Improvised monday

Today has been a kind of improvised day. The initial plan was to prepare a eschema of the content that we are going to explain in a training that we are planning to do with the teachers of the school, then go to the school to prepare the things to teach the administrator in the management program and them meet him to organize his training. But when we arrived at the school the generator was not working so all the plans changed. We brought the generator home to try to repair it, and we succeed!!

The only thing that we needed was a connector and we went to Lunsar to buy it.

When Sonia and Quim ended their work with the plans Quim and Javi went to play football with the locals. 

Switch-off sunday

Today has been a very relaxing day because yesterday was very complete and intense. We worked a little during the morning and then in the afternoon we went to Lunsar to buy more lapas and we spent like 2 hours at the taylor to order all the clothes we want. We ordered a t-shirt with the same print to everyone in the group, we will post a photo here when we have it.

After having dinner we got ready and we went party with Mohamed in Lunsar.

We spent the morning sleeping to recover and the afternoon have been like if we were in a summer camp: film, card games and dinner. The sunset has been very beautiful, here you can see some photos:

Intense days

After two days of inactivity we are back! These last two days have been very intense and we haven't got time to update the blog. We have been working on the hospital and we have finished the internet installation, we also have installed the server at the school, we have continued with the measurements for the plan and we are about to finish the floor plan.

We have also visited different places, on thursday we went to Lunsar with the initial idea of going to the market but we decided to walk a little more to see the beautiful landscape. When we arrived to the market it was closed. Anyway it was worthy because the views were incredibly beautiful, here you can see some photos:

Yesterday we had the first anecdote, Quim was feeling sick since thursday and his fever went up so the nurses that live with us decided that the best would be to test if he had Malaria. They made him a test and luckily it was negative; later, at night, the nurses saw that he was starting to develop tonsils so the Malaria theory was discarted.

In the afternoon, when Quim felt better we went by car to Makeni to visit the city and buy some lapas (pieces of fabric) to design our own clothes. It was raining a lot and we couldn't visit the city so much, but here you can see where we bought the lapas: 

When we arrived home we cooked our dinner and we made a different meal at our home. 

WETnesday

Today has been a rainy day so we have changed a little the schedule.
Dani was feeling sick so instead of continuing with the internet installation in the hospital, Javi and Bego have been working on the Academic Software for the nursing school, so we can install it there tomorrow, here is the result:

Sònia and Quim have continued with the plan, and as every day, they have not been lucky at all; to change that luck, in the afternoon, Javi and Bego joined them although it was raining. Today we have changed the walking for team work under the rain.

Now we are waiting to dinner and, for sure, it will be a very good meal, as the others; the food here is very good and tasty and the fruits are amazing. Here you can see us yesterday eating mango.

Another hot day in the office

Today, another hot day in the office, we have continued with our work. Bego and Javi have been worked on the internet of the hospital and Quim and Sònia have continued drawing the plan. After lunch, we have seen Dani fixing the electric pannel and then we have been splitted again. Bego and Javi have worked on the electricity of the solar pannels and Quim and Sònia have got some troubles with some angles of the walls.

 After work, we were supposed to have a football match with local children but finally we have found out there was a team training in the football field so we decided to go for a walk. Guided by two local girls we have arrived to Makindo, where we have found out that the villages placed near the road had more infrastructures than the farer ones. After dinner we have played some card games and now we are going to sleep.

Planning connections

Today, after our yoga and running routine, we have started working. First we have made a quick visit to the hospital to know the local people who will help us while working. Then, we have divided into two groups and while two of us were making measures of the buildings, the other two have started diagnosing and solving the IT problems of the hospital and using the tips that we learned in the courses organized by AUCOOP.

          

After that, before having lunch, we went to visit the buildings that were constructed during the crisis of the Ebola, a mortuary, a crematory and an isolation building. It's very impressive to see where the infected or maybe infected people were placed. They put everyone in the same building so, if you were not infected and you only had fever for another reason you would, for sure, get infected. Here you can see one photo of the building with a fence to avoid the contact of the infected with the outside.

After having lunch we worked a little more, ones with more luck than the others: Quim was trying to take a measure and, even thought he was advised by a local to be careful, he put his feet in a septic while he was trying to understand the advice. He strongly hopes that his luck will change but as we know, "he has come here to play".

Lately, after a cold beer, we have gone for a walk to see and try to snap the sunset, and we have been invited to a football match for tomorrow.

Who we are? Opotos!

With an intensive yoga lesson and a heavy breakfast, we have started the first Sunday of our trip. Already following the local tradition, we have gone to the Sunday Mess. The rythm of the celebration has impressed us a lot, althought we haven't undestrood almost anything because everybody spoke "Crio", their local language (that is close to English). Before having lunch, we have met to plan the work of the next weeks, focusing what we are going to do the next days:

• Diagnose the current PC's state.
• Install the routers in the hospital.
• Start drawing the hospital's map.

After that, we have gone for a walk to the neighbour villages: Makompt and Mabeto, where we have bought the first souvenirs to give to our families. The people of these villages have given us a warm welcome. A funny fact is that we belived they were asking for "photos" while they were shouting us "Opotos", which is the way they call "white" people. They have come with us along the whole way making it a very funny experience.

Tomorrow, following the good manners, we will start doing yoga very early in the morning, then a little running to get ready for the first working day. Tomorrow more!

Already in Mabesseneh!

Today we have spent the whole day in the plane. We have flight from Barcelona to París and then from París to Freetown. In the second flight, we have lived our first experience: a monrovian citizen was deported from France. Even thought, we have been advised from it, it has been hard to hear him screaming while the plane was taking off and people were trying to defend him. After all, all has ended with a delay of 1h 30. When we have arrived in Freetown, Jennifer and a driver from the hospital picked us up with a minibus. During the trip we could saw a really nice landscape although it was really dark. Now we are resting in the volunteers house, waiting for tomorrow to see that views with sunlight. Tomorrow, early in the morning, we are going to do yoga, then we will have breakfast and finally we will attend to the mass.

Learning to draw planes

Hi guys!
Here you can see us working at Base A's office. Base A is a ONG of architects and they taught us how to draw a plane of the hospital. They shared with us some tricks they use when they have to draw planes in similar conditions as the ones we will find at Sierra Leone and told us how to draw a proper escalated plane of the different buildings of the hospital, first a floor plan and then if we have time a plan of the facade of each building.

We want to thank a lot the boys of Base A, their advices will help us so much!

First day, working at home

Hey guys! :)

Next publications will be to follow the state of our cooperation project and our daily live experiences in Mabesseneh, Lunsar, in Sierra Leone. There, we are going to work in two main places: a nursing school and the general hospital. Right now, we are in Aucoop's office (our UPC's association office) preparing the main procedures to achieve there:

→ Install an internet network around the St. John of God Hospital.
→ Install two software programms, one to track the hospital expenses and clients, and the other one to track the school students.

By now, we are conditioning the four PC's that we will bring there and deeply learning the operation of "Rosario SIS", the scholar software. We have chosen that one because it has a straightforward use and it's free license.

This is the beginning of a very exciting project that we hope and know that will be finished successfully. It is hard to change the whole world, but from Aucoop we encourage the people to do little daily efforts changing a little part of it, and step by step, reverse all the unfair stuations in the world.