Page 17 - RADC 2015

Med training
with. On a less violent note there was yoga with the physio and hour-long abs sessions with me for those who dared.
Jungle training
The opportunity came up to do Jungle training, and as one of the few opportunities to leave camp Captain Dobie and I jumped at the chance. Even with the warning that we may come across snakes and lots of other deadly African animals, we were still eager to participate. So off we went on the bumpy roads of Sierra Leone, through lots of little villages to get to Guma Dam. On arrival we got the usual health and safety briefs, collected our packed lunches and began
the trek into the deep dark jungle. The sights on the trek in were absolutely amazing, it was one of the most beautiful places I had ever been to. There were various different stands that the Ri es had set up for us
to participate and learn different survival activities, these included history of jungle warfare, movement through the jungle, kit required, shelter building, food testing, water collection and trapping. And just to make sure we were sweating each stand had been set up in different locations, so up and down the hills it was, some good free phys!
DERC Trip
The DERC (District Ebola Response Centre) trip was the best experience of the entire tour for me. First of all we got to go to the DERC headquarters so you could see how everything was being managed. Following Ebola cases through being reported, to how ambulances were then dispatched and how contact tracing was done. It was a really good establishment for something that had not been in place for long. From there we got to go in to one of the local communities where a number of families had been quarantined in their houses, due to being in contact with a positive Ebola victim. It just so happened that the day we visited was the day that they were going
to be released. It was fantastic seeing the
Role 1 facility
smiles on the family’s faces when they were con rmed Ebola free and the cordon around their houses were cut. We took food and stationary for the children to help them with their schooling. From visiting the community we got to go to one
of the burial sites...
this was one of the
most awful things that
I have ever had to see.
Thousands of mud
mounds marked with
only a stick marked
number. Another
moment where it really hit home how bad Ebola was and the massive affects it had on the country. There were two burials whilst we were there. They could not carry out the funeral services in their usual way, with their traditions. Instead, the bodies were taken out the back of a truck by people wearing full PPE, put into a hole in the ground, sprayed with chlorine and then buried.
From there we went on to visit a voluntary quarantine centre that was run by one man and some voluntary workers. It was amazing to see the extent people were going to, to help others. Truly inspirational and it was a day that I will never forget.
Quiz Night
Camp seemed to be lacking a little morale at one point so myself and Captain Dobie took it upon ourselves to organise a quiz and karaoke night. There had been numerous quiz nights in the past, but lots of people complained the questions were all for ‘old’ people. So we did a ‘Battle of the decades quiz’ just the make things fair. We had forfeits for the losing/cheating teams which consisted of egg roulette. It went down really well and all had lots of fun. Following the quiz we set up the karaoke system,
we seemed to have our own Slim Shady in the form of our FCWO who wasn’t shy to the microphone! The karaoke requests continued to ow in all night and the night turned out to be a great success. Such
a success that people were asking us when we would be planning another, so the Saturday before our departure from Sierra Leone we decided to host another one to celebrate Armed Forces Day. We
decorated the whole place with ags and bunting, this time we did a ‘Music quiz’
lets just say people weren’t speci cally clued up on the corps march songs round, but Captain Dobie’s
‘Disney Round’ went down well! The egg roulette was out in full force again for the losing team and the winning team were crowned with there Hawaiian garlands. Once again the FCWO kicked off the night with a rap on the karaoke and we even managed to get the Ri es guys up to give us a song. Captain Dobie also got serenaded to a bit of Elvis Presley!
Captain Dobie’s ‘Disney Round’ went down well!
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