The waterworks in Kambia are originally a development aid project of the Japanese government. The waterworks serve to supply the 40,000 inhabitants of Kambia in the northern province of Sierra Leone. The Japanese have built the waterworks a few years ago and then handed over to the local population as operators. Since the waterworks is located far from the city, there is no public power supply. However, due to insufficient maintenance of the generators, the machines were increasingly failing.
My job was to carry out the appropriate maintenance with the local forces on the ground and, above all, to ensure that people can carry out this maintenance independently in the future. For this I had an overview of the plant at the first visit. Afterwards, I have worked on documents from time to time, which explain every step of maintenance in detail with pictures. On the second visit there was a training with the local people. I think with the training and the documents, the people are now well placed there and can maintain the machines neatly in the future. 

Project Don Bosco, Bo

This project was for me the most beautiful project during my entire time in Sierra Leone. Although by far the most demanding.
With its 150,000 inhabitants, the city of Bo is the largest city in Sierra Leone after Freetown. It is located about 150km south of Makeni. The ride there is very exhausting, because large parts of the road runs over a very dusty and bad bush roads. In Bo the Catholic youth welfare organization Don Bosco runs an orphanage for children and young people. The young people live in residential groups. The reasons why they live in the home are complex. Partly, it is domestic violence, which drives the children into the flight, partly the children have lost through Ebola all relatives. Some of them have survived Ebola but can not return to their families. The relatives still suspect Ebola or the devil personally in them.
The orphanage is located on the outskirts of the city. There is virtually no public electricity supply. 240 volts are only 110 volts. If any electricity is present at all. Under these circumstances, you can not run an orphanage. And the planned expansion is also completely illusory from this point of view. The THW has brought a large number of generators to Sierra Leone to support such tasks. The machines have a power of 15kVA.
My task was to set up such a generator there, to put it into operation and to adapt the electrical system in the buildings to the new state of the art. The old generator, which was constantly overloaded and broken, finished his service a few days later.
Three days were set for the entire campaign. I had the choice of staying at the hotel in Bo, or in the guest room at Don Bosco. After clarification with THW headquarters in Bonn, I was allowed to spend the night at Don Bosco. I am still grateful for this. Because I had a chance to live and work with the people together under one roof. We had breakfast together, there was always someone who helped me at work and after dinner was time to talk with each other. It was just nice to see that there are "really" no big differences between young people in Germany and Sierra Leone, if one times the money omitted. The one is completely sad because his girlfriend ended up with him. The other is worried at school and does not know how to finance his upcoming studies.
Of course people also want to know what I am doing and what hobbies I have. My homepage makes things much easier. And so people get an insight into what it looks like on the Danube, Iceland or the North Cape.

Project Masanga Hospital, Maguraka

The Masanga Hospital was founded in 1920 as a Lebra station. During the civil war in Sierra Leone, the rebels have sought shelter from government and UNAMSIL (United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone). In 2006 the hospital was reopened after a renovation. In 2014 the operations there were finally stopped after many doctors and carers died at Ebola. During my time in Sierra Leone, thanks to the remarkable support of volunteers from Denmark, the hospital was gradually re-entered.
There were several tasks for the entire team. But first of all we were invited there to discuss the situation and to clarify which tasks we will be able to take over there. The Masanga Hospital is still one of the most beautiful places I've ever been to. It is not a hospital as you know it with us in Germany. The whole area extends over many acres. This includes numerous buildings, in which the staff is actually accommodated. These are largely empty because the hospital has closed. The whole area is in the middle of the bush. It's gorgeous here. Behind the house grow bananas, pineapples and huge mango trees line the main road that runs through the terrain. Everywhere there are small sheds and side buildings and I would not have wondered if Albert Schweizer had crossed the street with a short "Grüß Gott".
Unfortunately there is also a lot of work in such a beautiful place. Our team was busy setting up and connecting new generators. There were also problems with the water supply. The pump is defective and replacement is hard to get. The biggest problem was a broken earth cable. During the rainy season, the temporary connection with insulation tape did not last long in the water and so there were regularly power outages. No problem for team-mate Ingo. He knows the best about shrink sleeves. I can only assist and learn.
A few hours later the connection was ready. A blessing to work in the hospital. People can now also work in the rain without fear of power failure.

