I was just writing to an old friend who found me on LinkedIn. I met Lisa on a trip to Europe in 1994 - she was a travel agent at the time, from Australia, and we kept in touch over the years. The last I heard from here she was driving dump trucks for a mining company in Aus. I can't even remember when that was. Anyway, I remembered I had this blog since I seem to have forgotten about it since then. Actually life has been so hectic since then, it's only recently I've had time to slow down anyway.

 

Backing the story up, back to April when I last wrote: Ben and I went to France for 2 weeks, we met my mom there. We had a fantastic trip altho, as per my usual I packed too much in and we were beat by the end of it. Having no real idea what Ben would have liked to see, I didn't know how much time to put in where. We didn't have a lot of flexibility partially because my mom likes to have a fixed agenda. We bought a rail pass for flexibility but she wanted to make reservations anyway! Turned out to be a good thing because it was Easter vacation for france and the one trip we didn't reserve was full so we had to buy tickets anyway.

 

While we were away, more groups got on the "shooting in the air" bandwagon, including the municipal police, the customs agents and others. Was just as glad to miss out on that. When we came back in May there was another rebellion in Bobo which was much worse. We saw the troups leave Ouaga and were concerned - we didn't know if they were going to help or to fight. Turns out they went to control the situation - it was an all out for 3 days in that city. The rebels were actually going into people's homes and stealing, as well as dragging women out into the street to rape them. The Ouaga squads surrounded the garrison and took over - anyone who fought them were killed, anyone who was missing from the garrison at the end of the day was hunted down. They say all the weapons were recovered but I'm not so sure. At the end, across the country, over 600 soldiers (no officers) were court-marshalled, some 123 put in prison and about 50 were executed. Some officers were demoted for lack of controll of their troups. The actual death toll of non-military was about 6, a couple were children hit by stray bullets.

 

It's been quiet since then but not forgotten. For Dwahli (spelling), some Indians here had a party and were setting off fireworks. Not knowing what it was, several bars shut their doors and sent everyone home. There is still a strong sense of mistrust for the military and really this is far from over. I expect we'll see some form of rebellion again soon, if not from the military. The student uprising of last Feb was also appeased as the police who were responsible for the death of that student were given 15 years in jail. Justice seems to have been served, but we'll see. We get to relive the shooting regularly as the mosque near my house apparently was recording their call to prayers on the day of the shooting so the mueszzin now blares out "Allah Akbar" (described to me as meaning God is very big) with the sound of shots being fired in the background. Fitting in some respects.

 

Benny was in Canada July and August, I decided to stay here for a variety of reasons including that I was completely exhausted. July was insane as Steve my boss was here the whole month and again stood me on my head. Although he brought me another expat, Dave, which has since made my life and my job SO much easier. I again have confidence that the technical side is being taken care of. Andrews was just way too busy. We're slowly getting there. I managed to get all our outstanding accounts to 60 days and under.

 

August Loren came home from his job in Fada, for which I am very grateful. He got sick with a liver problem and was home a lot. Then I got sick early Oct - malaria, typhoid fever and a lung infection, and was off for a week. It actually took several weeks to recover as the medication I was on gave me an allergic reaction and horrible headaches. I got more meds that made me stoned and gave me more allergic reactions. I'm really just starting to feel normal this past week. I don't remember feeling that horrible in a long time. I wanted to cut my head off! I can definitely feel for people who have chronic pain - I can't imagine wanting to live with that!

 

We are coming home at Christmas. Derek and Myriam are currently in Canada - Myriam managed to convince Derek that it was important for his children, if not for him, to know their family in Canada. And by some miracle he agreed. I equally said to Loren that I would really like him to meet my family and friends. He couldn't do the same time as Derek, so he chose Dec/Jan as the time to go. Again miracles do happen. So we're in Vancouver Dec 11 - 16, Regina Dec 16 - 21, Winnipeg Dec 22, Toronto Dec 23, Ottawa Dec 24 - Jan 6, Guelph/NF/Toronto Jan 7 to 14. Whirlwind I know. Guaranteed I'll be exhausted when we come back. My cousin is coming back with us and staying for 2 weeks as she promised Ben that she would come for his birthday. So we'll do Nazinga one weekend and we'll see what else we can fit in.

 

I have renewed my contract with Steve/HGS. It's a 2 year contract, but we'll see. Things are going well and I have a series of projects to accomplish to get us into steady state. We'll see where things go from there. Yes for those of you that are better in math than I am, that makes 4 years, not a 1-year sabbatical. Given the political situation in Canada and the US, I see no point in returning to the government. And although I have all these new found skills as an office manager, these are Africa quality skills and are only so transferable to the Western world where running by the seat of your pants is generally frowned upon. I mean if I just put it on my resume it would look really good. Within 2 years took an exisiting business of about $250k US per year with 2 remotely managed employees to $1.5M per year with 17 locally-managed employees; developed and implemented all procedures including accounting, importations, stock and inventory, training/evaluation/performance. Well, almost anyway, that's the next project is to get all of that written down. That and our first audit. I've learned a lot and done a lot, I mean when I compare beginning to end, it just doesn't feel like I'm anymore knowledgeable! And I still feel like I'm going by the seat of my pants!

 

I think that is the real next thing to learn - how to stay on when things go into steady state. I've always been a projects person, I stay for the project and then hand it over. So it will be interesting to see when I get to steady state, if I will stay or if I will get itchy feet and want to move on to the next thing to learn. Then again I was thinking perhaps it might be useful to get some of the education that normally goes with the position I hold, like an MBA or some thing. We'll see - I just bought MBA for Dummies as an ebook. we'll see if that helps LOL.