last day in dakar

My last day in Dakar has arrived! The last few months ahve just flown by, and now its already time to leave. As always the last day has been very hectic, with last minute changes, and lots of good-byes to be said.

Last week I was in a regional IT workshop in Saly - very busy as I was running a number of the sessions. It was a great chance to meet again some of the IT officers from around the region and to share experiences and ideas. For me, of course, it was the start of my farewells to the people I've met on this assignment, but I hope to keep in touch with many of them.

Anyway, its now the end of the day, I have to rush off or I am in danger of missing my flight - still feel I haven't done everything and said good-bye to everyone yet - I guess I'll just have to come back sometime!

Preparing to leave

After to-day I only have 1 more full day in the office in Dakar. Next week I'm going to a workshop in Saly on the Petite Cote, and then I'm back in the office on Monday 10th May and fly out to Rome that evening. So I'm now really busy, firstly preparing for the workshop, but also starting to pack up ready for my departure, slightly complicated by the fact that I have to leave my appartment on Monday, so can't go back there when I return from Saly. Luckily some friends, Lucas and Catherine, have offered to let me stay at their place so I don't need to go looking for a hotel, but it means packing everything up now rather than when I get back which would have been easier.

Now starting to think about what the last year has meant and what will be my abiding memories of Dakar. I'lll try and put some more about this on my next posting (as mentioned - I'm really busy at the moment), but for me some of the keywords for Dakar are: sunshine, rain (in season), music, fitness fanatics, elegant dresses (Bubus) with matching headties, grubby taxis, colourful 'car rapides', sunsets, surf and sand, good food, not so good beer, pollution, power cuts, bustling markets, terrible roads ... in a word - Africa!

Final week in Dakar

As promised in my last blog, here are some pics of my colleagues in the Dakar office. Starting from the left we have Bety Sow Demba, the admin assistant, and then Alpha Bah, the head of the IT unit in the Regional Bureau and then Djamila Diop, the national IT Officer.

I'm now in my final week in Dakar. Next week we have a regional IT workshop in Saly, similar to the workshop we had in October. Following that I am back in the office here for 1 day and then I fly out to Rome for a debriefing session before finally flying back to the UK on 16th May. There's quite a lot to do this week in preparation for the workshop, and in addition of course I have to start packing up and getting ready to go home - time just seesm to be flying by, better get on with it!

Office life in WFP, Dakar

Well my time here in Dakar is nearly up - just another few weeks and I'll be heading off to Rome, and then back to the UK (Icelandic volcanoes permitting). So what's it been like working here in Dakar? Well in some ways pretty much like working in the UK - here's a picture of me in my office - could be anywhere I guess - usual untidy desk, computer equipment, message boards and yellow stickies reminding me to do things that need doing. And what's the office itself like - well it's a four storey office block that again could be in any city in the world, although I would say the view from my window on the 3rd floor would pretty quickly place you in Africa.

The office is located right in the centre of town in an area called Plateau, close to the Assemblée Nationale (the parliament), and surrounded by embassies and consulates. In the Regional Bureau I'm working with a small IT team, 4 people including myself, plus the head of IT, Alpha Bah. Will hopefully include a picture of the team in the next blog - not everyone is around at the moment.

But in many other ways the work is very different to what I am used to. For instance working for the UN means that the business 'drivers' are rather different, no longer is profit the focus, but how to make the most of the available money, and also how to increase the pot of money available, ie from donors.

Another difference is the spread out nature of the teams - in some Country Offices there is just one person responsible for the IT of the country - and this can be in very difficult circumstances where countries are recovering from years of war, such as Liberia, where the infrastructure that we all rely on (e.g. mains electricity, mains water, telephone lines and internet connections) is completely missing.

One of the biggest differences, and most enjoyable aspects of working here, has been the mix of people that I work with on a day to day basis. Here in the RB, in addition to 'National' staff (ie from Senegal) we have 'International' staff from Sweden, Switzerland, France, Italy, Germany, Zambia, Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, Sierra Leone, USA, Canada, Thailand, Japan and many other parts of the world. And many of these have recently been working in the world's major trouble spots, like Sudan and Afghanistan. It makes for very interesting lunchtime conversations!

