Been over a month since I last wrote on this thing.

Since then, I've gone from Kigali to Nairobi to Dubai to London to Paris to Munich to Vienna to Geneva to Paris to London to Los Angeles to Sacramento to Los Angeles to Sacramento to Los Angeles to Sacramento to Los Angeles to London to Dubai and that is where I am right now. And if all goes well I will be home in Nairobi this afternoon for the first time in over a month. And then I'll go right back to Kigali.

Let's see if I can semi-recap.

Europe was a lot of fun, other than the parts where EuroStar shut down the trains between London and Paris and I spent a nightmare day (after flying from NBO and DXB overnight) trying to find another way to Paris. I made it there late that night, but my bag didn't, and I wouldn't see it again for a full 11 days. Air France graciously provides a whopping 150 Euro should they have lost your bags for your entire vacation. And Caroline unfortunately spent a night in the airport when we weren't able to meet up there.

But Munich was nice and we stayed with some GCC pals there who gave us all the insider tips - had a great time at the Christmas markets, saw Dachau - the model for all of the other concentration camps, and then on our last night we went back to the Christmas markets and almost made it there before I slammed my hand in the car door and sent us to the emergency room for the evening instead.

Then on to Salzburg and then Vienna, which were both nice and relatively uneventful (comparatively speaking), then Geneva, which I really enjoyed but was also stupid expensive. Thankfully, though, Anna was gracious enough to have us stay at her stupidly awesome waterfront apartment on the lake. I managed to get a day of skiing Chamonix in, so now I can finally say I've lived that dream, albeit briefly.

Then on to Paris for New Years. It was nice to explore but next time I'd like to see it at a non-holiday time. Also relatively uneventful. I liked Paris enough that I think I could live there - and that's saying something.

Then on to London and Los Angeles for my meetings. And now it strikes me that the next part really deserves its own post with a little more thought put into it. How's that for a hook?

I'm in Korogwe, which is here.

I'm pretty sure I've found the only internet shack in this tiny no-stoplight town. We're about 4 hours east of Arusha, on our way to Dar Es Salaam in the morning. In Tanzania, for those keeping score. I drove my truck from Nairobi to Arusha for about 4 weeks of work with our National Office here, which is based in Arusha. After 2 weeks at the NO, we're now headed out for field visits, which started today here, continue on our way to Dar, a day in Dar, and then I'm likely flying to Kigoma - north western Tanz where our last remaining refugee camp is still running for refugees from the Congo (formerly refugees from Burundi, formerly refugees from Rwanda, etc.). After a day or two there its back to Arusha for hopefully a little less than a week, because I need time to get back to Nairobi and change bags before I'm off to Zimbabwe for a week. (Doesn't look like I'll end up getting to Zanzibar while I'm here, durn it.)

And then its either Rwanda or Malawi. I simply can't be in both at the same time, as much as some people might like that idea.

I've got a big blog about my trip to China in the works. All the pictures are on flickr but I'm having a hard time uploading them here, and I won't have any half-decent internet until I'm in Dar, at least. So maybe then.

I just wanted to get in a quick update before I went a whole nother shameful month without blogging once. Too busy to blog is becoming the story of my life.

Early on in the (rather excellent) movie Fight Club, Edward Norton's character meets Brad Pitt's character (well, so to speak), and they have a brief exchange whilst sitting next to each other on the airplane they're on. Ed tells Brad about his "single-serving friend" idea - how he meets people on airplanes and considers them "single-serving friends" just like the single-serving of butter they give you, and the single-serving of salt, etc.. And its clever, because its accurate - the way you meet people in small doses when you travel for a living. Pitt goes on to tell him that its clever, and then asks him how being clever is working out for him.

I like to say I make fast friends (fast in the speed sense, not in the intensely close sense). I become friends with people perhaps more quickly than you would in other places / situations, and that's kind of easy particularly here in Africa. You bond with your fellow expats pretty quickly. Take Alan, for instance - I met him at frisbee on a Friday a few weeks ago, spent a night out or two with him and friends over the weekend, and by the middle of the next week had invited him to take over my spare room while he finished his apartment search. No biggie. That wouldn't happen in NYC.

The problem with fast friendships is that they tend to exist and then end that way too. I would say of the group I've bonded with here in Nairobi, approximately a 3rd of them are the longer-term expats - here for multiple years with not much of a looming horizon on when they might move on. The rest of us are faster. We come in with 6 months or maybe 8 or a year. But that's it, then they're off, back home, or somewhere else. Its not a bad thing per se, it just is what it is. But it is sometimes very sad.

Right now I'm not sure where I fall - I came here on a 2 year contract but who knows when work will take me elsewhere for longer periods. I just found out this morning that I'm not returning from my 2 weeks in the US that begin tomorrow directly, instead I'm off to Haiti for a couple weeks of work. I probably travel too much here to really be considered in the 33% of those who are long-termers. In the last month I've worked in 4 countries.

