Since my last posting, MSF-France in Congo has changed a bit – we now work under the Emergency Department rather than under a regular management scheme. In practice, this gives us some resources we wouldn’t have otherwise – a management team in Paris experienced in handling emergencies, medical and logistics stocks already pre-positioned in Nairobi, and a pool of expatriates with emergency experience who can help us out here.
I was already having trouble doing everything I had to do before the conflicts broke out in September. Since then, it has been even worse. A colleague from Paris arrived a week ago to help advance some of the larger tasks (pay scale review, job function review, 2009 budget preparation, etc). I am really grateful. And we have also decided to cut my job into two positions - I will handle the human resources, and someone is coming in another week to take over the finance (budget and accounting). This should help a lot. I felt that I could take either one of the posts, but they have a harder time finding someone to handle HR than finance, so I took that one.
We are supposed to take a break every 3 months. I have now been here 4 months. So I am leaving tomorrow for a week in Zanzibar (again). I am looking forward to the rest, and I am pleased that my colleague from Paris can replace me for that time. When I come back, there will be a lot of changes in our team. The person for finance should arrive a day before me, our new head of mission arrives tomorrow, our medical coordinator leaves around the 16th of December, and our logistics coordinator leaves around the 20th of December. I will be the oldest member of the coordination team!
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