I have a new job!

The person replacing me in my job in Nigeria arrives in about 1 week. I have heard some very good things about her. We will have a handover of about 10 days, and she will take over as the Coordinator of Finance and Human Resources for the country. I will stay here until the end of April, to finish implementing some new policies that we have been working on for more than 6 months. That will make 18 months that I have worked and lived in Nigeria.

Then I go back to Lyon in France for about 1 month. I must return to renew my residence visa. I have been living in France for 27 years, but I am still not a citizen.

And I just accepted my new job. I will continue with Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF, or in English, Doctors Without Borders), still doing administrative work in the field, but I will be on a 1 year renewable contract with the Emergency department. That means that I will have short missions (2-3 months) in which I go somewhere where there is a natural disaster, war and displaced populations, epidemies, or some other crisis, to do the administrative things necessary so that our doctors and nurses can help the people. This is what MSF does best and what we are known for. It will be very exciting.

I have now been working with MSF for 7 years, mainly doing administrative work, but for long times in the same place - 8 months to 2 years. I have had to deal with emergencies in the past (displaced populations because of violence, cholera, vaccination campaigns) but on a small scale within a long term project. Now for at least 1 year I will be doing exclusively emergencies. Between assignments I will be at home in Lyon, but I commit to be ready to leave within a 48 hour notice period. At most I will have about 2 weeks off every 3 months. If some miracle happens that everything is right with the world, they use us to fill gaps in the long-term projects, or have us work in headquarters. That doesn’t happen a whole lot.

When I have finished this assignment, I want to move to project management, being responsible for a long term project for 6 months at a time. This emergency job will be very good to help me to prepare for the change of positions.

Hurray!