Sylvia's Journal

The cooks must have arrived (though apparently not our Board Chairman and his wife). When this Ibis could have been any Ibis anywhere in the world since I arrived, tonight it is Ibis in India. Furniture has been brought in, incense stick holders, inlaid wood products, posters and of course the music which was already with us. And then there are the women in sarees, a tombola (to win a trip to Incredible India! or a saree or an incense burner is not clear – put your business card here – a mailing list builder!).

I am sure the Palak Paneer has arrived but there was no a la carte. One would have to order room service for a la carte, this menu that always features a Palak Paneer that is never there. Tonight, no doubt, it will be in one of the many copper pots set out for the buffet, but you’d have to buy the whole buffet (50.000 Ariary for Indian Buffet -which is only 15 USD by the way).  I think I will forego my Palak as I already ate at the foodcourt 5 creole bouchons with pork and soy sauce. Bouchons is one of those very versatile words which can refer to anything that plugs: a cork, a top, a stopper or a traffic jam. They use that word a lot here (bouchon) but mostly to refer top traffic jams which are a fact of life.

Many notables were on hand to taste the ‘délices gustatives de l’Inde’ – and with them their security details; suddenly this mid-range hotel was surrounded by SUVs and armed guards. I slipped out to get some fresh mangos – it’s that season now – for my desert. I learned to ask for the export mangoes which are less fibrous and creamier. They sell (at least to a foreigner) for 30 cents apiece.

Another treat here is the rum. I was familiar with the Haitian rum which visitors cart away in suitcases. But here, on the recommendation to add a thimble of rum to one’s grog, tea, medicine, I bought a half a liter of the smoothest rum ever for 1 USD. It’s become a very nice after work treat – really the only alcohol I am drinking. It’s medicinal, I am told, so it’s good for me.

For days now the Ibis Hotel in Tana has been telling us that Incredible India! is coming to the hotel for a week long of Indian culinary delights for lunch and dinner. Cooks are being flown in with the complements of the Indian Embassy. In addition, huge curved screens (compliments of Samsung)  are set up all over the already very noisy restaurant to get the full benefit of Incredible India! coming to our doorstep.

The restaurant already has the acoustics of an indoor swimming pool. Add to that some mindless guests who put their mobile phones on speaker so everyone can hear their phone partner(s) on the other side of the line. On the days I was really sick I couldn’t stand it, being already in a highly irritable state.  But there’s more: I hate restaurants with large in-your-face TV screens flickering with sports and news, inescapable, no matter where you sit.  The new Samsung screens are curved and also large so that we can all enjoy Incredible India! to the hilt this week. Now, in addition to French sports and news there are Indian skits playing in the east, Bollywood dancing in the west and some other loud thumping Indian (what? why are these thinly-clad and anorexic ladies so European looking?) art style going on in the south of the restaurant, which is, by the way, not very large. It is a cacophony of impressions – something they also claim our palates will get once the food appears. One could get an epileptic fit from this.

Tonight, because of my massage, I arrived later than usual to an already crowded dining room. I had decided that I was going to have palak paneer, something that is on the usual menu but never available. I thought they couldn’t possibly tell me they didn’t have palak paneer on this first night of the India week. I expected a new menu with all my favorite Indian dishes. But no, I was told the start of the India week has been postponed.

I wondered whether that was because the cooks were booked on Air Malagasy (a company notorious for arbitrarily changing not only its departure time but also date, sometimes by days, and not just for domestic flights). Our Board Chairman and his wife had booked themselves, unbeknownst to people who would have counseled them otherwise, on an Air Malagasy wide body from Paris. They should have arrived on Friday or Saturday but are still not here. Maybe they are twiddling their thumbs with the Indian cooks at CDG airport.

I have been taking my medicines faithfully but the progress is slow. I skyped with Axel the other night, that is, he talked and I wrote since I was not able to talk yet. It was better than no contact at all, but awkward as our words and questions where always out of alignment.

On Saturday I decided to join our (MSH) Board that is on a visit to Madagascar and South Africa – it is a coincidence that their itinerary overlaps for a good deal with mine, both here and in South Africa — in fact we are travelling there together on Wednesday. Since I am (at least structurally) a-midlevel-on-the-periphery-MSH-employee, I never have unfettered access to the Board, so this was interesting. I accepted the invitation to join a couple of Board members and one old time colleague for dinner even though I was still in whisper mode. The fact that it was a small group (only four of us in total) was compelling, as whispering is easier that way.

We went to a small Alsatian restaurant that served raclette, imagine that, in the hard of Tana: cornichons, small potatoes, thinly sliced zebu and other charcuterie and raclette cheese melting on a stand in the middle of the table, and all this accompanied by a nice Chilean wine. One of our Board members is from Chile and we complemented her on her country’s great wines. Other than some rum in my daily grog, I haven’t had any alcohol, so the glass of wine was a real treat; in fact the whole evening was a nice treat, and we didn’t talk all that much about MSH.

