Anyways, I thought that I would post this to give the semblance that I'm not yet dead . . . and am going to be picking up on my mood music choices (since I've made a lot of progress on my playlist and have so much to write) and well . . . I don't know . . . maybe this year I'll write another diatribe about how the holiday Thanksgiving, is another silent reminder of how the white man is keeping the red man down . . . really, it's all about suppression, man.
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Brown Bag Sack Lunches and the White Man Keeping the Red Man Down: What I've Been Surviving on for Weeks and Chewing on With My Thoughts.
I feel like I should've have written something between this post and my last, however, I haven't had the time . . . ah, yeah, I haven't had the time. Naturally, of course, I'm beginning to hate that little factoid about my life (the whole no time thing) but I'm dealing . . . yeah, dealing. I'm sleeping finally, though . . . I don't know if you remember those long stints of two-hour sleeps I was going through earlier in the year but, those are over . . . and on another note, I'm getting to chow down on a lot of premade, John-approved, brown bag, sack lunches (woot). In another note, I realize that I haven't yet posted the pictures of John and I in Alaska (too bad for you) but I will, eventually . . . whenever I have the thought to . . . yeah, I'll get to it.
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4 comments:
Always wanted to go to Alaska. I love watching "Deadliest Catch" about the crab fisherman in the Bearing Sea.
Do you mean John actually packs you a lunch? Are you kidding me? You're lucky! :-) I have to fend for myself during fishing season.
Anyway, we head out to Africa on January 10th and will install 33 of those simple drip irrigation kits while there. My Son Ted is coming along this year. His first trip back to Africa since we moved home. He is excited, but has no idea how much work he has ahead of him. We will be in the second poorest country in the world. Some for these people live on less than 1$ a day.
Anyway, just checking in on your blog.
God Bless
Andy
Hello!
It makes me feel like kid sometimes, but yeah, John packs me a lunch. He really likes doing it, because it allows him it get creative with his entrees . . . and naturally I allow it, because well, otherwise I'd be stuck in office getting lunch from a vending machine.
You're going bakc to Africa? and it's not that far away . . . well, I hope you and your son enjoy it. It must be great being able to go somewhere and make such an impact. What country wil you be travelling to? I've been to northern Africa before, Morocco and Algeria, but other than tthose places, I don't know much about Africa.
Anyways good luck!
Eve,
Hi Eve
You have been around in travel as well. So what took you to Morocco and Algeria?
I never get any time to actually get to "Vacation" or see any touristy things in the countries I work in (Mali, Burkina & Ivory Coast)It's straight to the bush and work work work. I see the rural life of the counties, not the modern scenes and tourist sights.
We will be in Cote D'Ivoire all of January. We work about 240 Km north of the captial - into the interior, along eastern border region. From a small town called Abengourou we launch into the forests 50-100 km south of there, Then in Feb we overland about 700-800 km North into South Eastern Burkina Faso. That will be a tough trip as the transport is not good along the eastern borders of either country. However, we want to avoid the normal route that passes through the town and region of Bouake in Ivory Coast. It was a bad place before the coup. And I am just not going to risk it with a son in tow. 20 Minutes can change anything. And I was locked down in 2004 I was the only Canadian left in the country they could not e-vac. Anyway, the poeple I where with are cool headed
and all road (Central and rural) where locked down. I was better off staying put as I would have been in more risk trying to get to a place to connect with the troops than I was in the bush. Anyway after things calmed down I did hook up with a small private charter flight out - with the ambassador of Iran - NO kidding. Had to haggle for a 50% reduced price for the flight as well, as that was all the cash I had, and the Banks etc where still all closed, commercial flights here still suspended for 4 weeks at that time.
Anyway,It's all about money and corruption. HE who wins gets it all. The poor still die.
Anyway, what we do and where we work is far form the beaten path and no luxury hotels for We stay with the village people. Quite exhausting at times. But we enjoy what we do. Especially looking forward to the irrigation project after the church planting training stuff. In Southern Burkina, these people live on less than 1$ a day and try to live of a 4 month growing season. These simple supplies will enable them to grow all year round. Anyway,my dream is to do a holistic project in the near future. 2000 Family unit project where we install 2000 Irrigation systems (The supplies for a garden are next to nothing)
do a Malaria "Spread the Net" campaign and see that all families use Bed nets, And of course the spiritual component as well. With that will be a literacy program to teach them how to read and write their own oral language so they can begin to record their own history and story in their own language.Anyway, it will require to 6 month trips over 2 years to accomplish. However, it is only about a $50,000 project total for 2000 homes. Peanuts really. Hard to beleive that every time O got to Burger King with the kids I'm choosing to not feed a family for a month if I handed them the cash. Or for the same price set up a family with an irrigation that will enable them to feed themselves 360Days a year. Anyway such is the load we carry in our minds at times. But we live very simply and hour new home is modest. We do what we can there. I have used 100% of my vacation time in Africa for these purposes since we moved home in 2000, and would not trade one day.
Sorry to sound so "heavy Hearted" but I do get rather "serious" and tunnel vision focused, about this time before every trip.
Have to run. Merry Christmas- just in case I don't happen to wander back for a "Cheerio" :-) Don't need any Bananas will have lots of those around me the next while.
When are you heading over to France?
God Bless
Hello,
Your trip sounds like its going to be . . . intense . . . but fruitful I suppose. Back when I was 20, I was going to take time off from school (and everything else) to join the Peace Corps in the Congo, for some reason or the other I opted to not, which I still regret. However, I suppose some good did come out of it, it allowed me to instead take a two year internship in Austria, to get some 'experience' under my belt . . . and it was during this period that I was able to travel so frequently to places like Morocco and Algeria.
I'm leaving for France over the summer . . . at the end of May (I haven't exactly figured out all the travel plans yet). I'm hoping that I will be able to relax a little bit while I'm there and see the countryside a little. I'm going for my doctoral research and staying for 3 months, so it's hard to say whether or not I'll be able to relax. My French is still terrible . . . but I'm hoping it improves by then.
Anyways, Merry Christmas as well (just in case) and enjoy the holiday season.
-Eve
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