At the time of writing this, it’s Friday, the weekly day of rest in Sudan (I am posting it on Sunday, because we haven't had internet access for a week). I just took a walk into town with Fred, to get out of the compound. It rained pretty hard last night (we are in the rainy season up until October), and the market was pretty ravaged. We bought some meat and vegetables for tonight’s dinner, I found a guy to repair my leather flipflops, I bought another pair in plastic, and Fred has his water pipe (shisha) fix.
The coordination team has miraculously filled up; we are a complete team now. Besides me, the token American doing the accounting and budgets, we have 5 French and a Japanese.
Fred is the Head of Mission (the big boss). He is French, but has lived all over the world since he was 12. He now lives in Jakarta, Indonesia with his Italian wife when he’s not in the field. He’s been working for NGOs (non-governmental organizations) since 1992, and not only MSF-France. He arrived this week, but is only staying for a couple of months.
Mathilde, a French doctor, is our Medical Coordinator. She’s been with MSF for about 6 years, working 9 months with us, then returning to practice in northern France for 6 months at a time. She will be leaving around the end of September.
Thierry is the Logistics Coordinator. He arrived 10 days ago, and will also be staying for only 2 months. He has had a lot of experience with other NGOs and now is a permanent employee of MSF-France in the emergency pool.
Chloé is the Human Resources Coordinator. I met her in Paris when I worked in headquarters last summer. She started MSF about the same time I did, in the autumn of 2005. When she leaves at the end of September, I take over her responsibilities as well as my own.
Sandrine is the Pharmacist. She’s from Bayonne, in the Basque country. She has been here a while, but will probably be extending a couple of months, as she enjoys it.
Mathilde, Chloé and Sandrine all worked together before here in Akuem, in southern Sudan, in their last mission.
Hayato, whom we call Toto, is the Japanese guy. He is our Supply Logisticien. He also has worked with several other NGOs, although this is his first time with MSF. He as also lived around the world. He should have left in October, but has just extended for 3 more months.
It’s a great team. We all get along well. Since the living quarters and the office are together, it’s a good thing. I still do some of the cooking the day that the house staff is off, but Toto is also a great cook, and today, Fred has prepared the lamb for the grill and made the salad.
I will be leaving Monday for my first field office tour. The trip will be 10 days in 3 different sites. After 1 month here, I am looking forward to seeing our programs in action. It’s necessary, because I have a budget revision to prepare for 20 September. This is supposedly a small revision, but the programs are changing every day. I have to fix onto one hypothesis to formulate the costs. To give you an idea, our annual budget for Darfur is around 6.5 million dollars.
It sure doesn’t seem like I’ve already been here for a month. I feel like I just got here.
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