Bahai Beach 8

Bahai Beach 8

Rain and heavy heavy quantities of it… Three little boys running around the compound half naked crying and screaming. Singing songs and taking showers. Forty five minutes of bliss in the desert. Unknown to the project that it could rain so hard in Bahai. Even the day before we had been out at the water side to worry about the lack of lake. Now buckets and buckets full of it in one. My chicken were hiding in a small tukul (wooden hut with straw roof) but several eggs floated off. The next morning at 0600 bad news. The office has collapsed. (check out www.flickr.com) Luckily nobody got hurt. Pascal and Marc and about 15 others worked hard to salvage what ever was in the office and soaking wet. From computers to files to cupboards etcetera. The hospital has also been affected. Several cracks in the walls and leakage of water into the walls. Downtown Bahai walls a plenty came tumbling down. As we tried to access the camp to make sure our Health structures and Watsan structures were intact we were halted by the wadi (dry riverbed in the desert for seasonal rains). A mean wadi by now, wading is all you can do, no can pass by vehicle. (Try www.google.eartAll remains to be seen tomorrow. The weather has attracted falcons a plenty. They are circling the water and also the compound. I hope my chickens by now are so fat that they can not be taken by the falcons.
Insects are swarming around the lit lap top screen. Tomorrow for the second day I shall be interviewed by the American CBS show 60 minutes. In the camp in the mean time we lost a child to meningitis. This disease can kill in less than 24 hours from the first sysmptom. This means red flags up. Every day we go for active case finding to ensure we do not have a deadly outbreak of this disease. Also a class was given to all health workers on early recognition of meningeal disease and medication was prepositioned at the health center so early treatment may be started on suspicion of bacterial meningitis.
Bed net distribution, staff members refusing to dip bednets, Kafka could not have made it up better. UNHCR sitting on their butts like the Lords of Poverty. The conflict going downhill. Rape as a weapon war being used in Sudan. Cholera around the corner. Half of the health team out of the project for a bit. Hence my ranting.
The good news is I am off for a hard weekend of partying in the capital of NDjamena and also to find Indian spices. Which reminds me with some South African we had a great braai with goat.

As the hour of curfew is nearing and nowadays we do not have internet in the compound any more I shall send this bitlet now

Namaskar

Ashis