My going away party was very good, although the beer disappeared more quickly than anticipated. I got back here to Savoie the 11th of May. I already miss the people in Maradi.
I have started tearing out some of the partitions and plaster in my condominium. The entire outside wall is stone, so I will do the joints and leave it that way. I will be working with an interior architect who is a former customer from Cafe Francais Bar Americain. I still have quite a bit of work to do before we can start making it over.
I went back to Paris for MSF's general assembly and met up with my old friend Malcolm Hudson for lunch. He's still as much fun as ever. I saw quite a few old friends from MSF, too.
I left directly from Paris to visit my family in Indiana. Byron's girls are big into volleyball and will soon be going to Orlando for the Junior Olympics. Mike's kids are also staying busy. Mike and Martha have pretty much recovered from their traffic accident in Mexico at Christmas.
From Indiana, I left for a week in California where I visited old HP friends I hadn't seen since 1988. It was a great trip. They all look the same. The drinking water out there must come from a fountain of youth.
I have just accepted a new mission with MSF. I will be leaving for 9 months in the Darfur region of Sudan at the end of July as a regional administrator on the finance sidem possibly picking up the human resources at the end of September. The mission objective is to provide medical assistance to the Internally Displaced Population (internal refugees) in the area. These are huge refugee camps. One of the best parts of this mission for me is that it is an English-speaking mission! That will make my work a whole lot easier.
In the meantime, I will try to get the work on the apartment moving along, so that I will have a place to live when I return in May 2008.
