SPECIAL REPORT
the biggest in the world . It brought me right back to the present .
This time I was going to be a supply logistician in Bentiu . I can see that the monsoon is setting in and see the camp is flooded . I can see the Médecins Sans Frontières ( MSF ) hospital , the office and accommodation compound . We touchdown on a very familiar red dusty air strip . Welcome to Bentiu .
An exhausted , but very friendly , expat and South Sudanese driver greet me . I was evacuated with the driver last time I was here in Bentiu . I ’ m extremely happy to see this man alive and we both hug each other so tight , knowing exactly how happy we are to realise that we both are alive and healthy .
After a three day handover from the current Supply Logistics Manager we say goodbye to each other . I ’ m scared , excited , confident and doubtful if I can pull this off all at the same time .
In the first meeting with my supply team I get a feeling that these guys are brilliant , amazing human beings . I ’ m happy this is my work force .
I ’ m informed that the size of the camp has increased rapidly in the last three weeks . There ’ s now more than
100,000 people in the camp and every organisation present is overwhelmed . The MSF team had to prepare for a big expansion of the hospital and it had to be quick . My time in South Sudan was going to be hectic , extremely wet and very challenging .
To help with this expansion my first job was to find a new location for our central pharmacy ( currently housed within the medical warehouse ) and it had to be done asap . This wasn ’ t going to be easy because space was
22 January 2017