The Sphere Effect

I started writing a huge long diary like approach to the last week, but realised that it was getting really long, and I don’t like to bore everyone so I will just summarise (which may still be very long unfortunately)!

I was very excited to finally step foot onto African soil for the first time on Friday last week (Good Friday). Although I had a few issues at the Addis Ababa airport, these were all sorted quickly and I spent a couple of days in Addis for a briefing (this was the third briefing I had in a week).

Then it was off to Gambela and then Itang, my new home for the next few months. I will try to explain my living conditions as they are quite interesting….

It is hot! Bloody hot!! Hovering between 35 degrees at night and 43 degrees during the day (apparently the weather has cooled down significantly over the last couple of weeks ???!!??) I find this kind of weather disgusting when I experience it in Perth, but at least that is a dry heat and we have the blessed relief of fans and airconditioners. Here there is no such thing - you just have to sweat it out in the searing heat with a much higher humidity than I am used to.

Itang feels like it is the end of the earth. There are no modern buildings in the area at all. We live in a rather large compound comprising a long dormlike building and several small outside mud huts (tukuls). We also have an eating tukul and a sort of a kitchen.

We share the compound with a cow, 2 goats, lizards, bats, snakes, frogs, flies and various other life forms. In actual fact we no longer have a cow as it was killed two days ago to feed the 60 people who came around for a party. Poor cow, I just couldn’t bring myself to eat a bite! Now you can watch the goats nervously making their way around the compound - I’m sure that they have an inner instinct that they are next!

As far as the food goes I am doing alright! I actually don’t mind the local food at all, and we have a cook who does her best to make food that we are used to as well. There are seven ex-pats sharing the compound with another 8 staff from Ethiopia as well, so it’s a marvellous mix of cultures.

The health centre where I am working is another large compound full of decrepit buildings, roosters, people living there (with all of their rubbish all over the ground), electric generators, water pumps, a TB Village and a cholera camp which is really just a couple of tents with fold out beds with a hole in the bed for the diarrhea to fall through. (el grosso) We expect to have a cholera break out every day as the rains have just started which will wash all of the sewerage from the dry season into the river where it will be used for washing and drinking water.

As far as hygiene is concerned, at our living compound we have 2 pit latrines (squats) which have no roof, and 2 outside showers (cold water only), again with no roof. When you have a shower at night you can gaze at the stars and hope to not have to share with any frogs or lizards.

The flies are pretty bad, but they go to bed at around 7pm and don’t wake up until 7am so we get a good 12 hours worth of fly free. Mosquito season has not yet started, although I am assured that this will be soon. Once the rainy season arrived properly the weather will cool significantly (YAY), but we will be living in a swamp, and the mosquitos will rule supreme! (BOOOOO!!) Nothing good without a price.

On my first night in Gambela, I went to a Catholic Church service, and was asked to read the gospel reading. Nice introduction straight into the congregation…. The church is run by two lovely priests from Columbia and is the only christian (or indeed religious) presence in the town.

A couple of nights in, we killed the fatted calf, and I was introduced to the African Party Scene where I danced all night with my new Ethiopian friends. Most of the people here speak some semblance of English and I am loving getting to know them all. Everyone has been so kind and lots of fun!

I have been told many time that this is one of the most stable MSF projects in the world. Unfortunately this was put to the test a couple of days ago, on my second day of working by myself. There was a nasty clash between the military/militia and a raiding party from South Sudan (about 200km away so don’t get worry about it mum). Many people were killed and many others wounded. I went with a doctor and a nurse to the local hospital to see if we could assist. This was the first time I have ever seen gunshot wounds or any of the other nasty wounds that can be taken in such situations. I was very good and didn’t flinch at all, except for at one moment when one of the shot women was screaming out in pain.

So I have managed to metamorphasize a little bit. I am going to bed every night at around 9pm or so, and getting up at around 5.30am, ready to start work at 7am so that bit’s working well. Food is good. I am happy with my surrounding and people.

The only bad things are:
1. Heat and humidity
2. Stolen items so far: 1 new camera, head torch, pouch for hard drive and pouch for travel speakers
3. Major blister from new sandals has turned into weepy, pussy abcess that won’t heal
4. The only thing there is to drink is water, coke and beer. Take one guess at my choice

Since that’s all I have to complain about, I am therefore a very happy chappee!

As another short note about this blog over the next few months. I am unlikely to have much internet access. It’s my understanding that there is internet in the capital but not where I will be living. I will not have my own email address but I may be able to send a couple of emails a week. I will therefore email a friend to have him assist me with posting to this blog, however I am going to have password protect my blogs which have direct reference to what happens in MSF - this should not be public information for all and sundry.

I will send all of my subscribers the password - however if you do not have the password - please contact me and when I get a chance, I will send it to you.

The excitement has finally kicked in. I haven’t written anything over the last few weeks leading up to this point, because I have been feeling very numb and detached! It is very odd, as I would have thought I would go through varying degrees of excitement and anxiousness etc, etc, but nope, absolutely NOTHING (except for a few butterflies)! Well until now!

I am currently in Geneva doing my final briefing with MSF Switzerland, before I take off tomorrow for Addis Ababa - the capital of Ethiopia. It was only yesterday that I started to get a full feeling for the context into which I am going, and it was only yesterday that I actually started to feel the excitment welling up inside. Oh and also the fear…

It’s been a bit weird the last few weeks. I was told that I was going to Ethiopia for a six month contract, but two days before I left Perth I was advised that my contract has been changed from six months to three months. I must admit that this has thrown me a little. I had this idea that I’d be gone for most of the year and to realise that I will be finished (on this project at least) by June, is a little unsettling. Apparently the Logistics Assistant who works on the National staff in Gambella is very, very competent. They would like to move him into the Logistician position which is traditionally an ex-pat position, and it will be my job to help transition him over. I have been told to use the time to get as much training and experience from him as I can, but it is still a little unsettling.

At any rate, I think I am ready to go now. At the end of the three months, hopefully they will have another project for me, or I will see if I can get some contract work in the UK for a little while, but I’m sure that something will work out for me. That part I leave in God’s hands anyway.

I have been reflecting over the last few weeks how completely different I am to what I think an aid worker should be like! I am an unfit, scared, weak girl, who doesn’t like strange food (like mushrooms and vegetables). I am completely averse to violence, can’t stand to see blood or vomit, and find it difficult to be alone in foreign countries where I can’t speak the language. I feel sleepy and unenergetic, and I hate to get up early in the mornings. I am not a very handy or technical person, and I know nothing about electricity or mechanics, which are two of the main things I will be responsible for.

An aid worker should be strong, fit and courageous. Confident to eat anything and everything (and actually like it). Able to dive in to difficult situations in foreign countries and assist with medical operations. Should love to try and converse with the local people by hand actions if necessary and be very handy with tools and knowledgeable about survival skills. An aid worker should be energetic and loving to wake up early in the morning, bouncing out of bed and ready to see what the day holds for them. (okay this person is starting to make me feel a little ill)

I am hoping that there will be some miraculous, cocoon like transformation between the time I lift off from Amsterdam airport, until the time I touch down in Addis Ababa, but I am having some serious doubts! I’m thinking that they’ll just have to put up with me as who I am, and the things that need to change will hopefully change quickly over a short period of time.

We shall see……..