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!

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.

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.

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:

• 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

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.

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

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

Christmas in RD Congo

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

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.

My Break

I'm on my break. Finally, it's in the southwest corner of Uganda, a region known as Kigezi. I wasn't really in need of a break, but it sure does some good. This area seems rich next to our region of Congo. The people don't have anything, but there's a stable governmentm and no looting.
Right nowm I'm on a huge lake, Lake Bunyonyi, with 29 islands. I leave on foot to town, Kabale, in a few minutes (about 2 hours) for some purchases for myself, coworkers in Kayna, and MSF too. After a night in town, I leave for a national game park, Bwindi, for a day and a half. They have gorilla tracking, but that's too expensive. I will be going on a foot trip through the park with a guide. Then back down to a border town where we meet up with the MSF contact, getting back to Kayna Saturday afternoon.

The whole trip should cost about $250, with my purchases costing more than that. Fortunatelym most of them will be reimbursed.

Before the Break

Just a quick update before leaving on my break. We get a week off every three months. Yes, it's been nearly that! I was scheduled to go to Kampala in Uganda, but the recent riots there caused a change in plans. I will be going to a game park just over the border in Rwanda, with Alexandra, a nurse who arrived here at the same time that I did. Apparently, one of the things we can do is an overnight hiking trip to look into an active volcano! I also have a list of things to buy, for myself as well as for the mission and the other expats here. The purchases will be in Goma, our new regional headquarters.

I'm trying to get things in order here before leaving, but it's going to be tough. We are in the middle of budgetting 2006. I'm transferring all the files from our old computer to the new one which arrived Sunday. We have a mobile clinic right now for about 400 internal refugees about an hour south of here. And the planning for our 4 four-by-fours and a flatbed truck changes about every 5 minutes.

On the positive side, our new surgeon arrived Sunday. His name is Jean-Pierre. He's 70 years old, and he's here for a month. (Our last one, Sam, was here for 2 weeks.) He's a great guy, but the flight and the drive here from Goma really racked up his back. I feel pretty bad for him, but he's determined to operate, even though he suffers quite a bit.

We had a party Saturday evening to say goodby to a nurse, Dominique, and an anethesiste, Jean-Michel. Dominique is going to Beni, 6 hours north of us, to close the mission there by the end of the year. She should come down before leaving to celebrate new Year's Eve with us. And Jean-Michel is returning to France.

Got to go. Bye,
Ed

This Week in Kayna

Just to give you an idea how isolated we are: This week I went to the bank. It takes 4 hours each way. This was the first time I had been out of Kayna since I arrived at the beginning of September. The bank is in Butembo, which is a fairly large commercial city. On the way back, I bought 4 cheeses (dear to the hearts of our French expats) and about four quarts of strawberries. These are two items we bring back each time someone comes down from the north; they are both on the roadside during the trip.

There was some pillaging in town again this week. The thieves steal mainly the items needed to live: food, livestock, clothing, and any money they find. They sometimes kidnap someone to carry the loot for them, letting them go after they are away.

There is some population displacement south of us, around Butalongola, south of Kanyabayonga, due to armed conflict between the regular army and a faction which doesn't want to be mixed in with them. We are going to set up a mobile clinic in Butalongola for the medical needs of the 1000 displaced families in the area.

I managed to set up a system of batteries in the house, so that we can have electricity after 9:30 when the generator is shut off. For the instant, one electrical outlet is functioning, so we can listen to music or watch a film on the computer without depleting its battery. Next week, we'll have light after 9:30 in the living room, dining room and hallway. This is luxury! Anyway, I'm usually asleep by 10:00 or 10:30, getting up at daybreak at 6:00, so it won't affect me much.

I'm scheduled for a one week break the end of November/beginning of December. I will be going to Kampala, Uganda. Some of my collegues have already given me information about where to stay and what to do. I also have some shopping to do: deodorant, razor blades, chocolat, video and audio CDs, some Christmas gifts for here, and some Swiss Army knives for our emergency evacuation backpacks.

Until the next update!

It's heating up!

Action is picking up here in Kayna:

• About 10 days ago, our site head and a truck driver were imprisonned for a couple of hours by a maimai capitain. The maimais are the local militias, originally set up to help protect the local population, but who have become a bit like the local gangs back in the old west. The capitain accused the truck driver of trying to run over him, and when the site head showed up to liberate him, the capitain locked him up, too. After a couple of hours, he sobered up and let them go.
• The governor of this region has announced military action in Virunga Park (just east of us) this weekend, probably to flush out the FDRC (Rwanda army) who refuse the plan to be mixed into the new integrated Congolese army. This could mean that they will flee east and west, probably pillaging the local population for food and other provisions on their way. There is no circulation in the park this weekend. We are on security alert, as well as getting ready for displaced populations. We won't be going to our Supplemental Nutrition Center near the park on Monday.
• MSF Holland has just shut down one of their operations in the Virunga Park, and we have picked up the business of undernourished kids from this community. We now have 80 undernourished kids, along with about 120 family members, here at the Therapeutic Nutrition Center.

