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!