I’ve now been here for 2 ½ months, nearly the halfway mark in my mission. I feel a lot better about the work. And I’m learning to do things with Excel that I didn’t know were possible, thanks to Caroline, my counterpart in Tibiri, who is an expert. I’ll leave a good set of tools here (as well as taking them with me for future missions) for the staff to use.
The work is definitely more loaded towards the human resources side than the finance side. The budget is done mainly by the admin in the capital, Niamey. Sanoussi here in Maradi does a good job with the accounting, and Amina is great as cashier. Amadou, the assistant for human resources is good, too. But there’s so much to do here on that side.
For one, we are preparing the payroll with MSF’s human resources database system for the first time this month, the same one we began using my first month in Congo. It’s a huge effort to get it ready, and most of the work was prepared before I got here by Amadou. But I know from experience that there will be tons of errors due to info which was entered wrongly or not at all into the database.
There is also the discipline side of human relations. I spend a lot of my time in disciplinary issues: unexcused absences, disputes, thefts, etc. For the moment, we are in a fairly big investigation, which has already triggered the firing of six employees. We are very careful to be open and impartial in our findings, to avoid accusations of power abuse. This is not really pleasant. Every time I go on one of our outside sites with our program manager to investigate, people start getting nervous if we just look their way. But it’s necessary for the well-being of our nutritional program.
We are also pruning back the program seasonally. Malnutrition here grows from April/May until around October/November when the harvest comes in. So we hire a lot of people on short term contracts during that period and start laying them off in November. We stopped about 30 contracts at the end of November. This month and next month will see more layoffs.
The Nigeriens (people from the country of Niger are Nigeriens, people from the country of Nigeria, immediately south of us, are Nigerians) are friendly and courteous. They are good to work with. And the expatriate staff is a good group. I am in House #1 (there are 4 expat houses) with the rest of the Maradi Nutrition Program staff: 7 women and me. We all get along well, which is important in community living.
Right now we are anticipating our directions for 2007. 2005 was dedicated to fighting severe malnutrition caused by a drought and grain speculation. 2006 is dedicated to fighting long-term moderate malnutrition using new methods. We hope that 2007 will go more towards the cause of this chronic malnutrition by getting the program closer to the villages in the countryside to fight the malnutrition at the source. That’s being discussed in Paris at this moment. It will be interesting to see what happens.
Thursday, November 23, 2006
Friday, October 13, 2006
It's Friday the 13th
I just realised why its been such an exasperating day: it's Friday the 13th.
I"ve now been here for 5 weeks, and I'm still lost in my work. Anyway, there's an awful lot of it here. Niger is 174th out of 175 countries in terms of income. One out of five children die before the age of 15. Here in our region of Maradi, MSF-France will treat around 70000 undernourished children this year. And we provide free medical care to all the children under 5 in the 11 centers that we work in. Here in our Maradi program, I have 453 national staff that I work with as administrator. I'm out of the operations loop, but control the accounting and human resources side.
I got here one week before an outbreak of cholera. We built a temporary treatment center which shuts down tomorrow. Ramadan, the moslem version of lent (90% of Niger is Moslem) started three weeks ago, and we have one more week; it's kind of hard on scheduling. It's really hot. My first month was spent in company of hay fever. It's really hot. The accounting auditors arrive next weekend. I am the favorite food of the local mosquitoes. And staff disciplinary sanctions haven't stopped. (I guess not being able to eat or drink between sunrise and sunset during Ramadan is making them itchy.)
On the other hand, the Nigeriens are really friendly. Our expat house cook is great. The program is interesting. We are in town: there is electricity and running water (most of the time). The country is at peace. We can walk in the streets at night. There are a couple of restaurants and bars we can go to. And the favorite occupation of the expats on a Sunday afternoon is a club with a swimming pool.
The harvest of the local grain, mil, which can grow in this sandy soil, has begun, so the number of undernourished kids entering the program is diminishing. However, the number of sick kids under 5 is growing. We will probably be downsizing in the next few months, but we don't yet know by how much.
I work from 7:15 am to around 7:30 pm, and I am just as lost and panicked as I was at the beginning of my first mission in Congo. It's like being the accounting and human resources manager of a medium sized company. But I'm still learning an awful lot and hope that it will turn out as good as the first time. I'll try to keep you posted.
