On the mend!!

Well, this week is so far starting out very good. I am finally healthy! The bout of giardia left me lactose intolerant, but that won’t stop me from eating copious amounts of cheese when I get to London in about 3 weeks!! So, for anyone who will be in London or anywhere in Iceland the week of September 27-Oct 4th, let me know and we can visit…I will be in London the weekends of the 25th and again the next weekend the 4th and 5th before flying back to Nigeria. The malaria was a good experience, but hope it stays away for a long time, but I did manage to lose a couple of pounds, so I highly recommend the giardia/malaria diet, you eat whatever you want (which in Nigeria means semolina and rice and bush meat), and you won’t gain a pound because it all exits your body just as quickly as you consumed it!!! Enough about that…it was an experience, but I do miss the hallucinations…it just put a different perspective on things here!

As for the work here, it is really nuts. Our most recent results show that polio is way out of control, with over 60 new cases reported last week alone. So, we are in trouble. That is the only nice way too put it. One major issue is that the staff we have currently hired to support the program (well over 400 national Nigerian staff), from nurses, to immunizers, to medical doctors, are not being compliant. Many of them feel that if we eradicate polio that they will be out of a job, and therefore are not collecting samples or immunizing the children as many times as they need to be in order for them to be immunized for life. We had a major country wide blitz where consultants were brought in from countries like Pakistan and India and Egypt where they have been able to basically eradicate the disease and the consultants noticed that many of these staff were just not doing their jobs appropriately, and more or less taking advantage of their roles and responsibilities. It is a scary thing to consider that these people were sacrificing the quality of life for these children. The thing is with polio is that we want to eradicate it, as a country’s future depends on its future workers being healthy and able to function and work. Polio is not the only disease in Nigeria and Africa in general…there is always another new disease out there that we have not yet experienced, or are not able to commit funding and resources to because polio still exists. So nobody will ever be unemployed in the health sector here. If we eradicate polio, maybe we can then really start to work on reducing HIV/AIDS rates (which is my opinion, having seen what it does firsthand, is way more serious than anything else)…This being said, this is why health human resources (meaning people who work in the health care industry eg. Pharmacists, nurses, doctors, lab technician, vets, epidemiologists, occupational/physio therapists, dieticians, etc…)is such a huge problem here…there are not enough people to do the work. This is of course not the only issue or concern. We are still facing significant denial from the northern, muslim states, who refuse to vaccinate their children, saying that it is “Allah’s will” that chooses the course of life for the child. Now I have never read the Koran, but I doubt that anywhere within it does it say to not do everything you can to protect your child from illness/death?! So, that is one of the major things happening here. Beyond that, everyday is still a constant struggle with my own team. They are nice people on a day to day informal basis, but trying to get anything done is a real learning curve (READ=impossibility), one that I am completely perplexed about…I may not be the most experienced manager, but even the most experienced one would be driven to drink…drinking I find brings out my ‘creative’ side, and a few of us often go out for drinks during the week to brainstorm new ideas…so far, nothing…so anybody with any ideas please send them my way. But, I do think I have decided on what my masters MBA thesis will be about…culture and change! I have a living case study at my disposal, so it will turn out to be interesting and educational I think…although it may turn into a phd wit the amount of information I can collect here!

Some good news…besides me regaining my health…I have found a house! Well, a flat. It is in a nice compound, with many other UN and embassy staff from all over, with tennis courts and a pool is being built…It has 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, and is a nice space, with lots of space for visitors! I have hired a person to help me out (basically mandatory here)…so she will do my shopping and cleaning, and not sure what else, but she will probably watch tv 6 hours of the day and look busy when I come home from work!! But, I have no real problems with that…she will live on my property, but there is separate housing for house workers…a very interested (sad) life…as their ‘house’ is about the size of a small closet or one of those half washrooms that has only a sink and a toilet)…often they live in it with a spouse and a child or two…not sure how, but they manage…and it is good work for them, as we pay them well, and we cover them for health insurance, so not a bad set up really, I guess. But, at least I am getting a home, and not a hotel…the hotel has been great, but it is still a hotel at the end of the day. My flat is extremely expensive ($45,000 USD) a year, and trust me in Toronto for that amount, you can buy a house for less than than…but that’s what it costs to be an international here! At least I don’t have to pay all of that, but still such a waste of our resources.

Anyways, that is it from me for now. Life is good. I am settling in, but definitely looking forward to my holiday in Iceland at the end of the month. It will be nice to see old friends, some of which I have not seen for about 4 years. It will definitely be a well deserved party, and I look forward to seeing those that are able to make it to London…my mobile number is 0803 9600875, but will probably get a SIM card for London once there…speaking of which, if anyone ever wants to call…from overseas, this is how I think you call me….011 234 803 960 0875…I may be wrong (so my actual number is above just in case)…take care, andrea