A quick tour of Dakar by scooter

With only a few weeks left in Dakar, I thought I better try and sell my scooter. I advertised it on a local expat website and have managed to find a buyer quite quickly, which meant that last weekend was my last chance to explore the city on two wheels. So on Saturday I took a trip around town, to see some places I'd not been to before, and to revisit some favourite places, taking some pics along the way. So here's a little photo-montage of my day exploring the 'sites' of Dakar; (from the top, view of city from corniche d'est, fishermen's pirogues, beach at anse de bernard, lighthouse, the Grand Mosque, Dakar railway station, roundabout with sculpture, view of city from corniche d'ouest and finally - my house in Mermoz).

The beach at Anse Bernard is where I ended up on my first weekend in Dakar when I knew no-one here - hard to believe that it's only 10 months ago.

The last picture is of my house in Mermoz. Unfortunately it looks like I am going to have to move out a week before I finish here in Dakar, so I'll need to find alternative accomodation for just 1 week, which is a shame. It's been a nice place to live, just about 15 minutes by scooter into the office, with the only real downside being the planes coming in a few feet overhead to land at the main airport.

One other intermittent problem has been power cuts, but then that seems to be the case everywhere in Dakar. We haven't had any for a while, but there was another one on Saturday evening - I went out on our terrace, from where I can see 'the statue' and despite all the houses around us being in darkness, the statue itself was as brightly lit as usual - good to see someone's got their priorities right!

Diving off Goree

The inauguration of African Renaissance (usually just known as 'the Statue') took place on Saturday. Apparently there was something like 22 heads of state there, although I'm not sure which ones - except that I do know that Robert Mugabe was there as some friends, Ismay and Mario, got to meet the 'great' man at a reception just before the opening. My invitation to the grand opening of the statue was evidently ‘lost in the post’ so I had to make alternative arrangements.

So while the assembled heads of state for most of Africa were watching the grand opening of the statue I was diving in the sea off Goree Island. The water is quite cold - the temperature changes quite markedly between winter and summer. When I did the Goree swim, which was at the beginning of November the temperature wasn’t a problem at all, I guess it was probably in the mid 20's. Now the water temperature is around 17 C, so I was wearing full wet suit with hood, and I still felt cold towards the end of the dive. Because the water temperature changes so much there is no coral reefs etc. here, but there’s still plenty to see, lots of fish and particularly rays and jellyfish. The visibility in the water is not great either at the moment – apparently it’s much better when the water warms up, which is normally around now – so I’m hoping it will improve before I leave in May.

Sunday, of course, was Easter, but this year it happened to coincide with Senegal’s Independence Day, so Monday was a public holiday, but I’ve no idea if it was to celebrate Independence Day or Easter – or perhaps it was for both. Whichever, it was nice to have a day off.

African Renaissance?

This week Senegal will be celebrating 50 years of independence from it's colonial masters, the French. Banners etc. are already going up in preparation for National day which is this Saturday. But this weekend also sees the inauguration of 'African Renaissance' - a huge statue built by North Koreans (the acknowledged world leaders in huge monumental statues apparently) on the outskirts of Dakar.

I often pass by the statue as it's between where I live and the areas of Almadies and Ngor to the north, and is also close to the airport. When I first arrived work was already well underway, but heads etc were missing - the statue itself is now finished, but work is continuing day and night to finish off the surrounding area in time for the big opening event at the weekend, which will apparently be attended by 15 heads of state.

The whole project is controversial for a number of reasons - not the least the fact that it cost in the region of $17m (remember this is one of the poorest countries in the world) and that a percentage (35% I heard) of all the proceeds from entrance fees etc. will go directly to president Wade, and to his family after he dies. Why? Because it was his idea!

It's hard to judge the scale of the thing from the picture - it's huge and can be seen from miles away. I'm told there will be a revolving restaurant inthe man's head, which will give stunning (and no doubt stunningly expensive) views of Dakar. It's far from being universally popular, will be interesting to see the reaction once it is open to the fee paying public!

The weather has improved markedly over the last couple of days - if you like it hot and sunny that is! The clouds of dust have disappered and its getting distinctly warmer.

As I've only a few weeks left in Dakar I decided I better try out the scuba diving at the weekend, which was great - but more about this in my next blog!