On the other hand:

• We just implemented a new pay scale for the MSF and government hospital staff (whom we pay as well). It was a lot of work for Wapol, the assistant Admin and me getting it ready, but this is the first pay raise for the 150 employees here in a long time. We pay in cash, and as Log/Admin, I had the pleasure of helping to pay them Friday. They were rather euphorique.
• Monday (tomorrow) is Halloween. They don't know anything about our traditions, but I'm going to be dressed up as a Mohawk Indian all day long. They already know that I'm crazy, so it probably won't affect them much.

Email here is on a satellite link, which is very expensive and slow. It is used primarily for work communications, but we can accept comunications from outside, if we don't abuse the system. If you send a message, please include my name in the title ( "Ed" will do).
DO NOT SEND PHOTOS, OR OTHER BIG ITEMS. They block the system, and cost us a fortune. Keep the message short. The address is:

msff-kayna-sat@paris.msf.org

Take care of yourselves, and I will do the same.

First update from Kayna

Sorry for the time lapse.  I've been busy.  Also, the only internet access I have is a limited email connection, which is as expensive as hell. Fortunately, the good people from Google let me update this blog by email.  Here's the situation:

 

I left my house on the 31st of August and arrived in Kayna the 7th of September, after a short stay in Paris and Beni, DR Congo, where our regional headquarters are.  There was a lot of travel and some briefings between those dates.  I arrived to a warm welcome, then they sent me directly to work!

 

Eastern DR Congo has been an area of conflict for several years.  It is a very rich area with metal ore, diamonds, rich earth and plentiful water.  It is situated on the boundaries of Uganda, Rwanda and the DR Congo.  Between political conflict, ethnic conflict, economic conflict, etc., the habitants are used to being pillaged.  Now, they don't even bother to recontruct or restock afterwards.  This town, Kayna, has 20,000 inhabitants, and not one store, apart from some market stalls.

 

There are about five different armed groups in the area.  Even the regular army isn't paid regularly; imagine the rebel groups.  When not fighting between themselves, they provide for themselves off the local population:  crops, money, material, and sex.  Pillage, injury, rape, murder and displaced population are recurrent.

 

We are on the edge of this violence.  The major movements of the armed groups are in Virunga Park, a natural park east of Kayna and west of Rutshuru, where MSF-France has another installation.

 

Our programs here deal with these problems:

1. Supplemental Nutrition Centers - We have centers in five different outlying villages (1 a day, Monday through Friday) where undernourished kids are given nutrition supplements until they are back into their normal weight class.
2. Therapeutic Nutrition Center - Kids who are severely undernourished are encouraged to come to a special center here in Kayna (with a family member) to bring them back into their weight class, under medical supervision.
3. Victims of Sexual Violence - Women who have been sexually abused are encouraged to come to Kayna or the outlying centers for counseling and medical aid.
4. Hospital - MSF-France took charge of the local hospital 4 months ago, working with the local staff to improve the surgery, medical treatment and hygiene provided by the local health system.

In fact, we are on the edge of a conflict zone.  Between Rutshuru and us, we are in place if (when) all hell breaks loose here (again,) to assist potential  refugies.

 

My job in all this as logisticien/administrator is to provided an environment and supplies so that the doctors and unrses can do their thing:  payroll (in cash), human resources, contracts, purchasing, receiving, stock management, construction, maintenance, vehicle fleet and drivers, communications, security, etc.  I have six local assistants, who do the real work.  In total, we are 6 expats, 126 local employees   of MSF-France and 35 employees of the local health system, whom we pay as well.

 

Life at the house:  For the moment, we are 6 expats who live in the compound.  There is Chris, a surgeon from northern France; Jean-Michel, an anysthesist from southern France; Stephane, a doctor from Benin, Gedeon, a doctor from Kinshasa, DR Congo; Alex, a nurse from northern France and me. We are expecting two more this month:  our site director (There has been none for 2 1/2 months.  We depend on the assistant director who does a great job.) and another nurse.  We live in two houses which are adjacent, one also housing the base operation.  The two together are enclosed together, with guards on duty 24 hours a day.  We aren't allowed out of this enclosure after dark (6:00 pm all year round.  We are on the equator.)  We have a cook and two housekeepers, who also do the laundry.  There is no running water, and electricity is provided by a generator, from 8:00 to 12:00 and from 5:30 to 9:30.  There are water storage vats in the bathrooms and the outside kitchen.  Showers are "by the bucket":  the compound guards heat water in a large vat and we go out in the morning with a bucket, pour in a couple of pitchers of hot water, go to the bathroom, mix in several pitchers of cold water and, voila, the shower is prepared.  Everyone has his/her own bedroom.  We eat together and mostly spend the evening together after dinner.  Entertainment in the evening consists of conversation and listening to music on the laptop. 

