Going, Going, Gone

I arrived in Pakistan three months ago today when the earthquake relief operation was still ramping-up. On my flight from Europe were seven MSF expatriates coming to assist. As time has passed many people have come and gone. Of the seven on my flight now only Steffi from Germany and I remain.

Even the happy Swedes have left. Maria and Alex had also arrived on my flight and after a lot of work and a “nice” (Alex’s favorite word) experience they left “precisely” (Maria’s favorite word) one month ago. Apparently, they live in the boring part of Sweden, which is really saying something. I enjoyed teasing them about their accents (despite their denials, they do sound like the chef on the Muppet Show) and Swedish hockey players being wimps (fortunately for me, if Alex wasn’t so good natured he would have crushed me). I had an email from Maria telling me that she has already found a job in Sweden with Vattenfall, a Swedish power company. I advised her that I have extensive experience in the electricity industry, with specialization in hassling engineers to complete their expense claims. Maria hasn’t started work yet but is already plotting taking her first leave in order to go on another MSF assignment.

Alex and Maria were just 2 out of approximately 115 Expats that MSF Holland has sent to Pakistan for the earthquake relief since October 8th. In addition, to the emergency team there has been another 10 to 12 Expats in-country as part of the regular mission (including me). At its peak there were probably around 75 Expats in Pakistan. Currently there are less than 40 Expats in Kashmir and by April there are expected to be 10 to 15. The staffing predictions are always made with caution because it is difficult to know what the conditions and needs will be in the months to come. So far the reports have been quite positive as Kashmir is having its mildest and driest winter in recent memory. I suppose that they were due for a bit of luck.

Fabio was the most recent of my seven flight-mates to depart. A counselor from Italy he had a challenging, but satisfying experience in Kashmir and also lost at least 20 pounds in weight. I originally met Fabio on the airport shuttle bus leaving my hotel in Amsterdam. A few hours after our arrival in Islamabad he was shuttled off to Kashmir and I didn’t see him again until just prior to his departure for Italy. Although we didn’t work together, only met a few times, and had very different experiences here we will always be connected by the fact that we were among the many who worked for MSF as part of the 2005 Kashmir earthquake relief effort.