Update 5:

Right on the heels of update 4. My apologies for sending one out so quickly, but I won't likely be sending one out again too soon.

As you read this, at least for my North American readers because of the time difference, I will either be en route from Geneva to Amsterdam, or Nairobi Kenya, or Entebbe Uganda, or if you don't check this before April 20th I'll have arrived in Bunia DRC. I guess I will be celebrating on the 23rd my 27th birthday in a whole new world with a whole whack of new entities. Chalk this birthday up for something new fersure.

I didn't get any time to call home. I will be more or less out of contact until my return to Geneva at the end of July. I will try and update my blog whenever I can. There is an internet cafe or two there, so maybe I will be able to.

The posting sounds perfect. It is a training mission, and I won't actually have too many responsibilities. I am there to learn as many things as possible, so that I can be more valuable to MSF and to the populations that I intend on attending to in the future. I won't speak about the details, or the briefing, as they wouldn't really be in my style of quasi-interesting writing, and I really don't know that much about where I am going. I will know more in a month...

Well, I hope you all take care of yerselves for the next bit, I sure intend on doing the same.

à bientot!

Update 4:

Hello again,

To the new readers out there, thanks for taking the time to check out what is going on in my life. I appreciate your time, I hope that at the end of reading these "updates" you feel as though your time was well spent. If not, I apologize, after all I am an Engineer and not a writer...

A special thank you to all of you kind readers that have sent me the emails or posted comments on the blog. I hope you forgive me for not responding to you all, because I absolutely love reading your notes. It helps me keep the desire to write these updates, and I suppose if I weren't beating around the bush, I'd have to say that I love the attention and affection. So, Thank You.

News:

I am in Geneva, Switzerland. I left Les Corbieres in the South of France this morning, many thanks to Tim for the ride to the train station. Tomorrow morning I have my briefing for the mission in the Congo. I am not sure as to when exactly I go to the Congo, I thought it was the 24th of April but they have only booked me two nights in the hostel. So, perhaps I won't be in Geneva for too long? I'll send out another update once I have all the details.

The South of France:

What a wonderful time I had here. I arrived in Toulouse from Marrakesh past midnight during the middle of some sort of school vacation meaning that all the hotels were complet, and it was raining. Somehow, I found a place to stay after walking around for two hours with 35kg of gear on my back. The next morning I bought some cheese, a baguette and orange juice in a store and ate my petit dejeuner in a park near a kids play gym. I left shortly after eating since I realize how intimidating (read pedophilic) I may appear with a mullet and handlebars. However, I fell in love with France from arrival. I have been in France three times previously and felt no connection. Times have changed and it is would prove to be too tedious to explain, but I love France.

I caught a train to Narbonne where I met a friend of a friend of my parents. Thank you Marc and Mark, you guys are great. The greeting I got from Marc was one that won't easily be forgotten. Half in English or half in French or something, he said to follow him and run quickly. Now I am by no means out of shape, but running with 35kg on your shoulders is pretty hard, and trying to keep up with someone else tests your physical limits in juxtaposition to your pride. Apparently the last bus to the village leaves at 6:15 and it is 6:15, so we ran. We caught the bus. Then the proper introductions were made.

It only got better from there. Marc let me stay in his house and use his car (a Citroen le Deux Chevaux, classic French snail car, yeehawww), in return I would help around the house and he would return to his home in Paris. From my point of view, and I am sure he would agree, we both got a great deal. I got to paint, varnish and stain his new addition, and I got to cut firewood. So I stayed in shape, had a free place to stay and a car in which I almost fit inside.

The house had no electricity, a wood stove, a gas stove, no refrigerator, an outdoor shower and ice cold water to shower in. I learnt how to light a fire in the dark, how to eat meat that has mold and fungi on it, and how to hold my breath involuntarily.

Can I tell you the pains of showering? I didn't shower for 5 days when I got there. There was no way in hell I was going to get under that water. But I started to smell. I hoped for a sunny day. But, the weather did not co-operate, to make matters worse Les Corbieres is like the second windiest place in France, and judging by the number of windmills I would have to agree. Finally we were to go somewhere for dinner and I had been running the chainsaw all day, so I bit the bullet and took my first shower.

Call me a sissy, I don't care. As soon as the ice hit the skin my lungs stopped working, I got brain freeze from the outside, my balls retracted to where they were when I was an embryo. I could swear to emphasize, but it wouldn't do justice. It was a toss up between properly rinsing your hair and risking a bit of the old "soap in the eyes" burning, or subject your heads to cryogenics. I remember after the first shower, waiting to see how long it would take for me to be a man again. I wish I could say I got used to it, but that wasn't happening. I did tough it up a bit more though because my sleeping bag started to smell.

I also got a sunburn, surprising because I didn't get one in Morocco. But then I didn't go skiing there. Spring skiing in the Pyranees was great. Thank you Eric for taking me there, and for sharing a hotel that had a shower with hot water. YEEEHAWWWW!!!!

Apart from all of that, I more or less spent my time reading books. Self help, psychology, philosophy and religious. I relaxed, grounded myself some more, reflected and took time to think about a bunch of things that I just needed to get straight. Most of my journey wouldn't be interesting enough to you to write about here, and perhaps this isn't the forum to discuss. At least not yet. But I seem to be hell bent on learning, so I keep on going and trying and practicing. I believe I am in a better place than I was when I left in January, so that makes me happy. Expansion and growth.

I made some great friends in Les Corbieres, and can't wait to return their hospitality to them or their daughters, wherever I end up someday. I will be back, I don't know when, but I loved this place.

I miss you all guys, each for your individual qualities, and as a group as well. Right now I can hardly wait to have my first hot shower in three weeks, but I think the hostel only lets you shower until 10pm, so I will have to wait until morning.

Je Vous Embrasse Tous.