Emily Cotter is a second-year medical student at George Washington University in Washington DC.  This summer, through Global Network founding collaborator Helen Keller International, Emily worked on NTDs in Sierra Leone.  Below is part 2 of her 4-part series detailing her experiences.

I spent a couple of weeks in the middle of the summer traveling around some northern and eastern areas of Sierra Leone doing more surveillance for schistosomiasis, this time for the type of schisto that affects the bladder (S. haematobium). These weeks of travel were filled with buckets of water for bathing, latrines with small rectangles for aiming, and local “chop” for eating.  The dusty and incredibly bumpy roads (good for facilitating digestion) left me feeling filthy, but ah fo do (what can you do, in the local Krio language)…

My co-intern and I went to different schools to collect urine samples from kids and did our lab work in the field.  We used pretty ingenious gear for this: a hand-cranked centrifuge and microscopes with mirrors on the bottom that utilized sunlight for the light-beam needed to look at the specimen. We would meet the primary schools in session and have the teachers randomly select 30 children for us to sample their urine for S. haematobium eggs.  Once selected, we’d wait until mid-day to have the children run around and exercise for 5-10 minutes, then have them urinate into small plastic vials, a funny or uncomfortable task for them about which they were good sports! Once we had the specimens, we set up our make-shift travel lab and worked outside, leaving me with a stellar tan line going from my elbows down to a line where the latex gloves stopped above my wrist.  After we were done with the work we would drive to the next chiefdom, meet with the local Paramount Chief (one of whom was wearing Obama flip flops!) to introduce ourselves, then meet with the teachers and health clinic staff who would find us a place to stay in the village for the night.

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