Vive Vavuniya

Following the unfortunate claymore incident from my first day the rest of my stay in Vavuniya was calm and uneventful. I had a nice visit with the MSF expat team and also got to know the national staff, especially their wonderful administrative assistant, Dammy.

On Saturday morning I joined Steve for his hospital rounds as he visited with over 100 patients. The hospital only has about 55 beds so the over-flow slept on mattresses on the floor at night and sat on benches during the day. We saw a bit of everything, from those with injuries from motor vehicle accidents, burn victims, and those suffering with kidney stones. There were also injuries more specific to the local situation including a young man who had lost his right foot while sweeping for mines and three men injured by Thursday’s claymore explosion. Steve kindly warned me beforehand of which patients’ injuries I shouldn’t look at, but I still ended-up seeing more than I had anticipated. It was just another day on the job for Steve, but for me it was one I will long remember.

Sunday was a day-off (except for Steve, who made his rounds without my company) and a relaxing day was spent at the house. Because of security concerns expats here are limited to either the house or the hospital, which must get claustrophobic after awhile. Although we were far from any of the fighting, as a precautionary measure the washroom/shower section of the house was surrounded with sandbags. I have no doubt that this location was selected strategically, but if I it had been up to me I would have sandbagged the TV room.

Jonathon, the project coordinator, returned from Kilinochchi on the Monday afternoon and I stayed one final night to celebrate New Years with the team. We barbequed on the roof-deck and had a few drinks. Some locals entertained themselves with firecrackers, which surprised me as I thought that they would be sick of the sounds of explosions. At around 9:00 pm we heard an impressive exchange of artillery, which then settled down to just a periodic distant thud. Over all, it was a quiet affair and I didn’t even manage to stay-up till midnight. I thought back to my last two New Years spent in Zambia (fun) and Pakistan (not fun) and knew that I would leave Vavuniya with some lasting memories.