News from Yida (and also from Syria)

Here is an interview by Al Jazeera with a surgeon from Médecins Sans Frontières just returning from a mission at the border of Syria:

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRidj-Qc8s8

I am now in the Yida refugee camp in South Sudan, close to the border of Sudan.  I am here to replace the field administrator who took a weekend break in the capital of Juba, and also to work on the budget revision, take some decisions in some personnel conflicts, and put some administrative procedures in place. 

It took me a few days to get here.  I was supposed to fly out of Juba on Wednesday, but that plane was cancelled.  Thursday the plane took off, and I got to Rumbeck, where we switched from the plane to a helicopter.  We got to Lere just as a big storm broke out.  The Lere passengers got off and the rain started immediately.  So we waited out the rain on the ground (which quickly became a swamp).  It was pretty funny, because a lot of schoolkids were returning home, and they took shelter with us in the helicopter until we couldn't fit any more in.  When the rain slowed to a sprinkle after about 40 minutes, the kids got out and we continued on to Bentiu, the capital of Unity State.  Here we were told that the weather was too bad between there and Yida, so we had to return to Rumbeck or spend the night in Bentiu and continue on the next day.  I spent a lovely night in the Bentiu Grand Hotel, which is not so grand, and barely a hotel, more like a set of 24 storage compartments fitted out with small beds and mosquito nets, although it is as expensive as f***.   I won't even explain the condition of the toilets and showers.  It is the only hotel in Bentiu so they can get away with it.  At least the food was good.  And they had Heineken!  After waiting 3 hours the next day at the Bentiu helipad for our helicopter to return, I finally arrived on dirt runway in Yida on Friday around 1:00pm  

The camp continues to grow, sometimes slowly and sometimes faster, depending on the situation in Sudan.  The various conflicts along the border (on both sides) continue, and we do not know what will happen in the coming weeks. 

After only a few weeks, we have over 900 children in our program for undernourished children.  This is alarming, especially because the UN is distributing food to the camp residents.  My interpretation is that the arriving refugees are in a very poor condition, and these are the children we are enrolling in our program. 

I just left 3 weeks ago, and our hospital continues to change quickly.  We have just increased the number of international staff nurses by 6 to help with the workload and to improve the quality of care that we provide to our patients.   We are adding another doctor and 3 nurse practitionners as well.  This is turning into a huge project.

The residence compound for our international and relocated national staff is much better, although everyone is still in tents.  They have added more outhouses (VERY important, especially since many of the international staff get diahrrea soon after arriving) and showers.  We just installed commercial satellite internet capability which should cut the cost of communications from the slow, expensive system we had before, and it means that the team can communicate with their family and friends in the rare moments when they are not working.

I go back to Juba on Thursday, if all goes well.