Where's, uh, Christopher?

So, I think I’ve set a personal record for the number of continents upon which my body has alighted in a given 3 week period… 4… four continents. Can any of you guess where I am? Could any of you tell me where I ought to go, or better yet, what I ought to “do” next… I’m done with Congo, I have a funny feeling that I’m done with Vancouver, and I’m more than a little uncertain about pretty much everything else.

Nevertheless, angst and disorientation notwithstanding, I’m alive and well, typing away from the bottom of new Zealand—a lovely country. I’m cold, absolutely freezing in fact, and doggedly trying to sort out my plans for grad school (why, when where, etc) before taking another step forward… I’m so determined to sort this out that I’ve even turned down 3 (what was I thinking!) super positions based in rotten, terrible, absolutely dreadful places like tchad and jafna. At any rate, I’ve come out of congo, full of perspective, full of concern, and in full view of the immensity of the next couple steps in my life, steps that I think ought to be taken deliberately, given the gravity of the implications… say, if I were to do a post-grad degree in disaster management, I would be very very well qualified (given my humanitarian experience) to live/work the rest of my life in disaster zones—and frankly, I’m not sure I can do it!
But an example, but it ought to cast a bit of light on some of the things I’m presently trying to work out.

Right, there you have it, I’m in new Zealand, not a little disoriented, but moving in a/the right direction. The ever-elusive “top 10” list of all the things I love about the congo, my job, etc, is forthcoming,… actually, I’ve lost it somewhere in my hardrive, but it’ll be fabulous! In fact, the list is larger than 10 items, but when did the heart of darkness ever resign itself, in all its breadth and depth of absurdity and paradox, to be contained in a single list of 10 peculiarities?

Also, there are a number of quotes from Vaclav Havel’s recently published memoirs (to the castle and back)…quotes I thought to be particularly interesting… so be sure to scroll down a bit, check out the pics, and read some of havel’s reflections.

Peace
C