Into the field

We have these beetles here. They’re pretty big, about the length of one of your fingers and fairly chubby. Most of the time they crawl around looking slightly retarded but at night time they fly about without even the slightest element of control, banging into whatever they can. You can notice that they are trying to get to our neon lights high on the wall, but instead they always just end up crashing into the wall and falling down onto the sand. Inevitably they fall onto their backs and then they stay there trying in vain to get right side up again. They wiggle their little beetle legs like mad fuckers for hours on end, just trying to get back on their feet. Sometimes you feel slightly charitable and you toss one of them over with your flip flop, only for the gobshite to fly straight into the wall again and fall onto his back again.

I’m the logistician on a nutrition project in the centre of Chad, a place called Bokoro. We have a nice little garden, which comes alive at night. As far as I’m concerned the only animal that has any brains are the little froggies that come out and just sit underneath the lights to gorge on the variety of kamikaze insects which fall down whilst trying to ‘attain’ the light. We also have a fearless rat. You’ll be making yourself a cuppa cha in the kitchen and he’ll just stroll in and look at you as if to say: “What’s goin’ on brother, any food hanging around anywhere that I could nibble on?”

It’s still pretty hot, but you can feel it starting to cool down ever so slightly. Things should become nice and cool over the next four to six weeks or so, as we come into ‘winter’. Imagine the nicest possible day that Ireland has ever seen… that’s the Chadian winter! And the locals will wrap up with hats and scarfs and gloves and shit like that while yours truly will sweating in his T-shirt.

I extended my mission until the 10th of December, asking if I could be placed as a logistician on a field project for the last month and half. The idea was to get a bit of field experience and an idea about life without the Novotel swimming pool (OK… I admit it… I also thought that maybe I could shed a gentle pound or two).

I’m here a week today and so far all is going good. I did a 76-person payroll today and have to make sure that everything non-medical keeps on working. We have an intensive feeding and observation ward in the town hospital and we send three teams out every day to ambulatory feeding centres who conduct therapeutic feeding in ten villages around the region and then refer the intensive cases back to the hospital. It’s all a bit mad. We’ve also started distributing 20tonnes of food rations to the families in our programs every week, which has its fair share of logistical challenges.

So I only have six weeks or so left until I’m finished in Chad. I’m coming home on (or around) the 10th of December for the Yuletide banter. It should be good fun considering I don’t have the cost of a pint. (If you see me over Christmas, feel free to ply me with booze… it’s the same as donating money to MSF… not quite as tax deductible though!).

After that who knows… I’ll definitely go away again (if they’ll have me) in the New Year. First preference is Colombia, but half of world wants to go there. Apparently when people go there, they extend and extend their missions and then they end up marrying a local and staying there. So it’s kind of one-way traffic, which is unfortunate for those of us who want to dance meringue while saving kiddies lives. If it’s not Colombia then second choice would be Congo, but realistically I’d go anywhere they wanted me to.

I had a great time in Ethiopia with Barry back at the beginning of September (yeah, I know that’s a long time ago… so what… what are you trying to say… Don’t even f&%king mention the lack of updates… its taboo!). We went hiking in the Simien mountains for the first week and then just chilled out soaking in the rich culture of Ethiopia’s nicest hotels for the second week. Except for a small bout of diarrhea (worst in a long time actually), it was a great two weeks.

Anyway, that’s all for now… I’ve gotta go to bed so that I have a clear head tomorrow morning when I try to ensure that the guard and driver roster for November takes into account who doesn’t like working with who and all the other finer sensitivities of the intricate pattern that is the Chadian social sphere.

Your (yes, repenting!) man in Chad,

C.