From Dadaab to Somalia

Our team pulled out of Dadaab shortly after breakfast, on the road to Somalia. It’s a dry, dusty road, with thorny bush on either side. The road itself is badly rutted, so weave along the ditch, following two tire tracks in the sand. Occasionally, we jump up on the road and dip down the embankment to the other side, continuing the weaving through acacias, sand flying in little rooster tails behind us. Following closely is our security escort, a good natured sergeant in the Administration Police, and three kids so green they barely shave. They get sent to the border fresh out of school, to work them in for a few years. Before we left, their commandant, wearing a Candian hockey jersey and flipflops, proudly told us, “We’re the ones that pushed Al Shabaab back from the border. We dropped twenty bombs on them and pushed them into the Indian Ocean.”

Now, they chase behind us through the thorny wasteland. The only sign of life are the dik-diks, meercats, and the birds. The birds are also a sign of death. The road is littered with cattle carcasses, at least one every kilometer, and the Marabou storks gather around them. I have never seen so many Marabou storks before. They are the undertakers of the animal kingdom, overdressed in their black coats, strutting awkwardly around, and omnipresent at a funeral. As we pull into Liboi, I notice the storks are bigger than the goats, or even a small child. And they are everywhere.

I'm building street cred, which is why I don't post blogs!

While I haven't been working that hard at keeping this blog updated, I now have proof that I've really been blogging. In case you haven't been following my recent trip to South Sudan (which means you don't read Twitter or Facebook updates), I have posted several blogs through my work website, as well as photos and tweets from my site visits and South Sudan's recent Indedendence Day. You can click on the links below to read my blogs, but first, some validation. In addition, my photos were used here. The recent blogs I've written are here.

Tomorrow I'm off to northern Kenya, where I may run into Joy Portella of Mercy Corps. You may not know that northern Kenya, Somalia, and parts of Ethiopia (a region known as the Horn of Africa) are experiencing the worst drought in 60 years. On Friday I will visit Dadaab, the largest refugee camp in the world. Originally built to hold 90,000 people, it now holds more than 380,000, with 10,000 more arriving each week. In a land where war, lack of infrastructure, health services, or education already puts the people at severe risk, this drought has eliminated all chance of a coping strategy.

Hopefully, we can help people before they get to the refugee camps, reducing the strain on this overburdened system, and giving people a better chance of survival through this harsh time.  Stay tuned for tweets, photos, FB posts, and maybe, possibly, a blog.

Mid year Review

It has been months since I wrote a blog. I’m definitely not a writer. When I’m not forced to sit in front of a computer and type, it’s the last thing I want to do. I’ve been reading a lot of blogs, and bloggers just seem to have this gift for finding the thing they can write about without making their lives difficult. Or maybe they have a gift for writing in such a way that the difficulty upon them is not apparent. I don’t know. Confessions anyone? I think good bloggers are a bit off the cuff, but I’m so off the cuff, I feel that anything I type is a regurgitation of something I’ve already shared, digested or analyzed. Notwithstanding, I have a few anecdotes for now.

My dad’s blogging now. I won’t share his address, but email him and see if he’ll let you read. He’s an avid reader, but quite a shy writer. He shouldn’t be, his writing’s good, if a little polished. The joy of blogging is that there is no peer review to determine whether you should be published, just your own gut check. Blogging is refreshing in the way newspapers used to be before syndication.

I’ve decided that all the planning in the world cannot make me a planner. No matter how experienced a traveller I am, my bag will never look the same twice. In the same way, my desktop, my calendar, and my schedule are not followed, no matter how rigorously they are designed. I have a compulsive desire to build a patterned and disciplined life of repetition and consistency, but I’m not that guy. I also think everyone else figured that out long before I did.

Laura and I are enjoying life in Seattle, if not Seattle life. We still have a hard time finding restaurants that satisfy us, I’m gaining a chunk of pounds, and the rain never, ever stops. But, we have a great church family, a comfy home, friends and family visiting every month, and a simplicity to our life that is contenting. Plus there are mountains and ocean, which we will never under appreciate.

I have not read much lately, but that’s about to change, so maybe a blog on books is in the works.

Newsy news…or “What happened to the last few months?”

Summer is fast approaching, and with it the second anniversary of the nuptials of Laura and Chris Sheach. The year has disappeared so quickly. In brief review, 2011 has gone this way so far: Chris went to Haiti, Laura spent 6 weeks commuting between Vancouver and Seattle, visitors came and went, Mr. and Mrs. Sheach went to Washington (DC) and Chris went back to Haiti. Thanks to our visitors, we have enjoyed your visits. It looks like our guest room is pretty solidly booked for the next six months, but please let us know if you’re planning a trip, and we’ll see if we have an opening!

On better blogging...

I recently contacted several former colleagues to solicit funds for the FREE THEM! 5K Run/Walk to stop Child Sex Slavery. For more info on how you can support that initiative click the links. What was interesting was how many replies I received in the vein of “I wondered what you were doing” or “How long have you been with World Concern”. Okay, that shows I am the world’s worst blogger. Now, what to do about it?

First, I’ve found that Twitter is much easier to keep up with, as I never travel without my phone. I’m more likely to think about what’s going on in 140 characters and/or a photo, than write the 500 words I feel a blog post deserves.

Second, the more I read other blogs, the more I realize I don’t have enough time or drive to add value to the great blogs on politics, aid, humanitarian interventions and travel. For more insight on these worlds, you can now peruse my blogroll on the right. Every post I’ve wanted to write over the last few months has been written by one of these people, so I just say “Like” to their posts.

Third, as part of my new job at World Concern, I am writing blogs for their website, and some guest posts for Interaction. This tends to drain my energy for creativity.

Finally, I had the opportunity in February to not only take a 7 Habits of Effective People workshop, but I also was trained as a facilitator. So, as part of my attempt to become more effective, and set a precedent before trying to share this method with others, I am going to be more proactive about blogging. Better to be consistent than verbose, so look for a steady trickle, rather than a flood.