Starting work

I'm in an internet cafe (sort of). I met my boss on Tuesday have spent the last 2 days with him at a workshop on the role of Community Health Workers. The workshop was trying to work through defining roles and supervision structures. These workers are community members at village level and the Ministry of Health is looking for ways to train, support and reward them without undermining qualified staff, who are often unsupported themselves and not paid reliably.

I've also met more of the other VSO health volunteers. As well as the one in the CMO's office, there is one working with the CNO, and one working as a clinical instructor in the main teaching hospital. At one level, the structures are recognisable and familiar to me; it is just what you see in the street (and apparently in the hospitals) that is the shock. Last week, the latest global UN Development index was published and Sierra Leone has only moved up 2 places from bottom position.

At a practical level, one thing that has surprised me is just how widespread the use of mobile IT is - even by people who don't look they could afford much else. At the Ministry workshop all the presentations, breakout group notes and feedback was done electronically, without a flipchart in sight! You can see the sense of it - when paper is expensive and photocopiers unreliable, "flashing" documents round by email and memory stick is practical and quick. In the light of that, my discovery that my laptop only works on broadband(which doesn't exist here)and that the USB ports are disabled was more than a slight annoyance (yes, I know, I should have prepared more carefully!)