I"ve now been here for 5 weeks, and I'm still lost in my work. Anyway, there's an awful lot of it here. Niger is 174th out of 175 countries in terms of income. One out of five children die before the age of 15. Here in our region of Maradi, MSF-France will treat around 70000 undernourished children this year. And we provide free medical care to all the children under 5 in the 11 centers that we work in. Here in our Maradi program, I have 453 national staff that I work with as administrator. I'm out of the operations loop, but control the accounting and human resources side.
I got here one week before an outbreak of cholera. We built a temporary treatment center which shuts down tomorrow. Ramadan, the moslem version of lent (90% of Niger is Moslem) started three weeks ago, and we have one more week; it's kind of hard on scheduling. It's really hot. My first month was spent in company of hay fever. It's really hot. The accounting auditors arrive next weekend. I am the favorite food of the local mosquitoes. And staff disciplinary sanctions haven't stopped. (I guess not being able to eat or drink between sunrise and sunset during Ramadan is making them itchy.)
On the other hand, the Nigeriens are really friendly. Our expat house cook is great. The program is interesting. We are in town: there is electricity and running water (most of the time). The country is at peace. We can walk in the streets at night. There are a couple of restaurants and bars we can go to. And the favorite occupation of the expats on a Sunday afternoon is a club with a swimming pool.
The harvest of the local grain, mil, which can grow in this sandy soil, has begun, so the number of undernourished kids entering the program is diminishing. However, the number of sick kids under 5 is growing. We will probably be downsizing in the next few months, but we don't yet know by how much.
I work from 7:15 am to around 7:30 pm, and I am just as lost and panicked as I was at the beginning of my first mission in Congo. It's like being the accounting and human resources manager of a medium sized company. But I'm still learning an awful lot and hope that it will turn out as good as the first time. I'll try to keep you posted.
Friday, September 01, 2006
I'm off
I will be leaving for Niger sooner than expected; Friday 8 September. The admin I am replacing leaves earlier in the week, so there won't be much of a gap. I will miss my collegues from the Departure Desk here in Paris, where I worked for two months. It's a great group. They work hard, but they laugh a lot, too. I hope the tools I put together help them in their tasks.
The flight from Paris to Niamey, the capital of Niger is direct, a rarity for MSF flights. (To get to RD Congo, it was Paris/Brusselles, Brusselles/Entebbe and Entebbe/Beni.) Then, there will be a 10 hour drive from Niamey to Maradi.
Niger
One of the people in my admin training group is the admin in Tibiri, very close to Maradi. And another will be joining us in October as the capital admin in Niamey.
I will be in Niger for at least 6 months. I don't know what the internet situation is in Maradi, but I imagine that there are internet cafés; it's one of the main cities. My mailing address is:
Ed Brumit - Maradi, Niger
MSF
8, rue St. Sabin
75011 Paris FRANCE
I will probably be just as bad as ever about keeping in touch. Sorry. But I will try to update this blog from time to time.
Thursday, August 17, 2006
Summer in France, Winter in Niger
Sorry, I've been really bad about keeping this updated. I have an excuse: I don't have internet access at my place. Here's what's happening this summer:
- I came to Paris the weekend of 24/25 July for dinner with friends with whom I worked at HP in Germany over 20 years ago. It was great to see them again. They are all still doing great. It also turned out to be the weekend of Gay Pride in Paris. That was something to see.
- I got a call on Friday, 30 June, from MSF headquarters offering me a summer job in Paris starting Monday, 3 July. I accepted. I am replacing on a rotating basis the people on vacation in the departure department (it's like a travel bureau for people leaving on missions), and developing some tools for them to facilitate their work. I was lucky to find an apartment to sublet immediately, thanks to the help of my friend Martha Weeks.
- I took a few days off the week of 10 July, primarily to finalize the purchase of my studio condo in Lyon on 12 July. I'm not exactly sure when I will live in it. I have quite a bit of renovation to do, and it won't happen immediately.
- The week of 7 August was spent in Bordeaux in training as an administrator for MSF. My first mission (if you remember, readers) was as a logistician/administrator. This training is heavier on the admin side: accounting, budgets, external financing, customs for freight. It was a good course, and my collegues were great.