 

All in all, I'm very happy to be here.  There is al awful lot of work to do, and it's great.  I'm learning new things every day, once again.  I have the blues from time to time, because I don't feel up to the challenge.  But the people are so great here, and so encouraging, that they pass in 24 hours.  I am living again.  I just hope I live up to expectations. 

 

 

 

 

I leave tomorrow

I leave here tomorrow for MSF Paris at 1:15 pm and leave directly from there for D.R. Congo on Friday. I think I am ready, but I'm pretty sure that I will forget something major. The toughest part is getting 6 months of baggage into 44 pounds. This restriction is more for security reasons than for the airlines. If we have to leave quickly, we are each limited to this amount of baggage. I'm taking my computer, but not the printer. There's no internet access available locally, but my reference manuals are on CD and paper. With the weight restrictions, I'm leaving the paper manuals behind.

Until I know otherwise, email will get to my mailbox, but I don't know how often I will be able to access it. Mail should be sent to MSF Paris, and they will forward it on to me. I put my mailing address in the header of this blog. Don't expect quick delivery. It will go from you to MSF Paris, then to MSF Kinshasa, then on to me in Kayna.

I'll get back in touch when I get a chance.

RD Congo, here I come!

For those of you who have been waiting with baited breath (hello?), it's confirmed. I'm going to the Democratic Republic of Congo. I telephoned MSF Tuesday to accept the post of logisticien / administrator in Kayna. I will leave here the afternoon of August 31 for MSF Paris for briefings with the staff there and a medical visit at Institute Pasteur. I leave Paris for Kampala, Uganda on September 2 and go from there to Kayna, arriving on September 3.

Apparently, there's no internet access from Kayna, so future postings to this blog may be sporadic. MSF Paris will forward mail to me. I have placed my mailing address in the header of this blog. Please note that it could take a while for any mail to arrive.

I have quite a few things to do before leaving, but I'll check in here before that.

Map of the Democratic Republic of Congo

Here's a map of the RDC, just in the case that there are others out there who are as geographically uneducated as I am. If you look over at the eastern border, next to Uganda and Rwanda, you will see Nord Kivu (written in green). That's the province proposed. Apparently, Kayna is on the road between Goma and Beni (hard to see on the map but visible in the southeast and northeast corners respectively), about 6 hours from Beni. Even though it is only about 50 miles south of the equator, it seems that it can be cold and windy, since it is at an altitude of over a mile.

MSF just proposed a post

I just received a call from MSF in Paris, proposing a mission. The post is in the Democratic Republic of Congo, also known as Congo - Kinshasa, formerly Zaire. The site is Kayna, in the eastern province of North Kivu. The main program on this site concerns severe and moderate malnutrition. There are also programs for victims of sexual violence, displaced populations, and cholera. It is a very unstable area, with several different militias vying for power. MSF has about 98 local employees, and 6 expatriates. The person I am to replace has already left, so there will be no "hand-off".

The mission should be really interesting, especially as a first departure, in that it covers most of the types of operations and programs that MSF is involved in. It's going to be a baptism by fire! Fortunately, it's not a new mission. They have been installed at Kayna since the beginning of 2004, so the camp is installed, and the local employees are already trained and operational.

I will do a lot of reading this weekend, and will probably say "yes" Tuesday (Monday is a holiday here in France). The thing is that they need someone as soon as possible, to replace the guy who left over a week ago for medical reasons.

Photo: Souvenir from PPDL Training

The second day of training, I backed into a historical moment, a stone-lined well at the training site. Don't worry, the well survived intact. In the field, we are discouraged from driving the vehicles ourselves. We have chauffeurs for every vehicle. In my case, at least, that is an EXCELLENT idea.

Back from PPDL Training

I got back from training around 2:00 am Saturday morning. The training was great! We hit on a lot of subjects really quickly, but we also got an abundance of information on where to look for references the first time we need to do something. Topics included:

1. Where logisticiens/administrators fit into MSF
   
2. The MSF technical library (where to look for references and info, based on 30 years of experience)
   
3. Health indicator statistics
   
4. Urgencies: needs and responses
   
5. Security
   
6. Energy (providing electricity needs in the bush)
   
7. Water, hygene and sanitation (finding and cleaning water, public facilities like latrines, and waste treatment)
   
8. Malnutrition campaigns
   
9. Purchasing (local and via MSF France)
   
10. Transportation
    
11. Accounting
    
12. Human Resources (managing the local personnel)
    
13. Communications (radio, telex, telephone, etc. in the bush)
    
14. Refrigeration (active and passive, especially for vaccinations, including the use of kerosene-powered refrigerators)
    
15. Vaccination campaigns
    
16. Mechanics (maintaining a fleet of vehicles)
    
17. Cholera treatment
    

Not bad for 5 days, huh? The trainers were all MSF veterans, with a lot of field experience, and my 10 co-trainees were super people. I would be happy to go into a field mission with any of them.

I'm continuing to get my life together so that when my mission proposal comes in, I can leave with with a minimum of hassle. Wish me luck!