When I first started playing ultimate here in Nairobi, I met a really cool couple of dudes named Chad and Matt. They both worked for International Justice Mission, an organization I've been a big fan/supporter of for a long time. Chad was married to Jill, the sweetest girl you ever met. I saw them each week at frisbee but that was about it. Then Rosemary, a girl I work with, invited me to her church, Mamlaka Hill, which has since become my own church here, because it is awesome.

My first Sunday there, they ask the visitors to stand and then bring around a microphone so we could introduce ourselves. I didn't see Chad, Jill, and Matt in the crowd, but they were there and heard my introduction. That afternoon at disc, they asked me if that was me, and I said it was. I began running into them at church and giving them a ride back to their place, and we'd have brunch occasionally after.

I didn't spend nearly enough time with them while they were here and I regret that very much. I came to enjoy them immensely as friends and just really great people. Matt left for home in Alaska and then he's off to Cairo for more school, so I hope to see him again sometime soon. Chad and Jill left tonight, returning to Texas. I know we'll stay good friends but I have no idea when I'll see them again. I sure am glad to live in the age of the internet, though.

This happened a good deal in NYC as well, albeit on a more prolonged track of sorts. But it too is a transient place - people come and people go. Some day one of your best friends might just announce she's moving to London. Some day I might up and tell everyone I'm shipping off to Africa. And I guess I was that person - the one who left. Its just kind of the way things are, when your life involves travel. You sacrifice a lot of what-might-have-been with some really awesome people. Its just that way.

But it doesn't mean I have to like it.

So. Yeah.

Not much blogging lately just because life has been nuts. That's always the excuse but this time its somewhat legitimate...

I resigned last week from Accenture and accepted a position with World Vision. I'll be returning to Africa as the Program Manager for Global Supply Chain Management Implementation there (a mouthful, right?). I'm flying to Nairobi on January 10th and will be looking for an apartment there, at least in the short term. Doesn't really matter where I put my stuff, the position will be 75%+ travel to the countries across the continent (primarily southern, eastern, and western regions) that we are working in to set up SCM offices within WV's existing architecture. Its exciting but its going to be a lot of work.

I'm finishing up a 10-day stint here at home in Cali tomorrow and flying back to NYC tomorrow night. Its been good to spend time with the entire fam, eat all my favorite foods, and get a day of riding in on a foot of freshies. Also I think I caused some nerve damage in my arm that I need to see a doc for next week. Speaking of next week, I also need to:

- get a medical screening done for WV
- see a travel clinic to update any of my immunizations
- meet with my financial guy and sort all the 401k rollovers out
- interview potential sub-letters for my place
- host the NYE party at Lincoln center
- schedule an appointment with the derma doc
- figure out how to transfer all my personal stuff from Outlook and OneNote to the home computer
- back up the home computer
- get new headphones, an external hard drive, a projector to serve as my TV in Africa, and potentially a DSLR (woot)
- find my old receipts and submit them for work expenses
- finish all the administration around leaving the company
- send some thank-you cards
- pay my parking ticket
- find a new bank account that won't screw me on withdrawal charges in Africa
- figure out where I'm going to store my stuff
- start packing
- find some jeans sample sales
- get a living will drafted
- send my (late) holiday cards
- finish all the on-boarding paperwork for WV
- see Grand Torino
- switch all the bills over to Dave's name
- figure out how to get out of my Sprint plan without having to pay
- eat slightly healthier and perhaps even get a few runs in

Also, I have decided that I will be acquiring a pair of dogs once I get settled (so to speak) in Kenya. This makes me happy.

More when I get around to it...

And like that, my time in Zambia is through.

Its been a whirlwind 3 weeks, as evidenced by the nearly complete lack of blogging. Let's see if I can catch up a little.

I spent the first week bouncing between low-cost lodges trying to save on project budget, but they weren't nice, security was iffy, and I didn't have regular power or any internet access. And my camera got lifted, AGAIN. Apparently God doesn't want me taking pictures of Africa. At least I still have the video camera. Also that week was all of the creations of the approach and deliverables I'd be working to craft out for my validation (survey, interview guides, intro materials, final reports, etc.). That first weekend was a party that Anthony took me to with a few of the expats around, and then on Sunday I hit up Pastor Kabifya's church and was the only white guy there. I think I might have blogged about this already. Anyway, Kabifya's turned into quite a good friend of mine and a sort of trusted individual in my life. He's about my age but his life has taken a completely different path and he has a lot of good input for me on things. That's all.

