Coming home...
Well as some of you knew, I was only going for a year, August 2009 to
August 2010. That time was for Ben to spend some time with Loren and
learn about where his dad comes from, and it was for Loren and I to
spend some time together as well. I booked my tickets last year, in
early May and you can only book 330 days in advance so even though I
can stay for a year, the latest date I could book was end of March. So
of course it's getting close to the time when I would have to decide
if I wanted to stay longer, and if so, how much longer.
Loren is heading to Central African Republic next week which I knew
was going to happen at some point during our stay. He originally had a
6 week contract and they have now added 2 months on to it, so he'll be
back end of April for 10 days but then heads back again until early
July. That's a big chunk of time away. So we talked about what we
wanted to do and we decided that Ben and I would stay longer. I was
mostly concerned about whether or not to change my tickets since that
would cost about $500 plus whatever fare increase there was. We also
decided Ben would benefit from going back to Canada for the summer
(July is a particularly unpleasant month here with lots of
thunderstorms and heavy rains). So we're coming home at the end of
June (arriving 4pm Thurs June 24 in Toronto – I fly back to Burkina on
Sunday July 18th). I get 4 weeks off so I will be returning to Burkina
mid-July but Ben will stay until some time in August. So the title of
this post was a little misleading. We are coming home, but for a
visit.
We haven't set a timeline for how much longer yet but I will again
have to be thinking about it around October as my sabbatical expires
November 17th and I have to decide if I am going to return to the
government. My thinking right now is that I definitely would not
return to my old job (they haven't filled it yet), but I don't know
that I would leave the public service entirely. I had several offers
on the table when I left, a few in government working for people that
would be interesting to learn from, a few in the private and
non-governmental sectors. I figure my current experience will make me
just that much more saleable, with the added responsibilities.
Ben's doing well at school but he's bored. For the fundamentals, he's
doing more than he would have in Canada but they don't have a very
good balance. The science is almost totally lacking, as is art and
music. At least he's getting a whole lot more exercise than he was,
he's like a string bean, long and lanky, and all muscle. He rides his
bike (Loren and I got him one for Christmas) and plays soccer every
day. He's outside running around for a minimum of 2 hours every day.
At night we read, or talk, or play games like Monopoly or Scrabble. On
the rare occasion, we watch a movie or play video games on the
computer. There's a whole lot less computer time than there was and we
are down to one movie every other week!
I've largely healed from the accident although I'm still having a few
problems due to my shoulders and my broken rib - sit ups and pushups
are definitely out. I've unfortunately gained some weight (and lost
muscle) so feeling a little pudgy but it will come off again as I get
back into my routines.
Work is going okay. It's still pretty stressful with all the stuff to
learn and the staff are not making it much easier. They aren't really
the kind to take their own initiative, in fact if I'm not watching,
they'll sit around and do nothing, not even the stuff I gave them to
do. I'm having to learn all the taxes (9 kinds of taxes!), labour
laws, English and French accounting practices, international
importation and exportation procedures, as well as all the products,
their uses, selling and getting to know the clients – much of it in
French, as well as all the cultural things both in Burkina and in
Ghana. My head feels pretty full lately, actually over my head but I
figured it would take me a good 6 months to feel comfortable – maybe a
whole year! We have a new GM with an accounting background starting.
He's been a GM at a large logistics company so we are hoping for a big
turnaround in the company. It's reached critical mass and needs to get
more of the right people in.
Anyway, that's the deal. I know a lot of people who won't be terribly
happy that we're staying but the next few months I think will be
fairly telling. If you can handle hot season in Burkina, you can
probably handle anything. We didn't get much of a Harmattan or winter
and we jumped into hot season about a month early. It was 45 deg C
when I arrived back from my trip to Ghana on Wed March 4. Hoping for
some early rains as we have daily power outs (it was from 6pm til 9:30
pm tonight!) and will likely have some water shortages soon too.
So that's the word for the moment. I'm hoping to catch up with a lot
of people so I'll post more about when I'll be in what cities. I am
tentatively thinking (this is VERY tentative)
• Ottawa June 25 to July 1,
• Toronto and Niagara July 1 to July 5,
• Guelph July 5 to July 12,
• Ottawa again July 12 to 16 and
• Toronto July 17 and 18, when I fly out at 7pm.
See you then
