To Brussels, Amsterdam and London

Dee

I am now in London. I've had a few adventures getting here... After meeting friends my goals for this holiday were to 1) buy a particular new camera 2) to take a course called 'Finance for the non-specialist' and 3) to get a lot of rest. Guess which of these has actually happened as planned?

First I went to Brussels to see my friend Alan. I was still a bit overwhelmed by malaria and I hope he didn't mind. We walked around a lot of the town and had a splendid meal and a few extra beers there and there. Brussels has some very nice architecture.

Then I went to see my friend Marga in The Hague. We had a lovely but brief time - it was good to catch up on our lives. Then I went on to Amsterdam to see my friend Gwen. I had a fanstastic three days including a great birthday evening with her and her friends on Friday. I always enjoy Amsterdam but it's particularly good to have a knowlegable tour guide like Gwen. I also managed to see my friend Bonno who I'd known in Buchanan.

While in Brussels I'd learned that the shop in London where I was planning to buy my camera was out of stock so I changed my plans and bought it (at a higher price) in Amsterdam. It's a lovely Canon EOS 5D with a EF 24-70mm F/2.8l USM lens. The first test shots (of Gwen's dog) came out very well but when it came time to take out the battery I couldn't - it was stuck in. By then it was too late to return to the store while in the Netherlands or even on this trip so I began to panic.

Luckily here in London the camera store (Camera World) I'd wanted to patronize were very helpful. Actually they pointed me to a camera repair service that was able to pull out the battery - to reveal that it was a) sticky and b) NOT A GENUINE CANON BATTERY. (The 5D is supposed to come with a genuine battery.) I am furious with the Amsterdam shop. (They had also neglected to give me the camera dust cap and lens back cap. Furthermore I heard them spending 20 minutes trying to persuade an unfortunate customer that the scratch on his lens is 'irrelevant'. Even though front surface marks ARE out of focus they cause blur and block light and it was very unprofessional to claim otherwise. Oh - and they also grumbled about having to process my VISA card transaction manually because VISA were blocking the unusual purchase...) Please do not patronize "Foto Professional" in Amsterdam - I think they are crooked. But all ended well here in London - and then I had a DELIGHTFUL evening with my friends Susi and Jon.

This morning I headed to the finance course in Hampstead - only to find that it had been canceled on the 8th. I hadn't checked my work e-mail because I'm trying to be on holiday from work... I'm dissapointed and it means this holiday will use three more days of precious leave than planned but then those days weren't going to be holiday and now they can. So perhaps it's alright - at least I'll take the opportunity to see more of London. My notions for tomorrow are the British Airways London Eye, The National Portrait Gallery and perhaps a tourist bus tour. And I have some fun dates set up...

Malaria is no fun at all

Sydney Zoo
March 29, 2004


I am unexpectedly in Monrovia - I planned to be in Buchanan until Tuesday when I will fly to Brussels and the beginning of my two-week vacation. I am here now on doctors' orders, at the tail end (I hope) of my first bout with Malaria.

It hasn't been fun. Last Saturday I felt a general soreness in my mouth along with cold sweats and I realized I'd been feeling lethargic for a day or two already. On Sunday I had did a 'Paracheck' blood test which detects only the most common malaria parasite here. The test was negative but on Monday I did a blood smear and although the hospital lab technician who can distinguish malaria parasites was not available, the lab did confirm I had malaria. Meanwhile I grew more and more sleepy and less and less useful at work and more and more irritable (and probably irritating). I developed a 'geographic tongue' (misshapen by sores) and an intolerance to anything in my mouth except salty water. Before raiding my bosses fridge here this afternoon, the last thing I ate was canned pears, very gingerly, on Tuesday. I completed a course of combined drug therapy but yesterday tested positive again for Malaria. Today, Dr. Simon (my colleague in Buchanan) and Dr. Julius (our Chief Medical Coordinator here in Monrovia) sent me to Monrovia for further observation. Actually I feel a bit better today - and even think I'll be going to a farewell party this evening.

In a certain way I'm glad to know a little more about Malaria. It can manifest itself in various ways - for instance I was never observed to have a fever. I was never in danger because I live and work with two nurses and a doctor but I felt sick enough to be able to imagine how it would have developed without expert treatment. Malaria is the number one cause of mortality (and morbidity) in Liberia - it kills about one person a week right in our own hospital. I'm glad I'm one of the much luckier victims.



