Good bye to Africa... at least for a while.

A fitting farewell to Africa. Here is Dinner (shown at left), a dear gift from the Chief of Garbakoley in Mandera Kenya. He was the favorite Chief of most of us; educated, spoke great English, loved to debate politics and religion and was very helpful in implementation of the project.

We had a lovely staff party. One of my staff sang to me a goodbye song that almost made me cry. I received some thoughtful gifts (a headscarf for Kabul). We saw the honorary "Camle Dance." Speeches were made; the best again being from the Chief of Garbakoley who says "In Muslim culture women stay in the kitchen, but I guess that is up to Mario. I have some advice for Kabul, be patient and do not dress like an American, dress like a Muslim lady." The first part was a joke and the second pretty good advice.

I'll miss the continant that I had grown used to... all the chaos that works, the stinky, the green, the beautiful, the corruption, the comfort, the knowledge that there is always a solution. But we will be back I am sure...

And I do suppose I should explain who "we" are... For those of you who don't know, Mario is a lovely man I met in DRCongo, who also works for ACF, and to whom I have just gotten engaged. We won't be married until after our mission in Afghanistan is through, i.e. 2008. I am so happy to have found someone who I can work and travel with, who is smart and interesting, who has a cool background (he is French, but is of Syrian origin), who I can put up with and who can put up with me.

So here I go out on the next part of the adventure. Some of it staying the same and some of it getting better: I will still work in Water and Sanitation for Action Against Hunger, but this time as a coordinator (more mangaging, less cement). I hope that this blog will encourage me to write a bit more, get a bit more creative... although as you can tell this one is a bit of an update, make it easier to share photos with you all.