

The people I have been replacing are in place now, so I am back to doing one job – my own. This is a relief! But our head of mission wants to get several projects in shape before some of our group finish leaves, so things are hopping. It is true that someone new coming in will lose momentum with the handover and lack of insight WHY we are doing these things. I am involved in several of these projects so there is no rest for the weary. We are in a big recruiting process for Congolese doctors and medical specialists (surgeons, gynocologists, and anaesthetists). We are also recruiting a cleaner for the central pharmacy (140 candidatures for 1 job!). We have negotiations going for our agreement on how we work with the Ministry of Health staff in two hospitals (one risks to be a very tough round of negotiations). I will need to go to Kinshasa to shut down our office there right before leaving. All this, plus trying to finish up several other human resource policies in less than 2 months.
But in the meantime, I am trying to reduce my hours to avoid burn out. I leave work most Saturdays around 5:00 pm now, and I only work a couple of hours on Sundays. I realized that I had to do this after returning from my Uganda break. I really had a hard time getting re-motivated after that. And replacing the other 2 people didn’t help. Now that those positions are filled again, I am less in the day-to-day stuff and more into the long-term projects. It is not any easier, but a lot more fulfilling. I am happy to be back on these things, and hope that I can finish a maximum of them before leaving.
So today the program is attending to my personal mail,