In a lighter vein, I've just finished reading a great fiction series lead by The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith. (You can see all my recent reading here.) These are remarkably delightful books about a 'traditionally-built' private detective in modern Botswana - which Smith makes sound like paradise. The books are at once hilarious, feminist, pro- and against development, ethics manuals (Altering the Blueprint: The Ethics of Genetics is by the same author) and guides to human failings. Most importantly, they are gentle and charming. Two thumbs and two big toes up.

My past and my future?

Fuel wood market, Eritrea

1998

I'm in Monrovia for a series of meetings that are making me think a lot about my career. How did I get into development without knowing anything about it? The actual answer is that on two occasions my Geographic Information Systems background (which itself was a tangential step from my academic work, which was glaciology) sent me to developing countries. I'd begun working for the Canadian government in 1986 and ten years later they'd already sent me to do brief GIS work in Egypt and eventually Eritrea for a couple of months. Then I left the government to do my Fine Arts degree in photography but in 1998 the government re-hired me to go to Eritrea for a splendid year. (Eritrea was then a very easy place for a westerner to be comfortable, except for one little episode of Ethiopian bombing in June.) Because of this and Mom dying I took five years to do a three-year degree.

In the fall of 2002 I joined the evil Bechtel corporation in Washington State for a couple of restless years. More about that job and the town I was in another time. But while I was there I responded to question from CARE International in Sierra Leone on a GIS discussion list. I was able to help them with their first question but not another one so I suggested they fly me to Freetown to help out. Amazingly, they did. My two weeks there opened me eyes to NGO work and I began to look around. The next step was transitional - I got a job as a GIS and mapping officer with the Survey Action Center in Washington DC - not knowing that they would send me around the world to help with Landmine Impact Surveys - eventually in Afghanistan, Angola, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somaliland (Somalia). In 2004 they posted me to Kabul to work continuously on the Landmine Impact Survey of Afghanistan which we completed in early 2005. That work was great for my career and personal development but I'm pessimistic about the results being properly used. Then I did an unrewarding six-month contract with Oxfam in Afghanistan. Now I'm with Merlin in Liberia and everything is grand.

I've also been thinking about my goals. (They're subject to change.) Right now I think I want to work here until our two current projects are complete (one ends next February and one ends next March) having helped to develop excellent proposals for the following projects. Then, as I see it now, I'd look for a challenge within Merlin somewhere else in the world. Perhaps somewhere less humid. I'd also like to do some development studies via distance learning but currently I'm just too busy.

I had a great conversation about anti-malaria bed nets the other day with staff from Concern Worldwide - one of our friendly partner NGOs. Concern distribute thousands of bed nets but they are learning that the effectiveness is sometimes disappointing because:

• people are selling them for food


• people find them difficult to install in their types of homes


• children go to bed too far after dusk, when the mosquitoes are biting

It's an interesting reminder that problems and solutions aren't always as easy as assumed.

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

Five-minute old boy (and his mother) at the Liberian Government Hospital, Buchanan, Liberia.
April 29, 2006


President Johnson Sirleaf with Grand Bassa County Superintendent Madam Julia Duncan Cassell (left), Sophia Craig-Massey (my boss, right) and a senator at the opening ceremonies of the new Outpatient and Medical Imaging Departments at the Liberian Government Hospital, Buchanan, Liberia.
April 29, 2006



Ellen works the crowd.April 29, 2006



President Johnson Sirleaf throws the schedule out of whack by diverting towards the Pediatrics ward at the Liberian Government Hospital. The smiling faces in Merlin shirts are Bassam (left) and my dear colleague, friend and roommate Ruphine Olouch. (Ruphine instigated the diversion.)
April 29, 2006


Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

Today was a big day. It began just after midnight with the terrible news that one of our guards had died in a motorcycle accident. We had a brief team meeting this morning for prayers and tears and then resolved to carry on with special plans for today - the official opening of the Outpatient and Medical Imaging Departments at the Merlin-supported Liberian Government Hospital, to be dedicated by Her Excellency President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of the Republic of Liberia.

Despite a few glitches but because of the extremely hard work of my staff we think the event was a success. I was delighted to shake the President's hand. She's a charming politician - the person making introductions in the receiving line gave up before reaching me but she carried on and quickly and positively reacted to my Merlin T-shirt. Later, as she was getting into her car I called out and again she remarked on the work that Merlin does in Liberia. In between she gave an eloquent speech without notes that included diplomatic responses to preceding speeches. At the end she drove out waving to the crowds that had not been allowed into the hospital compound.

The day ended better than it began and the event marked the end of one of the sources of stress in my life. I'm hoping I'll have more time to post blog entries in May.