Week 2 I started all the interviews, sending out the surveys, etc.. I also moved to the new, nicer, safer, usually powered and interneted lodge which has been much more comfortable. I spent most of the 2nd weekend hanging around here. The 4th was a Friday and not a holiday here, so I was working, but headed to the embassy to see where the party was that night. It was at the colonel's house so Diana dropped me there and I had a few gratis drinks and caught the last of the back-yard fireworks. Some gal from the Irish embassy invited me over to another expat party following, so that was nice too. Sunday I went to George's church with him and his daughter and Christy, who are all staying at his house (across the street from the lodge I'm at) right now. We hit up the grocery store and the street fair market thing they have Sunday afternoons to sell trinkets to the tourists. And we played soccer with security guard and maid that George has on staff, and the maid's 2 kids, which was fun. And I had more of George's excellent cooking. And watched an episode of house. Then I finally went back to my lodge to sleep because...

Week 3 started with a 2-day holiday here in Zambia. I worked from the lodge mostly. Wednesday morning Anthony and I were due to leave for Nakande, which is in the far western province of Zambia, about 70kms from the border with Angola. It meant a 6.5 hour drive (2 of them through the 3rd biggest national park in Africa), to a 2.5 hour speed-boat ride up the Zambezi and its requisite tributaries. Then another 2 hour truck ride to the actual field sites, which involved a very sketchy river crossing that we almost didn't make (the truck was taking on water, and I caught the whole thing on video).

This was in an area so incredibly remote that I was the first white person quite a few of the children had ever seen. Instead of shouting "Mzungu" they were mainly just screaming and pointing, and following me around at a safe distance whence I alighted from the truck. Suffice to say there's not a lot of NGO's operating this far afield.

We spent that night in Nakande, Anthony and I drinking Castles in front of his room and talking about life and such, and then Friday was all the traveling back to Lusaka. Yesterday and today have been mostly work (although I didt take a break to go work out at one of the nicer hotels here in town, with Tina, another expat stuck here at the lodge like me). I've been cramming the final presentation to the senior management team together, which I present tomorrow to them before flying back to Joburg. And then to Nairobi, and then to Accra.

Today Tina and I walked to the further away shopping center (Manda Hill, about 2kms, Arcades is the closer one at 1km) to have lunch at the Irish pub - Hagan's. Food's actually really good and we had a couple Mosi's and bitched with each other about the general challenges of development in Africa and the resistance to change and the temptation to succumb to the general "TIA" attitude that convinces you that's just the way things work here.

Tina went back to the gym and as I walked home, I thought back to what I have written about before - that part in Lord of the Rings where it talks about how Aragorn took Frodo's hand to lead him away from the fields of Pelennor, and "never walked there again as a living man." Except this time, I was feeling it for Zambia.

I've been here 4 times now, and have made good friends and grown quite accustomed to the society. I will miss it, and I hope to return. But I don't know if or when I will.

Lusaka.

I've been here since Monday night. I was supposed to fly in mid-day, but when I got to the airport in Joburg Monday morning, they informed me that there was no fuel in Zambia and as such no more passengers / luggage would be allowed on the plane as it had a weight-max due to the need to carry extra fuel. I'm pretty sure I just missed the cut-off too because there wasn't anyone standing around before me looking all pissed off, but about 20 people behind me were just that. I took it in stride, it just meant working in the airport lounge all day, and not flying til that night.

Its cold here, I think even cooler than Joburg was. Its great, I love it. I'm not looking forward to Ghana's humidity, but at least there I'll be surfing on the weekends.

Good to see old friends here (I think I blogged about running into Kristin on my first time in Zambia, just saw her today), and Kabifya has been taking good care of me, shuttling me around and whatnot. I think I'll probably rent a car for at least one of these weekends and shoot down to cross Botswana, Namibia, and perhaps even Angola off my list, which will mean I've covered most of southern Africa minus Swaziland and Malawi. There's not a terrible lot to do around Lusaka but that's fine as I'll be pretty busy with work most of the time anyway.

Flying in on Saturday to Joburg was clutch. The son of the people who run the guesthouse I stayed at in Pretoria was throwing a small braai with some friends and they welcomed me right in, it was a fun night talking over dinner and drinks, especially when we dabbled into US politics. Sunday I was up early for church, where I saw Phil and Carolien, who got engaged the night before, and the Webbs. I miss the worship at that church already. Then in the afternoon I headed to the southern suburbs of the city and found Jess Wentling - one of our high school kids in the youth group at my church in NYC - at the orphanage she's volunteering at for the summer. Quite the commitment/adventure for a kid in high school, I'm sure, but I'd expect nothing less of our urban super-achiever kids. Got her some cell minutes and set up with my internet card so she could get on email, and then I rushed back to Pretoria for lunch with Gerard's family. Spent the afternoon seeing the doc and getting blood tests and getting my malaria prescription, and then had pizza from my favorite place whilst walking Jess through how to set up the internet on her computer. Then it was Monday morning and I was bound to the airport to (unknowingly) spend my day there.

Oh and I'm pretty sure I left my camera at the guest house in Pretoria. At least I hope I did. So that's great.

