From Asia and back to Africa

Hello everyone,

I hope this finds you all well wherever you may be. This has been one very long, and I must say difficult week...tougher than any week I have had yet here...but I have officially as of today, been in Nigeria for one month!

I came back from Malaysia on Thursday morning, and immediately had to go on mission in the south west area of Nigeria, so definitely completely exhausted at this point as I have been on the move for two full weeks.

The past mission was the toughest to date. We were in the south west to try to convince local governments and also the Anglican bishop that kids need to be vaccinated, and that it is not about "those who are worthy of the vaccine" who get it (basically, this means, those who can 'afford'to bribe the workers to give it to them will get it)...the area we were in is one of the poorest in Nigeria, so you can imagine that really no one can afford it...and WHO gives these vaccines to the government at no cost, as it is all donor money who pays for our vaccine programs....so far this year, we have spent over $550 million USD on vaccination programs, and we still have 4 months to go! Last year's budget for the entire year was $400 million (these figures are all just operational costs, and do not include salaries, which are probably another $20-40 million), so you can see just how bad it is getting here...I should mention that these vaccines are not just for polio, but are for yellow fever, malaria, tuberculosis, as well, although the polio program is about 2/3 of the budget! We visited a couple of local orphanages, where every child has HIV/AIDS, and while we were there 2 children died...it was completely heartbreaking, and it is something that will never, ever leave me. These orphanages cannot afford the live saving HIV drugs that the kids need, so basically they are provided with the best life they can be given, but usually die very young, as they are prone to TB, fever, and other illnesses that they cannot fight.

I have seen more here than I could have ever imagined, nor ever wanted to experience. For a country that is so wealthy, however so very corrupt, these sorts of things should not be happening. The work is incredibly fulfilling, however dealing with government officials is horrible, but the worst are the religious groups. I am not sure what version of the Bible these leaders have read or follow, but it is no version that I have ever seen or heard of. For those who don't know, Nigeria is an Anglican faith based country, equally split with Muslim, but the Anglican church seperated from the Church of England 2 years ago, for some reasons I don't fully understand, and have basically started their own Anglican faith of some sort...the Arch Bishop of Nigeria (his name has escaped me) is basically the Mugabe of the Anglican church...he is a pretty evil man, and was last year named to Time's most interesting figures of 2007, but not interesting in a good way...full stop, he is crazy and totally corrupt. He is based here in Abuja and you know he is around when you see a convoy of brand new BMWs, Mercedes and his personal Rolls Royce stopping traffic...not sure anywhere else in the world that the head of a religion gets a Rolls Royce?! I am sure that money could be better used to put back into the church, and help people 'as per God's will'...but again he has his own Bible that he reads from! BBC or CNN (can't remember which one) recently did a really good special on religion here in Nigeria, so if you can find it, you should have a look at it, as it is pretty good introduction to religion here!

Apart from all that, everything is going well. I am slowly settling into life here, and the daily battles to get anything done. I will be in Abuja for at least a few weeks, but then going into the field for a week in the northern area of Kano to actually supervise an immunization campaign, and then off to Botwana for a meeting in early September...I will finally be taking a week off at the end of September, and flying out to London for a couple of nights (only because I am desperate for nachos and beer), and then off to I think Cyprus...although we have changed locations so many times, that this could again change...basically my friend Catherine and I want to go somewhere that neither of us has ever been (which is tough when we have both traveled a lot), but that is still safe (Read: not being bombed at the moment), and isn't Muslim, only because the end of Ramadan is October 1st, so basically any country that celebrates Eid will just shut down for that week, and this is the only week I can take off, as we only word a 2 day work that week (as we get Eid off here in Nigeria as well).

Anyways, still no luck with housing, but I would have to be in Abuja to actually look, but I thinking that as I only have 10 months left that I will just stay at the Hilton, but who knows?

Well everyone, that is it for this week...sorry if I have depressed you, but I haven't explained a quarter of it.

Ciao belli, andrea