I've been here a week or so and am starting to settle in a bit. I guess I didn't feel like getting cozy since we're still at the Lodge and will be moving to our own house this week. It needs a bit of work still but it's a nice big space both the main room (kitchen/DR) and bedroom which has a kingsize bed in it. I'll send pics when we actually get in there. There is some part of me that still hasn't quite figured out I'm here yet, not sure why. Maybe because I don't have a clear plan at the moment.
As for work, I finally feel like I'm in the right time zone and now just need to get used to getting up at 6am - I go in with Loren on moto as the Lodge is a good 15min walk from the office and he has a 7am meeting. The house will be "roll out of bed, fall into the office" so I can get up at 7:15, have coffee and be on time. (7:30). We work til 12 or 12:30, have 1 hour for lunch and then work til 3:30 or until you're finished.
Mostly I've been reading the Business Plan, the Programme plan as outlined by the consultant and trying to figure out what is expected of me. The Director of Admin and Finance (DAF) arrives in a few days so we'll finalize my contract and get all the key performance indicators (KPIs) developed then. Right now I am just reading, asking questions and listening to Loren and others about what's going on. It's a lot so will take awhile to learn how the place works, all the players etc. Although my job doesn't really have much to do with it, I had them add a line to my job description - "any other responsibilities that correspond with experience including Coaching". With it as part of my job description, any coaching I do can be done for free and it will be counted towards my hours towards my next level of certification. I need 300 hours - in 2 years, I could theoretically complete them. I will be discussing with him adding an annual ticket for Ben to come visit as well.
I've met some incredible people - one woman in particular - Sara is American and her husband Naphthali (American/Dutch) are really fun, and extremely interesting. I can see we could be lifelong friends. Another couple Kate (from Zimbabwe) and Ben (American) just left on break but will be back in a month. There is a Belgian guy, Mattias who is SO much like Peter Van Dingenan from Ouaga, it's crazy. He is a very lovely person. There is Thierry and Stephanie who I know from Ouaga and who I work for which will be interesting. Stephanie is lovely and sweet but our way of thinking is quite different. There are a lot of different personalities and the work is really high pressure but people help each other out and most are quite passionate about their work - just sometimes people see only their own goals and forget that we all have a common one. There are the divisions of French/English, military vs community development, expat vs local, educated local vs uneducated local or local from here vs local from Kinshasa which is far enough away to be another country. I understand that about 40% of the population of DRC lives in the capital which is crazy for a country of this size (2.35 million km2 - 1/4 of Canada or 10 times Burkina). The park itself is 5000 km2 but with all the hunting areas and the buffer zone, it's actually about 35 000 km 2.
It is absolute paradise here (I've been told I'm still in the honeymoon phase - that the feeling will wear off - it was said that this is the most beautiful prison in the world as you can't really go anywhere). The green, the river, the house we'll be living in. There are LOT of bugs however I'm sure I'll get used to that - I got used to cockroaches etc in Ouaga. Just they have really big spiders and lots of them because it's so wet here as well as these crazy big beetles. One guy had his house over run with ants one night and then they all disappeared the next morning. Just regular ants thankfully not army or black ants.
We do have to be careful of the wildlife. Mostly hippos, when driving at night. Mostly we just hear them "laughing". There are other animals to watch for: Loren saw a leopard near the Lodge one morning and we heard lions not too far from camp - but they aren't likely to be much to worry about. I saw a baby hippo with it's mommy. It was about the height of one of our dogs- except really fat.
We get $500USD per month each towards food. Loren, living in the Lodge, eating 3 meals a day and having drinks never used his $500 last month. I figure we'll just make breakfast and lunch at home and eat dinner at the lodge. Sara likes to cook so I said she can come over any time to cook (she's a vegetarian though). The food is decent altho there isn't a huge amount of variety. They do a lot of fish which is great as I don't ever prepare fish myself. It's a bit short on vegetables but we're working on it as a group. Sara is also half Italian so we're working on how to get fresh pasta made locally too. Cheese is hard to get here, even though there is a local cheese but it's not hard to import from Uganda. Uganda has everything.
I want to get a bicycle for touring around. Loren thinks I need a motorcycle which would be safer at night but I think a bike would be better - we'll see.
