Freetown!

Ok Day 2..it won't be the most interesting update, but not much has happened yet really.

Met up with the group in the airport, had a great flight from Bruxelles to Freetown (european airlines really do know how to make you comfortable..tons of free stuff)

Took a ferry from the airport to Freetown proper, then went to our hotel, then out to dinner to get "Spicy Death Chicken and Rice" -- turned out to be beef, but the rest was pretty accurate though.

Today we tried to go to the US Embassy to register our presence.  But it was closed...or something?  Not the kind of American customer service I'm used to but what can ya do?  The rest of the day is going to be devoted to logistics: getting cell phones primarily, but other last minute things.  Of course there's the obligatory stop at the internet café which is where I am now.

We'll spend 1 more night in Freetown and then head to Koidu, where the clinic is, in the morning.

More later when there's something to talk about. 

In which I introduce the blog, my project, and wax nostalgic on my prior European life

So here's my blog.  Its my first one. I'm probably not going to be great at it.  But I guess we'll see how it goes.  Not sure how I'll use it during my 5 weeks in Sierra Leone, but I'm sure it'll evolve into something eventually.

Okay so leg 1 of my trip is complete: Philly to Brussels

After being in the Brussels Airport for only about an hour, I realize how much I miss living in Europe.  Even just the limited environment of the airport terminal brought on lots of great memories of those years in Paris way back when...

-Coffee from a machine which is REALLY good
-Bounty bars (now they have TRIPLE Bounty) and Maltesers in the vending machines
-Some real stank B.O.
-.. the list goes on and on

Oh, and my French skills officially sucent une grosse...ehh, well they are pretty bad.  Gotta work on those somehow soon.

My layover in Brussels is about 6 hrs, then its on to Freetown, Sierra Leone.  I'll be meeting up with my group at the gate...never met any of them before.  I'm a little apprehensive and nervous...eek, I hope they like me!

Oh, I guess I should explain what I'm actually doing, eh?

I'm going to Sierra Leone, a small country on the West African coast.  I'll be spending the next 5 weeks at a clinic run by the Wellbody Alliance, a NGO that operates in the easternmost Kono District (yes, where all the diamonds come from).  Wellbody does a lot of things,  much of which is to provide care for amputees who lost limbs during the Civil War that lasted from 1991-2002.  Another major initiative of Wellbody is providing perinatal care and an education campaign in the local communities to lower the maternal death rate, which is one of the highest of any country in the world.  My specific project is mostly anthropological in nature, and will mainly be contributing to ongoing evaluation of the education campaign.  Its still a little up in the air, but I have a lot of leeway in terms of what I can focus on.

I'm travelling with a group of undergrads from Princeton who are in the Program for Global Health & Policy – essentially studying the same thing I did at Penn (shoutout to HSOC!). It looks like a good group, and I know we'll be able to learn a lot from one another.

Since I'll be at a clinic, I hope to maybe get some time observing some medical stuff, too, since I'm all in med school and whatnot (shoutout to Jefferson Medical College!).

It'll be an interesting summer, with lots to share I have no doubt.  So I'll do my best to keep this thing updated as much as possible.  (Caveat: internet access will be pretty sporadic, so regular updates may not be so easy.  But we'll see.)