Apparently people do actually check my blog from time to time, because a few of you, my precious internet stalkers, have recently gone so far as to point out my lack of bloggery lately.

Apparently being in the US is not conducive to my motivations to write.

Let's see. Its mid June now. What's new...

Dave and I are pretty much all settled in the new place. I was worn down into picking up a HD flat screen and watching the US Open in high def in my own living room was a whole new addiction. So anyway, all settled in means of course that...

Its time to go to Africa again. I leave on Friday. Here's a random string-of-consciousness list of the things I can remember at the moment that need to happen before I leave:

- Do my taxes. This one pretty much has to happen as I'll be in Africa well past my 90 day auto-extension for being out of the country on 4/15.
- Get my passport back from the Ghana consulate along with my visa for said country.
- Get a hotel in Joburg for Fri/Sat nights. This one is kind of important. Rental car too.
- Get malaria medication. This one I'm toying with not doing.
- Balance out all the finances since the move in.
- More address changes.
- My driver's license expires while I'm out of the country (on my 30th birthday, actually) but there's pretty much nothing I can do about that. I finally have to go back to renew it this time. Which means I need to...
- Change my return flight home from NYC to CA in August. Surfing with the bro's is pretty much shot so I'll probably be doing the trip on my own, unless I can find someone cool enough to go.
- Send support letters for my missions week with the youth group in Uganda.
- Book my Kili plans for the week before that. Figure out how I'm getting from Nairobi to Kili and then from there to Entebbe.
- Find a replacement power cord for the video camera.
- Back up the laptop.
- Find a sublettor for my room (please God please make this happen).
- Continue to juggle the work that now fully 3 senior partners are throwing at me like I'm some Business Development slot machine that they can pull the handle on and win every time. I don't mind doing a fair share of work but people are starting to get insane, and nobody will take no for an answer. I AM LEAVING FOR AFRICA.
- Somehow catch up on about a week's worth of planning for my project that I was supposed to have done before leaving, but didn't because of the last item.
- Get Netflix and the cell phone put on hold whilst I'm gone.
- Fill my prescription for the anti-inflammatories for my foot since I won't be able to rehab it in Africa. Somehow it needs to be fixed before climbing Kili. They've given me a really stylish flat-soled orthopedic shoe I have to wear for the next week or so.
- Get the super to come change the lights in our stupid-high ceiling and replace the gate in the backyard (the one going to the basketball court).
- Tell my bank I'll be leaving them if they try to get me with withdrawl charges this time in Africa.
- DO ALL MY EXPENSE RECEIPTS. I'm like a few months and few thousand dollars behind on these freaking things and I need to send them in. Maybe I'll do this one tonight before leaving the office. I'd feel really good to have that one done.
- Pay the gas bill.

As you can see, blogging, personal emails, or really any personal life at all doesn't really make the list right now. It hasn't been all work, however. We did have, in the last month or so:

- The youth group's Father's Day year-end picnic yesterday. There was much razzle dazzle and nobody sliced my face open with a hubcap, so that was nice. It also ended with the tradition throwing of water on people, but Erin started it this time with Gatorade, taking it up a notch.
- Jen's B-day party the night before. Crappy weather but fun hanging with folk.
- Dinner courtesy of Trisha, who won some silent auction, at Django, with her and Holly and various other friends.
- Taught the last two lessons of the year with youth group on Others First.
- Had our housewarming party, which was off the hook. George knows how to get people grooving.
- Finally took the free tango lessons in Chelsea Market.
- Hosted the Arndt's son-in-law when he got sent back from customs in Cape Town w/o getting to leave the airport b/c he didn't have enough pages in his passport. That same weekend was paintball for Libby's birthday and breaking into the HighLine with Aron.
- Lunch with Dave's dad to talk over my schooling options for next year. There's really nothing in the city that matches what I want to do. Its either Boston or LA which is kind of like deciding whether you'd rather have your hands cut off or your feet removed.
- Lots of 8 mile runs up the West Side Highway, my new favorite place to run. Hence the busted foot.
- Caught a show with Mo and Jason and Julie and Amanda and her new BF. Show was some guy Mo knows from college, he was pretty good, and it was good to see everyone.
- Was in Chicago for a week for training, I think I forgot to blog about that. Training was good, made some new friends. Took it a lot easier than we used to at training, for the most part.

I think that's about it. I leave for Lusaka, Zambia (via DC and Johannesburg) on Friday afternoon. Next blog most likely from there.

5:44 AM. Saturday morning. Its still dark, but I'm awake. In 12 hours I'll be leaving SA airspace. The project ended yesterday.

I grab the last orange Fanta out of the fridge and sit down to blog.

Kind of fell off the blogging horse for the last week or so - its been a bit crazy wrapping up the project, saying goodbye to everyone, packing up, juggling the possibility of 3 more months of extension work here (found out last night that its postponed til July, at best), and trying to settle on where I'm living when I get back. On the last one, it looks like NYC, with Dave, for the next year. After that I'm leaning towards re-igniting my seminary search, to start the following year. And I'm leaning towards the idea of a school near the coast, back in CA. Surf, baby.

