Mucho travajo awaits

I received notification from Ato Mussa that a lot awaits my return work-wise. Paul and Ileana will be in Istanbul when I return; she is returning a few days after my arrival and he off to America for a week then back to Addis. I received a copy of the memo that was used to initiate the second money transfer from the previous contract. When I return I will go out with Burhan and get a modem that will work with my newly AppleCare-registered MacBook Pro.

Welcome you BLOG followers

Sweet Thing (aka Sweet Thing), Shauna, and Ileana, since you are on the email posting list, a special welcome to my new BLOG ... as well as all my other readers; enjoy.

The prep continues

It is especially interesting how one's second trip to Africa is not as exploratory as the first. In other words, I now know what to expect ... a wet (half the year), non-tropical (all year) climate that gets up to no more than 25 Celsius and goes down to as low as 5-7 degrees during the rainy season. Once there the first time and finding out that Deker does my laundry, I will take back next to nothing clothes-wise thereby leading to less crap to have to bring back at end of contract. The sun screen and bug repellent I brought have been used zero times.

I am bringing back less for the habesha than I did in September; I have some tennis treats for Melaku and Hiruy as well as an old Dell laptop I do not use anymore for the former. I am bringing Dr. Paul a standard amount of DVD's including seasons 4-6 of 24 as well as seasons 1&2 of Damages. If I have the time in Ottawa this weekend, I will get the Cheerios, cocoa powder, Oreo double stuffs, and steel-rolled oats requested by Dr. Paul as well ... I also have a handful of old cell phones; 2 unlocked Blackberry 8700r's for Melaku and Dereje, as well as a Motorola Razor and Samsung (still locked to Rogers). The cookies he wants are always left in the Dulcian office at MoFED amidst complaints from all that they are too fattening! Why am I asked to bring them in that case?

Back to the future

Bet you though it was still 2009 :). I made this post December 28, 2009 then transported it to 2010 using the flux capacitor made famous by the 1985 movie Back to the Future ...