Fraser's blog

I took a quick flit up to our new project earlier this week – not planned, but I had a few hours spare and we were sending a pickup with some fuel (they started a project… and didn’t even think to take enough fuel for their generator, let alone the vehicles!!!!) The project is in a very pretty hilly location – in fact this morning they decided to name it Bellevue Base – I suppose it is an improvement on “Papa 22” Coming back down the twisty RN1, I took the following picture of the top end of Lake Tanganyika. Ok, it wasn’t sunset, as we have to be back in town by 16.00. Photoshop’s a useful thing.

Living in Bujumbura is not like being in the field. We have hot showers, internet access, mobile phones. We have a large choice of restaurants (including a very authentic indian) and bars (including the famous Cercle Nautique). I've been going to the gym several times each week (15 mins on an exercise bike at over 25 deg C and 80% humidity is hard going, but the view out the window towards the lake and the Congolese hills in the distance beats New Generation in Bristol.) And at a party last night even had cans of Boddingtons! (That was the second party of the evening... the first at ACF was "bring a bottle").

However, the downside of being in the capital is that you don't get the contact with the people you are here to help. This also haves an effect on our national staff - for those in the capital it is just a job and the commitment beyond the call of duty is just not there. As LogCo the idea is that I spend about 30% of my time in the field, but so far I'm not managing it as there is far too much to do in the capital. I was hoping to get out to our Kinyinya project in the week after next, but even that looks ambitious, given the amount of commitments the management team have to attend to at the moment.

Some people have asked about contact addresses. Well, as always email is the simplest format - I'm checking my normal email addresses every day. For envelopes, you can mail me directly. However, the customs do like to try and extract taxes for anything coming in to the country, so best not to send parcels. I'm not sure about the reliablility of direct post either, but the address is:

Fraser Stephens - MSF Holland
BP 2120
Bujumbura - Burundi

Alternatively you can send stuff via Amsterdam, where it will be hand carried by the next expat coming out with space. Last year this method was just as fast (or slow) as direct post and more reliable:

Fraser Stephens - c/o MSF-H BURUNDI
Plantage Middenlaan 14.
P.O. BOX 10014
1001 EA AMSTERDAM - NETHERLANDS

I also have a mobile phone (00 257 94 86 28) and there is a landline in the house (00 257 24 46 95). Bear in mind that we tend to go to bed early (9:30pm is normal!) and we are 2 hours ahead of GMT. I've called several people using Skype - if you hear a long delay on picking up the phone, it might be me!

Part of the team are away, so I've finally had the house to myself and been able to experiment with Skype (www.skype.com... check it out). Even with the rather flakey internet connections we have, it sort of works. If you get a telephone call from some country code you don't recognise, and the first 4 seconds you don't hear anyone... it might be me. The sound quality is not perfect, but then it is 20 times cheaper than phoning directly, so we have plenty of time to say things twice!