Scotland the Brave

I left Sri Lanka on August 20 and headed to London for a final debrief from Merlin (at which I rather spoke my mind). In London I also arranged my Afghan visa and had a wonderful dinner with friends and then a very comfortable overnight train ride on the Caladonian Sleeper to Dunkeld, Scotland.

I had a FANTASTIC (but ridiculously short) holiday in Scotland. I recommend the comfort and luxury of the Ardeonaig Hotel and Restaurant.



Ben Lawers (a Munroe and the ninth highest hill in both Scotland and the entire British Isles) across Loch Tay.



Sue at the Ardeonaig Hotel



knapweed



Killin


Sue and I visited Fortingall to gaze at a tree which is variously described as Europe's or the world's oldest living thing, dated variously at over 2,000, 3,500, or 5,000 years old. (Google it, the way I did.)



Sue and me (yes, Candace, that is the correct grammer) in front of the Fortingall Yew



The beautiful Falls of Dochart at Killin


We climbed part way up the hill behind the hotel and I discovered something I'd suspected since walking across the island of Rhum in June: In Scotland there is no law of physics that requires bogs to be level. Scottish bogs can exist quite happily on slopes of at least 45 degrees.


Fellow hill climber

We got to about 560m, hardly more than half way to Munroe level (3000'). When I bag my first Munroe, you will hear all about it. Loudly. Make no mistake about this.

Like 1.7 million other people, Sue and I also attended the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The highlights were 'The Man Who Planted Trees' and 'Basic Training' by Kahlil Ashanti (future website here) - two wonderful (but totally different) productions.

My Scottish holiday was far too short. I was off next to see Dad in Ottawa. I'd have liked to have had more time but potential employers all seemed to want either someone else, or me 'tomorrow'. I've learned a lesson and won't allow myself to be rushed next time.

Back from holiday and resignation from Merlin Sri Lanka

Some sort of Scottish bird


Falkirk Wheel


I'm back from an awesome holiday with Sue in Scotland and (briefly) Amsterdam. Because a squirrel broke my camera before I left Sri Lanka I had to hire a new one which wasn't cheap but there were so many photo opportunities (particularly of birds) that I have no regrets.

As I mentioned in my last post I've resigned my job with Merlin Sri Lanka - mainly because I want to work somewhere with even greater needs. Watch this blog for updates.

Thanks to everybody who has complimented me on this blog! Please feel free to submit comments.

Nattering on about leaving Buchanan

Near Hargeisa, Somaliland, March 2003


Sorry, it has been about a month since my last entry - but that time went very quickly for me. I've been very very busy at work and there have now been a few developments.

The newest is that I've decided that I wouldn't accept any renewal offer with Merlin in Liberia. It's nothing against Merlin - I've applied for several Merlin jobs in other countries (and a few non-Merlin jobs). I've had two good-feeling interviews for a similar job in Darfur and tomorrow morning I'll have an interview for an equivalent to my current job in Sri Lanka.

In order to impress Islamic Aid (apparently unsuccessfully) for a photographer position I posted this portfolio of some of my developing country shots. (I've used a few on my blog pages.)

I will probably leave Liberia on December 6. First I'll go to London for debriefing and then some visiting. Dad and I are talking about going to Malta for Christmas. Then I'll come back to Canada and even the States for a little bit... I'm telling prospective employers that I'll be available in mid-January. (Any prospective employers out there?)

Hey! I'm not able to see many good movies here - in fact very few at all because I don't buy pirated DVDs - but my friend Nienke wrote so effusively about Code Inconnu that I had it sent by Amazon. Though it's directed by Michael Haneke it reminds me so much of films by my favorite director, Atom Egoyan. Lots of long sequence shots. Loved it. Thanks Nienke!

Access to health care

Srinagar, Indian-Administered Kashmir,
October 2005

I'm back from three nice nights in Monrovia, where we can stay in very nice apartments with HOT WATER! On the way there we stopped at one of our clinics where a woman was in labor distress and needed to be transported to the Liberian Government Hospital in Buchanan. The clinic had stopped a few cars but the drivers had demanded 400 Liberian Dollars (US$8.16) and the woman's family couldn't afford it.

We radioed for a Merlin vehicle heading back to Monrovia to take the woman but by incredible luck a Medecins sans frontieres car came by with Dr. Jochan. He delivered the baby but it had died.

