February Update from Niger

Our program here in Niger has been reduced for 2007, particularly since severe malnutrition has been reduced after a lot of work in 2006.

We just announced our reduction plan on Friday: 130 people to leave between now and the 15^th of March. When I arrived in September, there were about 770 employees. Now there will be about 330 left on long term contracts. Even in the States or in Europe, that would be a hard hit for a town, but here, we are the biggest employer and unemployment is already over 50%.

The good news is that we will surely rehire between 60 and 80 people on 2 to 6 month contracts for new projects in the area (infant mortality studies; distribution of a new product, a food supplement adapted to Africa to prevent malnutrition; construction of a laboratory in the local hospital, etc.). Between firings, hiring, paydays, reprimands, accounting, etc., my days are fairly full.

But I feel more confident in my work here than I did when I arrived. I’ve even started to relax a bit on Sundays. And my days are becoming less routine. Last night, we went to a theater production in French, a cute fairy tale written by an Ivorian. Tuesday and Wednesday, I should go to Zinder, the old capital, with one of our Nigerien doctors to evaluate their hospital for our national staff health program.

And now that our 2007 program is established, people are flocking in. Our Field Coordinator, Matt, is a nurse from Australia. He’s very dynamic, and good for the program. We have a Bulgarian architect here to help construct the lab. Two women will arrive this week for the mortality study, a Canadian and a French. There are many visits from headquarters in Paris. And our targeted distribution program is bringing in loads of people.

I no longer sleep alone. Josephine shares my grass hut ever since she woke up from hibernation. She’s the house turtle, who is around 15 inches in diameter. Sometimes she gets her foot caught in my mosquito net and I have to free her before going back to sleep. And when she poops in the hut, it’s very unpleasant.

Our capital administrator is leaving at the end of February for Chad, and my counterpart administrator here in the field is leaving mid-March. So I agreed to stay until the end of April to finish up the staffing, to put the targeted distribution program in place, and to leave a clean program for the administrator who will replace me. I will be pretty tired by then, and ready to leave. After that, I will start renovating my condo in Lyon and spend a week with the family in Indiana. I will have at least three months before leaving on mission again. At least, that’s the plan.