Hazy days

The last few days have seen a change in the weather here, instead of clear blue skies and rising temperatures we've had a hazy sky, which has in turn cooled things down. The haze is apparently due to the Harmattan wind, which brings with it fine dust/sand particles from the Sahara. It’s not windy at the moment, but I guess the wind a couple of weeks ago did its job and now we're left with the dust blocking out the sun, and nothing to blow it away. Anyway it seems to be slowly clearing up, so hopefully back to sunshine in a day or two.

It's hard to believe that in only a few weeks time my assignment here in West Africa will be finished and I'll be back to the more familiar, if more unpredictable, weather of the UK. I read recently a long range weather forecast that suggested a 'Barbecue summer' for the UK, possibly the warmest on record, but I seem to remember the same being said last year, and it was a terrible summer - so who knows what'll happen.

As we get into the final few weeks of my assignment I will start the process of winding down the work here – I’m hopeful that the projects that now have some momentum behind them will continue, particularly the Voucher Track project, but at the moment its not clear who will be taking over after I leave. It’s also not clear what I’ll be doing once I return to the UK, so that’s something else I need to start working on!

Food crisis in Niger

The main focus for WFP within the West Africa region at the moment is on Niger where a severe food crisis is looming. Niger is very poor (174th out of 179 countries on the UNDP's human development index) and also suffers from political instability - with yet another coup just a few weeks ago meaning the country is again in the hands of the military. In addition there has been a poor harvest in the whole Sahel region which has hit Niger particularly hard with the result that 20,000 children in the country are already being treated for malnutrition, and another 200,000 are at risk of severe malnutrition. So while the main focus for WFP continues to be Haiti, it’s important to remember that there are other countries out there that desperately need help.

Here in Senegal I am still working on moving forward with the Food Voucher project. A programme is launching soon in Pikine just outside Dakar to provide 20,000 households with food vouchers to help them overcome the problems of high food prices. The programme will use SMS messaging from the retailer back to WFP as a means of reducing the potential for fraud and to help ensure efficient targeting of WFP’s resources on those most in need. I’m planning to use the experience from this programme, along with similar programmes being run in other parts of the world such as Burkina Faso, Zambia and Syria, to feed into the design of a solution which can be used globally by WFP. At the moment each new voucher programme is developing a new solution – a good way to learn what works and what doesn’t , but not a very efficient use of limited resources in the long run.

On a slightly different note – a happy St Patrick's day to one and all. Its a truth universally acknowledged that every town in the world has an Irish Bar - however Dakar seems to be the exception that proves the rule - or at least I've yet to find it, but maybe I'll do a bit more 'research' tonight.

Saharan wind and surfing in Dakar

During the winter months the Harmattan, a dry, dusty wind from the Sahara, blows over West Africa. This weekend it was blowing particularly strongly bringing with it very fine sand particles, making for great sunsets, but also depositing lots of dust everywhere and making riding my scooter somewhat 'interesting'. The picture shows a beach along the corniche, used by the local Dakar youth as an outdoor gym, at sunset.

As it was Raksha's last weekend here we were very busy souvenir shopping, catching up with people and saying final good-byes, but also managed to fit in a visit to 'Just 4 U' on Saturday to see Orchestra Baobab. Great again, but as with all the clubs in Dakar it starts and finishes very late, we left the club at 3am and the band were still going strong (unlike us).

Then on Sunday we had lunch with some friends at a restaurant by the beach at Ngor to the north of Dakar. This is an area known for surfing and on Sunday the waves were were particularly high (perhaps because of the wind) so we were treated to a spectacular show by local surfers as we tucked in to delicious local fish. I'm told Dakar is an excellent place to learn surfing, but it all looks a bit energetic, and not a little dangerous to me - I'll stick to tennis I think.

Raksha is now back in the UK, where I hear it is cold and damp, so I'm hoping to make the most of my final couple of months here. The weather at this time of year is perfect (well, except when the Harmattan is blowing perhaps) - warm with bright sunshine, without being too hot and not at all humid, unlike the summer. There has been no rain (hardly a cloud) since October.

