Almost settled down...

Yea I am back in Chad. I am not sure where I was the last time we talked...it seems to me I was in Chad. Let me bring you up to speed, it is not a long story: I worked in Chad from August 2008 until March 2008 with an American NGO International Rescue Committee. I had to leave my mission a tad early due to conflicting points of view and protocol with the boss. Such is life in this work, i suppose in all work situations, people define their professionalism by what drives their needs and desires.

However I was able to take a great break from the heat and 'humanitarian imperative' pressures by hanging with my folks for a bit back east in Fredericton- sadly it was maybe too cold for me; it is quite a sight when I come back from Africa looking like a Somalie refugee in oversized hat and coat and mits when the rest of the Canadians are basking in the spring sunlight! I jumped from the pan into the fire by then flying out to Edmonton to visit my Sarah for a bit and then went off to play mama bear for my sister's three kids in Cold Lake, Alberta, during the month of May. While the sun was out and the snow was officially gone, the morning frost on the pumpkin made leaving the house a bit hard.

By early June I was back in Fredericton. Denise and I hooked up for a weekend kayak adventure on the Bay of Fundy and we capped the weekend off with a half marithon training run (she's training I am NOT, but the TTS would not let me stand by and watch!). I am a bit tickled that I pulled that off - my time in Chad was quite limiting from a standpoint of personal fitness. Still early June i was working on the motorcycle getting it ready for a quick trip to Mexico (like to learn to surf) or maybe NFLD (cold in june i bet!) when I received a phone call from Action Contre la Faim, a Paris based NGO, to go back to Chad (Noooooo once is enough ??!!). So there you go, by 15 June I had a week in Paris and now I am back in Chad with a different group of guys but this time it is only a 6 week gig on a special project where I have autonomy and I don't have to deal with staffing issues. It is a bit of a lark really and I am quite enjoying my time. Nice change of pace. I rationalize everything by saying that this time in Chad is only adding to my french skills. Yea whatever.

The future is a bit in question as it is always. I have a friend working in Burkino Faso now who will be returning to her home in France at the end of July, that times nicely with my return from Chad on 2 August. There has been some talk of bicycling the Loire Valley but we will see. There was talk of buying a vinyard in the countryside...but since i have no money there is no real threat there! I have scheduled to redo the Camino de Santiago again this September with a goal to do all 800kms front to back. Last year I was only able to get about half-way due to timing issues. I think my folks might come along on this year's Camino having learned last time that it is not so bad 30kms in a day - it is all in the mind. Of course my dad mowed his toes on the first mow of the season and that has set back his training regime! Dude i continue to laugh at that. Guess he just bumped them and not lopped em off.

So you see, I am a bit all over the place and maybe it is time to settle down for a bit. Every time i come back from a gig in Africa i say to myself 'That was the last one', but for some reason i keep getting drawn back into it. It is a kind of trap really, this work, as it doesn't add much to a resume, not really a career path and people think you are just plain weird. So I suppose I take the easy route and just keep on keeping on rather than making the effort.