Category: Relief Work

  • Hello Pandang, Indonesia

    So I have neglected to write an update for a very long time. Here’s a tiny update to give you a taste of things to come in the next few weeks. I got back from Morocco and settled into my home away from home in Switzerland. I met Marina, a former coworker from MSF who…

  • Liberian Civil Servants

    This photo essay shows pictures of several Liberian civil servants. The picture of the governor of River Gee brought back memories. I met village chiefs in offices like this to talk about how MSF could work with the community.

  • Handover

    It has been a long time since I wrote last, so here is a tiny update. I am doing the handover to the new November 2 right now. It is a very strange thing to have him here and be able to literally count the days. Also now I have to pay particular attention to…

  • Quiplu can’t count to four

    One of our cars is broken. The differential was making noise. In Liberian English, car parts can be “fine”, “not fine”, or “finished”. The mechanic took it apart this morning and found that one of the bearings in this differential is finished. It was interesting to see the insides of the differential, and I spent…

  • Busy and also not so busy

    We were really busy here in October because of the need to plan 2007’s activities. We had to make a Plan of Action, then we had to make the budget. The whole process was eye opening into how MSF plans its activities, and working on the budget was sometimes boring drudge work, but sometimes it…

  • I don’t know what I’m going to get, but it’ll be fine

    I just had the most profound sense of peace wash over me… not of the spiritual variety, but of the logistical. I was out checking up on the carpenters to make sure they understood my instructions right and were building the right stuff today. I held the plank for the guy as he was sawing…

  • Birthday wishes from the WFP

    Just a quick note to tell you all that I had a great birthday here in Nimba. The day went much better than could be expected, starting with the surprise arrival of the chief mechanic who fixed three cars today. It was not really a surprise, but it sort of felt like it, because he…

  • Back at work

    This week was a regular work week for me, but a couple days were shaved off it while I was in transit back to Nimba. It has been nice to get back to the normal schedule of Nimba life. None of the normal annoyances really bugged me because I was happy to be back “home”.…

  • Hello from Nimba again

    I am back in Nimba now, back with my adopted family here. The work is hard (even just one day has already presented a terrifying array of problems), but I am really happy to be back with the team and in my “own” bed. I brought back a new expat from Monrovia with me. Pierre…

  • I’m still alive

    Just a quick note to tell you all that I am still alive. Things have not been super busy, but I haven’t felt too much like writing. This week a logistics helper came from Monrovia and completed a renovation of the building that used to be our food store into a new office building. After…