The last few months kind of reignited the surfing bug, after many years dormant - specifically Mauritius and Cape Town, where I surfed last weekend, whilst staying with Mike and Kayln, and Gawie, who's living with them. They have a sweet ocean-view place on the atlantic side of the Cape - south of CT and only about 10 minutes north of the actual Cape itself. It is, authoritatively, one of the most beautiful spots on the planet. And there's incredible surf there.

So the plan from here is to finish packing, do some last minute shopping / errands, fly back to SF via DC, crash at Peters, and then get up to Sacto one way or another. Thursday I'll fly back to the city and stay at Dave's parents' place while we try to nail down an apartment. Mid May I'll head back to Cali and drive down the Baja coast of Mexico with Jonny and whichever of the other brothers have their affairs in order to join us, for mas surfing. These are my plans. I have no specific work projects lined up. I'd like to find a commuting gig in Europe, I think.

I'll miss the organic yogurt from Woolworths, the good cheap wine, the Zulu/Xhosa-influenced hip hop on the radio, the beautiful blonds, the great pizza, the game parks, the warm Indian Ocean, the early rising / early setting lifestyle, the almost-always perfect weather, the best client I've ever worked with (hands down), the flat-out sexy accents, orange Fanta, rugby on the telly, the favorable exchange rate, incredibly friendly people, and driving a BMW. I'm sure there will be lots of other things that I realize over the next couple of weeks that I will miss, but that's all I can think of at 6 in the morning.

Coming to Africa has been pretty much the coolest part of my life.

(More follow-up blogging on Uganda to follow in the next few days, as I get chances to do so.)

Mauritius.

Have you ever spent an entire week not knowing what time it was?

I have.

I'm on the flight back to Johannesburg and I just asked my exit-row neighbor what the time difference was between Mauritius and Joburg. Turns out its +2 hours (which means we're an hour further east of Baghdad - the MS Windows clock lists +2:00 GMT as "Harare, Pretoria" and +3:00 GMT as Baghdad - which is the same as Kampala, and the rest of Uganda, coincidentally). Turns out that this is the first time in 7 days it became important enough for me to figure that out.

Those of you who are familiar enough with my thoughts on the subject of time will understand the subtle irony and rather expected casual nature of a week without time. It was glorious.

Sans time, I fell into very comfortable patterns. I spent the first two days or so in Grand Baie - a tourist town on the north-west corner of the island, staying in a small B&B of sorts that I found via internet. It was comfortable, and conveniently located next to most of the major commercial stuff, and a short bus ride from incredible snorkeling (most of MRU is surrounded by a continuing coral reef, which makes for the most endless and incredible flat lagoons with little or no current to swim against - hence you might find yourself a couple hundred yards from shore and still an easy swim back). BUT, there was no surfing to be had over the reefs on the northern side of the island, which was my primary goal for the vacation. So once that was deduced I promptly had my host drive me south down the western coast to Flic en Flac, a smallish beach town on the south-western coast. Caught a half-board hotel across the street from the white-sands beach there, and set up operations.

Day 1 (Monday), after dropping my crap in the room, I rented a motorbike and drove to parts further south, finding surfboard rentals in the next town over, the go-to spot for kite-surfing a few towns beyond that, and the most incredible, remote, all but uninhabited white beaches and blue surf beyond that. Beautiful lonesome breakers, some spots with regular 7-10 footers, probably never ridden, but for the fact that there's nobody else out there, and reefs of death should you not ride your wave with sufficient skill. Beautifully fearful.

I spent Tuesday morning refreshing myself on surfing techniques - it had been far too long. The next couple days were a series of chilling on the beach (mostly with Bryson's A Brief History of Nearly Everything, and surfing / snorkeling around F&F. Then it was Friday and I took another motorbike to parts south. It broke down on me, and after a pensive hour and a half on the side of a lonesome road on the southern coast of the island, they showed up with another bike for me, and I shot back north. I spent the afternoon / evening surfing in Tamarind as the sun set behind me. It was the most beautiful sunset I never watched.

Today I woke up and took the bike south again, but this time with the disposable camera (my digital was stolen on my last day in Uganda, at a taxi-stand in Kampala, if I didn't make mention of it yet - it had most of my pictures from the week in northern Uganda on it, but I'm at peace with that, strangely enough). I filled up the camera with pictures of the coast, the greenery, and a couple of myself to prove that I was actually here. Had a hot dog and a last swim across the street from the hotel, then packed and was off to the airport.

