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I’m not quite sure which Greek god is in charge of airline travel these days, but I’d like to find out how to pay homage to him/her relatively soon. Whether it’s from Mt. Olympus, the heavens, or karmic forces, I’ve got to say that my travel luck is well…. crappy and not getting any better.
During the last couple of days, I have spent 38 hours traveling from Freetown to San Francisco. During that time, every single one of my three airline flights has been late. I am also 0/2 for checked luggage retrieval during this trip. Yep…. Royal Air Maroc lost my luggage not only to Freetown, but now also back from Freetown. Due to these delays, I have also been the last passenger to board a connecting flight twice during this trip, sprinting through terminals in order to barely catch transfers from JFK to CMN and JFK to SFO. Well… I guess at least I can say that the process of traveling for me is never boring.
Anyways, it’s good to be home, and I’m not too worried about the luggage. I’m assuming it’ll show up one of these days, and now that I’m home, I’ll have more than enough spare clothing to wear. Perhaps all of this travel misfortune is just to offset the relative smoothness of our project implementation in Sierra Leone. If that’s the case, then there’s no doubt that some close-calls on transfers and lost baggage are more than worth the inconvenience.
I second Meghan’s post from yesterday. I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to have seen this whole project through. It was really touching to be able to have created, designed, and shaped our own project from start to finish. I think we are all so lucky to have had the support that we’ve received from Princeton, without which none of this would have been possible.
But I also hope that this project is not seen as a fully satisfactory endpoint. In a country like Sierra Leone, which still has some of the worst health and economic statistics, there is always so much more to be done. A solar panel system provides power, but only with the proper management and usage of this resource will it have the most impact. The NOW clinic will be using the electricity to power their new medical equipment, and we are also hoping that the lights might now be able to help enable the clinic to extend their hours of operation. We hope to monitor how the solar system is functioning in the upcoming months as well as the impacts it has on the clinic. The range of issues concerning the impact of our system resonate deeper still and are interlaced with the effectiveness of NOW’s efforts to reform the healthcare system in Sierra Leone. There are many layers of complex relationships that exist between the NOW clinic and the government, and it is our hope that the success of the clinic will help provide an example that will inspire change in the Sierra Leone healthcare system.
Meghan and I would like the Princeton relationship with Sierra Leone to continue after this project. I’m sure that Henry and Zoe are doing their best to assess for other potential ways in which Princeton students may be able to contribute in the future. Meghan and I have agreed that in our post-Princeton lives (yes, although hard to fathom right now, I’ve been told that there is life beyond Princeton) we plan on returning to the clinic again. Maybe we’ll have learned something useful from grad/medical school.
Until then, we wish everyone who is or may be involved in the future with the NOW/GAF clinic’s efforts the best of luck.
Below are some pictures from all of our cameras.
-Neal
