I spend a few days last week in Batticaloa, in the East of the Island, hit hard by the Tsunami, and now by the war.
92 camps of Internally Displaced People (IDP) , about 160,000 people. A lot of them with hardly anything, some with no water near their camps. The UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and UNICEF provided some shelters (some quite good, but not nearly enough of them), and water tanks. The World Food Program (WFP), provides some food, but not enough and will run out of money on June 15. Some NGOs and the Ministry of Health have mobile clinics that visit each camp once a month or less.
See the pictures.
Saturday, May 26, 2007
Friday, May 4, 2007
Colombo is flooded!
The rainy season is definitively here! It's been raining non-stop for almost a week, and some of it is torrential. In some parts of the city, we've got 2 feet of water!
It's bad for everybody. Some of our people are stuck in Jaffna with flights canceled for the past 4 days. It's also really bad for the displaced people in the camps.
It's also more difficult to get people in and out of the country because some airlines have suspended flights to Sri Lanka due to the LTTE air attacks on the military facility adjoining the international airport. An airliner was shot at by an overzealous soldier thinking it was an enemy airplane... luckily, he missed.
The weekend will be as usual, mostly work. With a bit of luck, it won't rain Sunday so we can go to the beach for a few hours...
It's also the second round of the French presidential elections this weekend! Let's hope Segolene wins!!
It's bad for everybody. Some of our people are stuck in Jaffna with flights canceled for the past 4 days. It's also really bad for the displaced people in the camps.
It's also more difficult to get people in and out of the country because some airlines have suspended flights to Sri Lanka due to the LTTE air attacks on the military facility adjoining the international airport. An airliner was shot at by an overzealous soldier thinking it was an enemy airplane... luckily, he missed.
The weekend will be as usual, mostly work. With a bit of luck, it won't rain Sunday so we can go to the beach for a few hours...
It's also the second round of the French presidential elections this weekend! Let's hope Segolene wins!!
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
Settling in after 6 weeks...
So, it's already been 6 weeks! Time passes so fast when you're busy. I'm settled in fairly nicely now, with a routine of going to the beach on Sunday afternoons if it doesn't rain. But it's rainy season now, so it rains heavily every afternoon...
The MSF mission is growing very fast. We've had 8 new expatriates arrive in the past 10 days, and that's been a lot of work for all of us in Colombo. Our project in the East is growing quickly, setting up a mobile clinic to serve a few of the 92 IDP (Internally Displaced People) camps around Batticaloa. We have 5 expatriates there now, with 10 Sri Lankan employees. It's going to grow again probably, depending on the situation. We're also bringing a couple of water sanitation and distribution experts from the MSF emergency team in Paris. Some camps have almost nothing in terms of water distribution and toilets.
In the middle of this, I managed to get a cold, and get it over with, in addition to twisting my ankle while playing in the waves... I've been limping for a few days. Life here is both boring and exciting. Boring because it's every day pretty much the same, dealing with government ministries and a few accounting matters, and exciting because our projects in Batticaloa and Point Pedro are really helping people.
Colombo has been quiet despite a couple of air attacks by LTTE Tamil Tigers. They managed somehow to smuggle a few small airplanes into the country, and are using them, flying under the radar, to try and destroy military targets in Colombo and Jaffna. They hit very close to the international airport, and some airlines have now suspended their flights to Colombo.
The MSF mission is growing very fast. We've had 8 new expatriates arrive in the past 10 days, and that's been a lot of work for all of us in Colombo. Our project in the East is growing quickly, setting up a mobile clinic to serve a few of the 92 IDP (Internally Displaced People) camps around Batticaloa. We have 5 expatriates there now, with 10 Sri Lankan employees. It's going to grow again probably, depending on the situation. We're also bringing a couple of water sanitation and distribution experts from the MSF emergency team in Paris. Some camps have almost nothing in terms of water distribution and toilets.
In the middle of this, I managed to get a cold, and get it over with, in addition to twisting my ankle while playing in the waves... I've been limping for a few days. Life here is both boring and exciting. Boring because it's every day pretty much the same, dealing with government ministries and a few accounting matters, and exciting because our projects in Batticaloa and Point Pedro are really helping people.
