here and now

guess what

last moments in my old room. i'll be a part of my
mum's living room soon. i'm homeless...;)

just some of the people that i'm missing now

back for good (?)

i'm home. definately. warsaw is my home and i feel it and appreciate it the more and more everyday.

the job at PHO (polish humanitarian organization) is perfect. basically, it's what i've been doing in efte, just on a bigger scale, with more opportunities and i'm getting paid... as soon as we have the website, i'll post it here, so that you can take a look.

efte is also blossoming. a new website is coming up soon!

why camel?

watching me, my friend once said:
I know why you're feeling sad.
it's your soul that's still behind.
this is what you cannot find.

because when you move so fast
across all those seas so vast,
your soul doesn't stick to you
it needs more time to get through.
it can only move as fast
as a camel's march would last.

that's why, when you change a place
there's a risk that you must face:
feeling empty for a day
or a month - it's hard to say
till your soul will make it there
it's a wait that's hard to bear...

but be patient, little friend
it will come and it will mend
all hard feelings, sadness, pain.
it'll all go and you'll regain
everything there is the best:
love, hope, playfulness and zest!

the mess...

just letting you know that i've put some new pictures on the webalbum. check the upper left corner for the link.

warsaw is sweeeet... i'm starting a new exciting job in PHO !! more news on that soon!

a la senegalaise

I AM BACK IN WARSAW!!!!

senegal was so wonderful that it's hard to write about it cause it makes me miss it...

the seminar for 'groupe senegal-maroc' (my beloved glen-geco participants) was good. of course, the best part was simply seeing everyone there :) popenguine, where the seminar took place, is absolutely beautiful, including a wonderful beach and the warm ocean. no need to ask what we did when we didn't work :)

for the first time in my life, while organizing a seminar, we had to think about brakes for the prayer and calculate meals remembering that during the ramadan some people won't be eating lunch.

apart from work, we could also experience some senegal (or rather dakar, i should say). a nice sunday night at Musa's drinking extremely sweet tea and listening to religious chants in front of his house in medina. we could see how dirty and shabby are some parts of the city and how rich and fancy are the others. but that's normal. dakar is just really interesting and often very beautiful, esp. the fishing boats in the afternoon.

i've managed also to pay a visit to the ambassador of poland in senegal in the brand-new-and-shiny embassy. he is a really interesting and welcoming person i hope it's not the end of our contact!

after having visited our interns, another NGO and the city center, we went back to the hotel to get ready for the plane... it started innocently with high humidity during the day and some clouds in the evening. then it developed into a full-fledged storm with lightnings shooting one after another and a torrential rain. we had to take our shoes off to be able to cross a huge paddle of mud that separated the hotel from the taxi. a good end of such an amazing trip :)

OUAGADOUGOU KOUDOUGOU

my short trip to burkina faso is coming to an end. tonight we're flying to dakar (senegal).

the mission is going very well: we've done a good seminar for the GLEN-Geco interns and their bosses and we've gathered some new projects for the next year. it's sooooo interesting (though sometimes challening) to travel with a mission of the french department of agriculture...

anyways, with a little help consisting of a couple thousand francs CFA, we made it to the newspapers :) in the 'observateur' there is a nice photo and good article (mentioning my totally misspelled name as well ;)) about our seminar...

still, our little 'equipe' of 5 is really cool :)

burkina is extremely interesting... i wish i could spend more time here... next time maybe. for€ now i'll keep good memories of the local officials:

a policeman at the airport, after a little scene when they wanted me to wait (another!) day for a visa, gave me two necklaces so that "i keep good memories of burkina faso". and so i do :)

a lady in the senegal consulate in ouagadougou also wanted to be kind to me. she doesn't have many 'nassaras' (europeans) coming. i applied and paied for a transit visa for a week. still, when i showed up at the consulate to pick up the visa, the lady announced proudly that she's given me a mulitiple-entry, 3 month-long visa :)

maybe i'll come back for the FESPACO, the most wonderful film festival in africa (together with 'dhow countries film festival' on zanzibar island). it's amazing how ouagadougou, a rather rough and small city (except for the brand new and rich Ouaga2000 quartier...) has so many cinemas...

too short a stop

back in poland for a day and a half... i'm trying to get my clothes washed and hopefully i'll get through some pictures too... check my webalbum (link in the upper left corner) or on facebook SOON.

missionary

i always wanted to be a missionary... and now my dream has come true:) I AM GOING TO BURKINA AND SENEGAL FOR 10 DAYS - GLEN evaluation mission.

it turned out that i have to pop into poland before going to burkina, so...

BEDE W POLSCE w CZW (jutro) o 11.55
WYBEDE Z POLSKI w SOB (popojutrze) o 8.30

mozna mnie lapac szybciorem. komorka polska dziala i czeka na smsy i telefony!!!!

crossing the equator

so, after having gone to the movies with petr (the simpsons movie rulez!!!:))), i picked up my mum from the airport and since then:

..we've tried all means of transport: matatu, bus, taxi, tuk-tuk, boda-boda (bike taxi), pick-up truck, boat... tonight we're getting on the train
..we've visited Simba Friends - a polish NGO computerizing some schoold near the border of Uganda. sooo cooool:) we've delivered some parts (that my mum brought from poland), hanged out with them, ate a dinner in a restaurant, where everything (incl. electricity) is out of stock, travelled in the rain on the back of a pick up truck
...visited the KAKAMEGA RAINFOREST where we've breathed the heavy tropical air, saw monkeys and butterflies, got soaked by a tropical rain and almost drawn in mud
...enjoyed the best food on earth in Kisumu in Green Garden restaurant... oh....
...watched hippos, otters, warans and birds on the lake victoria (my birthday trip!!!!:))
...played backgammon on my mum's phone while the driver of our bus went to look for fuel (cause he forgot to buy it earlier...)
...had lots of fun with some kids taking pictures
...visited a hindu temple and a sikh one
...had lots of fun together :)