Carrie Bradshaw, eat your heart out!

So how's my psyche? Without being too much of a big girls blouse, I'm trying
to keep an eye on what's going on in my head!

Before I got here, I was very excited about the whole thing. Now that I've
arrived, I'm very excited about being here. Later on this week, I'm going
out to the field, and I'm very excited about that. Are you seeing a trend
here? When will this excitement end. and more to the point, what will it be
replaced with?

At the moment, I'm working very hard. I was traveling in Southern Asia for a
year until last June and since then I had been at home in Dublin, gleefully
drawing the dole and sitting around scratching myself. So it's been a good
year and a half since I've 'worked', and this is all coming as a bit of a
shock to my system.

I get to the base between seven and half past seven every morning. It's only
a ten minute walk from the compound we live in, so I get up at around
quarter past six which leaves me enough time for a bowl of cornflakes and a
shower before I hit the road. err, sand! I work until 1pm when I head home
for some lunch and then back to the base for 2pm. I make a point of leaving
the base by 6pm every evening, when our curfew kicks in and we don't walk
around outside anymore (we can still move around after that, but need to be
driven).

So when I'm in the base, I'm basically running around like a headless
chicken. Being responsible for supply means that I'm responsible for
getting the right materials and equipment to the projects and in the right
quantities, keeping stocks to a minimum and keeping a good overview of
what's in the country.

By the time I get home in the evenings, I'm ready to expire. I usually fall
into the scratcher around 10pm or so. As soon as I pull down my mosquito
net, I'm unwakeable until my symphony of alarm clocks start again at 6am the
next morning.

Everything's new and novel and shiny and fun and happy and good at the
moment, but I've heard one or two of the other expats refer to a 'honeymoon
period' so I'm trying to be aware of that. I'm going to adamantly defend my
leisure time, trying to leave the office at six, only working a few hours on
Saturday's and keeping Sunday's completely free.

I mentioned I'm going out to the field this week. There have been a few
cases of measles reported in one of the towns we are working in the east of
the country and a vaccination campaign for 20,000 children is on the cards.
Its appears to be fairly small campaign by MSF standards so it's a good
opportunity to get my feet wet and to see what a project is like on the
ground (the raison d'etre of it all). Once I'm back from that, I'll head out
again to see the other project that we have in the east. (At the moment,
it's just the two projects that we have in Chad).

More soon from the field hopefully (if I can find internet)

Ur man ready for his scratcher!