A Christmas Surprise

I left the field a few weeks early, due to holidays and my position closing, and flew home to San Francisco.  The journey was long (flights through Nairobi, Amsterdam, Paris, and New York, with debriefings in Paris and New York), but smooth.

The whole thing was a big secret, though.  I was surprising my parents, with the help of my brother.  We gave them a wrapped box as a present.  We had dropped several hints about puppies in the previous few weeks, complete with a training manual on how to house-train your pet in 7 days.

Their reaction was calm and elated.  No heart attacks, no drama, just a good laugh and appreciation.

It was my first time celebrating the holidays with my parents in 4 years.

World AIDS Day

Our district celebrated World AIDS Day on Saturday. We were an integral supporter with fuel donations for transport, tents, tables, chairs, T shirts, shade canopies and nearly 100 staff attendees who all received their own T shirts and a soda.

It was a logistical nightmare. But all problems got fixed and the larger puzzle that was this event was solved. People laughed, enjoyed themselves, got tested and learned about HIV.

Well done logs.

The Glamorous Life of a Base Log: Finding Serial Numbers

In the course of doing my full inventory of all electronic equipment on the base, I need to record all items' serial numbers. Serial numbers are usually in the least convenient place to read them. In the lab, instead of removing or turning all the sensitive lab equipment (some of which were running tests), I used my trusty smart phone as a periscope/mirror to find those hard-to-reach serial numbers.

Back in Malawi

Fire in the sky. I'm settling back in after summiting Kilimanjaro.

And like that, the clouds were gone

After a day of torrential downpour yesterday (oh, that's why they call it the rainy season), I woke to partially cloudy skies. An hour later, the clouds are gone, just leaving some high cirrus clouds to remind me of the season.

It's a good day to start climbing Kilimanjaro.

International Airports

Since it seems like many countries have only one airport, or several airports that only operate every few days, just about every airport is International. It lends prestige and procedure to what would at best be a small regional airport in the United States.

The security check was a disinterested semi-search through my jam-packed backpack after a brief puzzlement over how to open it (solved when she ordered me, "open."), followed by a casual pat-down that didn't touch anything other than my sense of personal space.

And done, I'm at my gate.

Kilimanjaro

I have to take a holiday at some point during my mission. I'm in Africa. Kili is on my life list.

Those three facts combined to lead me here, about to depart on a flight to Addis Ababa then onward to Kilimanjaro International Airport. I'm climbing the seven-day Lemosho route. It's the rainy season, so I'll probably be going alone, but I chose the "lite" series, so I'll only have 3 staff with me. Three staff to support one single person... This will be very different from my lone forays into the wilderness, completely independent and self-sufficient.

But it's ok, I'm not looking at this like a backpacking trip. I'm looking at this like a vacation.

A tough vacation to the top of a continent, but a vacation.

Bring it.

Life in Africa: Puzzles

We all relax in different ways. The team here has uncovered a number of jigsaw puzzles that live in the house. So, for relaxation, or perhaps out of boredom, we started some puzzles.

Our first was a mystery puzzle in a plastic bag, made up of brightly ambiguous pieces in random shapes. It turned out to be a kitschy picture of colorful fish. And we had every piece. Surprise.

Next up is a 1000-piece Jackson Pollock nightmare.

Everyone else has given up, but I'm thrilled.

Bring it.

The Glamorous Life of a Base Log

The sunset glinting off the windshields of my slumbering fleet just called out for a picture.

Malawi is beautiful.

Postcards from the Field

I sat down to write post cards to some friends and family last weekend. It's my first time writing postcards from the field, but I'm following my usual style of sending a postcard from elsewhere.

I haven't looked for a Malawian post card yet, but I will add some to my collection for future distribution.

I sent out post cards from Alaska, Tahiti, Bora Bora, and New Zealand. They went via expat to Lilongwe, then will change hands and get carried to Paris with the next international personnel movement. From there they will be mailed all over the world in more traditional postal services.

Finding Water

We're crafting an elaborate plan to find a sustainable water source at the expat house on the hill. Not sustainable like produces little waste and is trendy 'green,' but sustainable like actually produces water all year.

