Next stop: Sierra Leone

After 28 hours of flights and layovers, it took another 6 hour journey in a 4×4 along some of the bumpiest roads I’ve ever seen to get us to our destination: Serabu, Sierra Leone. Although I’ve traveled to this continent before, this would be my first time working in Africa. I wasn’t sure what to expect. However, I had the good fortune of tagging along with the Southern Eye Clinic run by Cathy Schanzer, MD and her husband Tom Lewis. They are veterans in the medical missionary world and have been coming to Sierra Leone for well over a decade. They have created and continue to fund a full-time eye care facility in the rural inland area of Sierra Leone. The two weeks that I spent here were a brief introduction to the astounding unmet need on the African continent and an experience I will never forget.