This could almost certainly have been prevented. It was her second pregnancy and second loss. Better health education and the option for family planning would probably have helped. Better access from rural areas to the clinics (she had had to walk to the clinic) would also have helped. An ambulance system that could be dispatched to the clinic could or her home would probably have saved the baby's life. Actually we expect to be able to put an ambulance in place, thanks to an anonymous donor, but the attitude of Liberians who wouldn't even take her to the hospital is always going to be a stumbling block.

Hospital pump and reading

Lori, April 3, 2002

It's the first of the month which means we're in the middle of a lot of accounting and project reporting here at Merlin Buchanan. In the midst of this the water pump at the hospital we support (the Liberian Government Hospital here in Buchanan) failed again yesterday... sigh... this undoubtedly mean another dip into our already hemorrhaging hospital maintenance budget...

Last night I finished re-reading Mordecai Richler's Solomon Gursky was here, which I highly recommend.

It was particularly interesting to note which features and passages I remembered from my first reading, which was sometime before 2001.

I list what I've read in 2006 here. (Start here for other years.)

Sierra Leone, Elamma

Lumley Beach, Freetown, Sierra Leone
March 26, 2006


Goodness! I only wrote one entry in March - and none in the first two weeks of April. The main reason is that I've been very very very very busy at work. I have had two brief respites though. The first was a nice long weekend in Sierra Leone... the main relaxation indicator being that I read three books in four days, and one a le Carré at that. (By the way I list what I've read here.)

Elamma Varughese
April 9, 2006

The other nice break was an afternoon trip with my dear friend Elamma to a waterfall at the rubber plantation last weekend.

In other news Merlin, in an uncharacteristic lack of recruiting wisdom have offered to renew my contract until December 30. And I very cautiously predict that I am going to have a bit more time in the next few weeks to post new blog entries. If that turns out to be untrue I might edit that sentence out...

Things I've learned since taking on this job:

• Accountancy can be interesting after all


• Management is a skill and an art never to be belittled


• There's no substitute for not maintaining an up to date to-do list


• Attending your work appraisal, taking notes on the understanding that you are to type them up for submission to the boss, but then losing them is not generally advised.

Kittens growing so fast

'Bravo Zero' with (left to right) 'Bravo Zero-One, Two or Three', 'Bravo Zero-Two, Three or One', 'Bravo Zero Four', and 'Bravo Zero Three, One or Two'.


'Bravo Zero Four'

I'm sure I seem like one of those people who are besotted with their cats at the expense of a good grip on reality. Well - I am. Our kitties are now three weeks old (where did the time go?) and totally adorable. My colleagues have come to grasp that when they kick and fling them I will scream. They (the kitties, not the colleagues) are shown above on their first day of scrambling outside the box. Their box has been placed in the dining room cupboard where 'Bravo Zero' took three of the kittens after about a week of putting up with their roommate's (that's me) snoring. She had left the spotty one - 'Bravo Zero Four', known from photographic monitoring to have been born last - squeeling in my room. Thus it's the one I've become most attached to. I'm glad our friend Kathleen has chosen one of the tabbies (I can't tell them apart) for her allocation instead of 'Four'.

I lost an argument with my boss Sophia the other day. Sorry - this is still about cats. Her cat 'Tarzane' just delivered four completely different-looking (but all adorable) kitties. (Her delivery room was inside their Sofa Bed - Tarzane ripped an entrance hatch and made a nest right in the underframe.) Sophia claimed that cats can have kitties in one litter that have differnt sires. Rediculous, I claimed, and went straight the net to prove my point. Well, it was me who was wrong. I learned that cats, dogs and rabbits can exhibit this superfecundity - and then I learned from my colleage Dr. Simon (who is an obstetrician) that humans can too!! Furthermore, cats can also exhibit superfetation - overlapping separate pregnancies. That's it - Bravo Zero is never being allowed out of the house again. Even though she is supposed to be patrolling for rats and snakes. At least the appearances of her litter suggests that she's only half the shameless tramp that Tarzane is.

In other news - the last few weeks have been extremely busy and stressful but rather successful. We've got assurances of funding for our clinics (from the Irish government) and for our hospital (from the European Union) for 2006 and we're very relieved. My colleagues and I (both here in Buchanan and in Monrovia) worked very hard on final reports and new project proposals but it was all very well worth it.

So since my last entry I've become a bit of a cat litter matron and a bit more of a Project Coordinator. But I've still got a lot to learn about both.