Project Connaught Hospital, Freetown

Connaught Hospital is the largest and oldest hospital in Sierra Leone. It was opened in 1912. The Connaught Hospital is home to the national blood bank of Sierra Leone.
In the relation of the fight against Ebola, the University of Liverpool has initiated a project to investigate the possibilities of a cure of infected Ebola patients: It is to be investigated how the healing chances of freshly infected patients improve when they get antibodies from the blood of Ebola survivors.
For this reason the blood bank at the Connaught Hospital was a high priority. The only problem was that there had to be a basic renovation before the work could be done there. The hygienic conditions were very bad before the renovation. When I went there for the first time and had a picture of the blood bank and the surrounding hospital, I was shocked.
In the Blood Bank the work went very well. Only a few small things like sockets for the new devices were missing. Also here it was quickly clear that one can achieve a lot with little money and a few hours of work. First, much discussion was held. I soon had the impression that I was not the first one to pass by, take pictures and take many notes. But no one has ever shown up again. However, I did not come to Sierra Leone for blah blah, but to help. So I grabbed my driver, went with him to the car and just lifted a small mountain of material and tools. Now we go, we can talk again later. This was also the key word for Abdul. The young chief electrician of the Connaught Hospital disappeared briefly to change. A little later, he stood in front of me in surgical clothes and boots. He was fortunately one who climbed into the ceiling under the roof to feed the new wires. Luckily! I'd probably get a heat stroke. The sun really burned mercilessly on the tin roof.
Soon we had laid the wires and he came climbed from the small hole in the ceiling, completely sweaty. Together, we connected the cables in the distributor and sockets. The mood of the people was great. After it was clear that something really moved here, everyone was really happy.
The next day there were a few minor works, which Abdul and I shared. We had to accept a small setback on Sunday evening unfortunately: the new blood donation machines, which were a donation from the USA, could not be connect to the power supply. Wrong voltage! 110 Volts instead of 240 Volts. But there are converters and the frequency did not play a big role.
For me this was a successful project, where I would have liked to spend more time, but there were still plenty of other projects for me that were also important.

Project Dutch-Lab, Freetown

In another hospital in Freetown's Kleintown district, I had a new project to look after. The so-called Dutch Lab was a high-security laboratory. There, blood tests were tested on Ebola exciter. The blood samples came from the neighboring holding center. A quarantine station where Ebola patients will be treated in. The Dutch-Lab's team was called by us in that way, because the people who were part of the laboratory were doctors from the Netherlands.
The lab was placed in a container. The most important for safe operation of this system is a reliable power supply. And that is exactly NOT the case in Sierra Leone. The current for the laboratory was generated by an old generator. For emergencies, there was a second, but it could not be started, because it was broken.
In the first step, Jörg and I got the broken generator up and running again. However, the responsible persons wanted to invest in new generators. It was also important to them that the generators run alternately. One by day, the other by night. Only in the case of a disturbance of the one should start the other automatically. Well, with a small PLC something like this is a very simple thing. But with the available resources here, a real challenge, in which I've struck many hours. Finally, my solution was superfluous, because the new generators already brought with them a modern control system.
The main focus of my work at the Dutch-Lab was in the advice of the responsible persons. Effective businessmen also like to sell bigger generators in Africa, than absolutely necessary. The conversations were always very interesting. The seller knew already well, but wanted to sell just always more. I had given my statement and the head of the hospital did not tolerate any further discussion by the salesman and ended the upcoming discussion with the words: What Marten says applies! Nevertheless the seller thanked very polite with me. After all, he got a big order. From there, I was known in Freetown as "The German Engineer" at the generator salesmen.
At the end of the project I came back to Kleintown and looked at the things. In the meantime, everything had been set up and connected. A few small things were still to be changed, but otherwise everything corresponded to my specifications.
This interesting project was also finished.

Sierra Leone - Impressions from Africa

City, country and surrounding

During my time in Sierra Leone, I have traveled a lot. There were numerous projects and construction sites, which ran in almost all parts of the country. I really need to determine the country is very green. In the bush there are still large parts of untouched nature. Unfortunately, however, a lot of burners are also used. Often enormous areas are lit up in flames. The population in the country can provide for itself. There is agriculture.
The coast at Sierra Leone's capital Freetown is actually beautiful. There are fantastic sandy beaches there. Palm trees grow on the shore and somehow one does not come to the sight of the pictures in one of the poorest countries of the world.
When you enter the cities, the image of the healing world changes dramatically. The clearest example is certainly the capital Freetown. Here on the slopes of the mountains lie the villas of the rich. In the small river valleys that pass through the capital, there are endless amounts of plastic waste, it is miserable and in between, people are living in terrible dwellings.

