The Me Update

It is March 04 and I am riding high, 30,000 feet above the African continent on my way to Accra, capital city of Ghana on the south coast of West Africa. It will be my first time to return since I went on vacation for the turn of the millennium in late 1999 – early 2000. That was a great vacation that turned tragic when 2 of my 3 companions, Jesse and Justin, died in a car crash in Guinea as they were returning to their work sites in middle Guinea.

This time, however, my objectives are a bit different. I am no longer a Peace Corps volunteer, and I am not going on vacation. No, this time I am a consultant working with the UN World Food Programme and I am going to do some training in the country office based on experience that I have gained in the last five years with this organization in three different African countries. I will be spending about 5 days in Accra before continuing on to Cameroon for a week and then return to Dakar.

Is that correct, to Dakar? It wasn’t long ago that I was in war-torn Chad, not far from the Darfur border! For those not in the loop, I am now based in Dakar, Senegal on the western-most tip of the continent. My arrival there was partly planned and a lot of luck! So much luck, and so fortunate, I can’t describe.

I spent 2-1/2 years in Chad with the World Food Programme. As a consultant and not an actual staff member, a future job in another country is not at all guaranteed with this organisation. With the escalating prices of food costs, and the complete downturn of the dollar on the world market, the organisation has been struggling to cut costs in the last year or so. In December, I became a part of the organisation’s cost cutting and was informed that my contract would not be renewed beyond the end of the year. This news was good and bad at the same time – I certainly didn’t want to spend more time in Chad, it’s a difficult post. But at the same time, it hit hard to know that I would be an unemployed free agent within a month.

Having unemployed status, I suddenly had a complete freedom of being able to go and settle anywhere in the world. How incredible to have such freedom! Anywhere at all that I wanted was open to me. I chose Dakar, Senegal. For one, I have my girlfriend Jeanne there, who I have determined I really like. And for two, I have my practically adopted daughter there, Fatim, who is 15 and has been going to school there for over 2 years. Also, I was just ready for a bit of a normal life (which I can do in Dakar but is certainly not the case in Chad).

There, that was pretty much settled – I was determined to find work in Dakar. However, it wasn’t necessary to find work. Work found me. Two days before my departure from N’djamena, capital of Chad, I got a phone call from the WFP regional office that covers 17 countries in West and Central Africa. They were interested in hiring me for a short-term contract for a job that I was completely qualified for! Now, try to tell me that I didn’t choose the right place to be going to!

So, here I am on that short-term contract that currently ends on March 31! I am hoping that it will be extended so that I can stay in Dakar and keep making a bit of money! It is stressful sometimes to think what may happen if I don’t have work in a month, or if I am faced with a work offer in Sudan or some ugly place that I don’t want to go to right now. However, I am committed to be in Dakar for at least a year or even longer if I can figure out how to make that work!

After one month in the US, on February 2^nd, I arrived into Dakar. The first thing I did, upon catching up on some sleep, was go to a wedding and a baptism for a new child, both in Jeanne’s family. The top news was all about Chad – rebels invaded the capital and bodies of armed men littered the streets. Phone networks were down in Chad, and my colleagues were witnessing helicopters falling out of the sky while hiding in corridors of the international hotels seeking safety from stray gunfire and shrapnel. Over two years in that town, and I was fortunate to not have seen that – I got out of there just in time. Thanks WFP for not extending my contract!

Today, I am very happy in Dakar. I have rented an apartment, which has three bedrooms on the 5^th floor of a new apartment building (no elevator, good exercise). It is not yet finished – still under construction – but should be ready no later than 01 April. My job is going well, but keeping me very busy and it can be a bit tiring. And now, I will be doing some furniture hunting! Meanwhile, I am doing training sessions with staff in different country offices, so I am getting a small tour of West Africa at the same time! So far, I have gone to Guinea (got to see some old friends) and right now, in Ghana. Next week, I continue to Cameroon and then after Easter, I go to Benin. Should my contract be extended, I believe that I will be visiting a few more countries still, including Chad.

And so, having started at 30,000 feet, my story finishes at close to sea level here in an Accra hotel, off the Gulf of Guinea. June will mark ten years since I first came to West Africa as a Peace Corps Volunteer. People ask what’s keeping me here. I am not completely certain. People ask when I expect to live again in the US. I am not sure. I can only focus on today, and today tells me that I am in the right place and life is taking me through some incredible journeys and I feel blessed to be led in such a direction.