I'm going to Sierra Leone for a short R&R on Thursday.

2005 wrap up

Kitchen department, Liberian Government Hospital, Buchanan, Liberia

December 31, 2005

Best wishes for a wonderful 2006 to any readers out there.

I'm writing this at 10:13pm on New Year's Eve and I think I'll be too tired to stay awake until midnight.

What an amazing year I've had. In these 12 seemingly brief months I took a mere 60 flights, visiting eight new countries (Brazil, Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia, Ireland, India, Nepal and Liberia, bringing my official country total to 40), riding overnight trains in India, Canada and the US, and setting foot on five continents. I finished one job (working for the Survey Action Center in Afghanistan), started and finished another (with Oxfam in Afghanistan) and begun a third (with Merlin in Liberia).

Amongst my adventures were the following (not quite chronologically):

• Leaving Afghanistan on Business class, drinking Turkish coffee in Istanbul - and then finding myself back in Kabul six weeks later;


• Dancing until dawn in Itajuba, Brazil during Carnaval;


• Being spied on by monkeys with Jenny on the Pao De Acucar in Rio de Janeiro;


• Riding an elephant through the jungles of western Thailand after rafting through gorges, jumping off waterfalls, and enjoing welcome serenity in an eco lodge;


• Learning to Scuba diving at Koh Chang, Thailand;


• Taking my most comfortable (yet affordable) overnight train trips ever (Bangkok to Chang Mai) in Thailand;


• Climbing and pondering the incredible monastery at Angkor Wat, Cambodia;


• Swearing yet again that I'd attended my last Formula 1 Grand Prix (this time in Malaysia);


• Gazing up (from valley floors) and down (from tiny aircraft) at the most beautiful country (Afghanistan) I've ever seen;


• Being given an improbably large number of interpretations of whether or not the Holy Koran permits alcohol consumption;


• Being told (before takeoff from Yawkalang airfield above 8'000 feet in the Central Highlands of Afghanistan) that we would make an immediate right-turn because otherwise "if one of the engines fails we'll hit that hill...";


• Being the only person to follow Blue Rodeo around all twelve of their UK tour gigs - and in so doing drinking Guinness with some of them until long after their Bambridge show, being played 'Lost Together' for my personal loyalty in Leeds, and bar hopping with some of them and their most wonderful fans in Dublin;


• Continuing the process of falling in love with Scotland;


• Realizing that the Kings Cross bomb exploded 48 hours to the minute after I'd been there;


• Visiting the incredible Taj Mahal but also the arguably more wonderful nearby Agra Fort;


• Being required by kidnapping threats to ride cars from within and between walled compounds in Kabul;


• Emerging from an ultra-modern cinema in Delhi into a darkened shopping precinct and bumping into a very dark and sacred cow;


• Feeling a gentle swaying of the ground in Kabul - then flying to Delhi before learning that it had been a devastating earthquake in Kashmir;


• Reaching out to hold hands with friends - riding in a separate speeding auto rickshaw weaving in and out of Delhi traffic;


• Discovering truly wonderful restaurants in Delhi that would star even if I hadn't just emerged from Afghanistan;


• Relaxing on a houseboat in Srinagar - then while at 10,050' in Indian-administered Kashmir being hailed by my tour guide from western Thailand;


• Wallowing in the friendliness and extreme comfort of Kathmandu;


• Feasting at American Thanksgiving (with great friends old and new);


• Confirming once and for all that I'm too old to sleep on transcontinental railways without a bed;


• Not sleeping in one bed for more than five consecutive nights between October 8 and December 25 (as I've already moaned);


• Requiring the services of an English <> English translator in Liberia;


• Beginning my potentially most rewarding and meaningful job ever.
  

Above all meeting lots of people in lots of countries, almost all of whom are immeasurably more gentle than their governments, and meeting and revisiting many wonderful and very very special friends (in one or two cases, quite unexpectedly). Almost my only regret in 2005 was that I couldn't go to see all the rest of my friends. You're all welcome to come and visit me in Liberia!!

Happy New Year.

Christmas in Monrovia

Merlin residence, Liberia, Monrovia

December 24, 2005

Merry Christmas from Monrovia, capital of Liberia!

