system would be greatly beneficial but hopefully the complexity of the software and technology won’t be an impediment.
Lastly, we went to see the new Kono Public Library with Kulani, one of the GAF interns, today. It took two years to build but it is an absolutely beautiful and incredibly spacious building. It is still completely empty, although books will be arriving this coming week. They have planned for a children’s department, a reference center, lending department, and two computer labs to be used as internet cafes to both library members as well as the general public. They will need much assistance getting an internet cafe up and running since it will be the first of its kind in this area and will not be financially supported by the Sierra Leone Library Board as the rest of the library is. We are considering helping them with this for our next project since this will allow the library to have a constant source of revenue and use that profit to hire staff who can lead reading sessions and classes for both children and adults. The schools here in Kono do not have libraries and very few people have access to books. The hope is that the internet cafe will attract community members and encourage them to explore the educational opportunities offered by the library as well. We will return to the library later this week with more questions and also check out the Central Library in Freetown to see how they are run. The current plan is to return to Freetown on Sunday so that we will have time to explore the library and how the US Embassy sets up their wireless network.
Tonight we’ll be having a small feast at Uncle Ben’s! Another Princetonian, Matthias, is coming to Uncle Ben’s so we will splurge a little and enjoy the luxury of eating some chicken, a meat that is much more expensive than beef here. Time for a motorbike ride in the pouring rain to get back to Uncle Ben’s…nothing like the pleasures of the rainy season here.
-Zoe
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