I thought I was finally free from Ebola. Tanzania is located at the eastern
extremity of Africa continent, so there would be almost zero possibility to
find Ebola case in Tanzania. Am I happy now? Not yet. I do not want to be
irresponsible person who celebrates successful evacuation and forgets about
Ebola. WVSL, MSF, local medical doctors and nurses are still desperately
fighting against Ebola. I could not help watching and reading Ebola news even
though I have been relocated to Ebola-free area.
A lot of sad news about Ebola continuously has been reported through CCTV
America and BBC news. Sadly, leading Ebola doctor Sheik Umar Khan from Sierra
Leone has been dead age 39 from Ebola disease. He had treated more than 100
Ebola patients and saved their lives, but he had contracted this disease
himself and died on July 29, 2014. The death of national hero must be national
tragedy, and I was shocked that even Ebola expert could not avoid this deadly
disease. I express my deepest condolence to his sacrifice, and we should ensure
that his life-risking effort and death would not be wasted.
<Profile:
Leading Ebola doctor Sheik Umar Khan>
I never met Suzy in Sierra Leone. She is the one who told me the country
name, Sierra Leone. She had been
doing her Peace Corps volunteer in Sierra Leone, and I took courage from her to
take the risk of coming to Sierra Leone, in the beginning of Ebola epidemic
from the border. She decided to extend her service one more year, which will be
3 years life in Sierra Leone, and that made me really surprised. I wished I
could meet her to share our Sierra Leone story, but this exigent circumstance
made hundreds of Peace Corps volunteers in West Africa evacuate to the U.S. She
may stay in Salt Lake City indefinitely until Ebola outbreak is contained.
Sierra Leone has declared a state of emergency, 60 to 90 days, to fight
against Ebola, and World Health Organization would launch $100 million response
plan to take the new level of response to Ebola. I suddenly worry about Nicole,
who is my fellow colleague in Kenya. Like I took Kenya Airways from Sierra
Leone, Kenya is a central hub that most of airplanes from West Africa pass
through. I left Sierra Leone at the right timing, so I did not meet
surveillance for detecting Ebola at every entry, a strong checks to every
passengers has been strengthened in the airports to quarantine suspicious Ebola
patients.
<Ebola
virus: the tiny airport in Sierra Leone that has direct link to Britain>
In the meantime, I have to eat something. Worrying about epidemics does not
resolve the problem. Denice invited me to lunch, so I would eat a lot! I went
to Denice’s guesthouse with Lydia and Modest, and we cooked food from noon to
4pm! (I have to admit that I only washed vegetables…) I consider myself a good
cook who can make food for survival, which means, I do not much care about the
taste or shape of food because any food would end up being digested in the
stomach. My cooking philosophy is to complete the main soup and rice within 30
minutes and eat all up in a twinkle. This 4-hour nicely prepared meal with love
and sincerity is undeserved treatment to me. I do not know why, but I always
miss meals in military, especially combat ration. I periodically used to have
intake of combat ration because they have to be consumed by soldiers before
2-year expiration date would have passed. This food is of course,
incommensurable with 전투식량 in
military. Anyway, regardless of the taste, the best food is always the one that
I have when I am hungry.This is an uneasy peace to me. Although I am in quite, calm, and peaceful country, Tanzania, I am still doing Sierra Leone AIM-Health project evaluation. Ebola must be outside Tanzanians’ interests because it is not their reality. People in Freetown are still afraid of shaking hands with others, to be sure, and hesitant to even take a taxi. I ate a lot and took some rest in Tanzania today. My body took advantage of some leisure, but my mind still stick with Don't touch! or you will die disease.
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