Our next solution is to move our water meter and install a water tank at the lowest part of the property, approximately 100 vertical feet below the current tanks. That should increase our intake from the water board.

I was strategizing today with the water board official and the maintenance officer to best plan the new placement of the water meter.

We come up with a plan. We go back today at 3pm for a cost quotation...

The Glamorous Life of a Base Log: Surprise

Last Friday, eight of us piled into two taxis into Blantyre. Some of us were going for a girl's night out, with one boy in tow, and one was going for a long weekend with his girlfriend. What unsuspecting Mr. Long-Weekend didn't know that we were entering into a highly complicated and intricate dance to surprise him for his 40th birthday, that apparently none of us knew about.

Ten minutes into the car ride, he tells everyone it's his birthday.  Acting faces, everyone.

"Oh really?"

A brief discussion, some jokes, and the conversation moves on. I am sweating.

50 text messages with our accomplice, the girlfriend, a traffic jam, ten changes of plan, a faked telephone argument, and a cigarette pitstop later, we walk into the bar we are going to take over to wait for Mr. Long-Weekend and Ms. Accomplice. We walk right into the bar, four of us ready to make this special, and find Mr. Long-Weekend drinking alone at the bar.

Crap, crap, crap.

I'm sweating, profusely.

We sneak out of the bar without being seen (did he see us? No. Oh come on, he had to have. No, I think we're good. No we should call it off. No we're good. Uhhh...)

We regroup at a bar around the corner.

More texts to Ms. Accomplice. Change of plans. We'll walk in and surprise him. The streamers and the trick candles go back in the bag.

Ok, ready?

I'm still sweating.

We walk in to the bar (he still doesn't see us, where is this guy's observation skills! We're not the most sneaky 7 people you've ever met and this is our SECOND time through those doors in half an hour...). I tap him on the shoulder once we've assembled in a choir behind him.

Surprise.

He had no idea!

Success. I stop sweating, and we have a great night over dinner and drinks.

Happy 40th Mr. Long-Weekend.

Life in Africa: Dry

We're in the middle of the dry season and there is little water to be found. The little trickle of a creek across the path to work has been set for a month. Rain won't come until November.

Life In Africa: Sunset

We had a couple days of rain recently, which tamped down the diary haze in the air.

We can finally see Mulanje after two months of close horizons. The sunsets remain spectacular.

The Glamorous Life of a Base Log: Pit Progress

There have been many problems with the construction of the new kitchen and latrine blocks for staff accommodation at one of the health centers. The community was supposed to dig the pits for the latrines and to dig out the foundations. They would show up late or not at all, stand around, or leave early. Progress was not being made, and that was not the agreement.

We had another meeting with the community and explained that if they didn't provide the pits on time, we would lack up and stop the construction.  That's how this works. A little bit from you, a little bit from us. Help us help you.

Now our pits are dug.

Life in Africa: Man-Made Elevator

We had to move a very heavy piece of very delicate electronic equipment several times today. I'm constantly amazed at the ingenuity and willingness of the national staff. I recruited several drivers, the mechanic and a couple watchmen to move the AVR. Everyone grabbed a corner, elbowed in and heaved.

It's probably not the best practice, occupational-safety-wise, but everything worked out. I think the law of the land is that the ends justify the means. No harm, no foul.

The Glamorous Life of a Base Log: Leaver's Feast

In a couple of days a member of the team will leave. He was here temporarily to recruit and train someone in a position with the company, but he was a fully-integrated part of our team. So, in honor of his imminent departure, we had a feast.

We went early to the market to buy fish (which is very expensive in this landlocked country, in this district hundreds of miles from the Lake) and grill-able vegetables, then returned home and prepared a huge meal, barbequed Cameroonian style by the doctor.

We had an excellent meal of fish, chicken, corn, plantains, salad and potatoes from a variety of cultures. And it was topped off by a decadent chocolate and pear cake.

Not a bad sendoff.

Life in Africa: Haze

It's the height of dry season here in Malawi, and that means dust. One thing the district of Chiradzulu is good at is growing bricks, and bricks come from clay-y soil. There's an abundance of trademark African red-dirt, clay-filled soil all around us, and when the dry season comes, that dust turns into haze.

The gorgeous vistas in the early morning are replaced with blank expanses of dust-censored sky.