This is going to be a rather lonely Christmas for me - symbolized quite well by the tree where I'm staying. On the other hand I'm looking forward to two days of peace and quiet. I've had a very good two weeks working on mapping and data collection with three colleagues from England and I'll miss them but I'm also glad to be able to turn my attention to my upcoming responsibilities. And what a contrast they are to those of my previous job where very little I suggested was accepted and implemented. There I could not procure paperclips - now (and this is after being transferred from Harper, where I've never even been, to Buchanan) I'm responsible for two projects employing about 38 actual staff and over 200 more subsidized by Merlin, and having a combined annual budget of over 1.4 million US dollars.

I'm looking forward very much to actually moving to Buchanan, which I'll do on Tuesday. I've already been there twice (and when I went the first time I didn't know that that was where I would be stationed) but Tuesday will be my first chance since OCTOBER 8 to completely unpack my bags and settle somewhere where I'll remain longer than five days.

Next few days in Liberia

Beach at Monrovia

December 10, 2005

Sitting on a veranda at 'London' - the main Merlin residence in Monrovia - reflecting on a very good but very surreal week since my last entry. OK, since typing that sentence I've fled to a different veranda because colleagues Andrew and Deston are having a meeting up there (it's SUNDAY for goodness sakes - and Sundays are our only days off) and because it was too bright to see my screen. Now I'm only disturbed by noisy Colin the cockerel, who doesn't know how close he is to a filling out a nice casserole. Maybe I can scare him away with Bizet's Carmen?

Surreal enough for you yet?

On Tuesday afternoon seven of us squeezed into a LandCruiser and set off on the 'two and a half' hour drive to Buchanan (further east along the coast). We got there six and a half hours later. I rode on the floor at the back and I think I was the most comfortable amongst us. Four staff sat across the back seat - I couldn't have coped with that. Amongst my failings as an aid worker are claustrophobia and the related abhorrence of personal-space invasions. (Other failings include my resistance to various staple vegetables and to tea.)

The first halt was called at the Firestone rubber plantation's grocery store. Firestone operated in Liberia continuously throughout the war - as did the breweries. (I have yet to get any satisfactory pictures of their plant or plantation but it's on my to-do list.) We also had very fruitful stops at a couple of Merlin's Public Health Clinics en route. This was my first exposure to what we actually do here - health care provision. The staff were extremely helpful and dedicated and I took it as a very good sign of things to come in my job.

Bokey Town Clinic staff, Grand Bassa County, Liberia

December 13, 2005

These things meant we weren't going to get to Buchanan before dusk, which is a contravention of security rules. But then the primary fuel pump of our LandCruiser failed and we were stuck - fortunately just within radio range of Buchanan. The Buchanan staff sent out a rescue vehicle but we jury-rigged a fix and set off, watching out for the rescuers. Then our vehicle failed again and we had to be wait to be towed the rest of the way. We got to Buchanan long after dusk with a water-tight excuse.

On Wednesday our Geographic Information System (GIS) people concentrated on their training and development and while I was given a life-changing tour of the Liberian Government Hospital in Buchanan by my friend Dr. Simon (from Tanzania).

Liberian Government Hospital, Buchanan, Liberia. (Construction of new Outpatient Department in the foreground.)

December 14, 2005

The hospital does such good work and I was very happy to learn from the tour so I could do a better job in my posting to Harper - and then on Thursday night I learned that I am going to be transferred 'from' Harper (I've not yet been there) to Buchanan. This means I'll be working with, for and at this hospital! I'm delighted and I'm looking forward very much to taking on the duties.

Liberian Government Hospital ward
December 14, 2005

The world's largest contributor to UN peacekeeping forces is Bangladesh, and they seem to be the largest contingent in the UN Mission in Liberia too (although in total 49 countries contribute). Friday was Bangladeshi 'Victory' Day and Buchanan Merlin staff were invited to their party. Um - it was a tiny bit stiff and bland. First we were treated to a video from the Bangladeshi Tourist Authority (or some such) during which stiff soldiers served tea and snacks. Then we were served delicious food but the atmosphere remained a bit rigid as a very old Bollywood-type film (I was told the next day that it was Indian rather than Bangla) was projected - without sound. Needless to say the event was dry. I'm afraid we preceded to the 'EK' bar in Buchanan before the film ended. I hope the lead character got the girl.

Yesterday some of us drove back to Monrovia while the rest of the GIS team explore the beach in Buchanan. (I'll have a lot of opportunities to explore it in due course.) I'll be here in Monrovia for a few more days.