All Quiet in Quetta

I’ve just returned from a fairly quiet yet interesting week at our office in Quetta. This was my first time back to Quetta since my April visit to present the new salary scales, which had almost started a staff revolt. It took a few months to sort through the various issues that arose, but it now “appears” that staff harmony has returned to its normal state. One of the things that I’ve learned about Pakistani culture is the need to show great respect towards the staff and their concerns and the final outcome is almost of secondary importance (I said almost). With the various HR issues seemingly resolved I returned to Quetta to a hero’s welcome (at least on the surface).

The following are a few other notes from my week in Quetta:

- The town of Quetta has quite a history, first as a fort protecting the trade roads to Afghanistan, Iran and India, then as the largest garrison in British India, and most recently as a springboard for the Taliban movement. Consequently, ensuring staff security is a prime focus here for MSF.

- I spent a few hours at the new MSF project at Kuchlak, which is about a 30-minute drive from Quetta. MSF is operating an MCH (Mother & Child Health) clinic and negotiating to provide outpatient support at a government Rural Health Centre. Gareth, the MSF project coordinator, is probably our busiest expat in Pakistan right now.

- We went out to dinner one evening in the centre of Quetta with about a dozen of our staff. There was good food, lively surroundings, and some pretty interesting looking people. I don’t think I would have felt very comfortable there if I wasn’t accompanied by about a dozen of our staff.

- When going through airport security the carry-on baggage goes through two separate x-rays and you are frisked twice (the metal detector always goes off). I unintentionally packed along my Swiss army knife but this went undetected. Perhaps this isn’t an area of concern as we are also provided with regular cutler for our flight meal.

- The MSF building contains the office on the main floor and the expat residence upstairs. On one day I didn’t even go outside.

- Gareth, Doctor M and I attended a meeting with a number of local politicians. There were about ten people in the office and periodically one of them would go to one side of the floor and start to pray. It’s always nice to know which direction Mecca is.

- Thanks to the wonders of the internet I was able to do my month-end accounting from Quetta. It got me thinking about the possibilities of working remotely from somewhere exotic like Thailand.

- Doctor M had us over for dinner with his family one night. An Afghan, who has lived in Pakistan for over 20-years, he is a committed MSFer and a serious carnivore. When he invited us he wanted to ensure that we were happy just to eat meat so that they wouldn’t bother to make rice. Doctor M is my kind of guy.