Well after a wild month of visits with family and friends, selling a house, and moving my gear into storage, I am here...in Yerevan.
I left NY at 10pm Tuesday and arrived at 9pm on Weds. Everything arrived with me except my bowels. They have now caught up with me and "moved" rapidly forward. Some days are filled with dark matter:)) OK. Enough black humor.
First impressions of Yerevan: for casino lovers, there is a strip of them on the road from the airport to Yerevan...but they are not allowed within the city limits. The city seems small with about 1 1/2 of the 3 million population of Armenia living here. Of note, there are 8 million Armenians living abroad! The city is designed in a circular fashion and seems to have all the amenities. One of the positives this week was to find that the admin assistant puts up a list of all the concerts and performances for the coming month. Then she will purchase the tickets for us and have them delivered to the office. How easy is that! Beyond that I haven't seen much of the city yet. Today I went on a short tour with a friend to find the metro which is clean and amazingly cheap, about 14 cents, buy a sim card for my phone, and see some of the market. I frankly am not up to a lot more yet.
The weather has been unseasonably cool and rainy for the past month. By now the locals say it is usually warm and dry which continues through the summer. I look forward to that. There are beautiful parks nearby.
There are only four expats on the project and we share an apartment, each with our own room and two big bathrooms to share. The cast of characters at this point includes Luis, a handsome young Spaniard and the Project Co-ordinator; Megan a nurse from the US who I already knew; and Shahidal, the TB doc from Bangladesh, also dark and handsome. A good start, yes? Shahid has designated me his "Mom" and given me the job of finding him a pretty, nice, educated but not brilliant wife...he's next on the marriage docket after his sister marries in July. And approving that he let his hair grow. He's funny, respectful and an overall nice guy. I think we'll get along fine. The cast will change in June when Megan leaves.
Work will be challenging. I have 8 people to supervise, most of whom are unhappy with recent changes to their roles. More changes are planned and are on my plate to make happen...and they won't be popular. Frankly there are way too many people to do the work load and we could manage with 5 or at most 6. They have not had an expat manager for several years and have fallen into some bad habits. Time will tell on that one. I cease to be amazed at how fast one is expected to step up to the plate with MSF. I was in the house being introduced to my housemates and choosing a room at midnight and at work at nine the next day being introduced to about 50 staff members, having several briefings and attending my first adherence meeting! The next day was more of the same plus a 4 hour DR committee meeting! I didn't need to participate which was good as I wanted to do a face plant in the middle of the table.
More later. Love to all.
Jean