But the sunsets are spectacular.

The Glamorous Life of a Base Log: Signing a Contract

Ground was broken, but now all the paperwork is official.

A little bit backwards, but hopefully we'll get there.

The Glamorous Life of a Base Log: Ground Breaking Ceremony

We had a meeting with the community counsel at Thumbwe Health Center today in regards to the rehabilitation and extension of the current staff accommodation at the health center. MSF is funding and organizing the building of two kitchen/bathroom facilities to add on to the current staff housing, to better accommodate the medical staff who are assigned to work at the health center.

Today we introduced the contractor to the community and solidified the plans for construction. It will be a major project, and will rely on significant community support. We laid out the areas of the new kitchen blocks, and staked out the area for the pit latrines. Next up, the community will dig the pits and foundations voluntarily under the supervision of our hired contractor. Then the building will begin.

But today was all about getting on the same page, and the council was firmly supportive.

6 weeks later, we'll see what we have.

Malawi time, that is.

Life in Africa: It's Getting Hot

The weather in Chiradzulu is southern-hemisphere wet/dry season, which apparently means there's an unknown temperature switch that does not coincide with the rains. I arrived in July, at the tail end of the rainy season to near-freezing temperatures. Heaters had just been installed in every room in our house, and expats were gleefully putting them to good use. The weather dried up rapidly, then in the last few weeks has turned warmer. It's gone from sweatshirt-weather to hot.

Not cool.

I moved from Philly to San Francisco to avoid the dripping hot, debilitating summers and to bask in the cool, energizing chill.

In the past few days, it's gotten hot. So hot you don't want to climb the hill. So hot you sweat in your sneakers. So hot that jeans are unbearable.

But this is Africa, so it's kind of what I expected. It was nice to have San Franciscan cool weather while it lasted.

Time to find a fan.

Climbing the Mountain

We live halfway up Mount Chiradzulu. Every once and a while, we climb the other half to reach the top. Our reason is the age-old old reason of "because it's there," realizing a primal need to stand on top of something.

So up we head up on Sunday in what has turned out to be a monthly pilgrimage to the top of our immediate world.

Today we were weary (no one knew from what) so we set a very slow pace. The trails lacing the mountainside are a combination of wild game trails (from hyenas and antelope, but we haven't seen either) and tracks worn by charcoal merchants and firewood-gatherers. The mountain is a protected park, so both charcoal making and firewood gathering are prohibited. But no one seems to enforce that...

The trails meander across the face of the mountain, sometimes ending at a good-sized tree stump, or getting you to a well-established trail. Every summit attempt is a lesson in track finding, directionality, and patience. None of the trails are hiking trails. There's no such thing as a switchback on Mount Chiradzulu. One section of trail goes straight up a steep slope of loose dirt and fallen leaves for over 100 feet.

We keep trying to find a route to the top with a trail the whole way, and today we were almost successful. We only bushwhacked (literally: we cut a stick and whacked at the bushes) once for about 50 feet when we lost all semblance of a way forward. But most attempts end with us pushing through dense foliage, sometimes with the help of a machete, for long periods of time. While walking straight up the mountain.

We are relieved from the torture of our slog straight into the sky by periodic appearances of the local mated pair of eagles. They nest nearby our house, and hunt on and around the mountain. With such a steep slope, you can be surprised by a pair of eagles soaring up a thermal just 20 feet from your face, as you go from looking down on them to watching them from the normal inferior vantage point in a matter of seconds as they blast by.

The family of eagles was quiet today, but a mated pair of falcons made up for the lack of aquiline display. Malawi is an excellent country for bird watching. At the summit, we heard the two falcons calling to each other and could pick out one of the two perched on a tree just one rocky outcropping over. It was incredible to watch their effortless aerial acrobatics from a front-row seat. Cool.

After a three-hour ascent (mostly on relatively well-established trails!), we hung out on the summit for a bit, watched the avian show, then headed down. We were pretty tired, and not looking forward to the long walk back. But we followed well-established trails and let gravity help us out. Incredibly, 20 minutes later we passed the source and hit the flat track that is the final stretch before home. What? Three hours up and 20 min down?  How?

