Chris is currently out of the office

The team were very busy prior to my arrival and with no NERU emergencies (another MSF team were dealing with lead poisoning) in our 4 North-West states being self-sufficient, they decided to take the full weekend off for the first time in months.

Having only been here for a few days, I didn’t feel like spending a Saturday doing nothing and decided to take the opportunity to visit one of the nearby projects. The Zamfara lead poisoning project was 3 hours away, and Goronyo was only 1 hour, so I decided to visit the closer one.

After getting approval from the Logistic Coordinator for the trip, I wasn’t able to reach my counterpart logistician or the project coordinator by phone. I send them an email telling them to call me if my visit would be inconvenient.

I packed one of the large chocolate bars that I had brought with me from Scotland, some water, my camera, some tools and clothes. I wasn’t planning on staying overnight but during the week, recent visitors were forced to spend an extra night there after some confusion about the local security situation.

The journey took an hour through beautiful scenery, mostly flat orange-red desert with small dry bushes. We passed dried out river beds about 2 to 5 metres wide. After an hour and various police check points we arrived in Goronyo. The team were working, but not too many outpatients come on a Saturday so they had time to show me around the hospital site that we share with the Ministry of Health. I saw limp and skinny children with their mothers in consultation with our medical staff and some very sick looking patients lying in the hot hospital rooms. Not yet knowing what is culturally acceptable, I kept my distance.

Photo: Chris H | Hospital Ward

My logistical colleague, a water and sanitation specialist showed me around the hospital and told me about his plans to improve the waste disposal area, the sewerage system and the water distribution. He also showed me around town. On Sundays there is a large market and people travel from Abuja and Lagos to buy onions, maize and millet. Grumpy camels carried sacks for the traders setting up their stalls for tomorrow’s sale.

Photo: Chris H | Grumpy Camels

We departed a few hours later and during the journey home I saw the rain of the rainy season. It fell heavy and the passing motorbike drivers were soaked through, but the ground never held the water and it soaked into the dust. A few minutes later the rain stopped and everything looked just as it did before the rain.

On Sunday I went to Sokoto’s “International Airport” (there is indeed an annual flight to Mecca, but on the other 364 days it only receives planes from Abuja and Lagos). The team doctor and coordinator arrived and I got the chance to meet my new boss for the first time.

I now have 3 weeks to absorb as much information as I can from the boss before he leaves after a 16 month stint in Nigeria.

After numerous warnings about the problems that me and my luggage might face on our journey from London to Sokoto, via Abuja, I was pleasantly surprised by the efficiency and friendliness I encountered at all stages of my flights to Nigeria.  An immigration officer even walked me through to the departure lounge to show me where to board my connecting flight.

A smiling driver was waiting for me at the airport, as were a number of new colleagues who were on their way back to Amsterdam or Abuja.  The coordinator of the team I was joining was going to the capitol to get a Canadian visa for a training course and the rest of them had finished shorter missions that MSF had been running, some were dealing with measles and meningitis while others had been part of our response to lead poisoning.

I jumped into our vehicle along with a Dutch lady who had been on the same flight and was coming to be the new coordinator of the lead poisoning team.  She had been to Nigeria before and chatted to the driver about other international staff who had passed through Nigeria in the past few years.

I listened and observed my new home.  The main roads were sealed and in good condition and on either side of them was red dusty ground.  Small, single story blockwork houses and makeshift shops constructed from timber and corrugated iron stood back from the road as people and goats wandered between.  Men in their full-length elegant shirts with matching brightly coloured trousers whizzed about us on motorbikes.

Sokoto is hot, but not unbearably so.  After Wikipedia taught me it was the hottest city in the world, I had prepared myself for worse.  Apparently I’m here in the cooler period known as the “rainy season” although I’ve not seen any actual rain yet.

The office that the Nigerian Emergency Response Unit occupy was a bit of a mess upon arrival.  The logistical staff were counting and packing the items left over from the recent emergency interventions.  I’ll be in charge of the logistical element of the emergency responses to emergencies that occur in the North West part of Nigeria.  My tasks in the short term are to plan ahead for the various emergencies that could occur and make sure we have suitable stock levels and are ready to respond as best we can.

For me the first few days have seemed a bit strange.  My MSF experience to date has all been in hospital settings with all the drama of sick and injured patients.  So far, I’ve only seen an office and a warehouse.  Hearing the stories of the recent outbreaks in which we vaccinated over 80,000 people for meningitis and over 75,000 children for measles, I know we are going to be busy and I’m looking forward to seeing some action.

Driving through town today (I noticed the Landcruiser had done over 335,000 kilometers) I asked the driver what the people of Nigeria thought of MSF.  He said that people were very happy with what we did, but at first they didn’t understand why we came to their country.  At first people – unfamiliar with international aid – thought that our injected vaccines were designed to sterilize their children.  I’m glad we clarified that misunderstanding!

After Chris’s end of mission in Papua New Guinea, he has decided to take on a new challenge by working as the logistician for MSF’s Nigeria Emergency Response Unit. The NERU as it’s known in MSF, specializes in sending its emergency team, composed of doctors, nurses and logisticians, to respond to epidemics in the northwestern states of Nigeria. Chris arrived in Nigeria in July 2010, and will be working as part of the NERU team for the next year.