Sylvia's Journal

Oumar and I are used to hear the word miracle. That we are both here working together is the big miracle; that we got the boxes with books out of customs, in less than 24 hours after they left Lagos is another miracle, minor but a miracle nevertheless. The boxes looked tired and have been resting in Alphonse’s car every since.

A meeting was called at 10 with a few officials from various agencies to explain that the field visits we had planned for the participants were not the usual inspection visits. It was a last minute meeting and we eventually met with one person representing each of the three diseases of the Global Fund (AIDS, Malaria, TB). An official letter had been sent earlier announcing the visit in the way this is usually done, under the seal of the minister of health. Such announcements to officials lower down the hierarchy traditionally mean that important people come to inspect and you drop everything to make the best possible impression.

That we wanted none of that on Monday needed to be communicated quickly and convincingly, by people who themselves had no frame of reference for what we had in mind. Oumar explained and did a good job. People got excited when they realized that this was a ‘learning’ visit rather than an inspection, supervision or needs assessment visit. The mental model for a site visit includes people sitting around a table and looking at documents, listening to a chief speaking or watching a carefully crafted PowerPoint; it is about one way information, and questioning to find fault or weaknesses. The ones I have participated in were often stiff, formal and hollow with a lot of superficial politeness and subservient behavior from those at the bottom. The hierarchical distances are enormous. Our wanting to change this in one visit is maybe a little preposterous. But, on an intellectual level, everyone loves the idea because it has at least the promise of closing a bunch of gaps.

We explained that we want people to follow their curiosity. Again, another nice idea, and very appealing, but given the way things are it is a tall order, incomprehensible to some. Curiosity and the art of asking good questions have been carefully excised from children at a young age. The teacher is the one who asks questions, not the child; expecting adults to follow their curiosity is asking for another miracle.

Recognizing that it takes two to tango, we promised that we would take care of preparing the visitors if they could take care of preparing the hosts. And with those promises made we ended the meeting on a high note.

It is challenging to work with counterparts on something that is called by the same name (a workshop, a field visit) but has totally different connotations. This is where faith comes in: our counterparts have to trust us enough that nothing untoward will happen that will damage their reputations or careers. And we have to trust that the learning will happen even if the design has some rough edges and the execution will be less than perfect.

At lunch time we were taken to a large, partially open air restaurant called ‘Le combatant.’ It is squished in between the heavily fortified embassies of what used to be the USA’s and France and behind a statue of an ‘ancien combatant,’ of one of the two world wars that hapless Africans were forced to fight on behalf of their European masters. We avoid the western restaurants and prefer those where local food is served. Once again we got plenty of that: two kinds of fish, one in an eggplant sauce and the other in one of my favorite sauces (stew is more like it) called ‘sauce feuille’ which contained, in addition to cooked greens, all sorts of other surprises, including shrimp, crab, fish and agouti (also called bushmeat, an animal that resembles a large rat). The sauces are eaten over rice or atieke, a couscous-like substance made from manioc.

In the afternoon we finalized all that needed to be copied and returned to the hotel rather late. For dinner we took a taxi to a quartier called Cocodie and ended up in a patisserie. This was not what we were looking for but since we let taxi drivers take us places they like, it is one of the risks we take. There weren’t any local dishes and most were deserts, as one would expect in a salon de the. Oumar ordered a mushroom pizza from which he removed all mushrooms and I had a bunch of nems (spring rolls) and crabs hidden in something deep-fried. Aside from hamburgers the non sweet choices were limited. I did sample the main event, a crepe au chocolat, accompanied by a perfect ‘petit café.’

Back in the hotel it was time to relax. I discovered a new solitaire game in the Air France plane on my way over here. It is called Shanghai and it is played with Mahjong stones. I found a better version on the internet and got hooked until about 2 AM, an obsessive streak I have in common with my sister and can only indulge in on trips.

I dreamed of needing to catch a KLM plane and wanting to fly with Axel and Tessa but could only find their luggage and no one to help me make the change. When I realized they were on another plane I ran to get on at the last minute but could not catch it. It was one of these leaden legs dreams. I knew where it came from. I tried to change my ticket to go home earlier since I did not think I needed to stay until the 13th but it could not be done.