Sabine, an MSF doctor, doing the morning rounds of the pediatrics ward of Goronyo hospital

The Morning Rounds

I awoke early on Christmas morning and went for a walk to explore Goronyo. It wouldn’t take very long. As I walked through the town I knew that I was being closely observed. When I’ve visited remote parts of Kenya or Zambia I was always openly and warming received and I got a sense of what it must feel like to be a rock star. Nigeria feels more like being George Bush in a book store – they look at me like they know who I am but they can’t comprehend where I came from and what I’m doing there.

People were friendly in a reserved kind of way. As I got more comfortable in my surroundings I would wave at some and say good morning to others. Eventually I pulled-out my camera and found that people were happy to have their picture taken (although I didn’t try asking if they were too intimidating looking). I came across some young girls, nicely dressed, walking on the side of the road. I took their photo and was startled when the oldest one said in quite good English, “you should dress nice, it’s Christmas.” She had me there.

It was still fairly early when I returned to the expat compound, and Sabina, a young German doctor, was about to leave for her morning rounds at the hospital. I jumped at the invitation to join her. One of MSF’s focuses in Nigeria is maternal and child health, so our rounds were of the maternity and pediatrics wards (areas which are of growing interest to me). It will be one of those days that I will always remember with great clarity and it helped to remind me of why I’m proud to work for MSF.

Doing the rounds was quite interesting and even entertaining. Sabina was able to make a seamless connection with the women and their babies, despite the language and cultural divide. She would brief me on their ailments, with malaria and malnourishment being the most regular.

I was hoping to take some photographs and was pleased to find that not only were people happy to have their picture taken, but that it would have been an insult not to photograph everyone and their baby. This was also true of the MSF run nutrition feeding centre that I later visited. After taking the photo I would show the result on the camera’s display to the ladies and their neighbors and they would cackle with delight. It was a great way to connect with the people and a memorable way to finish the morning rounds.

Pediatrics ward of Goronyo hospital. Everyone was pleased to have their picture taken

Waiting to see a Doctor at the Goronyo hospital

At the MSF Nutrition Centre

Mothers and Grandmothers with children at the MSF Nutrition Centre

The road to Goronyo

I thought it was pretty cool to see camels. My driver dutifully stopped, even though he couldn't understand what the big deal was

The girl on the right chastized me with "You should dress nice...it's Christmas"

He was happy to have his picture taken and check-out his photo on my camera's display

Children in Goronyo

Sheik, Oscar and Marisa dancing at the Christmas Eve party

With Sellah, a Lab Tech from Kenya

Preparing for Christmas Eve dinner

Christmas in Nigeria

In 2005 I spent Christmas in Islamabad, Pakistan, in 2006 I was in a small town in northern Zambia, in 2007 I was in Colombo, Sri Lanka and in 2008 I was in snowy Vancouver. Given that 2009 would be my fourth overseas Christmas in the past five years, going to the Muslim north of Nigeria is a perfect fit with my holiday tradition.

Matthias, Oscar and I drove from the Sokoto to join our colleagues in Goronyo for Christmas Eve. There were twelve of us for dinner, representing ten different countries. Having Christmas dinner with people I had just met seemed perfectly normal. We sat outside in the warm night’s air under makeshift Christmas lights strung on the tree above our table. Sabine decorated the dinner table with items sent from Europe, which included sprinklings of pine needles. We had a tasty fish dinner and a mixed fruit dessert.

There were a few other signs that it was Christmas. The Kenyans, Marisa and Sellah, dressed-up in traditional African outfits and Sabine at one point was heard nearby singing slightly off-key “Oh Tannenbaum” on her cell phone with her family in Germany. Otherwise, the evening was spent relaxing at the table while watching the Africans dance. I hadn’t felt well that day and snuck-off to bed at around 10:00 pm. Apparently the party kept going and the Africans kept dancing until 3:00 am. Such as one would expect for a Christmas spent in Nigeria.

Departing Finco Margaret with staff at her "Send Forth" (departure) party

On the Road Again

After two short flights and two long ones, I was in northern Nigeria. You would think that during my seventeen hours in the air I would have watched at least one decent movie. My transfers in Calgary and Amsterdam were short, which was good because both cities looked to be really cold. The amount of carry-on luggage that people lugged on to the flight from Europe to Africa was almost as impressive as how much checked luggage was unloaded at the other end. My flight to Abuja arrived in the evening, but I still had enough time for a couple of beers with some new MSF colleagues and for a few hours sleep before catching the next morning’s flight to Sokoto.

When my flight landed in Abuja I was surprised that quite a few people had applauded. You could tell that they were happy to be home for the holidays. In contrast, the next day when I arrived at the Sultan Saddik Abubakar International Airport in Sokoto there was no cheering. It was probably for the same reason. After the tractor deposited our luggage at the terminal I quickly connected with the MSF driver (it wasn’t difficult as I was the only white person there) and we made our way to the office. At that point my one journey had come to an end while another had just begun.

Nigeria is a new country for me, this is my fourth mission with MSF and I find that there are many comforting similarities between the postings that make it relatively easy to adapt. As I’ve settled in at the office I’ve had a real feeling of déjà vu as there were many familiar sites, such as the white MSF-emblem vehicles parked outside, the determined rumbling of the over-matched air-conditioners, the disheveled Finance Coordinator’s office, and the fact that the national staff tend to dress better than the expats. I have very quickly come to feel at home.

Preparing for Departure to Nigeria

My flight was confirmed this morning, my passport with its newly stamped visa delivered by courier today just before lunch, and my semi-organized backpack is pretty much ready to go. Despite all the evidence that I’m leaving tomorrow, I still don’t fully grasp what’s ahead.
I’m about to embark on a five-week assignment with MSF in northwest Nigeria.

I’ll be working as their Financial Coordinator in the town of Sokoto, in the State of Sokoto, supporting MSF ‘s Maternal and Child Health program, Nutrition program, and Emergency Response unit. I had a telephone briefing yesterday with Oliver and have read some background material. Ready or not, here I go.

I’m not sure how much I’ll be updating my blog while in Nigeria. It’s hard to know how busy or inspired I’ll be to write. However, I’ve at least resurrected my blog site by getting a new password, inserting a couple of maps, and writing these few paragraphs. But don’t be disappointed if I don’t make any or many updates and I won’t be disappointed if you don’t read my blog.

Off to Sokoto in north-west Nigeria

Off to Nigeria in western Africa