Blog de brousse

I made it. To Dubie, that is, not quite Shamwana yet. The flight over was amusing - the pilot was from Halifax and very, very serious. A Cessna Caravan plane - a 12 seater I think - chartered by all MSF sections in Katanga, just a little smaller than the Twin Otters that I'd gotten used to in the Great White Québécois North. It can land on a dime and soar for a while, I said to reassure a nervous Lucas. Thoughts came of a colleague of mine who would have loved to fly this thing. We were joking around to hide the nervousness of the take-off, then fell asleep during the flight. I took punctual pictures of the landscape - red earth, green jungle, a few
mountains, clouds, fog, a few tukuls. And we landed before we knew it.

Dubie is a nice little village. One main road of red dust, and the MSF compound - hospital buildings abutting the base which consists of a mix of thatch tukuls (huts) and brick buildings. The Dubie doctor gave us a tour of the place: renutrition ward, dark unventilated shady... tuberculosis area (trouvez l'erreur!), nice neat operating theater, tiled laboratory and airy maternity. We were greeted there by a brand new little girl screaming into the world - nice work by the accoucheuse! Everything was clean and well kept, and all the kids were jumping at us, the new Muzungus, laughing out 'Jambo, Jambo' - 'hello' in Swahili - and fighting to hold our hands. A goat was ironically wandering around and eating the grass around the (thankfully empty) cholera tents. The one toddler in the intensive care unit had huge black eyes deep with the unchildlike sadness that tells of the sickness so much better than any vital signs.

We are here for three days for a medical meeting of all the field teams, nationalstaff midwives nurses medco and us. Perfect time for a handover. Numbers are flown around - 1.8% maternal mortality (less than 0.1% in Europe), 10% syphilis positive in target groups, mortality rates etc etc... I won't bore you with them but they paint a country that is still struggling to survive.

My lovely predecessor is a Nigerian colleague my age. He asked if I had any questions - and I found none. Not quite yet. I have to see Shamwana to figure out what I want to know. So we proceeded in exchanging Congolese and Ivoirian music off our mp3 players and dancing to it using my portable speakers for the night party. Not a bad start. Too bad he's leaving, he's incredibly nice and calm. I am writing you from my room in Dubie while those guys out there are still talking and dancing to Bob Marley and drinking Simba and Tembo beer. Who said that meetings weren't fun?

The Dubie main road

Très MSF - nos véhicules de transport, les Land Cruiser


Enfants de Dubié qui regardent les Muzungus (étrangers, Blancs) jouer au volleyball


* * *

Ce qui me terrifie:

1) les latrines

2) les serpents

3) les latrines

4) les scorpions

5) tout être non humain dans mon lit, la latrine, ou la douche

6) pas de nuoc mam sur mon riz pendant six mois (sauce viêt au poisson)

7) la bouffe répétitive

8) pas d'internet

9) les douches froides

10) du mauvais café, ou pas de café du tout

11) de ne pas remplir l'espace laissé par mon prédécesseur le baba cool

12) les latrines


Bon, déjà, deux jours de latrines et de douches froides avec seau d'eau chaude et je n'y vois plus de différence. Mes souliers Crocs sont tellement utiles!!! Je m'habitue aux moustiquaires, à ma lampe frontale et aux douches dans le noir. Par contre, le logement à Shamwana promet d'être encore plus basique qu'ici à Dubié, on va rigoler. Moi la VIP (Viet Important Princess) qui joue les filles de brousse, ça va être drôle! C'est comme tout dans la vie, vaut mieux en rire qu'en pleurer - une approche générale qui sort bien souvent du pétrin. Du moment qu'il y a du riz, je trouverais un peu de bonheur. J'ai déjà stocké en sauce soja à Lubumbashi, pour un bon début!