Finishing up

Well my 2-1/2 weeks went by quickly and I'm back in the US now.  The last week was spent mostly finishing up preparations for the water treatment containers and making sure the hospital project is OK to hibernate for a few more months.

Our friend Wilson Fallah brought a couple paintings for me to bring back to the US.  Our friends in Spokane, the Glanvilles, continue to work with Wilson and help sell his paintings at fair trade events.  I wish I would have posted this a couple of days ago before the sale, but I'm sure if you get ahold of Peter or Amber they can get some of his work to you.

SIM continues to try to expand services at ELWA Hospital.  The medical communities struggles to treat malaria, typhoid and other "normal" illnesses have been fairly well documented in the media.  Almost every hospital shut down in July and August due to health workers falling sick, and then struggled to reopen due to the dangers and nurses being lured away by international medical groups with higher pay.  ELWA Hospital is open and operating under new protocols.  All patients must come through a single entrance and are screened for Ebola symptoms before being admitted.  It is a little hard to even recognize for those who are familiar with the hospital...

An X-ray drying in the sun outside the X-ray room.

                                     

Some of the guys worked through Liberian Thanksgiving to try to get a ditch backfilled.  They wanted their picture taken when I came by.

Here is a video of some of the guys, and our security staff telling me what they were thankful for on this Thanksgiving.  Hopefully you can make out their Liberian English.

The day before I left we had our typically beautiful sunset over the Atlantic.

Access to all businesses and shops require handwashing, and usually someone taking your temperature.  Here is the line coming into our office at Samaritan's Purse one morning.  Everyone washes their hands in chlorinated water, has their temperature taken with a non-contact thermometer, has their shoes sprayed with a chlorine solution and has their car tires sprayed with the same chlorine.  then a piece of paper with the date, time and your temperature is stapled to your shirt sleeve.

The handwash station at a local grocery store.

And leaving the country my temperature was taken no less than 5 times.

And again when entering Brussels Airport

Then when arriving at Dulles Airport in Washington DC I went through the CDC's enhanced screening.  That went fairly smoothly and everyone was very professional and courteous.  I now get to be "best friends" with my local health department epidemiologist until my 21 day monitoring period is complete.