Back from France

March has flown by.

Our new Head of Mission has arrived. I have already worked with her and it is good that we will continue with this mission in good hands.

And headquarters has agreed to split my post! I will be the Coordinator of Finances and Human Resources, with a Deputy. The lady who will be my deputy has just finished an emergency project here and will come back at the beginning of May. I will do mainly human resources and coordination of the budget, and she will concentrate on accounting and other financial issues. Of course, we will replace each other when travelling in the field. This is a big load off my shoulders, and I can work on some long term projects now.

Long term residence visas for Nigeria are only issued in one’s country of residence. So I had to return to France in the middle of March for this procedure. I arrived in Lyon on Sunday 13 March, and took a train to Paris the same night. Monday I ran all over Paris getting all the papers necessary for the visa, and took a train back again to Lyon Monday evening. Then I had a week at my place on break, before returning to Paris the next Monday to pick up the passport with the visa again, flying back to Nigeria on Tuesday 22 March. Now the final steps in obtaining this visa will be done here, and it will be VERY long.

The week at home, after 4 months in Nigeria, was nice, although I had a few adventures. My water heater broke during the week. I am glad it happened while I was there so I could at least shut it down to avoid damage. But I did not have time to buy and install a new one, so 3 days of very cold showers from a bucket reminded me of being out on mission. And one night while dancing in a club, my glasses flew off my head and were crushed underfoot before I could retrieve them. Finally, my last day in Paris, my shoes exploded (I have already repaired them at least 5 times) and I had just enough time to buy a new pair before the stores closed.

Otherwise, it was nice. I slept a lot. I ate a lot of French cheese and drank quite a bit of wine. I saw a few friends. And I treated myself to a 90 minute massage – heaven.

I’ve been back a week, and the work rhythm continues at its usually hectic pace. At least I don’t have time to get bored. We have had a LOT of people coming through the house, as we have just ended a measles outbreak surveillance program.

I am working less on the weekends here – I work from the house on Saturdays, and work very little on Sundays. Of course, I still prepare the Sunday evening meals for the people in the house, since on Sundays we don’t have a cook. It is nice to have some more time on the weekends, but I still have no time to attack the big, interesting projects. That will change with the arrival of the deputy.

The next 3 weekends are election weekends in Nigeria. April 2 is for the National Assembly. April 9 is for the president. April 16 is for state offices. Everyone must stay in their own neighborhoods on these Saturdays, only moving about to vote, so it will probably be pretty quiet. At least we hope so.