Late February - High-level Visitors

On February 11, the virus that was now consuming the world received its new name: COVID-19. Africa confirmed its first case three days later in Egypt. Happy Valentine’s Day. We knew it was coming at some point. The question was when and where. By February 24, the head of the WHO warned that the coronavirus could become a global pandemic due to increasing numbers of cases outside China. The virus was moving fast and we were well aware of the inadequacies of the healthcare systems in most of Africa. Preparations were underway but not moving fast enough. Our organization's main activities are healthcare so we're very much involved in working with the Somali government to ramp up.

In addition to healthcare capacity, we also are aware that overall hygiene would be an issue. In addition to the need for sensitization, there is also just the lack of infrastructure. It’s much easier to maintain good hygienic practices when you have a functioning indoor toilet and running water. If you don’t, you need other options.

visit to a Mogadishu clinic late February

Another area of concern has been the fact that in many African cities, people live in close proximity without much in the way of barriers. Many people, particularly the more than 20 million people that have been displaced from their homes by conflict or natural disaster, live in packed housing, often with canvas or corrugated metal sheeting separating them from their neighbors. Markets tend to be crowded places with lots of physical contact.

the wonderful faces and colors - a waiting area in a Mogadishu clinic

The myriad of connections to China and other heavily hit countries are well known. The inability to control borders is also clear. All this points to a ticking time bomb.

leaving the clinic

The same day as the announcement of the potential for pandemic, I was off to Mogadishu, this time with high-level visitors from our HQ in New York. It’s one thing to welcome one visitor like this but it’s another to have three at once – with different agendas. None of them had been before so it added to the preparations.

brief trip to the beach

Though my initial plan was to go from Mogadishu to Galkacyo with two of the visitors, in the end we agreed that I would remain in Mogadishu with one of them and return with her to Nairobi on Wednesday (a day sooner with my family). The logistics for these things are rather daunting. Fortunately for us we have some fairly robust security procedures in place and there is little need to step them up in this case. But it’s still tricky to manage the expectations of three different individuals and make sure that they are woven into the rather strict parameters we have regarding our movements, particularly in the capital. I should say that they were all fantastic visitors and seemed to roll with schedule modifications as they arose.

I was wishing I was on that boat

On Monday, we did an excursion into the city with a group visiting activities and participating in meetings with government officials – the same people who would then head off to Galkacyo on Tuesday morning. I stayed back at the office with the other visitor to conduct internal meetings and we did the outing in the city the second day. For both groups we were also able to squeeze in a quick trip to the same restaurant mentioned in the previous blogs. In my debrief with the visitors, they all mentioned the same thing. It’s enough to make your head spin. You have preconceived ideas as to how your visit is going to be and it ends up being partly that but also so many other things that are incongruous. It’s hard to explain to people unless you’ve experienced it. But they all enjoyed their time and were inspired by the hard work and expertise they saw. Always good to hear.

February 2020 - Carnival

February was the month when the world began to take coronavirus seriously. Footage from China, Italy and Iran became increasingly horrifying. The word “pandemic” was starting to be floated (though it wouldn’t be declared until March 13). The contagious, lethal nature of the virus was becoming increasingly clear over the course of the month. 

In my job we began contingency planning for both Somalia and Nairobi. We began examining our existing contingency plans and modifying them for what would be a crisis unlike any other we’d faced. We looked at duty of care for our staff. We quickly began to sort out the implications of working from home and business continuity. Our largest sector is health so we looked at how we might pivot towards supporting a rapidly spreading virus.

On the personal side, we slowly began to build our stocks of food and other non-food items. I was scheduled to fly to the US in early April and it was beginning to look increasingly unlikely. The soon-to-be-called Covid-19 was blazing across the globe faster than people could react, practically or emotionally. 

This was the backdrop for the month. Other things were going on, obviously, but by late February the virus was on everyone’s mind.

Other things going on:

While I was in Somalia during January, I kept hearing of all the rains in Nairobi. Relatively speaking, Mogadishu is not that far from Nairobi (about a 1:45min. flight) but the weather patterns are drastically different. In Kenya, the "long rains" season normally occurs from about March to May/June. The "short rains" season occurs from October to November/December. The temperature remains fairly warm throughout these months of tropical rain. The warmest period is normally February and March, leading into the season of the long rains, and the coldest is in July, until mid-August.

Note: The equator runs right through the middle of the country and Nairobi is just barely in the Southern Hemisphere (like 1 degree south). Though the proximity to the equator makes the temperatures relatively constant year round, it’s far enough south that toilets indeed drain counter-clockwise. 

But with the climate changing, all bets are off. 2017 was dry and severe drought was prevalent in East Africa. By 2019 rains went a bit crazy and we shifted to flooding. As we have moved into early 2020, the rains continued. In other words, the short rains weren’t so short and are sort of bridging the gap to the long rains. Forecasts, which I track for my job more than for my lifestyle, indicate that we should expect a wet year.

Carnival

Carnival is the Western Christian season prior to Lent. The party atmosphere known to be associated with the season has its roots in its connection to the traditional sacrifices of the Lenten season. It’s the enjoyment of excesses prior to the self-deprivation that prepares believers for Easter. 