Dolphins in the Casamance

Another busy couple of weeks - so once again apologies for lack of blog postings! Naina has now gone back to the UK - I think she had a good time in Dakar - she certainly seemed to like the weather, which has been un-seasonally warm.
Raksha is still here, and we've just returned from a trip to Casamance in the far south of Senegal. We left by ferry last Tuesday evening and arrived at Ziguinchor (often just called 'Zig'), the capital of the Casamance region, early on Wednsday morning. The ferry itself, modern and very comfortable, was built to replace the MV Le Joola which sank on the way to Casamance in 2002 with the loss of nearly 2,000 lives, making it one of the worst non-military maritime disasters in history - worse than the Titanic. The ferry goes down the coast, past The Gambia and then up the Casamance river to Zig. On the way up the river in the morning we were followed by a school of dolphins who seemed to enjoy 'playing' in the wake of the ferry.

Our first couple of nights were spent on a small island, Karabane, at the mouth of the Casamance river. We stayed in a hotel that had once been the colonial governor's residence (see pic, right), but Karabane has become much quieter since those days - no cars , no mains electricity, no hot water, just peace and quiet and friendly people (see pic, left). But a bigger jetty is being built so that the ferry can stop there on its way to and from Zig - which will mean many more tourists in the future - so if you want to enjoy it at its best go now!

We then spent a couple of nights at the main tourist resort in Casamance - Cap Skirring. This is on the Atlantic coast and is busier than Karabane, but still very low key, with miles of virtually deserted beaches - deserted that is except for the sellers of souvenirs, jewelery, carvings and hats!

We splashed out and stayed at a very nice hotel, la Maison Bleue, with stunning ocean views and fantastic food. Then back on the overnight ferry, arriving in Dakar at 7am this morning, quickly back home (where there was a power cut yet again) and then into the office and back to work.

Visitors from home

It's Friday afternoon, the end of a very busy and hectic week. On Sunday evening I went to the airport to meet my wife and daughter, Raksha and Naina. Dakar airport is complete mayhem - specially designed to make things as unpleasant as possible for both arriving passengers and those meeting them, but eventually Raksha and Naina appeared through the arrivals door - a very welcome site. I've been working as normal this week, so they have been looking after themselves, seeing the sites of Dakar, shopping in the markets and spending time on the beach enjoying some welcome sunshine after the cold and rain of England. Evenings were spent visiting friends, including an interesting Fondue evening at a Swiss owned restaurant, with a Japanese group; a slightly bizarre experience. Tonight we are going to a Jass party and then on to Dakar's most famous club, Just 4 U, for some live music. Hope I can keep going!

On the airwaves, but short on gas

The emergency in Haiti continues to dominate the WFP world – it’s a massive operation and people are being pulled in from all over the globe, including some from our office here in Dakar, to help bring it together and get food out to those affected.
On the 'home front' I've been continuing to work on the various IT projects within the West Africa region, with my main focus still being on the Food Voucher project, which I've mentioned in previous blogs. This is becoming an increasingly important means of providing aid, but its still in its early days for WFP. In a recent conference call with some of the WFP IT senior management team in Rome I outlined the proposed solution and I'm hopeful that we can get it adopted as the basis for a global solution for these kind of programmes.
I also spoke about the Food Voucher project in an interview I did back in mid-December with an English journalist based here in Dakar. The interview was for Voice of America and has just been broadcast - you can catch it on www1.voanews.com/english/news/africa/west/. Never having done anything like this before I was unsure what to expect, but it was all quite painless, although the editing process has managed to make it sound like we are already running a pilot with the mobile phone solution for Burkina Faso, which is not actually the case.
Outside of work - well I'm still very busy, although this week I've tried to keep fairly low key. On Sunday my wife, Raksha, and daughter, Naina, are coming over to Senegal. Naina is only here for a short while, so most of the time will probably be in Dakar and around, but then in mid-February Raksha and I are planning a trip down to Casamance in the very south of Senegal which I'm really looking forward to.
On a final note - Senegal has run out of petrol! Apparently a tanker is due in on Friday, but in the meantime if your car or motorbike runs on petrol (as opposed to diesel which is still in supply) then its fingers crossed you don't run out in the next couple of days as there's none to be had anywhere. Luckily I managed to fill up my scooter just before the pumps dried up, but had to drive half way across town to get it and there was a near riot on the forecourt with drivers desperate to fill up before it all disappeared. Oh well, that's Africa I guess.

