Many facets of life

Following my wine appreciation class on Saturday, I picked up an old MSF friend who is working for a month or so here in Nairobi. I met Yann and his wife Sandrine when we were working together in Liberia in 2005. We have stayed in touch since despite not having been on mission all together since. They have welcomed me 'home' after several missions on my return to Paris.

After years of working for MSF, my last mission, finishing here in Kenya about June last year, I still follow to some degree what is going on in the humanitarian world especially the regional MSF teams and I must admit I was more than please to hear the announcement last Friday that MSF is at last, after the murder of 2 staff and the kidnapping of 2 expats that were held for 18 months, pulling out of Somalia for good.
I only heard about this when my good friend Denis, who works with the Somalie mission based in Nairobi, called me as he was surprised I had not called him. My answer of course was that now, as an everyday resident of Nairobi I was not privileged to the information, I have to wait and read about it in the papers like everyone else.

It made me realise how much my life had changed in the past 12 months or so and how much my focus has changed. I mean we can't avoid or ignore totally, what is happening around us but you do have to   be able to get on with normal life.
Yann had not been sure of his visit to us until late on Friday and he had to rush back on Sunday afternoon to take a handover from someone going on holiday. I used to be at work at 0700, eat lunch at my desk and never left before 6pm - later if I had to take phone calls with my boss in Paris. Now, not that my work is any less important, I try to get to work about 0830, traffic allowing, have lunch with Jim or others from the office, and start to head home about 430pm to avoid the traffic. And I can be pretty sure the phone is not going to ring in the middle of the night with reports of new fighting; arrival of wounded at the hospital or movement of refugees. I share an office which is also used as the meeting room so have a constant stream of people with whom to pass the time of day without my thoughts being distracted too much from work.
It was so nice to be able to offer Yann a break from the hectic and sometimes artificial world  that I used to be so much a part of. We spent Saturday afternoon with our neighbours, Dave and Val, at the christening ceremony of their youngest child. It was held in their garden which ajoins ours. Dave did not miss a beat when I asked if he minded if Yann came with us (I did mention his professional photography skills). Yann's comment when I mentioned our plans was that it would be so nice to take photos of a healthy child for a change. I think sometimes when you are so involved in the aid world you tend to forget that there is a significant percentage of the local population, black and white,  just getting on with life the same as anywhere else in the world.
I seemed to spend the rest of the weekend planning meals and feeding people, which as you are all aware is something I love doing. I did stop and wonder once or twice, what he thought of my 'new'life. The thing is though, it is not 'new' it is just another part of me which has not had a chance to shine over the past 10 years or so (mainly because I was always so tired!). The MSF Head of Mission, the Aboriginal Child Health Nurse and the Remote Area Nurse are still all in there somewhere, otherwise I would not be me, and it does not mean one of them will not take their turn as the dominant personality again. But for now I am content to put in my hours at the office and the escape home; have time to be able to say 'yes' when a girlfriend suggests we meet up for lunch; or go away for the weekend with out having to worry about my phone being out of range or measuring the miles just in case I have to rush back to Nairobi. And of course I have Jim, so leaving home for work is much less attractive.
So I am happy to be able to offer friends an escape and a short rest from their stressful lives as others did for me over the years.
Our next visitor should be Fraz when he comes out of South Sudan.

Ceremony time, Milingimbi Island, NT

Vaccination campaign, Zalingei 2005

The Coordination Team, Darfur 2008

 

My namesake, Catherine Baralpawuy, named after myself and my Aboriginal sister, Sandra Baralpawuy. Her father, Sammy, is our brother. Sitting on my front verandah at Milingimbi.