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.