I was invited to join another party of Board members (they split into smaller groups for activities and meals when going out) on Sunday, today, to see the Lemurs in a nearby park and then the Kings Palace, a UNESCO heritage site. Although I wasn’t quite fully recovered I decided I needed a break from being in my small hotel room and working all the time. So I went.

As it turned out I was the only French speaker in the group and could make myself useful to serve as an interpreter as well; I was able to talk, still croaking, but beyond the whisper stage. Still I have these occasional throat tickles that turn into major coughing spasms that take about 10 minutes to pass – leaving everyone worried and concerned. The attention makes it worse of course, there is nothing one can do other than letting the spasms recede. This was my third major coughing fit, the first in the middle of my in-briefing at USAID, the second in the office and now this one in the car. I am so done with this coughing.

On the way home I had myself dropped off at my hotel and was able to secure a massage slot right away. That was a nice ending of the day – although it is not quite over. That’s the next post.

It was the ultimate challenge, working with a group of unknown size, representing unknown parts of the ministry of health, with a new colleague, although a seasoned facilitator, entirely new to our program, and with people I have no relationship with – and with whom it is hard to do so without a voice.

We had tried hard to get a few minutes with another high positioned individual who gave us an appointment at the exact time we were to start our afternoon meeting; somehow my colleague thought this was possible and I surrendered. I did a lot of surrendering these last few days and had very low expectations. Getting access, even if for a few minutes to a high level official can be a major victory and the highlight of one’s day. I also surrendered to being sick and without voice and to all my colleagues from the other projects, who know our methodology well and could run such a meeting on a minutes notice, not being available at all.

I had a rough night, waking up every two hours, then with this cold symptom, then that, feverish and dreading having to get up and go to the office and then do this meeting. There was no question of canceling it – it was such a victory that we were told about 30 people would attend from across the mid to senior level of the ministry. The next time we would be able to those people would be in January, when I am not able to come here.  I had to observe my colleague in action and be confident she can take this on without me. In a way she had to, since I could only whisper to her when I felt she needed some re-direction.

Given all this, the meeting went better than I could have hoped. We introduced the notion that a vision is like a dream but with wheels underneath (=action).  That’s the session they found most memorable. And I got a good idea what the fruits of better leadership and management and governance would look to them. Nothing earth shocking but something to refer to later and because of that, quite helpful.

On Thursday morning I decided to see a doctor, fearing a sinus infection was in the making (which it turned out to be). My colleague accompanied me; she is now quite used to interpreting my whispers to a third party. We were told to wait 10 minutes in a rather full waiting room, with me being the only foreigner. Although I don’t like foreigners being treated more politely and faster than the locals, being rather sick, the principle wasn’t as strong anymore.

My colleague (V) told me that 10 minutes in Madagascar could be an hour. I surrendered and settled into observation mode. After about half an hour we saw a young female doctor. I was not greatly impressed by the thoroughness of her examination and had to remind her to look into my ears, as these had been under pressure the night before. To do this she had to find a new battery.  V and the doctor talked for a while about grogs and other local remedies, pushing me to get pectos (whatever these are, pastilles probably) and soak them in whiskey, and voila, my ailments would be gone. They were really working hard on me, demonstrating how annoying it is when people give you unwanted advice. I had been listening to this and other home remedies for two days now. Everyone has had what I have and everyone has their own remedy which I should try.  I had no appetite for alcohol nor sugary pastilles – I think I am ingesting enough sweet things, now realizing that over the counter medicine for a cold are all sweetened with sugar. This means a temporary pause in my low sugar diet.

I was told to get an X-ray to see if I had a sinus infection. I didn’t know X-rays could do that, but since I am not a doctor and finding out whether I had a sinus infection was the main reason for going to the doctor in the first place, I obeyed and we moved to another waiting room. A radiology technician was working his butt off, I commended him for that. There were so many people waiting, some quite sick and disabled. The medical centre promises on various billboards to do scans, ultrasounds and other high tech things. I peeked around the corner into the ice cold scan room. Impressive.

My first X-rays had a spot on them and had to be redone; by now we had been there 2 hours. We got the results quite quickly – there is no one reading the X-ray except the doctor. She was in an emergency and so we had to wait another hour before the verdict was read: yes, had a sinus infection and received a total of 5 drugs (a spray, a syrups – oh that sugar – and antibiotics, effervescent prednisone pills and a pack of tiny blue pills). It is a complicated regimen  of 3 times per day for 5 days fo one drug and 3 times in the morning for 3 days for another, and 3 times after meals for a third, etc. It’s hard to get my head around this but I will try anything to be among the talkers again.

The whole thing cost me about 50 dollars: 9 dollars for the consultation; five and a half dollars for the X-ray and 35 dollars for the drugs. It is clear who is making the big bucks here. Pharmaceuticals is clearly a lucrative business since no one leaves the doctor’s office with just one prescription. I think my pharmacy colleagues at MSH are trying to do something about this.

By the time we were done it was also time to get to the conference room at the ministry and run our meeting.More about that later