Mais Oui!

I have been here in Paris now for just over a month and time has flown by. I finished up my french course without fanfare - it was not that great a program - but it did give me a 'mission' and a feeling for what it is like to be Parisian and fight the hoards in the métro for the early morning commute.

So today I was out struggling around the park on my run (started last week, a lazy bum) hopping and skipping over fufu dogs and doggie landmines (extra cardio value). Trying to get prepped for the Camino. Everyone else is hyper training - dad continues to walk every day and does a 20 km walk on the weekend...stink.

Still, it is a blast to be here. And I continue to run the risk of over-indulging in all things beery, chocolate-ly, and pizza-y. I am getting more and more hassles now from humanitarian aid agency streeters trying to get money from me. Clearly I am now in the transformation phase approaching a physique of 'local-ness'. Before it was clear that I was a stranger and I was free to go about town without hassles. So I try to take this as a good sign.

It would be cool to live here in Paris for a while. Sadly I lost my reason to stay (Fanny left for a year in Burkino Faso with ACF) so there is nothing to keep me here. Oh well, another time another adventure awaits. I am trying to talk grampy and granny into selling everything and buyng a farmhouse in the french countryside. Sometimes it goes, sometimes not...

My french is indeed getting stronger (as proved by my fun watching the french version of the latest Pixar movie 'Kung Fu Panda'). Further proof is my offer of employ with IRC in Abeche, Chad. This is a paying gig so it is hard to refuse, yet it is not free as it does indeed hamper my Camino plans. I once had a friend who used to (try to) explain to me that having plans is just a way guarantee failure as the future will always win. Guess she was right.

IRC or International Rescue Committee (http://www.theirc.org/ ) is an american outfit who pays. They are offering me a real salary plus they are paying all my expenses and room and board. So essentially this cash is going straight into the bank. This may indeed help my plan do drive London-Shanghai on my supercool motorcycle. Anyway they want me to be Head of Base in Abeche. Abeche is a regional capital so there will be more things to do than there was in Shangil Darfur. Inshallah. Chad right now is very dangerous and there are many problems with culture and staff motivation and capacity so this will be a challenge. This job is a step up the ladder for me moving from the field toward capital level responsibilities.

In Abeche, the intermediary base between the two field bases and the Capital N'Djamena, we will be looking at supporting directly the two field bases. IRC is responsible for all health, water and sanitation, protection, and child protection programs in the BAHAI base located in the north east against the Chad/Sudan border, working in Darfurian refugee camps on the Chadian side of the border. The second base is a bit south of Abeche, BREJING, where we will be taking over a health center from MSF (who stepped up and took over when Save The Children quit their mission following the murder of their CdM in May).

IRC has me going to Chad on August 14 for three weeks. I suppose there is some pressure to have the position filled- the position has been vacant for a long time and expat repatriations continue to increase the work pressures. Furthermore, I also think that there probably has a negative moral effect on the national staff to be without a leader for such a long time. However I had to be clear that my obligations to do the Camino de Santiago have been long fixed and so IRC will bring me back to Paris on 2 September for five weeks to permit me to do the Camino. I expect to be back in Chad on or around 15 October and then it will be a question of when I can take my next break.

Camino de Compostella: http://www.caminodesantiago.me.uk/