I said no more than 3 words to anyone in 7 days who was not either being paid to associate with me (waiters, vendors, hotel staff, taxi drivers, etc.) or attempting to be (namely the annoying jewelry vendors on the beach - no, I don't wear jewelry...no I don't have a girlfriend to buy it for...LEAVE ME ALONE ALREADY...). It was an introvert's dream-come-true. Selfish, in some respects, but 168 straight hours of having no one to utter more than a few terse English words at but yourself? Heavenly.

The island is French-(well, really, Creole) speaking, which helped. Oh, and...note to self: if ever on what you've essentially planned as your honeymoon with your single self (novel idea, I know, but that is what this was), try to pick a slightly less European destination. There were a lot of bear female bosoms here, but only a couple of which were a pleasure to behold (mom would be glad to know). I think perhaps the more practical problem was the fact that I was on an island where so many couples come to escape. Before this plane left the ground, the kindly older lady to my right asked me where my girlfriend was. I politely lied "in the future."

I honestly wonder if I'm the first single American to visit this island - goodness knows I was a rarity in being an American here in the first place.

All in all, good trip. I'll land in JNB in a few hours, where I'll hopefully synch up with Sharon in the airport, and debrief on Uganda - she's very much to thank for that working out.

After that, I'm a resident of ZA for exactly 2 more weeks (literally, my flight to the states leaves the same hour 2 weeks from when this flight is due to touch down). I'll return to somewhere in CA (probably LA but that's TBD right now) for a bit, and then hopefully will be moving into an apartment in the West Village with DK come late April.

Its hard to believe its over. I know I'll be back, but still. Hard to believe.

Uganda will be the subject of blogging this week. Enjoy.

didn't get this up til Sunday night but it was written on the plane yesterday.

In Mauritius.

Uganda was incredible and I'm working on typing up my notes from it. Produced a lot of good stuff.

Surfing during the day and sleeping a lot, for a change, during the night. After about a month of < 4 hours a night, this is a blessing.

Not much easy access to internet here so blogging will probably remain delayed until I return to ZA on Saturday.

Also, it occured to me today as I was sitting on my surfboard off the coast, over some low-surf coral, completely alone, that should something happen to me there wouldn't be many people come looking in a hurry. The thought that kicked off this one was remembering Brian when he took his few weeks of travel by himself at the end of his project - I'd get random text messages telling me where he was and if I didn't hear from him by EOD to alert the authorities. I haven't been doing that with anyone - but then there's not really anyone here to do it with. The surfing (et. al.) here is pretty remote, there simply aren't a lot of people around here, and I'm spending pretty much the whole week playing in the ocean, in some form or another.

So, if people aren't hearing from me by next week, start looking in Flic en Flac. Hotel Manisa.

In LAX. Crazy week. Drove fast a lot.

Off to IAD. Then JNB. Hope to get in with enough time to make it to the evening service at church. Then off to Uganda.

Don't expect to blog much before Mauritius, if even by then.

But I will be writing.

First blog from Mozambique. I think this makes country #8 or something like that over here.

ITS HOT.

Like 31c, and there's more H2O in the air than there is O. Seriously, the humidity here puts Miami to shame.

Saw the Indian Ocean for my first time this morning on my morning run. So, technically, I've seen them all now. It looked wet, and right now the plan is to see it for a week straight come early April, when I'm hoping to head to Mauritius. Also, I was the only white person I saw during my entire morning run, which was interesting. Not as interesting as the truck full of cops in riot gear with AK's, but interesting in its own right.

Maputo's the capital city and its incredibly run-down, the better neighborhoods feel border-line ghetto, at best. The lesser, well - there's nothing in the first world to really compare those to, but that's not particularly new to me. I had higher expectations, but then I didn't do a lot of research on Moz like I had on other countries, for a number of reasons.

Worked in the WV offices here today but the work day ends mad early here. Off to have world-reknown seafood for dinner, then tomorrow we're flying north to a town called Quelimane, where we'll be with field ops for 3 days. Back here for Fri-Sat, back to ZA Sat night.

Also, think I might have pink eye. I almost went in for another Malaria test Sunday morning b/c I've been feeling like crap since Thursday night, but decided to power through it with lots of fluids, so I'm feeling a bit better, but my freaking eye is killing me. Anyone know if its bad to let PE go untreated a few days? Cause I ain't got a lot of options here. I think I'll go try to look that up.

ITS SO HOT.

Didn't get around to more than a couple of things this week, and next week will likely be the same story. Leave for Mozambique for work all week there tomorrow night. They've been getting a ton of flooding so its my first exposure to emergency relief field work, which I'm really looking forward to.

No idea what connectivity will be like there but its safe to expect less blogging next week. Back in ZA next Saturday night if all goes according to plan.

(Retro- blogging. Going to get shorter and sweeter. I'm determined to get caught up and be normal- blogging this trip.)

London.

London was good. I had to go there about a month into my time here in ZA for some training, so I headed up early to spend the weekend before kicking around. So that must have been...let's see. End of September, last year. Holy bovine am I running behind on getting these things blogged.

