I’m not really sure how I decided to go to Sierra Leone, but the seeds were probably planted by an email I received from my lovely wife: “Can I please go to Sierra Leone to work in an Ebola lab?” My response was a simple “yes” – I was happy that she wanted to go, for all sorts of reasons; it made her laugh and smile. Who can resist such enthusiasm?  She left for Sierra Leone  to join team 4 in Port Loko and returned 7 weeks later, absolutely bubbling with enthusiasm to the extend that I invited her to give a talk about her experience to a group of undergraduate bioscience students at the University of Surrey. It was a fantastic talk, (I know, I am mildly biased) and the response of the students was amazing with a whole range of interesting and engaging questions.

At some point in July 2015 I eventually put in an application for deployment and over the summer (5 Aug – 3 Sept 2015) I was deployed to Port Loko, Sierra Leone, to work in the Ebola diagnostics laboratory run by Public Health England.  Okay, I was quite nervous; I am a biochemist and not a virologist; more pertinently, I have not actively worked in a laboratory for more than 10 years.  It’s like riding a bicycle, they said. It was time to get out of the comfort zone and off I went on an intensive 5-day training program near Salisbury that included working in a replica laboratory, as well as dealing with different scenarios that we could encounter while in the laboratory.  Furthermore, we had to undergo a health check, which included too many vaccinations to report, and a psychological resilience test.  Two sore arms and a tired brain later (from the training and the resilience test), and I was was on a 06:40 flight from Heathrow airport that required a 04:30 am taxi – yawn!

We flew to Lungi Airport, Freetown, via Brussels; the airport was an interesting experience, with taxi drivers etc. approaching us before we were even through immigration or had picked up our luggage. Currency exchange from $US to Leone was a rather straightforward process, with an exchange rate of approximately 5,000 Leone per dollar; $100 got a rather large wadge. A minibus was waiting to transport us to Port Loko, approximately 90 minutes down an impressively well-maintained tar road. I had joined up with five team mates (Port Loko team 10) in London and Brussels.  Everybody seemed a bit awestruck and the drive was a bit “look here, look there”. My first impressions were of a lush, green environment and many palm trees; also, we spotted many people in small social gatherings in the houses along the route.  It later became clear that the Saloneans are very warm, communal people.

One of my first impressions of Sierra Leone – the spirit of community, with families and friends gathering at any time of time of day to share food and have a chat. 

On arrival in Port Loko, I tried to shake the hand of the waiting team leader. First error: there was a no-touch policy in Sierra Leone!  We were accommodated in a GOAL camp (an Irish NGO; https://www.goalglobal.org/), actually a hotel, where we had on-suite (single) rooms with showers, air-conditioning and intermittent wifi access (a little too first-world for my liking), with excellent meals provided three time a day. 

Satellite image of Port Loko, Sierra Leone.  Base camp was a bumpy 15 minute car trip from the ETC, where the laboratory was located.  (https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@8.7711234,-12.7728444,4229m/)

GOAL Base 3: accommodation block

Deckchairs, for more sunny days, and GOAL Base 1 (meals & entertainment)

Panoramic view of GOAL base camp, Port Loko: Base 1 on the left, base 2 in the center and the stores/exit to the right.

Our first full day in Port Loko involved a few induction talks covering an overview of the Ebola Treatment Center, transport arrangements, facilities, security (mainly of personal belongings), and a surprise allowance ($100). Dr Mo gave us a nice overview of Sierra Leone’s (lion mountains) history and culture, including an introduction to “aporto”, a word we would hear quite a lot on our walks into Port Loko, the “jungle” and on a surveillance trip.  

Reality calls – to be continued…

“Jungle walk”, near Port Loko, Sierra Leone.(image kindly provided by Jennifer Spencer)