The 2011/12 Gadue-Niebling-Urdenta (GNU) Fellowship Award program by recipient – Chinelo Odiakosa-Mmakwe, Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist for the Community Based Support for OVC Project (CUBS), Nigeria hosted by the Southern Africa Building Local Capacity (BLC) project.

The GNU fellowship is an annual award granted to two staff of Management Science for Health (MSH) worldwide that has shown a long term commitment to public health.  Outcomes of the fellowship commemorate the achievements of the three MSH staff that died in an airplane crash outside Afghanistan.

My Purpose in South Africa (SA):  To learn from and support the BLC project on monitoring, evaluation and communications especially on HIV prevention on mobile populations and affected communities between March 26th – April 20th 2012 (20 working days) in Pretoria and the Zimbabwe Migration corridor (Beitbridge and possibly south Chirundu)

My Mentors: Zuzelle Pretorius, BLC Senior HIV Technical Advisor and Kathryn Reichert, the BLC Monitoring, Evaluation and Communications Director

Aboard the plane

With a sense of euphoria mixed with anxiety, I joined Dana Airways from Port Harcourt, Southern Nigeria to the bustling city of Lagos state known as the commercial capital of Nigeria on Sunday 25th March 2012. 

Although we landed in Lagos by mid-day, we began the long wait to check-in by 5:30pm. After a slight delay we finally left the hot airs of Nigeria by 10:35pm aboard the South African airways. I must thank Zuzelle Pretorius and Jabulani Nkosi of the BLC project who sent me my accommodation details and SA mobile phone number respectively well before my departure, it made leaving a bit bearable with my family and colleagues satisfied that we could keep in touch.

Dumela Le Amu Getswe! Sani Bonani! Welkom to South Africa (SA)

With the million twinkles of light in the dark morning sighted from the airplane, and being my first time to SA, it was no wonder that the city appealed to my senses. By 5:30am on Monday 26th March, we finally landed at the OR Tambo international airport, Johannesburg where Aaron of Solant Travel & Tours drove me from Johannesburg to Pretoria the office location. My first intrigue was the right hand driving position in SA, never seen so much people driving from the right hand side before – I kept missing my directions when entering the vehicle. We were greeted by the already fast moving cars of early risers in SA. Interesting places like the posh Irene houses of south Pretoria where Aaron envisaged my owning a place there with my future grandchildren; to the University of Pretoria and South Africa respectively, we weaved our way through the wide but traffic laden roads of Pretoria to the posh City lodge hotel in Hatfield. A guest was already occupying the MSH guest house for a couple of days so the City lodge was an alternative. Tired and worn-out, it was a huge relief when Zuzelle gave me the go-ahead to start the day a bit late. With a serene outdoor view of the landscape from the hotel window, I could barely fight the snatching claws of slumber as they pulled me into the soft pillows of the classy lodge. By 11:10am, I finally met the large BLC family. Zuzelle introduced me to the staff and gave me an informative guide containing a map of Hatfield, information about my hotel, transportation, restaurant suggestions, other information like changing money and security as well as Staff contact information for the BLC project all with an highlight – Welcome! Dumela Le Amu Getswe! Sani Bonani! Welkom