Anyway, its a long flight from the bottom of the planet up. I was tired. The hotel was near Hyde Park, which was nice.


Met up with Grant and walked south of the park looking for good places for him to live. I told him he should live in one of these old converted carriage houses on this street. He didn't go for it. So we went to a bar and had...


YES. FISH AND CHIPS AND BEER. This made me happy. We were watching the rugby but ZA wasn't playing that weekend. Didn't matter much, I could already sense the impending doom in ye ole kingdom - the Springboks were destined for glory.


I took off for So. Kensington Station and headed over to the Abbey, waterfront, etc.. Ended up walking back through the theater district, most of the way back to my hotel. People like to sit in the middle of the street here.


And why, oh why, won't somebody tell me why don't they have these wonderful blessed delightful brilliant little signs on the escalators in the NYC subway? I can't say how happy these made me, I really can't. Simple pleasures. This is pretty much the only part of the London metro that's better than NY's, however.

Sunday was a beautiful day. After church downtown, right behind the Gurken, with Grant and Jenny, we walked over to a market across the river, apparently its a farmer's market / produce thing during the week, but on weekends its pretty quiet, even at the cool little pub / restaurants that are open there. So, we had another awesome meal of... YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSssssss


Then there was more walking around and seeing the sights. Like, extremely useful stairs, for instance. Also the Tower, London Bridge, the whole other side of the river including the Shakespeare house thing, back over to St. Pete's, down to that circle with the big pillar with the lions at the bottom - right in front of the museum - can't remember then name, then more Hyde park, then back to parts northerly to meet up with Brian and his friends for drinks and dinner. That was a big day.


Also, this sign is awesome.












As is this one.










Also, here's a few more pictures that I don't really have the energy to type anything about at the moment, other than to say that they were taken in London, and the one in the tube station got picked up off my Flickr page (see here) by some magazine that requested to use it in some article, along with one that I took at the South Kens station, so that's cool.

This much I will say about London - I had what is arguably the best 10 minutes of my 2007, as well as not-one-but-two of what I considered the worst 10-minute-experiences of my year as well. So it was a brief trip of some pretty crazy downs and ups. I don't hope to return too soon.

Warnings have been the theme lately. I'm off to Zimbabwe / Zambia this weekend, the first of which took a measure of finangling with the Asset Protection group to get a waiver to actually go there (I'm an asset). From an email with the Global AP guy:

...the restriction remains in place. In fact, tomorrow (12 January) is the launching of the nationwide rally followed on the 23rd by rallies isolated in Harare. We will gain a better understanding of the security environment after tomorrow’s rally and the one on the 23 January.

The main wing of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), led by Morgan Tsvangirai, has announced the launch on 12 January of a nationwide ‘New Zimbabwe Campaign’. The campaign includes plans for 300 rallies to be held in rural and suburban areas in January, as campaigning begins for presidential and parliamentary elections expected to take place in March.

The rallies are planned primarily for rural areas, where support for President Robert Mugabe and his ruling Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) is traditionally strong. However, initial events will be held on 12 January in the Mbare, Glen View and Dzivarasekwa suburbs of the capital Harare and Chitungwiza (19 miles (30km) outside Harare). Rallies in Harare itself are apparently planned for 23 January, though police approval has reportedly yet to be granted. The security forces tend to deal heavy-handedly with opposition gatherings, though Mugabe has recently announced his willingness to open up democratic space, and is unlikely to encourage severe repression as long as ZANU-PF’s continuing – but increasingly fragile – negotiations with the MDC continue. Nonetheless, Control Risks warns that there is a credible risk of clashes in any area where a rally is planned or held.

This also means I'm back on the malaria medication, which I hate. Its called Mefloquine, the brand name for the generic Mefliam. Here's some of the fun stuff it does to people:

Mefloquine may cause psychiatric symptoms in some patients, ranging from anxiety, paranoia and depression to more serious hallucinations and psychotic behavior. In some instances, these symptoms have continued long after mefloquine was stopped, according to reports. Rare cases of suicide and suicidal ideation have been reported, although no causal relationship with mefloquine has been confirmed. To minimize the chances of these adverse events, mefloquine should be avoided in patients with depression or a past history of depression, generalized anxiety disorder, psychosis, including schizophrenia or other psychiatric disturbances.

If psychiatric symptoms such as unexplained anxiety, depression, restlessness or confusion are evident during mefloquine prophylaxis, the medicine must be discontinued and alternative prophylaxis instituted, as these could be prodromal to a more serous neuropsychiatric event.

Also, for good measure, some highlights from the US State Dept. website when registering my trip with the embassy there:

The political, social, economic, and security situations in Zimbabwe are volatile and could deteriorate quickly without warning. In response to growing public protests against deteriorating conditions, the Zimbabwe Government continues to authorize its security forces to suppress all dissent by whatever means deemed necessary. In recent months, political leaders at the highest levels of the Zimbabwean government have condoned the security forces’ use of violence against opponents of the government. The government has defended its right to treat individuals roughly, including those in custody, and has warned of more such actions.