I guess because we ran, slid and jumped down without much pause. The summit isn't that far, just hard to access.

But the whole experience was excellent, and we are zeroing in on the easiest way to the top. By the time we leave, we may be professional-level guides for Mount Chiradzulu.

Maybe I should work on my mapmaking skills. For institutional memory and all...

Life in Africa: Shopping Day

Today's weekly shopping included a trip to Limbe Market, a first for me.

We bought a huge bag full of various vegetables for the equivalent of five US dollars, but more importantly we wandered around and saw the sights.

Of course we were targeted by every single vendor there as two azungus walking around in a sea of Africans, but we still managed to enjoy ourselves.

Although we may or may not have promised our firstborn children to the sweet potato vendor next week...

I guess we'll see.

A Journey to the Source

Far from another installment in The Matrix, a journey to the source is a stiff walk to a secluded glad where a spring-fed stream tumbles down a cut in the mountain and meets the beginning of the water board's infrastructure.

We headed up there today at lunch to monitor the water level to try to find a solution to our inconsistent supply. We poked and prodded and measured and photographed, but then eventually just sat and enjoyed the area. It's cool in the shade, calm by the flowing stream, and comfortable on a big bolder. Apparently monkeys live in the area, although I don't see any today.

Maybe I'll bring a picnic up here on the weekend.

It is work, after all. Important observation.

Life in Africa: Generator Power

The back of the truck parked along the side of the road, fixing the power lines, reads "towards power all day everyday."

It's a lofty goal.

Electricity is actually fairly decent here, but they're repairing the transformers for the next week. It's been nearly 24 hours without city power, and there has been less than 10 hours total in the last 5 days.

But we have generators here. We have a heavy-duty generator at our office on a serious automatic switchover and startup device that generates three phase power and is designed to run 24/7. We have to protect our cold-chained drugs, after all.

At the house, where only comfort and some perishable food is at stake, we have a much more puny generator that has to be (*gasp*) started up manually. This runs the security lighting, the refrigerators, one washing machine and a single socket in the whole house.

(That socket is located in someone's room. We may or may not have plugged the toaster into that socket during an especially ill-timed blackout. The cord may or may not have been too short to set the toaster on anything so we may or may not have stood there with a toaster in our arms for four loads of toast. It's all speculation at this point.)

So we suffer on, with internet and air conditioning at the office, but candlelight and gas cookers at the house.

Not too bad.

Birthday in the Field

This is my first birthday since winning the Edinburgh Fringe First award that I have been out of the USA. I've travelled nonstop for 4 years now, but somehow I always made it back for my birthday. Not Christmas or Thanksgiving or Flag Day. But my birthday, yes.

I think it has more to do with the coincidental timing of my birthday with the peak of 'fringe season' in Philadelphia: the busiest and most hectic time of preparation for one of the nation's largest new-work nonprofit theater festivals.  I always made a point to be back for Fringe.

But not this year. Instead, I'm in the middle of a six-month mission for MSF. Not a bad place to turn 26.

Life in Africa: Moving a Tent

We have 5 tents. We don't need 5 tents.

So we're getting rid of 3. Which means hauling, pushing, and sweating. Thanks to the help of some drivers ("wait, I can't use my car?") and everyone else in the area, the job was easy.

The Glamorous Life of a Base Log: Keys

The log manager is on vacation, and I forgot to open his office at the end of the day. All of the drivers handed me their vehicle keys. 16 sets of keys do fit on one hand.

Plus all of my normal keys...

And yes, I do know what each of them does.

Well, almost.

Life in Africa: Livestock

Today's experience won.

I was walking (hiking) along the path (trail) to the office this morning, a Saturday (in a skirt), and looked up to find a full grown momma pig rooting in the dirt not two meters away.

"Hi Momma."

She looks up, but her ears fall in front of her eyes, so she peers blindly around, looking for the source of the disturbance. Nothing seems amiss, so she goes back to turning up the dirt in front of her.

She, like most livestock around here, is unrestrained. There's a small herd of goats that hang out in the bend of the road going up to our house. They never wander off.  Every house has a few chickens scratching around.

I have seen cattle being herded, but I haven't seen any marks of identification or ownership on any other species. Animals just hang out, and the community seems to keep it straight.