I am now nearly a third of the way into my first one-year as a Project Coordinator with Médecins sans frontières (MSF – www.msf.org) in Central African Republic (C.A.R.). My début was complicated because after a week of French training in Brussels I spent just one week in Boguila – my project site – before spending a week for meetings in the capital city (Bangui) and then two weeks of MSF Project Coordinator training in Amsterdam and another week of French in Brussels before returning to C.A.R. in October.

We usually fly between Bangui and Boguila (in Let L-410 Turbojets) but I returned to Boguila on a 12-hour road journey by Land cruiser. When C.A.R. is not soaking wet it is covered with orange dust and that was the colour of my skin and hair when I returned to Boguila.

With Pierre, our head driver.

Bowanson is one our rural health posts.

Centrafrican kids love being photographed.

Our project has a 70-bed hospital with Inpatient, Outpatient and TB/HAV departments as well as seven (soon, ten) rural clinics. We have about 155 national staff.

Expat staff colleagues (left to right on car roofs): Anna, Marco, Joe, Stephanie; (left to right on ground) Warwick, Charlotte, Jatinder, Tom, Stefano and Melanie.