Monday, May 26, 2008

Back to Africa

Salam, Bonjour, Hello, Hola, Mbote, Jambo, Hayyeh that and much more…I finally update this blog, 7 months and a half after the last real posting where I was telling you about my challenges in Afghanistan from the top of the mountain in Hazerajat. So much since, so let’s go step by step!

Afghanistan is over since Mid December, after coming back to Kabul, one last field visit (the second one cancelled for security reasons) all while organizing quite challenging food distributions before the harsh winter the country usually knows. End of my contract and decision made not to extend to enjoy some extended and well deserved vacation, and eventually go back under African skies that I will have missed all year long.

Americano-Anglo-Middle Eastern holidays allowing me to enjoy the East and West coast, as well as London, Damascus and also Dubai before getting back to work beginning of March: exploratory mission in DRC, North Kivu specifically, for Action Against Hunger. An area with needs as massive as security is bad, and ACF’s will to develop activities will have allowed me to do this Congolese pilgrimage with a special meaning to me! Yes my friends the Congo, my first assignment, the one that gave me the will to go on in this NGO world, the one that taught me much more than what I can acknowledge, a country that s given me so much and to which I was more than happy to repay my debt. So I headed to Goma beginning of March with a colleague and came back two weeks later with the widest smile. Professionally speaking our mission led to launching of assistance programs as well as a considerable fund raising allowing ACF to begin project implementation while they get a better grasp of the area, and conceive more ambitious activities. Personally speaking, how can I put it? Meeting up again with this country and its people, discovering a new part of the Congo, a beautiful one but oh so troubled, sadly.

The amount of blasts from the past that never left the country, or came back after a few escapades is impressive. A journey through memory lane, and one of the most enjoyable, but no nostalgia, only happiness in writing this new chapter. I had a tough time leaving, and something tells me that it is not over yet between the Congo and me…wait and see!

I could have stayed some of you might think, all the more as ACF offered me to, a logical follow up to a successful exploratory mission, but I was eager to take some time off in Kenya after North Kivu before turning the page and beginning my new job…yes my friends, before leaving for Goma I had signed with another organization, British this time, called Save The Children, to become their security coordinator for Somalia, a position based in Nairobi, Kenya J

A change in employers, and the end of my experience with ACF. A step affectionately and emotionally of the hardest after almost 4 years (I started as a volunteer in London HQ on June 1st 2004) spent with this organization. An organization that taught me everything I know, and that gave me the most unique opportunities to gain my experience. Please refer to my French blog with postings since 2004 if you want to know more. It was time nevertheless to go see elsewhere so as to diversify my experience, discover another way of addressing humanitarian concerns, but also discover different means (and not necessarily wider ones). Last but not least, let us not forget different working conditions and a more generous package that also plays a part, since we are not monks (as I often like to remind people) but professionals with envies, requirements, and even individual and material needs.

I am now a security coordinator. Our team’s security, expatriate and national staff alike, as well as our beneficiaries, has always been part of my prerogatives and I wanted to have an exclusive experience in this field and put (temporarily?) logistics aside, so as to develop my expertise and see if such specialization would appeal to me. And what better than a context like Somalia to ply my trade? Again for more details on this sad country, you can refer to all the media reporting, while I start getting familiar with the latter, and before I give you my impressions and points of view in future postings. Somalia is today too dangerous for us to conceive a permanent expatriate presence, the major part of our operations is run from Nairobi, Kenya. A good transition and lovely coincidence, since Trayle and me have elected this town our capital of the heart, where we can conceive a couple life and move on to the next step. Nairobi is the ideal young family station in Africa where prenatal facilities are as good and diverse as decent education providing establishments. Nairobi is also close to the ocean and what comes with it (think Zanzibar, the coast, sea food, and much more…) to sum it up, Nairobi is the place to go on with our professional and private lives without too drastic sacrifices: our ideal location!

I believe you got the hints by now, there will be changes for our couple. My Cherie and I have decided to get married and plan on offspring in the years to come. You should be all aware that we are engaged since December 2006, and were just waiting to find ourselves in more hospitable lands than Kabul to host as many as possible of you guys and celebrate such an event as it should be. Trayle and myself have been separated since end of January following short emergency assignments in Kenya (following post electoral violence) and DRC (a cholera outbreak this time) that she has taken on; A 5 months separation after which she will come back to Kenya (mid June that is) so that we settle down properly, and plan this event consequently. Trayle will be working as a Water Sanitation and Hygiene coordinator for ACF’s Kenya mission as of July: a proper settling down, with couple status, separate accommodation, and a guest room to host you properly ;-)

So you have the global picture, I believe we will be properly sorted as of July, and our door will be wide open to all of you (not at once though…) and maybe get to catch up finally with this bloody time that keeps going by, and because of which we have so much to catch up on…

Next posting on my first steps in Somalia as well as our couple adventures with my lovely lady. Hasta la Vista, and all kind of things!

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