People and markets

Life is buzzing in Africa. People are everywhere. In the markets, along the streets and in all public places. If Ebola were not really real, then it would really be a must to dive in life on the markets along Freetown's Kissy-Road. But security forbids this. Too great is the danger in the thick crush perhaps to come into contact but with Ebola somehow.
Nevertheless, it was interesting to observe how diligent the people are in the markets. Whether the activities are always targeted and effective is once set. But everyone does something, carries something and is otherwise busy. On the markets you get almost everything. It is then just a matter of price. Large parts of the markets are controlled by Lebanese businessmen.
Services are being written in capital letters in Africa. There are, for example, "chargers": people with whom you can recharge your mobile phone credit or recharge a new credit on the electricity meter (electricity is available from the public network only with prepayment due to intelligent electricity meters). In Makeni we had our own charger. The guy was on the market like a ghost. He emerged from nowhere, asked for an order, and had disappeared just as quickly in the mass of human beings.
If you need bread, you just have to stop at the roadside and point to one of the traders with their loaves. Immediately someone arrives and offers his goods. Usually there is someone who wants to sell more goods. Half-dead chickens or fresh eggs.

To eat and drink

As a vegetarian it is not so easy in Africa. That really surprised me. It is clear, however, that the guest is already provided with the best, what the kitchen gives. There were chicken in many variations. For me, chicken was fine. For I reject only the mass production of meat. The animal husbandry in Africa was therefore completely o.k. for me, because most of the chickens I ate in the time, I had seen running across the farm in the morning. Rice and manioc (known as Sierra Leone Cassava) are among the main dishes in everyday life in Sierra Leone. I liked it very much. Cassava roots or leaves finely chopped like spinach. That was great. I said one evening to the team-comrades that I only miss lentils and Spaetzle, so if they would be here, I can stay here forever. A week later, Peter, the cook at Don Bosco in Bo, put lentils on the table with rice. A sign?
Only to the sharpness in the food one must get used to a little. Sharp stimulates the production of stomach acid. Then it is not quite so bad, if the food is not 100% fresh. However, you really must like it,  if the omelet for the breakfast is so sharp that one´s mouth still burns up to noon. However, I had no problems with digestion. Just once, because I had eaten too spicy, there was a muttering in the stomach. In the morning the thing was over again.

Road traffic

This has probably been the greatest risk ever. I can not say so far, if there is such a thing as written traffic rules in Sierra Leone. Traffic runs according to the principle of the stronger or the faster wins. Who has doubt blows the horn. There are different types of horn characters: greetings, watching, ATTENTION, YOU VOLLIDIOT!
Because these rules are very strange to us Europeans, the THW has basically employed local drivers. It would have taken too long to get accepted our driving license in Sierra Leone. There was another rule of THW: Never ride at night. This is just too dangerous. At night, many vehicles (including trucks) are completely without lighting. Too big is the danger that something happens here. Many trucks are adorned by Bible sayings: "God is omnipotent," "Allah is my Savior." Well, in the state in which many of the vehicles were, these sayings are certainly appropriate.
Cargo safety is also known only to a small extent in Sierra Leone. On the other hand, people are all the more inventive in terms of the transport of goods on the vehicle roof.
Unfortunately, there are always accidents. These are very serious in most cases. Vehicles come off the road and overlap. Or the drivers lose control downhill and cause fatal collisions.

Ebola

The Ebola virus was the reason for my deployment in Africa. As mentioned at the outset, the topic of Ebola initially found little public attention with us in Europe. The authorities became aware as the first suspicions also arrived in Europe. At this time activists had long been active at the THW and other relief organizations.
Throughout the country, so-called ETC (Ebola Treatment Center) have been established. Often these were only tent cities built on planted surfaces in the bush. Since the hygiene plays an essential role in the fight against the Ebola virus numerous disinfecting stations were established.
Along the main roads, checkpoints were always set up, in which each individual traveler had to measure his body temperature. At the same time, washing hands was always a must.
The treatment centers themselves were divided into three areas. There was the green zone where you could move freely as a helper. Here were accommodated large parts of the technology. Our work took place only in these areas.
The white zone was the area where doctors and carers moved. This zone borders the red zone.
In the red zone we had absolutely no search. Here, patients were treated. This, however, was not part of our mission.

What remains?

The almost four weeks I spent in Sierra Leone were physically very demanding for me. There was much to do. Work was also done on the weekends. Ebola unfortunately does not end on Friday afternoon. I think that as a THW team we have achieved a lot in that time.
Personally, this mission was clearly a great enrichment in my life. Even if some impressions have made me feel a bit heavy. The positive prevails in any case! I am grateful for every day I could be there and help.
I sincerely hope that Sierra Leone and its neighbors will successfully fight the Ebola virus and return to normal.
I wish people peace there and their little personal happiness for the future!