Fraser's blog

Not been emailing too much, since as yet I don’t have the computer we use for connecting to the Thuraya - and also been rather busy. 12-hour days everyday including Saturdays, and the heat and humidity is not conducive to much activity in the evenings. I have not managed to get out on a run so far, the most exercise being a 10-minute walk to work. I did a longer walk around the town with a couple of colleagues on Sunday evening, stopping for ten minutes to watch a football game between the Force Nouvelle (the ‘rebels’) and Licorne (the French force). All is pretty relaxed here at the moment, although whether the president meets the FN’s demands and whether that is enough to allow the next stage of the peace process to begin, is anyone’s guess. Certainly if the size and activity of the market is anything to go by, the population is feeling safe enough to get on with life. I was out shopping today with my right hand man for building supplies and the choice of items is pretty extensive. Tomorrow I’m going to pop over to Man (just over an hour away) to buy more supplies and if possible chat with my opposite number at the region hospital run by MSF Belgium.

While we still don’t have mains water (the pumps are broken again) and the phone connection with the outside world is still completely burnt out, we do have 24 hr electric power that is pretty steady with very few cuts and fluctuations. Even the streetlights work. Both filling stations have been looted, so we get our diesel trucked in (the next load is coming in on Thursday - I’ve got to work out where I’m going to put all 8000l)

Keeping up with world events thanks to the Economist (the one magazine we have sent each week) and BBC World Service. The iPod’s pretty vital too - getting through those 240 episodes of Just a Minute.

Loads of stuff to type, but feeling lethargic and it has been a very busy day, so I think I’ll leave it for now.

On Sunday, 607 days after being kidnapped, Arjan Erkel was released. Arjan was the HoM in Dagestan. Yesterday we were very happy to take down the poster that has been on the wall at the front of the house for over a year - it was looking rather faded and out of date!

I'm off again to the project in Danan?omorrow morning, and this time it will probably about 6 weeks before I'm back at Abidjan for R&R. While away I'll have limited sat phone Internet access via a shared address we check once per day. This address is available from people on the mailing list - I won’t post it here as the last thing we need is spam! Messages over 55k bounce, so try and keep things as economic as possible - e.g. by not quoting the whole previous message. But don’t skimp on the news and gossip either - I won’t have any web access, so I will not be able to read blogs or surf the news sites! Email to my other addresses will just sit and wait until I’m next in Abidjan. I’ve sent a CD of pictures to Marcus, so hopefully he’ll be able to put them somewhere on the net and let us know where they can be viewed. I expect it will be at least a week or so before the CD even gets as far as Holland, let alone London!

On Saturday evening I went down to the beach at Grand Bassam with my head of mission - over the weekend we averaged about 10 expats from various NGO’s. Lots of nationalities and lots of fun - mixed with a fair amount of shop talk too of course. The hotel is one that is generally used by us for brief R&R breaks - friendly, on the beach and good food. Being that it was a holiday weekend, the local town (France’s original choice of capital - although they changed their plans a few years later after a bad yellow fever out-break). Some interesting colonial buildings dating from the early 1900, many in ruins now, but some have been well restored. Got slightly sunburnt this morning - despite being under a palm tree and only being out for a hour or so. Should have known better!

This last week I have been back in Abidjan sorting out some of the technical issues and also sorting out ADSL into the office. It’s not running yet, but hopefully it will on Tuesday. Cost-wise alone this will be a major saving, although from what I’ve noticed, the speed of the internet access is often slower than expect even on dial-up. Not sure what CI’s connection is to the outside world, but it won’t be as quick as Europe, Korea or the US. However on Wednesday I’m going back up to Danan? this time I’ll be based up there, so the only access I’ll get to the ADSL connection will be every 6 weeks or so when I come down for R&R. This means that all my internet access will be by satellite phone, once per day, with a 55kb size limit on each email and only via a shared account. If I have anything for the blog I’ll get Marcus to post it... but I won’t be able to read any comments, nor anyone else’s blogs So please email me (I’ll provide the address via the mailing list - if you don’t get it ask around... I’m hoping that there will be a steady trickle of newsy emails coming in to keep me sane! Also note that unless zipped, messages can easily be read by other people sharing the same account (about 5 people at the moment!). Putting my name in the subject line will be a good idea too.

Last Wednesday I went up to Danan?ith Jaap (the logistical coordinator) and a few others. It was a straightforward journey, being waved straight through most checkpoints. The motorway out of Abidjan could do with a bit of maintenance, but is still a surprisingly good road, also empty of traffic. We stopped for lunch and to fill up with fuel before entering the “Zone de confience” which in the west is held by Licorne (the French troops) and then north into the “Force Nouvelle” area (MPIGO). The journey took about eight and a half hours, all on road. The hospital is about ten minutes walk from the house - safe enough to do alone, although expat staff should carry a VHF radio. Jaap and I spent a very busy two days sorting out specific issues (the well, the water tower, backup generator and oxygen supply to the delivery room) as well as having a full tour of all the facilities. We spent a lot of time looking at the stock control and warehousing, which could with tightening up a bit. The workload of the logistician is huge - and since I’ll be taking over from the current guy in a few weeks, I’m taking advantage of not being drowned in paperwork and supervisory work to look into some of the more technical projects. The hospital itself is quite large and very busy. MSF-H are running the whole thing as well as two mobile clinics per day - with 9 expat staff and probably about 60 national staff. Most of the medical staff had to be hired from Abidjan, so there are issues such as staff housing and transport too. As well as a very busy out-patients, we now have about 40 of the 60 in-patients beds operational. The surgical block in a bit of sorry state - the operating theatre light is salvageable, but little else. After a couple of busy days we headed over to Bin Houy? a village about an hour and a half south where we have a base that we run two mobile clinics from. It is in FANCI held territory (not a problem at the moment as the checkpoints are relaxed), and half the journey is off road, (which can make accessibility difficult and the rainy season is just starting). Not without reason is the radio call sign for this base “paradise”- it is in a wonderful setting. Being a smaller project with little to do outside the compound (although we did manage lunch on Sunday at the only marquis that had food, and I did run with one of the nurses over to the next village) you are reliant on the good company of the other staff. Unfortunately my duties are going to be at the Danan?ospital, so I don’t think I’ll get able to visit paradise very often The journey back to Abidjan was uneventful - The view out the window is always interesting, but the iPod helps pass the time too. Five up in a Toyota Hilux does not give much room to move around and I had a very numb bum on arrival. The average speeds that we attain would be impossible on british A-roads - a lack of traffic helps and the main obstacles are the occasion huge pothole and suicidal goat.

Have a look at http://www.pefe.co.uk/CI1/. Enjoy!

Just got back in Abidjan from visiting the project at Danan?nd Bin Houy? 8.5 hours and 650km, so pretty tired. Been on the go practically all the time. I’ll write more later, after I've had a shower and a beer.