19 Aprile 2009 - Saw a camel today from a taxi where I made the foolish mistake of telling the taxi driver that I was not married.
He offered to accept me as one of his four wives (under Muslim law men can have a maximum of four wives). I graciously declined his offer. I told him that in Europe you are only allowed one wife and we agreed that four were best. I asked if a woman was allowed to have more than one husband, and this was received with a decisive shake of the head. If a woman has more than one husband then she will automatically want more and more husbands, and this is not good.
...okay then!
Not sure how much I can put on this blog about MSF. However a little info about the project I will be working on.
I will be based in the village of Guidan Roumji, about 12 hours from Niamey, the capital, and 45 minutes from the district capital of Maradi. MSF will be constructing four CSI (Centre de Securite International - kind of hospital) and one CRENI (intensive care hospital for critically malnourished children) around the area. There will be four or five expats and lots and lots of local staff managing the project. My title is "Admin-Fin" and I am in charge of HR and the Accounting for the project. Not having much (or any) experience in Accounting, this will definitely be a challenge. As part of my job I will have to visit the hospitals a lot, which is fantastic. I wonder if they will let me use a sphygnomanometer (Mum please correct me if the spelling is not correct!).
So far, so good, I have received a great welcome and everyone is really nice and respectful. There is no hassling (unless you have just come out of a shop and people are waitng to sell you stuff - on the road there is no problem).
Tomorrow I set off for the 12 hour journey to Guidan Roumji. It has to be early (6am) as MSF vehicles are not allowed to serve as vehicular transport for expats during the hours of darkness.
Emma.
Emma lavorava a Bruxelles nel reparto delle risorse umane in una delle tante aziende finanziarie. Un giorno ha fatto richiesta ai Medici senza frontiere, una delle organizzazioni più difficili in cui entrare.
Qualche mese dopo era sull'aereo per il Niger per una missione di un anno come responsabile delle risorse umane nel villaggio di Guidan Roumji.
Dopo tre anni nei MSF tornerà in Europa a lavorare nella sede centrale MSF.
Il Blog di Emma e i suoi racconti usciranno ogni settimana su Gwen.
He offered to accept me as one of his four wives (under Muslim law men can have a maximum of four wives). I graciously declined his offer. I told him that in Europe you are only allowed one wife and we agreed that four were best. I asked if a woman was allowed to have more than one husband, and this was received with a decisive shake of the head. If a woman has more than one husband then she will automatically want more and more husbands, and this is not good.
...okay then!
Not sure how much I can put on this blog about MSF. However a little info about the project I will be working on.
I will be based in the village of Guidan Roumji, about 12 hours from Niamey, the capital, and 45 minutes from the district capital of Maradi. MSF will be constructing four CSI (Centre de Securite International - kind of hospital) and one CRENI (intensive care hospital for critically malnourished children) around the area. There will be four or five expats and lots and lots of local staff managing the project. My title is "Admin-Fin" and I am in charge of HR and the Accounting for the project. Not having much (or any) experience in Accounting, this will definitely be a challenge. As part of my job I will have to visit the hospitals a lot, which is fantastic. I wonder if they will let me use a sphygnomanometer (Mum please correct me if the spelling is not correct!).
So far, so good, I have received a great welcome and everyone is really nice and respectful. There is no hassling (unless you have just come out of a shop and people are waitng to sell you stuff - on the road there is no problem).
Tomorrow I set off for the 12 hour journey to Guidan Roumji. It has to be early (6am) as MSF vehicles are not allowed to serve as vehicular transport for expats during the hours of darkness.
Emma.
Emma lavorava a Bruxelles nel reparto delle risorse umane in una delle tante aziende finanziarie. Un giorno ha fatto richiesta ai Medici senza frontiere, una delle organizzazioni più difficili in cui entrare.
Qualche mese dopo era sull'aereo per il Niger per una missione di un anno come responsabile delle risorse umane nel villaggio di Guidan Roumji.
Dopo tre anni nei MSF tornerà in Europa a lavorare nella sede centrale MSF.
Il Blog di Emma e i suoi racconti usciranno ogni settimana su Gwen.
