Saturday, February 02, 2008

chocolate cake for breakfast

the best saturday mornings start with a run followed by a coffee and a piece of leftover chocolate birthday cake while talking to a soldier who is 10 hours behind but managing to stay awake for an hour long conversation.

i had a lovely birthday dinner with some ladies last night and that makes my social calendar full for 2 consecutive nights of dinners with friends, so the isolation is waning although last night i was fully prepare and totally content with climbing into bed. and there has been an invitation to 2 parties tonight so i might need to take my bright red nail polish out for another spin.

if all goes well with my weekend planning, i will be able to go to one of the informal camps of internally displaced persons where my organisation is providing aid. of course, i will only go if it is safe and if there are other people that i know there. but maybe i can be of use and lend an extra pair of hands. adorned with red nail polish.

yesterday i spent the morning at a workshop to talk about how bad things could possibly get and whether or not the humanitarian organisations are prepared for that. although it was not a rosy conversation, i learned a lot and feel better knowing that people are talking about these things and are doing what they can to prepare. and it is interesting because this is precisely what i studied at grad school. negotiated humanitarian access, neutrality, development vs humanitarianism, the responsibility to protect. where is lloyd axworthy when you need him?

like i have said before, i think i belong in emergencies and humanitarian relief and not development.

i think that kofi must have the wrong number for me because i was expecting a call to extend his best birthday wishes, but i still have not heard from him. i will have to follow up with him to make sure that this does not happen again next year.

3 comments:

La Cabeza Grande said...

I love your sense of humor, along with your sense of purpose and optimism. Hang tough, with your ruby red nails, Lu!

Anonymous said...

I hope that I don't freak you out by commenting on your blog, but I guess that if you are putting your thoughts out there on the internet you know that there are bound to be strangers like me who lurk on your page now and then. I am a friend of K's and I read your blog quite often.

I'm not sure why today is the day that I am finally inspired to speak up, but for some unknown reason today I felt the need to thank you for what you are doing with your life.

I am a Development Studies grad from U of C who has along the way been sucked into the corporate culture of Calgary. I often find myself wishing I had the guts, and now that I am married and have a mortgage to pay; the ability to leave everything here and actually work in the field that I am passionate about.

What you are doing is incredibly challenging, and hopefully, rewarding enough to make all of your sacrifices feel worth it. Keep it up.

D

lu said...

i wrote a response yesterday and then blogger decided to send it to the lost comment universe.

first of all, i am not freaked out by people i don't know commenting at all. quite the contrary, i am always flattered.

here is what i think about 'working in the field' - you can do this where ever you are in some capacity. i really do believe all the crap about 'development starts at home' and 'think globally, act locally' and i often wonder if my knowledge of my own culture wouldn't be more useful than pretending to understand someone else's culture.

and there is no one saying that you cannot one day work in the field you are passionate about. i often have to remind myself that if i were to leave the world of development tomorrow that there is no rule that says i cannot return. just as there is no rule that says you cannot get experience in other fields and then apply them elsewhere.

i hope that covers everything that i had originally typed and then finally got around to retyping today!

welcome back anytime!