WFP response to emergency in Haiti

The earthquake in Haiti is rightly dominating the news - the terrible scenes of destruction are a reminder of just how vulnerable we all are to the power of nature. Of course the whole humanitarian community is working very hard to respond as quickly and as effectively as possible in very difficult circumstances, and already WFP has started distributing food to those affected. WFP is very much geared towards responding to this sort of emergency and within the first few days had deployed additional staff to support the existing team there, including establishing emergency telecommunications for the entire humanitarian community - this is something that WFP is responsible for as 'cluster-lead' for the Emergency Telecommunications Cluster (ETC), and it is the main area in which Vodafone supports WFP.

In the days after the earthquake there were fears for a number of staff who couldn't be contacted, but most have now been accounted for, although tragically it has been confirmed that one local staff member was killed. The local WFP office is still standing, but is unusable due to risk of collapse and so staff have been re-located to the UN mission 'Log Base' near the airport, where living conditions are said to be very difficult. Similarly the warehouse facilities that were in place are now unstable and so alternatives are being quickly sought to allow emergency food supplies to continue to be distributed.

The scale of the emergency operation is such that it will be among the largest in the history of WFP, and as a largely Francophone region a number of staff from here in West Africa, including from the IT team, have been asked to re-deploy to Haiti to assist with the operation. The emergency has also meant that some of the projects we were working on here are likely to be delayed as resource get diverted to where they are most needed, in Haiti.

I'm sure that the thoughts and prayers of us all are with the people of Haiti at this time. If you feel you would like to make a doantion to help WFP with its work in Haiti please follow this link:

https://www.wfp.org/donate/haiti.

Settling back in to life in Dakar

As I said in my last post, it was very strange coming back to Dakar, but now after only a few days I now feel back 'at home' again. A really busy weekend has helped me settle back into the Dakar way of life. On Friday I was at a party at Jessica's house, not far from where I live. Her appartment is quite small, so the party was held on the roof terrace, which is right under the flight path for planes landing at the airport - so every now and then all conversation had to come to a stop as a plane approached and then flew straight overhead, about 50 feet above us - quite a sight.
On Saturday a group of us went to Lac Rose (the Pink Lake), just outside Dakar. Lac Rose is where the Paris-Dakar rally used to end (the rally claimed the lives of too may village children and so now no longer takes place, at least not in Senegal - last year it was in South America!) and is so-called because of its pink colour caused by algae. The algae must have been having a rest this weekend because the lake was more of a dull brownsih colour, but I'm told it becomes pinker as the water level drops during the dry season - so hope to go back when Raksha comes over in February - and it better be pink or I'll want my money back.
Anyway it was a really nice weekend - some of our party were taking part in a half-marathon round the lake - I opted to join the party of walkers rather than runners, and still managed to sprain a muscle in my leg - so no tennis this week! I also managed to get sunburned - a lesson that even in mid-winter you need to be careful of the power of the sun here in West Africa.

Return to Dakar

Well I'm back in Dakar now after a week skiing in the French Alps (see picture - Raksha, Naina and Kiran, Christmas day) and a week at home in the UK, which was equally cold and snowy. When I arrived in the UK it was covered in a blanket of snow and as I left it had turned very cold and more snow was forecast which I know has now arrived - a stark contrast to the sunny and warm (although not hot anymore) days here.

It feels very strange coming back to Africa after being home with my family for a couple of weeks; it's going to take a few days to adjust back to the way of life here, which is very different to the UK. It's hard to believe that I've only been away for a couple of weeks, but I know after a few days it'll be as if I haven't been away at all as I settle back in to the routine of work and life here.

Personally 2009 was certainly an interesting and eventful year - at the start of the year I doubt whether I could have pointed to Senegal on a map and knew very little about the great work that the World Food Programme does. Now I've had 6 months living and working in Senegal and have had the opportunity of working with some very committed people here in WFP and to see the great effort that's being made to try and eradicate hunger in the world. Its been a real privilege and I'm looking forward to the challenges and opportunities that 2010 will bring.

A happy, prosperous and interesting New Year to you all!