It has been awhile–two years. I left Sierra Leone in 2014 not knowing at the time that Ebola had just brought her misery to the country. I recall that $1 U.S. dollar bought something close to 4200 Leones–today you can get 7400 Leones on the street. I’ve maintained contact with my close friends and the […]
maternal mortality in Sierra Leone
Trashing the bed…
Of the scores of photos I’ve taken in Africa, there is one that stays with me. It is a photo of the labour and delivery bed in the clinic in Sumbuya, Sierra Leone. The leather itself seems anguished–worn in places–torn in others. If you look closely enough you can almost hear the voices of the […]
Salone 2014: on returning to Sierra Leone
The novel is out, the reviews are wonderful and I’m moving on to other projects, writing and otherwise. I’ve been meaning to write about the notes I’ve been receiving from readers of My Heart is Not My Own. And I will–next time. The comments, from book club participants and readers from across the country, are […]
On, debt to life….
I’m not overly superstitious—I walk under ladders, step on cracks in the sidewalk. I know a Russian neurologist, well published in scientific journals, who doesn’t like to acknowledge when “things are going well” as we do in North America—what if, in the telling, you make it not so? In My Heart is Not My Own […]
Back to the beginning….
Thanks to my agent, Drea Cohane, My Heart Is Not My Own is finally getting into the hands of acquiring editors. And so my thoughts return to the beginning…. In 2000, during the civil war in Sierra Leone, I visited a refugee camp in Freetown. I remember several images from that trip, but one in […]
No Petrol for the Ambulance
Mohamed is the local Community Health Officer. He has 3 years of training after high school. With this professional background he stitches wounds, performs minor surgeries, and treats malaria. Today I rode with Mohamed on his motorbike to his health centre in Mombajo. His first patient was a young 20 year old woman who was […]