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July 14, 2007

Finally outside Freetown after a freak accident

No one says being in Freetown is not fun but with absolutely no electrical power in the City, gazillion mosquitoes scurrying around to feed on my flesh, and all the noise from the political air, leaving actually calls for celebration. We left Freetown a day too late. We were to leave the dark city to Bo town on Tuesday, July 10 but there was a little accident.

We all wanted to rush to the beach in the west of the city before leaving to Bo and then the village. However, we also knew that the ocean had strong waves and currents especially in the evenings and this was no problem. But today was different. We were all having fun swallowing some salt water here and there as we fell down with the rather high waves encroaching on the beach. Mathias had just moved a bit far away from us when I inquired; "Mathias, why have you gone so far away from the three of us here?" Ignoring me, I appreciated Jacob's answer best when he added- "the waves are stronger there…"A few minutes later, Mathias was out of water, disoriented, with blood gushing from his head. Disheveled, we rushed towards him and he said little. He told us however that a wave had pushed him into the ocean bed when he was not being attentive.

Two Lebanese men came to our help and one of them offered to give us his car to take us to the next center where we could find some treatment. With blood still coming from the back of his head- we knew now that he had a nasty wound behind his head that required a few stitches- we boarded the Benz jeep to Aberdeen Junction about 5 minutes away. Once the driver dropped us down, we took him to a few health posts that refused to treat him because they were not capable stitching his ear. It was getting bad as he said he did not recognize us and that he may have had a concussion at impact. We hired a cab and headed for a Chinese sponsored hospital close to my home. Mathias was drifting in and out of consciousness, and the taxi took several detours. Sweating, we finally arrived to meet up with my dad. Mathias was immediately put on a stretcher and inspected by the personnel. The cut was not as bad as we had feared, but Mathias was pretty groggy. They sewed his wound with three stitches, and he was sent to the ward. That was when the lights went out at the hospital. The staff lighted candles and Mathias finally got some rest. We went back to the Guest House an hour later, and, though his wound was still aching, he was able to joke around a bit by the end of the evening. In the end no serious harm was suffered, but it was still an unwelcome scare.

Our trip to Bo Town was thus delayed by a day, but on Thursday 12th, at 4:30 am we got up to take the bus to my hometown. We finally began the 6 hour journey to cover 198km. The road from Freetown was tarred for the first 20km or so and then it was dancing to the tunes from my iPod. The road was as awful as one could imagine and it was not a good thing for Mathias. We arrived- alive- and my mom had prepared a dish of Cassava leaves for us. As we ate, we parked our luggage again in our minds, as we would set off to the village the next day. In the evening, before going to bed, we prepared our presentation for the District Medical Health Team in Pujehun. One good thing, there was electrical power in Bo.