Colombo has been quiet despite a couple of air attacks by LTTE Tamil Tigers. They managed somehow to smuggle a few small airplanes into the country, and are using them, flying under the radar, to try and destroy military targets in Colombo and Jaffna. They hit very close to the international airport, and some airlines have now suspended their flights to Colombo.
Sunday, April 1, 2007
First 2 weeks in Sri Lanka
In brief: hot, humid, 12-hour workdays, 7 days a week... in a beautiful country ravaged by civil war.
This afternoon is really my first half-day off since I got here. There is so much work, I don't even know where to start: getting visas for the expatriates coming here is like pulling teeth, dealing with government employees with various degree of friendliness and unfriendliness towards MSF.
The bright spot of the past 2 weeks was my visit to the Point Pedro hospital in the Jaffna peninsula where we have 3 doctors working. It started with going to a civilian airport taken over by the military to take a small plane (40- seats) chartered by the UN, in which half the seats were removed to accommodate cargo. Passengers were mostly UN and NGO workers (Red Cross, World Food Program, World Health Organization,...). It took 3 hours to board the plane... 1 hour to fly there... and then 2 hours to get out of the Jaffna airport, riding on dirt roads in very old buses. The couple of miles around the airport are now a no-man's land with abandoned houses and bunkers with machine gun barrels sticking out of small windows. I have no pictures, because the airline employees took every cell phone, camera and recording equipment at the entrance of the airport in Colombo, and gave them back at the exit of the Jaffna airport.
Jaffna is a beautiful place. It would be a paradise much like the Bahamas, if not for the civil war. Beautiful scenery, some well tended fields (mostly tobacco), beautiful houses, and of course lots of sunshine. And soldiers patrolling the roads on foot and manning checkpoints.
More later...
Arrival pictures
This afternoon is really my first half-day off since I got here. There is so much work, I don't even know where to start: getting visas for the expatriates coming here is like pulling teeth, dealing with government employees with various degree of friendliness and unfriendliness towards MSF.
The bright spot of the past 2 weeks was my visit to the Point Pedro hospital in the Jaffna peninsula where we have 3 doctors working. It started with going to a civilian airport taken over by the military to take a small plane (40- seats) chartered by the UN, in which half the seats were removed to accommodate cargo. Passengers were mostly UN and NGO workers (Red Cross, World Food Program, World Health Organization,...). It took 3 hours to board the plane... 1 hour to fly there... and then 2 hours to get out of the Jaffna airport, riding on dirt roads in very old buses. The couple of miles around the airport are now a no-man's land with abandoned houses and bunkers with machine gun barrels sticking out of small windows. I have no pictures, because the airline employees took every cell phone, camera and recording equipment at the entrance of the airport in Colombo, and gave them back at the exit of the Jaffna airport.
Jaffna is a beautiful place. It would be a paradise much like the Bahamas, if not for the civil war. Beautiful scenery, some well tended fields (mostly tobacco), beautiful houses, and of course lots of sunshine. And soldiers patrolling the roads on foot and manning checkpoints.
More later...
Arrival pictures
Monday, March 12, 2007
Weekend in France with family
I arrived in France on Thursday 3/8 and spent the past 4 days with my family in Bretagne and Paris, with lots of sleep, great food and good wine!!
It's now Monday afternoon in Paris. I spent the morning at MSF being briefed on the situation in Sri Lanka, and reviewing the accounting procedures. More briefings this afternoon and tomorrow.
See some pictures!
Wednesday, March 7, 2007
This is it!! I'm off to the airport in a couple of minutes...
Thanks to all who've bought me lunch or dinner in the past few days... and that's a lot of people!
My next post will be from Paris, and then Colombo.
Thanks to all who've bought me lunch or dinner in the past few days... and that's a lot of people!
My next post will be from Paris, and then Colombo.
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Well, today was a big day: I went down to Richmond to say goodbye to Lauren. I won't see her until her wedding!
On the more trivial side, I also got one last shot in the arm, my 2nd rabies vaccine, the end of a series of 12...
I'm as ready as I'll ever be, with my 44 lbs of luggage ready to be packed.
On the more trivial side, I also got one last shot in the arm, my 2nd rabies vaccine, the end of a series of 12...
I'm as ready as I'll ever be, with my 44 lbs of luggage ready to be packed.
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