- I will continue to replace people in departures until 19 July. Starting 21 July, I can concentrate on the tools necessary to lighten their workload and facilitate the picking up of dossiers when someone is absent.
- Around the middle of September, I will be leaving for Maradi in Niger for 6 months as the l MSF project administrator. This is a huge nutritional program, treating 80000 kids a year for severe malnutrition.
Don't ask me where I live these days; it's pretty vague. Savoie? Lyon? Paris? Niger?
Who cares? It's the good life!
Sunday, May 21, 2006
Between Missions
I've been back in France for a month now. Last weekend I was in Paris. I had the opportunity to see my great friend, Martha Weeks. She's not getting older, she's getting better. It was good to catch up on her life (always in movement), and on news about our old buddies from HP. We even had dinner with another old HPer, Pierre Francois Catté.
The real reason for my trip to Paris, however, was the MSF General Assembly. It was interesting. I saw quite a few people that I knew already; more than I would have thought possible after only one mission. The association has some really great people involved, and they all have pretty interesting personalities. I feel that I am getting to know the organization better and better, and I like what I see. It's not perfection; that's clear in the biographie of MSF written by Anne Vallaeys which I am currently reading. But it seems a whole lot better than the other ONG's I've encountered. I'm glad that they've accepted me, and a looking forward to leaving with them on another mission at the end of July / beginning of August.
I will continue with MSF France. It is the oldest of the five sections (the others being Spain, Holland, Belgium/Luxembourg, and Switzerland) and it operates in over 40 countries. It also includes the US subsection. Of course, all departures and returns pass through Paris. To facilitate these movements, and simplify my life as a nomad, I just signed a "promise to purchase" on a tiny condominium in Lyon. I thought about buying in Paris but, financially, that's out of my league. Lyon is very convienent for travel, has great food, is a big city, and is where I lived 20 years ago.
Basically, the condominium will be my crashpad between missions and a place to store my stuff while I'm gone. As mentioned, its tiny: 187 square feet, with an 87 square foot mezzanine for sleeping. I should be owner in 4 to 6 weeks, once the city fathers decree that they have no other plans for the street which would cause the building to be torn down, or that they don't want to turn the apartment into social housing. Since there is some work to be done before I move in, I probably won't live in it before returning to the field. But I'm happy to be buying it now. It will give me something to do between missions, and the comfort of having my own place at those times.
The real reason for my trip to Paris, however, was the MSF General Assembly. It was interesting. I saw quite a few people that I knew already; more than I would have thought possible after only one mission. The association has some really great people involved, and they all have pretty interesting personalities. I feel that I am getting to know the organization better and better, and I like what I see. It's not perfection; that's clear in the biographie of MSF written by Anne Vallaeys which I am currently reading. But it seems a whole lot better than the other ONG's I've encountered. I'm glad that they've accepted me, and a looking forward to leaving with them on another mission at the end of July / beginning of August.
I will continue with MSF France. It is the oldest of the five sections (the others being Spain, Holland, Belgium/Luxembourg, and Switzerland) and it operates in over 40 countries. It also includes the US subsection. Of course, all departures and returns pass through Paris. To facilitate these movements, and simplify my life as a nomad, I just signed a "promise to purchase" on a tiny condominium in Lyon. I thought about buying in Paris but, financially, that's out of my league. Lyon is very convienent for travel, has great food, is a big city, and is where I lived 20 years ago.
Basically, the condominium will be my crashpad between missions and a place to store my stuff while I'm gone. As mentioned, its tiny: 187 square feet, with an 87 square foot mezzanine for sleeping. I should be owner in 4 to 6 weeks, once the city fathers decree that they have no other plans for the street which would cause the building to be torn down, or that they don't want to turn the apartment into social housing. Since there is some work to be done before I move in, I probably won't live in it before returning to the field. But I'm happy to be buying it now. It will give me something to do between missions, and the comfort of having my own place at those times.
Wednesday, April 26, 2006
I'm Back
I just got back from the Congo. It was a great mission, much better than I could have wished for. It was a BIG mission, over 200 people when I left. I experienced an evacuation, and helped set up an emergency operation for the displaced people in Kanyabayonga. For the first time out, I got exposure to an awful lot of situations.
