I hope this post gets published. One or two haven't and this is my last chance. They're going to cut off our e-mail access at the end of the year.
It's one week before Christmas, and it's easily 85 degrees out. Christmas dinner is a big discussion here between us expats. We have the basics, but that's about all. There's a flock of turkeys which roams around the village; I will try to find the owner and buy one from him. I've purchased some small gifts for all the expats, just to mark the occasion.
The Congolese vote for their constitution today. It's the first time they have voted since 1984. That time it was for the president: Mbutu or not. There was no other candidate. If you voted "no", you were beat up, sent out of the country, or you disappeared. If the constitution passes, they can move on th general elections, which are planned for June 2006. That would be great. It won't solve all their problems, especially here in the east of the country, but it would be a big step.
Here in Kayna, things are relatively calm for the moment. The military heated up the action against the ex-Rwanda faction a couple of weeks ago, and there were quite a few population displacements, but things have calmed down just before the elections. As a primarily Christian country, the holiday season should be fairly quiet, too. The biggest problem will be theft and looting, with people taking out whatever money they have for Christmas gifts, etc. And then, at the beginning of the year, we expect quite a bit of military action. Things will heat up again.
I gave my date of departure yesterday. It will be March 20-30. Afterwards, I hope to continue with MSF. I just had an evaluation by one of my bosses in Goma, and it seems that MSF is willing, too. My current plans are to buy a small condominium near New York. It's the easiest town in the U.S. to get in and out of for the missions; MSF U.S. headquarters are there; and I could fairly easily get back to Indiana to see my family from time to time.
I wish everyone a merry Christmas, and a very good 2006.
Ed
Sunday, December 18, 2005
Tuesday, December 06, 2005
Back from Break
I'm back at work, now that the break is over. It was a great week. The southwest corner of Uganda is beautiful. I did a lot of hiking, some canoeing, quite a bit of photography, and ate and drank a lot. And it's actually good to be back in Kayna.
I had already forgotten the pace of work here. I beginning and end of the day are the busiest times. In the morning, we have to distribute the drivers, hand out a lot of money, see what has changed during the night, etc. At the end of the day, we pay the day workers, evaluate what has been done, see what has changed (again), and try to plan for the next day. Things change all the time: the security situation; people to be replaced due to illness, or deaths in their family; visits from regional headquarters or from Paris; hospital or field emergencies; car problems; or about anything else that one can think of. There's never a dull moment.
We are 6 at the house for the moment, one short of a full team. There's Anne-Laure, our site leader from Paris; Agnes, our anethysiste also from the area around Paris; Alexandra, the nurse from northwestern France who was on break with me; Stéphane, a doctor from Benin who will be leaving in a couple of weeks; Gedeon, a doctor from Kinshasa Congo; and me. We are missing a surgeon. In principal, Christophe, who was here when I arrived will be coming back for a week to fill in this gap until Paris can arrange for another one. He's a great surgeon, but has quite a personality to manage. We have a really great team, who get along well together. Apparently, this isn't always the case. When you live and work together 24 hours a day, it's appreciable when the team has cohesion.
I noticed during my break that a couple of blog updates made via email didn't make it. I don't know if this one will get there. I don't know, either what I said in the updates which didn't get posted. It's not important.
I'm now midway through my six months in this first mission. It's going very fast. I feel a lot better in my poste, and hope that I am contributing something to the work here. Anyway, it's what I want to do for a long time.
I had already forgotten the pace of work here. I beginning and end of the day are the busiest times. In the morning, we have to distribute the drivers, hand out a lot of money, see what has changed during the night, etc. At the end of the day, we pay the day workers, evaluate what has been done, see what has changed (again), and try to plan for the next day. Things change all the time: the security situation; people to be replaced due to illness, or deaths in their family; visits from regional headquarters or from Paris; hospital or field emergencies; car problems; or about anything else that one can think of. There's never a dull moment.
We are 6 at the house for the moment, one short of a full team. There's Anne-Laure, our site leader from Paris; Agnes, our anethysiste also from the area around Paris; Alexandra, the nurse from northwestern France who was on break with me; Stéphane, a doctor from Benin who will be leaving in a couple of weeks; Gedeon, a doctor from Kinshasa Congo; and me. We are missing a surgeon. In principal, Christophe, who was here when I arrived will be coming back for a week to fill in this gap until Paris can arrange for another one. He's a great surgeon, but has quite a personality to manage. We have a really great team, who get along well together. Apparently, this isn't always the case. When you live and work together 24 hours a day, it's appreciable when the team has cohesion.
I noticed during my break that a couple of blog updates made via email didn't make it. I don't know if this one will get there. I don't know, either what I said in the updates which didn't get posted. It's not important.
I'm now midway through my six months in this first mission. It's going very fast. I feel a lot better in my poste, and hope that I am contributing something to the work here. Anyway, it's what I want to do for a long time.
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