...

As campaigning and preparations for 2008 presidential elections take place, there is an increased potential for political violence, particularly at large rallies or demonstrations. Government security forces have attacked peaceful demonstrations protesting political repression and a deteriorating economic situation. U.S. citizens are strongly urged to avoid all political rallies and demonstrations, or large gatherings of any kind anywhere in Zimbabwe.

...

Crime is a serious problem in Zimbabwe, and is driven by the country's deteriorating economy.

Street crime in Zimbabwe is a serious problem. Americans and other foreigners are perceived to be wealthy and are frequently targeted by criminals who operate in the vicinity of hotels, restaurants, and shopping areas of the major cities and tourist areas such as Victoria Falls. Although the majority of crimes in Zimbabwe are non-violent, perpetrators are generally armed with weapons, which can include firearms. The downtown sector of Harare and its high density residential suburbs are particularly high-crime areas. A number of American visitors have been assaulted or robbed while walking in the town of Victoria Falls, especially after dark.

File under "don't tell mom." Click here to learn a bit more about Zim in pictures. Click here to learn more in words.

Wow. That went fast.

Let's try and recap the holidays, fast forward style.

After work in Denver I was home with the folks in Sacto / Nevada City for about 5 days before heading to LA for work and then the Santa Ynez wine country (found a second white I love in '07 - a viognier, the first being the pinot from Franschoeck) and then Santa Cruz island. Back to NorCal for the Christmas times, then off to NYC via the aforementioned Chicago.


Last Friday was Jason and Julie's wedding which was a whole barrel of monkeys fun. Nice ceremony followed by incredible hors d'oeuvres and a nice dinner with a bunch of the old crew there. Everything seemed to go really well and then they were off on their honeymoon leaving me to house-sit for the week.


The next morning I headed off for DC in a 'stang and managed not to have a run in with the 5-0 for the whole trip. It was Sarah's birthday and there was hiking and bouldering and Irish pubbing and movie-going and burgering and game-playing and game-watching and movie-watching. It was a good, long day. Gretta has grown HUGE since I saw her last, she's so big now.


After church on Sunday Jack and Rebecca cooked a truly awesome fritatta brunch for us with lots of bacon and these cool toast things with tomatoes and goat cheese YUM. And they got me one of my favorite Christmas presents - one I've been wanting ever since I saw it on Rebecca's blog. Also I found out that almost all of Hopper's best pieces are currently being exhibited at the DC Art Museum and my Moleskin with my as-yet-uncompleted sketches sits back in Africa on my desk, useless. Bah.

Once I got back it was already almost New Years Eve. There was like no sleep this past weekend, basically. Had spiced wine at Nicole's pre-party / housewarming thing at the coolest apartment that any of my friends have. That, plus walking around the village this afternoon, pretty much sealed where I want to live when I come back. I love that nabe. Anyway, headed over to Jen's apartment to pre with the Daves and Chris (Negrin's little brother). Then we caught a cab down to the party that Amber and Erin et. al. put together in a loft in Tribeca. Had the bitterest, angriest cabbie ever. The party was good, saw a couple old faces, met some new ones, all of a sudden it was midnight and soon after we shot out of there for the bars, ended up in the West Village (where else) at some bar I had never noticed there before, even though it was on Hudson. I turned into a pumpkin a couple hours later and headed home. Hoboken was, as expected, insane.

New Years day I watched a lot of football, then headed over to Dave's folks place to help them clean up Christmas leftovers, his mom makes the tenderest turkey ever. Caught up with his parents and Jon and Ann Marie, then Dave and I saw Sweeny Todd, which was more gory than Sin City, I'm pretty sure. But the musical parts were actually quite nice.

This week has been catching up on sleep, cleaning up the various computers and discs etc. in preparation for the great back-up of '08 (I ponied up for a 1.5 terabyte - having officially left the realm of GB - when I was back in CA. Merry Christmas to me.), which begins shortly, when I stop procrastinating.

Today started my social-catch-up with the NYC folk who I didn't connect with yet, brunch with Nicole and then dinner with the guys at Arthur's tonight, which will be exceedingly fattening. I think I have lunch tomorrow with someone but can't remember who, and then dinner with Bo. Then more people and meals and hopefully catching a showing of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly at the Angelika - one of my favorite cinematographers ever. Sunday will be church and youth group and seeing all the kids again, plus meeting the newer leaders. Monday I'm at the Cookes' but might hit the office, then I think its either Tues or Weds I'm back to good ol' Zed A.

So that's what I've been doing. Should be returning to more frequent blogging shortly, including more retro-blogging, also story time, as well as my inaugural annual list of things I didn't get for Christmas (hint, hint, birthday present buyers).