So I will be taking off three months before heading out again with MSF. I hope to continue until I can no longer move.
So I will be taking off three months before heading out again with MSF. I hope to continue until I can no longer move.
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
Update from the Catholique Mission
I'm on a three-day break at the Catholique Mission of Mulo in Lubero, Three hours away from Kayna. They have a pretty good information systme, so I'm taking advantage of it to do an update.
I was supposed to finish my mission at the end of February, but I extended my stay up until the end of April, because of a personnelle shortage.
Since may last update, the hasn't been a slow moment. I returned from "exile" the 2nd of February, just in time to help organize an emergency response to a flux of around 50000 internally displaced people from the south of us, caused by rebel fighting. We set up 4 water distribution sites in the town of Kanyabayonga, 20 minutes south of Kayna, and three medical cliniques for free health care for these displaced people, including health care and counseling for victimes of sexuel violence. After nearly 2 months, some of the husbands return from time to time to tend the crops and return with harvests to feed their families, but the wives and children pretty much stay in Kanyabayonga; their home region is still rather unstable.
In the meantime in Kayna, where it's fairly stable (everything is relative), we hear gunshots about twice a week, due to looting of the local population ( usually attributed to the military, who are rarely paid and loot to feed themselves).
I feel really lucky to be here for my first mission with MSF:
I was supposed to finish my mission at the end of February, but I extended my stay up until the end of April, because of a personnelle shortage.
Since may last update, the hasn't been a slow moment. I returned from "exile" the 2nd of February, just in time to help organize an emergency response to a flux of around 50000 internally displaced people from the south of us, caused by rebel fighting. We set up 4 water distribution sites in the town of Kanyabayonga, 20 minutes south of Kayna, and three medical cliniques for free health care for these displaced people, including health care and counseling for victimes of sexuel violence. After nearly 2 months, some of the husbands return from time to time to tend the crops and return with harvests to feed their families, but the wives and children pretty much stay in Kanyabayonga; their home region is still rather unstable.
In the meantime in Kayna, where it's fairly stable (everything is relative), we hear gunshots about twice a week, due to looting of the local population ( usually attributed to the military, who are rarely paid and loot to feed themselves).
I feel really lucky to be here for my first mission with MSF:
- Already to start in a big mission is great. We were 8 expats and A60 national staff when I arrived.
- I experienced an evacuation in January. This is important in MSF, because it happens fairly often. I am lucky to know what to do and how to organize this type of operation. And it doesn't happen THAT often to a first-timer.
- And the icing on the cake, I am experiencing how to set up an emergency operation. MSF has teams of experienced people to to these operation, who came in and helped us out a lot, ut I got to participate after only 6 months. Our local staff shot up from 160 to 150 in 3 weeks, and at times we were 16 expats in the house.
I I don't really screw something up between now and the end of April, I think they will let me stay on to keep working with them up until I can't move anymore.
Bye
Thursday, January 26, 2006
Things are heating up in our little corner of the world. Armed conflicts forced a partial evacuation of our mission on the 20th of January. I am in the part of the team asked to leave. The rest of the expat team left the next day. It was all done in the calm. The essential part of the team returned Monday, the 23rd. There are 3 of us left, along with 18 nationals, who will probably be able to return tommorrow. We are in Beni, about 7 hours away from Kayna.
All is fine. We really want to go back. I know that the team there, who are not exactly in a secure situation, are building links between each other that we (those of us left here) will never be able to have with them. But we also understand that it's best for everyone involved that there is a minimum of personnel there in case of armed conflict coming up that far.
Sorry that this is short, but I 'm pretty busy, even though I'm not on our base. I kind of head up the team here.
All is fine. We really want to go back. I know that the team there, who are not exactly in a secure situation, are building links between each other that we (those of us left here) will never be able to have with them. But we also understand that it's best for everyone involved that there is a minimum of personnel there in case of armed conflict coming up that far.
Sorry that this is short, but I 'm pretty busy, even though I'm not on our base. I kind of head up the team here.
Friday, January 13, 2006
My last email message from DR Congo
They will be cutting off our email access Sunday evening, so this is my last chance to send or RECEIVE email (hint, hint).