Bonn, 1994

Probably the biggest carnival celebration I’ve ever participated in was in Bonn, Germany, back in 1994 or so. I was living in Switzerland at the time and I didn’t go to Germany specifically for that reason but it happened to fall during the time that I was there. I had no idea that was such a big thing.

at the end of the day, after the snow

 We painted our faces and headed out among the throngs. Soon after leaving the apartment, a massive snow storm hit. It was pretty crazy. In general I’m not big on such things. It was interesting to see all the costumes and the parade, listen to the music, particularly in the beautiful old city of Cologne. But after about an hour or so I was pretty much done. My friend seemed to enjoy it more than I and we stuck it out for a couple hours more. To be honest, once the drinking takes hold of people, I start looking for the exit. I’m not necessarily a prude but some enjoy watching people vomit down the steps of the subway more than I do.

not much of a costume

The French are also known to make merry this time of year. As with many other French customs, this tradition makes its way every year to the French school in Nairobi and each year they have a nice celebration for the kids. In addition to homemade crepes, they also dress up in costumes, to some degree based on a particular theme, and then they have a small parade where they walk around the campus with their respective classes. This year the theme was something to do with sustainability and the kids all made costumes with recycled materials. For some it was just rubbish glued to a homemade hat but there was a bit of creativity. I was able to briefly take in the event during a gap between my trips to Somalia. I was able to take some photos, have a crepe and then needed to get to work. Good thing they were able to make it happen before Covid-19 began to have a grip on the city.

a slightly better effort

Mogadishu-Garowe

In late January, I traveled to Somali with a colleague who hadn't been before. It’s always interesting to travel with visitor who’s coming for the first time. There’s always the apprehension in advance. I felt the same before I went. While I was still in Bujumbura, prior to moving to the Somalia program, I asked a supply chain technical advisor, who’d supported the work in Mogadishu, what it was like. I had already committed to going but I was trying to get a handle on what I was getting myself into. He told me it was a bit scary but that the program seemed to function quite well, all things considered. When I asked him if the director went into Somalia very often, he said yes, about once per quarter. I figured that would be manageable but I was still a bit nervous about the thought of spending much time there. Little did I know that it would end up being about 50% of each month.

Mogadishu 
We landed in Mogadishu and immediately headed out on some project visits, primarily healthcare facilities in a couple different parts of the city. It’s always crazy traversing the city but it’s also fascinating. I always see something new. This time I couldn’t help but noticing all the new construction. Some parts of the city are developed and quite beautiful. Other parts look like war-torn Iraq. But the potential for this city is so great.

Our guest had heard rumors that we frequently take visitors to a beach restaurant, security permitting. As the morning progressed, it appeared that we had the green light to move from our final clinic straight to the restaurant. As we drove up the road, one of my colleagues commented on the new buildings going up in the partially bombed out neighborhood. “You see these buildings? Most of them are owned by warlords.” Yes, warlords remain a big factor in Somalia though some are now District Commissioners or Members of Parliament. Even though a federal parliamentary government is increasingly getting to its feet in the country, the underlying dynamics remain more or less as they have been for decades. Interestingly, once we made our way through the restaurant to the beach on the other side, a former colleague who had met us there (separate from the above colleague) pointed to one of the buildings saying, “You see that building over there. My uncle owns that.” I smiled. The more you know, the more interesting things are.

I’ve been to this restaurant often enough, including a week and a half prior to this, that I’m familiar with the manager. I don’t think he speaks much English so we’ve never talked much. But we greet each other warmly and we have a mutual understanding of what to expect each time. For security reasons we need to get in, enjoy, and get out quickly. Same table each time, separated from view by the rest of the restaurant. He’s probably as on board with the arrangement as much as we are. People generally want Somalia to be viewed as a normal country. They want tourists. They want an economy based on something besides military support and humanitarian aid. There is a hope and optimism that is tempered by current reality. But the security risk that we bring makes it more complicated. So having us come, have a great experience, but not spend much time there is win-win.

meeting with the Mogadishu team

In the afternoon we remained in the office and met with staff, as we generally do with visitors. This is followed by a Q&A and then we were done with the formal obligations. Between 5 and 6pm I generally like to either go work out (treadmill or exercises in my room) or have my shower. There’s no hot water in any of our guesthouses so the water in the tank is always warmest at the end of the day. I’m generally a morning shower person but not in Somalia.

Garowe 
The next day we were off to the airport to catch an internal flight to Garowe (Puntland). Puntland is in the northern part of the country – the horn of the Horn of Africa. Where we were is far from the coast, however, and in fact it's not far from the border with Ethiopia. 

I was happy to be back. I hadn’t been for a few months and I always like it there. It’s a town in the middle of some rather harsh desert. The wind blows almost constantly. It feels a bit like parts of southern Idaho, to be honest.

sign at one of the govt. offices

We would be there two nights. We normally would do a few activity visits but our timing was a bit off in that there wasn’t much going on that week. My head of office had other ideas anyway. He’d set up meetings with government officials. Though I’d rather be out seeing the work we do and meeting with beneficiaries, I’m more than aware of the need to leverage the visits of people like us. I’ve been the head of a field office before and I get it. So we obliged.

dinner out

The second evening that we were there, we did something I hadn’t done before. We ventured out for a coffee. If you read this blog much, you might think I’m getting out and about a lot more than I am. In fact when I’m not in meetings or visiting activities, I’m usually sequestered in a guarded compound for security reasons. It’s sort of like being on house arrest. But this evening we went to a rooftop restaurant, had coffee and snacks and stayed there until well after dark. Though I had planned out my evening to catch up on lots of work, it ended up being such a nice change of pace. It was so wonderful feeling the cool desert breeze as the sun set. Security is so much more relaxed in this part of Puntland and it’s rather freeing to be able to get out and hang with the locals.

Garowe sunset

The next morning we headed to the airport to make the long-ish journey all the way to Nairobi. If you look at a map, it doesn’t seem very far but the planes are not big and there’s a stop in Mogadishu. Nonetheless, I was able to get back home in time to hang with the kids before they went to bed – one of my favorite moments in the week.