Housemates & Head of Mission

The MSF Expat residence I live in is a big two-story house with 7 bedrooms. The rooms are quite large and comfortable, with many having their own bathroom. For entertainment, our TV cablevision provides close to 80 channels, or about 8 that you would actually want to watch (which excludes those that show religious musical programs (half the channels), cricket and Bollywood movies). Overall, it’s a much nicer situation than I was expecting.

Since moving in I’ve had many housemates (defined as people based there and not just visiting). Those who have come and gone include: David, Vladimir, Isabelle, Cecilio, Caroline, Alex, Maria, Willem, Marcel, Emma, Frank, Bert, Franke, Sjoeke, Caroline, Anne, Michelle, Annas, Roshan, and Mike. The current residents consist of Steve (Logistics Coordinator) and myself and new arrivals Luis (Medical Coordinator), Joe (Head of Mission) and his wife and young daughter, Cara and Kira. Amazingly, no changes are expected until July.

Speaking of the Head of Mission (HOM), this hasn’t exactly been a position of stability since my arrival in Pakistan. Typically, the HOM has the longest contract and stays for 2 to 3 years. However, since November I’ve had six different bosses. The first one quit about a week after I arrived (purely a coincidence). Bert covered for a few weeks until Willem (who had been the previous HOM for two-years and was on a break before going to Ethiopia) agreed to come until Christmas. When a long-term solution couldn’t be found the position was filled for 3-months by Willem’s father Franke, a retired UN diplomat and MSF HOM. When Franke left, short-term coverage was provided by Mike of the emergency team. Now Joe is here for four-months and its expected that a long-term replacement will arrive by the end of July. I think I’m on track for a MSF record.

Josje, the Operational Director from Amsterdam (the boss of the HOM), has been in Pakistan for the past week visiting our various projects. One day she and I sat out on my office’s deck (it really is a nice deck) to discuss a number of topics and she apologized for my being put into such a frenzied situation with the earthquake emergency response and the instability in the HOM position. However, my feeling was that I was glad to have had the opportunity of seeing MSF in true emergency mode, but now that it’s over I’m looking forward to having a different experience during the second half of my stay. Things will be much more stable on both the work and home front and I will be able to spend more time out at the projects. And if it gets too slow I guess I can always watch cricket.