Help Sierra Leone Children

Archispirostreptus gigas,  the largest millipede known, grows up to 15 inches and might have as many as 256 legs. These feet are made for walking,  and that's just what they do,  and one of these days these feet are going to walk all over you,  do da do, do da do, do da do,  do da do, do da do, do da do Ok feet,  Start walking. 

      The MSF hospital in Kenema is modern proof of this principle.      Sending international health care workers is good, but teaching local doctors and nurses is better.  The ratio of international to local health care workers in most MSF projects is about eight to one. This is because MSF is committed to leaving a legacy of better trained national health care workers.      There has never been many doctors in Sierra Leone. Not during the British colonial period. Not since. Never. No wonder health care has languished. No wonder this poor country has the highest maternal mortality in the world!       About ten percent of the few doctors in the country died in the 2014 Ebola epidemic. Imagine losing a tenth of the doctors in Canada!      MSF saw this happen and decided they would be part of the solution. MSF decided to build a hospital for mothers and children and to focus on educating the next ge...

Achatina achatina, a large air breathing land snail, grows up to 7 inches long and 2.5 inches wide. These snails are on the path I take to reach the MSF truck that takes me to the hospital. 

There is a rhythm to malaria. I know there is but I don’t have enough experience to feel it. Knowing the rhythm is important. When you know the rhythm, you’re inside the disease and can feel the ebb and flow. Inside is a very intimate experience because you can see the future. When you are inside you are in control, not the disease. I do not feel anything yet. Rhythms are like puzzles that move and you need to know the precise fit of the various pieces to feel the rhythm. So far I’ve figured out the basic pieces but have no sense of how they might fit together. There’s always a temporal sequence of events. A medical history is fundamental to understanding the rhythm. The infection starts with an initial symptom. Then another symptom develops. Then another and another, all in a sequence that is often remarkably consistent. I cannot take a good history because I do not speak the language. Without a better history I will not understand the beginning. Beginnings are impor...

Good news from home. My new collection of short stories is published and now available at the various online retail outlets. The collection of about fifty short stories and poems was written over the last three decades. Most stories are based on real life experience with names changed to depersonalize the situations. A few are legitimate fiction.  As a young man I decided I wanted to write short stories like Somerset Maugham. This book is my attempt to respect his tradition of clarity and insight. I wrote these stories because I felt a need to record the events and personalities I encountered. The events seemed startling and somehow important, at least to me. From the start I realized I was writing for my own enjoyment. I learned that writing helped me understand what I witnessed.