4TP and crew...

Arrival in Freetown and Magburaka

My very first encounter on Sierra Leonean soil was in Dutch with a Belgium, grey, old man. His son had started a biological vegetable-farm in the capital of Sierra Leone. While speaking we were waiting on the speedboat that would take us from the airport to the Freetown ferry terminal, which would be five minutes drive from my temporal house.

Upon arrival in the compound, Bonno (also a Dutchman) and Lisa (my Australian boss) welcomed me and gave me a tour through the house as well as something to eat. What followed was a couple of days with a lot of meetings to 'brief' me on the current project status and context. I went to the beach to have a beer with Andreas, and we went out to listen on live music and dance on local afro-pophits. On Friday I took a stroll to discover the neighbourhood, I almost got lost but all people seemed to know where I had to go: "The MSF Holland house? Go straight and left at the junction."

On Saturday it was my turn to join the KISS-movement. A process where two cars with different origins drive towards the same KISS-point, where upon arrival they exchange passengers, luggage and cargo, and then return back to their origins. My destination was Magburaka, the capital of the Tonkolilli district. Here, for the coming nine months, I would take the role of Supply Logistician, a sort of Supply Chain Manager responsible for all the international and national supply of medical and non-medial goods. I would not do this alone, but together with my team of 6 national staff members.

As I arrived in the weekend I had time to: meet the team of expats; 15 in total, nationalities varying from Kiwi to German to Ugandese to Polish. Visit the local market in Makeni; a pretty chaotic but by all means peaceful place. Go clubbing in Paparazzi, a local dance-joint with speakers and a bar that sells STAR bottles. Play volleyball in our garden; lots of grass, plenty of space, a hammock and enough shade from trees. Walk along the Rokel River, take a dive and cross the passenger bridge; pretty scary.

On Monday it was time to work. First moment of semi-shock: That weekend I had forgotten to check the fridge temperature. Most medical items require a temperature controlled environment, the bulk is stored in an air-conditioned room to keep temperature between 25 and 30 degrees Celsius. Some medical drugs need to be stored in fridges at a temperature between 2 and 8 degrees. Daily temperature checks are part of the procedure. This is due to the high value and criticality of these drugs, as well as the possibility of incidents due to generator failure or, like this weekend, an overheated A/C resulting in a fuse that was blown. Fortunately, my colleague had discovered the issue early enough to avoid a cold chain breach (a situation where temperature is so much or so long off-spec that it expires the drugs.)

The following week was great. I met my team of six eager beavers. We completed the reception-puzzle: Making sense of tons of international cargo that arrives in containers with pallets and stacked boxes that contain smaller boxes, parcels and eventually jars with pills, sealed needles and surfical masks, and little tubes with power to make injection solution. Obviously, not the product description nor the product ID number is clearly indicated on each box. This makes the whole exercise a quite manual matching process where VLOOKUP cannot be applied. Also, I found myself trying to open a 40ft container with my consulting fingers. A 40 ft container is a 'unit of measure' I used a lot in my Excel sheets, with the exception that I never had to open one. Lastly, we signed a contract to rent a former World Food Program location; a huge courtyard with a squared warehouse of 20x45m, in which we will centralize all our medical, electrical, construction and water-sanitation inventories. These are now scattered across three locations and multiple physical places.

Apart from work I discovered that the team of national staff, 150-200 people varying from nurses, guards, drivers, health promotors, administrators, storekeepers etc. was quite active in organizing shows and various parties. My supply chain officer Claudius, organized a show on Valentine-Tuesday, bringing artists from Freetown (capital of Sierra Leone), and 4TP, the radio operator had his very own album launch last Saturday night...

All in all a great start in an even more facinating context of people, work, surroundings, culture and encounters. No Wahala.