January 14 Caring!!

Dave's Presentation
Assessment Report
Risk Analysis
Job Description
Situation Report
September 30 The beginning
October 1 Paris
October 2 Conakry
October 3 Freetown
October 4 Briefing
October 5 Laurent & Me
October 6 The field
October 7 Nearly in Charge
October 8 The phone
October 10 No Generator
October 11 My Life
October 14 How much Missing?
October 19 My Informants
October 22 Always do it yourself
October 27 Why an Evaluation?
November 9 The Donors
November 20 R&R was great!
November 21 Is this me?
November 27 No Project !!!
December 3 The Beach
December 10 The Office
December 17 Club Med
December 24 Tuscan Rendering
December 30 Sienna Cream
January 7 It's Personal
January 14 Caring!!
January 21 Getting to know You
January 28 Need Assesments
February 5 Closer
February 12 Police Harassment
February 22 Beyond Borders
March 1 Obsession
March 8 It's Time (nearly)
March 10 Radio Silence
March 18 Represntation
March 31 Assessments
April 10 Re-Assessment
April 20 Security Matters
April 30 You can never have too much!!
May 6 The Strong Leader
May 14 The Times They are a Changing
May 25 Richard the Third head of mission
June 2 Learning Opportunity
June 10 Indecent Proposal
June 13 The Handover
June 14 Evaluation Time
June 17 Debt, Drugs and Pot Plants
June 17 In Transit
June 24 Home Alone
June 29 Knowing Me Knowing You aha!
July 1 THE END

["I suppose that's what being a humanitarian is all about, being able to have really passionate discussions on humanitarian issues"]

Friday January 14th

7:20pm Freetown

I have been in Freetown for the last few days attending our Country Programme Meeting. There was some interesting discussions. Although it started off pretty disappointingly with a presentation by Peter on logistics about cutting costs, improving efficiency and being transparent in our dealings with contractors and business people. It was all pretty obvious stuff and after his presentation everyone was really impressed and congratulated him even Petra. He did a fancy Power Point presentation (I think Anne must of helped him). What I thought was the presentation was lacking vision and the realisation that to get the job done sometimes you have to make a few compromises. I wanted to bring up the crazy paving and the Sienna Cream incidents but I thought it would be a bit cruel to steal his thunder after his presentation. I brought it with Claudia though and got a lot of issues off my chest at De Mille's night club on Thursday night. The music was pretty load so I'm not sure if she heard everything, but I think she got the idea.

We then had a really great discussion chaired by Petra about drug management and the new systems that have been put in place. She had some really great systems and practical ones like moving the staff fridge and cold drinks out of the Pharmacy.

Then Claudia talked about the new programme in Kamekwilu and that we needed to be careful in starting up in Kamekwilu. It was the same discussion I had with her before I went to start the rehabilitation. She said that Kamekwilu was an important town held by the rebels and that a lot of the rebel commanders before the war ended just became businessmen by taking over property and businesses. They did this by muscle and violence. So she said you have to be careful with who you deal with. This got me thinking a bit, but then I thought that it couldn't be Abdulai she could be talking about, because he is such a nice guy.

Then we had an open discussion on a humanitarian issue. The topic was:

"Where does Caring stop and Humanitarianism begin"

This topic produced an incredible heated and vibrant argument. At one point Anne forgot to speak English because she was so wound up, which broke the tension a bit. I can't really remember what the outcome was after two hours, but it was a really interesting discussion and I suppose that's what being a humanitarian is all about, being able to have really passionate discussions on humanitarian issues.

Well I will spend the weekend here then back to Kamekwilu. So till next time.