Resurfacing

It’s been a month since I last wrote, which is way too long. I feel flattered that some readers have actually written to me to ask me when I would resume blogging. I’ll do my best.

After the public finance training course in Johannesburg I spent one more week at work, went to the Netherlands to have a week with the family (short!), came back to Africa with M., our eldest, so he could resume school, and A., T. and R. joined us last weekend. A. had undergone some tests in Holland, and we’re very happy that everything seems to be all right with the baby.

Being alone with M. for two weeks was fun. He enjoyed being the sole focus of my attention, and I enjoyed our long nocturnal discussions. A. did OK in the Netherlands alone with the children, and seemed actually relieved not to have all the ‘help’ around that we have in Africa. The change of climate did her a lot of good too and she looks as healthy and beautiful as ever, her pregnancy showing quite clearly now. In just a few weeks T. seems to have regained some of her former sharper edges after a long period during which she was extremely affable and sweet. R., in his terrible twos, is a real riot, and becoming the family’s clown, pulling faces and so on. Just irresistible. He has at long last started talking a little more.

My short stay in Jo’burg has triggered an interest for South Africa. I am reading Alistair Sparks’ magisterial ‘The Mind of South Africa’. Coetzee’s ‘Disgrace’ was not as impressive as various raving reviews made me expect.

I had a bit of a fall-out through e-mail with the boss when I came back from SA and didn’t like the way he had organised, or rather had not organised, things in his absence (won’t elaborate here). I foresee that this will continue until the end of my tour here, and hope that frictions will remain manageable, as they have been so far, fortunately. Our styles and expectations in terms of organisation and management simply differ too much. From my studies on Public Policy and Management, I have learned that I am more Weberian in my outlook.

The state of the nation these days: ever more insecurity in the north. The wild reserve we went to in February is now completely off limits, teeming with rebels. A good thing is that they ambushed and killed one of the most feared and sadistic elements of the Presidential Guard (involved in the incident I wrote about on 12 January) last week, which must have relieved a great deal of people here in the capital. But instability in Chad and Sudan is now having a direct and very dangerous impact on the situation in the North. An indication of dangerously low morale in the army: all military personnel (about 55) based in a key Northern town close to the Sudanese border simply packed up and left their garrison last week to descend, heavily armed, on the capital to come and ask for their wages. They were stopped and disarmed outside the capital. The president was furious and used the occasion of his Mother’s Day radio speech last Sunday to praise this country’s women (and rightly so) and lash out at its men, who he said were lazy and too cowardly to fight.

As I said, my MSc studies in Public Policy and Management have started two weeks ago. Not easy to study virtually every day after work for two to three hours & weekends, and quite tiring, but gratifying too. I realise how much I have already learnt on this posting, and my previous job in Brussels, and it is interesting to review those experiences in a larger, more academic framework. Through the CeFiMS online study centre I have learnt that I am by no means the only one stuck away in the middle of nowhere. There are people doing the same program from Pyongyang, out in the field in Afghanistan, Zimbabwe, Bosnia, etcetera.

A very unpleasant consequence of the fact that A. and the children will leave for a long time as per 17 June is that we will have to let go our two nannies, Amour and Odile. I had to tell them upon my return from Holland, and it wasn’t pretty: being without a job in this country, especially for single women with families, is a terrible perspective, and especially Amour was in tears, whereas Odile reacted more stoically. I am now trying to get them placed with other expats, but more foreigners seem to be leaving than returning after the holidays.

Another idea is to get them to join a Credit Mutuel to have access to microfinance. Especially Odile has some experience in the retail selling of palm oil in the quartiers. I’ve organised an information meeting with a representative from the local Crédit Mutuel at our house for all the people working for us on Saturday 10 June. We’ll offer to pay their inscription costs and a little something to get their savings started. The only thing that worries me slightly is that people will be too much focused on the credit part, and less on the savings part. There is very little financial awareness among local people here, which is understandable: first of all there is very little to save, and secondly, saving is seen as unsocial: any surpluses are to be shared with extended family and friends. The consequences of not doing so can be very severe, ranging from social exclusion to - rarer - cases of poisoning. Those who do have bank account make sure to have them at agencies in another part of town. In fact this is one of the many factors holding back development here, but this forced solidarity is also what has helped people get through meagre times.

I am tempted these days to get a dog, but I am still hesitating. I have been offered a cute puppy of indeterminate race (at some point a hyena must have put in his bit though). A. is horrified by the idea of having a dog in the house, but it would be great for the kids. Plus someone for me to talk to during my long lonely evenings the second half of the year of course ;)