September 20, 2006

A quickie by the water cooler

Wow. Today I got a quickie by the water cooler.

No. Joking.

There is no water cooler where I work.

And noone to give me a quickie. Or a cookie. Or a hicky. Or a key. Or anything that rhymes with quickie, for that matter.

I have never had a quickie by the water cooler or by anyother work located item, so why am i even talking about that?

Oh - I get it. I must be crazy.

Anyways, I got the next best thing : I got back to Jakarta, and tomorrow I'm off to (successively in the next 48 hours) Dubai, Nairobi and Bujumbura. I calculated that between this morning and my landing in Bujumbura on the 23rd, I will have taken 5 flights and been on 3 continents. It's a broken record.

I'm excited to be out of Aceh. At last, I can have something better than wine in a box. And I won't even need to hide ! I get to have a bit of FUN. (I spent the last 6 weeks claiming that in Aceh, they (don't ask who) took the UN out of FUN. You're welcome to figure out what the F stands for.

I also got a new referral : thank you AIDWORKERS.NET for blogrolling me ! (Although I wonder - does being a compliance pest for the humanitarian sector really make me an AID worker?)

Anyway, I dedicate this pointless post to all AID workers in the world. I see their work daily. Koudos to you guys. I know I pester you with rules and procedures, but I understand and hereby acknowledge the value of your work and the constraints you have to deal with.

I also dedicate this pointless post to all the national staff who strive to support the AID efforts. Without you, we would be nothing, and my life would be boring.

(Can you tell? I already miss Aceh, sincerely, I do.)

The Beaver

This post NOT to be interpreted as a sign that I am no longer depressed. It merely means I am still alive. IN FACT, I'M KINDA LONELY, PEOPLE! Drop me a line.... that'd be nice (except you - you know who you are.)

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

what happened to the picture? It is refusing to show -- well it is Blogger, you never know what admin can be up to!! ;)
Out of Aceh and onto new adventures. Enjoy Nairobi, if you get the time to go out and about. I miss that place....
Looking forward to the scenes of the next episode.
Checked your calendar, i can see that you will not rest until Christmas. OMG, how do you do it???!!!!! More power to you girl!

Beaver said...

I have twarted the powers that be ! And the water cooler rules !

Thanks Nyasha. I don't know how I do it, although being a slave to my work right now is doing a heck of a lot of good. I'm looking forward to the next episode. The people I will work with in Burundi are good people, and I count them as friends. It will be nice to hang out with our most junior colleague - her and I are going to tear the town apart !

K-Girl - you are wise to stay away from that water cooler ! And your dad's counsel is appropriate. It would be disturbing if I was able to see 4 years of connection go down the drain without feeling anything.

Saur♥Kraut said...

Hi hon! A watercooler like that could be very beneficial in the last workplace that I was in. Straight vodka was called for in that place, however.

Anonymous said...

Hola Marie!

I'm embarrased to say I don't know where is Bujumbura :( I guess in Africa (???)

Cuídate y anímate: el tiempo lo cura todo!

Besines!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the kind words about the Aid Workers Network site - we're pooling the most recent posts of blogs by field-based people from the relief and development sector, of which we've found around 30 so far. If you know of any more, let us know.

Concerning your thought,"Although I wonder - does being a compliance pest for the humanitarian sector really make me an AID worker?" have a read of this excellent blog post on the topic.

Salt Water said...

I read a great book called Two Years Before The Mast. Dana, the author, used a line I love to this day,"We must come down from our high places, if we would know truths by contrast..." Aid workers are great people and one need only see what has happened in Abidjan to know that for sure. 6 people have died and 16000 are injured because of greed and stupidity that resulted in dumping toxic waste on open ground. (Details: The Economist Sept, 16-22, 2006 page 58.)