Here, we are supposedly into one of the dry seasons, but after a long dry spell, it has now rained for three days and it's cold! I'm not really sensitive to cold, but I've worn a sweater during the daytime for the last two days.
For those of you in Jeffersonville, you won't believe this but Wapol, the assistant administrator, is a member of the Brannam Tabernacle! I was talking with him today and mentionned that I was from Jeffersonville, Indiana. He got all excited and started talking about his religion and their prophet. Apparently, there are quite a few members here in Congo.
The stay of Elysee, the cook for the coordination team in Goma, was heavenly. This guy can open a restaurant anywhere. He did some training with our cook and left some spices, so we are hoping for the best. Our cook, Jean-de Dieu (John from God), does pretty well, but it's often the same things. Elysee had some cookbooks with him, and I'm in the process of entering some basic recipes into my computer (pie crusts, fried vegetable batter, "creme patisserie", etc) plus a few other recipes of his, so that I will have them available on future missions.
They say that "first departures" with MSF are for training. I believe it. Now I know what I need to bring with me for 6 months ( tocks of deodorant, razor blades, chapstick, toothpaste), what I DON'T need (we're limited to 44 pounds), and what I need in my computer (music, films, recipes, photo editing software, my bank account). Remember, we don't have internet access, just email; and now not even that.
Things are going well here, although as hectic as ever. I finished the end / beginning of the month stuff. Now it's finding cars to transport emergencies, field explorations, mobile clinics and construction material deliveries; taking care of employee conflicts and problems; finding, negitiating and installing water provisions; making estimates, overseeing and reporting final costs for construction projects; planning programs with our site head; etc. Anne-Laure, our site head, consults with and counts on me a lot; the old guy on the team. That helps me to get an overall view of our projects (after all, we're called Doctors Without Borders, not Log/Admin Without Borders - we're a MEDICAL relief organisation), and it's also flattering. She's great. She's always looking for ways to expand what we do here, but I'm afraid she's going to burn herself out.
All in all, I'm still learning a lot, and still having a great time working with the Congolese. They are a great bunch who have been dealt a raw deal. But they maintain an optimisme and a desire to get ahead which is incredible.
Bye,Ed
Here, we are supposedly into one of the dry seasons, but after a long dry spell, it has now rained for three days and it's cold! I'm not really sensitive to cold, but I've worn a sweater during the daytime for the last two days.
For those of you in Jeffersonville, you won't believe this but Wapol, the assistant administrator, is a member of the Brannam Tabernacle! I was talking with him today and mentionned that I was from Jeffersonville, Indiana. He got all excited and started talking about his religion and their prophet. Apparently, there are quite a few members here in Congo.
The stay of Elysee, the cook for the coordination team in Goma, was heavenly. This guy can open a restaurant anywhere. He did some training with our cook and left some spices, so we are hoping for the best. Our cook, Jean-de Dieu (John from God), does pretty well, but it's often the same things. Elysee had some cookbooks with him, and I'm in the process of entering some basic recipes into my computer (pie crusts, fried vegetable batter, "creme patisserie", etc) plus a few other recipes of his, so that I will have them available on future missions.
They say that "first departures" with MSF are for training. I believe it. Now I know what I need to bring with me for 6 months ( tocks of deodorant, razor blades, chapstick, toothpaste), what I DON'T need (we're limited to 44 pounds), and what I need in my computer (music, films, recipes, photo editing software, my bank account). Remember, we don't have internet access, just email; and now not even that.
Things are going well here, although as hectic as ever. I finished the end / beginning of the month stuff. Now it's finding cars to transport emergencies, field explorations, mobile clinics and construction material deliveries; taking care of employee conflicts and problems; finding, negitiating and installing water provisions; making estimates, overseeing and reporting final costs for construction projects; planning programs with our site head; etc. Anne-Laure, our site head, consults with and counts on me a lot; the old guy on the team. That helps me to get an overall view of our projects (after all, we're called Doctors Without Borders, not Log/Admin Without Borders - we're a MEDICAL relief organisation), and it's also flattering. She's great. She's always looking for ways to expand what we do here, but I'm afraid she's going to burn herself out.
