Monday, 8 September 2008

Morning sickness

One of my Liberian drivers asked me for $80 US this morning for medicine for his wife, who is in the very early stages of pregnancy and is suffering from morning sickness. He took her to a local clinic, who said the baby was positioned wrongly and needed medicine to move it into the right position - hence the $80. I told him that the clinic were talking a load of rubbish and were trying to cheat him, and that nothing can be done about morning sickness or about moving a fetus around the size of a peanut. This is a perfect example of how many private clinics (staffed by semi-qualified "medical" staff) work in Liberia. I think even I know more about medicine than they do. Olly

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hello

I am writing to you from a UK based television company called Firefly.

I am researching a documentary series about the places on Earth with the most extreme weather conditions (wettest / hottest / coldest / highest etc) and Monrovia appears to top the list of wettest inhabited place on the planet.

I am in touch with the Liberian Embassy in London, but they are moving rather slowly - over a week and still no response to my email! So I thought I would try and contact some people who live in Monrovia.

I found your blog on the net, and just wondered if you would mind helping me with a few questions that I have?

If you don't mind, I would really like to know when the rainy season is, when it is wettest and a description of how bad it is and how it affects people's lives.

My email address is sophie.leonard@fireflyproductions.tv.

I would be very grateful for any information you could give me or any reccommendations of website I should look at etc.

Many thanks for any help you may be able to offer.

Best wishes

Sophie