Good-bye Nigeria

This is my last day in Nigeria. I flew down from Sokoto to Abuja yesterday and will spend today in the office training our newly hired employee. My flight to Amsterdam leaves tonight, arriving at around 6:00 am Tuesday morning. I have a 12-hour lay-over, which will give me enough time to go into the city and visit the MSF office. I then have another long flight, although with the change in time zones when I arrive in Vancouver it will still be Tuesday evening.

The fact that I’m leaving Nigeria for good is finally starting to sink-in. You get so accustomed to packing-up your gear and going to another MSF location that it catches you surprise when it comes to an end and its time to come home.

I’ve had a nice time in Nigeria and it’s been great to work with MSF again. Every mission is different and I’ll certainly remember this as the “baby mission,” given MSF’s work here in pediatrics and child nutrition. The mission has felt a lot longer than a month. Not in a bad way, but probably because of all of the unique experiences that I have had during my stay.

In Nigeria the common greeting that you receive upon arriving somewhere is “You are Welcome.” From the people I have met during my time in Nigeria and from the staff that I have worked with this has certainly been the case.