All in all, I'm still learning a lot, and still having a great time working with the Congolese. They are a great bunch who have been dealt a raw deal. But they maintain an optimisme and a desire to get ahead which is incredible.
Bye,Ed
Sunday, January 08, 2006
News from Nord Kivu
We are into one of the dry periods of the year here (mid December - end February). Apparently, its more severe this year than usual. We will have to add two additional springs to the two we use to have enough water for the hospital, our theripeutic nutritional center, and the base operation. This involves getting the authorisation from the spring committees (we collect the water during the night so the local population can have access during the day, making the estimates for the cost (connecting to our two pumping stations), and doing the work. This is my biggest project for the moment (while continuing all the others.
I just finished my end of the month / beginning of the month marathon. That includes the pay (in cash, this time including the calculation of the end of the year bonus and holiday pay for 170 people), finishing the accounting for the months, the logistics / administration report, and the calculations and reports for consumption of diesel, gasoline, and kerosene for the cars, pumps, eletric generators, lamps, etc. We just finished the accounting yesterday, having to find a BIG error in the cash.
On the positive side, we are eating incredibly well this week. Our direction has recently moved from Beni in the north to Goma in the south. Their cook , Elysee, is here for a few days during the transition. We already eat pretty well, but this guy could start his own restaurant. Our regular cook is on sick leave, and will probably never work again because of a heart problem, and he is replaced by one of the housekeepers. He defends himself pretty well in the kitchen, but with the training of Elysee I think we are going to have a whole new culinary future here.
However, we may also have to augment our daily contribution to the "food fund", which I also have the pleasure of managing here. Hereés the way it works. As a volunteer of MSF, we are paid 610 dollars a month in an account in Paris. (We can't tap into this here, because there are no banks. The closest is 4 hours away. And anyway, there are no credit card withdrawals at the banks either.) Here in RD Congo, we are paid a daily living allowance of 7 dollars. Of this I collect 3 dollars per day for the "food fund". (Beer counts pretty heavy in this fund.) In December, with Christmas and New Years, we exploded the fund with purchases if european style stuff from a trip to Butembo, 4 hours north of here. I had to ask an additional 20 dollars from the seven of us expats here to finish the month. If our housekeeper/cook, Jean de Dieu, wants to keep up doing what Elysee is teaching him, we will have to add purchases, particularly spices, from Butembo each month, but we could still come out even at 4 dollars a month. It will be worth it.
That's All,
Ed
I just finished my end of the month / beginning of the month marathon. That includes the pay (in cash, this time including the calculation of the end of the year bonus and holiday pay for 170 people), finishing the accounting for the months, the logistics / administration report, and the calculations and reports for consumption of diesel, gasoline, and kerosene for the cars, pumps, eletric generators, lamps, etc. We just finished the accounting yesterday, having to find a BIG error in the cash.
On the positive side, we are eating incredibly well this week. Our direction has recently moved from Beni in the north to Goma in the south. Their cook , Elysee, is here for a few days during the transition. We already eat pretty well, but this guy could start his own restaurant. Our regular cook is on sick leave, and will probably never work again because of a heart problem, and he is replaced by one of the housekeepers. He defends himself pretty well in the kitchen, but with the training of Elysee I think we are going to have a whole new culinary future here.
However, we may also have to augment our daily contribution to the "food fund", which I also have the pleasure of managing here. Hereés the way it works. As a volunteer of MSF, we are paid 610 dollars a month in an account in Paris. (We can't tap into this here, because there are no banks. The closest is 4 hours away. And anyway, there are no credit card withdrawals at the banks either.) Here in RD Congo, we are paid a daily living allowance of 7 dollars. Of this I collect 3 dollars per day for the "food fund". (Beer counts pretty heavy in this fund.) In December, with Christmas and New Years, we exploded the fund with purchases if european style stuff from a trip to Butembo, 4 hours north of here. I had to ask an additional 20 dollars from the seven of us expats here to finish the month. If our housekeeper/cook, Jean de Dieu, wants to keep up doing what Elysee is teaching him, we will have to add purchases, particularly spices, from Butembo each month, but we could still come out even at 4 dollars a month. It will be worth it.
That's All,
Ed
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