Zoélie and the girls in Cyprus

The girls, Annick, Ingrid and Zoélie invited us for a week to Cyprus, so that we could both spend some time with Zoélie, Thomas' daughter. Ingrid is currently working for three years with the European Commission in the northern part of Cyprus, and based in north Nicosia.  

So, flying with low air fare company Ryan Bus (oops, sorry, that's Ryan Air, it's just that the plane feels more like a bus), we were off for Cyprus, country n°60 on my list.
To be honest, I had very few expectations. I always thought of Cyprus more as a mass-tourist destination, with images of filled up beaches and all in resorts. True, there is that side, but since we stayed with the girls in Nicosia (capital) and in the low season, it gave us an opportunity to quietly discover, and also to appreciate the tourist 'must sees' without having the feeling of being part of a herd of sheep.

And Cyprus does have a lot to offer, such as history:

Ruins from the Antiquity

The statues were beheaded by the Christians, cause perceived as paganry

Of course, the beaches. Though it was Janaury and the temperature was hoovering around the 15-20°, we still persisted in spending an afternoon at the beach, though none of us worked up the courage to swim (or even to try out the temperature of the water).

But surprisingly, there was also snow, and even a place where one can ski. Unfortunately it was closed the day we went, so we hiked through the snow instead but it was amazing to spend one day at the beach, and the next one contemplating skiing.

Certain places are literally littered with architecture and churches/mosques:

One of the most interesting aspects of Cyprus to me was definitely to witness the separation. The 1/3 of the north of the island is dominated by the Turkish Cypriots, backed up (also military) by Turkey (no surprise), the 2/3 south by the Greek Cypriots. Separating them is a Green Line, a buffer between the two parts which, even if they are not officially at war, still have a lot of tension between them. Of course, the situation is so complex I can't even begin to summarize it here, but it was fascinating to see certain aspects of this division and the consequences it had on daily life (especially considering our own little Belgium sometimes talks about separating)... 

 Then some other things that took up much of our time:

Coffee and restaurants. This one at Gloria Jean.

Playing with Annick's iPhone.

And of course, for me, this holiday was the perfect opportunity to explore my latest toy: my picture camera Panasonix G10. What better moment to play around with settings, try and decipher the manual and just keep snapping away. I must admit, the first day and first couple of pictures I was a bit sceptical, but now I'm completely won over. Am sure I still have discovered and used only 20% of the settings, applications and possibilities, but it's a start. 

 And yes, at least I had some willing subjects to photograph.

But of course, our main attraction was Zoélie! Now just turned two, she's really a toddler, understands almost everything though still doesn't talk much (which makes the occasional 'maman' and yes, 'papa' even more endearing). In the morning she would attend kindergarten, while Annick and ourselves would hang out at the house - me often hunting or applying for jobs. Then she would come with us on afternoon excursions and set the pace. So we got a lot of time to interact with her, playing, singing songs (the wheels on the bus go round), squeezing her, watching Bumba (thanks Loïc, for the tip), feeding her, and yes, Thomas even changed her diapers (once).

Zoélie at the beach. See you soon again!

All in all, a great and relaxing holiday. Thanks so much for the girls to invite us and show us around! We also made sure to always leave certain things not seen, so we would have an excuse to go back... 

Saint Petersburg

For two nights and three days, we went about exploring that city of city, Saint Petersburg.
We flew from Moscow to Saint Petersburg (2h, 40Euro) and stayed with a CouchSurfing host allowing us to stay 30 minutes by metro from the centre. Saint Petersburg is definitely very beautiful, with churches and historical buildings at every street corner.

The statue of Peter the Great, made by Catherine II, in front of St Isaac church

Our host had hours that didn't always coincide with ours though, and since we depended on him to get into the apartment, it meant waiting till he was awake before leaving (one morning only at 12), and till he was back before being able to get out of the Russian cold (10pm one night and 11pm the next). Not that ideal, especially since it also meant we didn't get to interact that much.   

St Isaac across the frozen Neva river. 

Though light was only there from 10am till 4pm, it was some good light and beautiful clouds. Saint Petersburg in winter makes me wish I had a better camera.

Back of the Winter Palace, with Hermitage.

 The walking around in the cold combined with the not always great nights were starting to get to us though. We had to regularly duck into cafes or shops to warm up and it does affect your motivation to discover a city to feel like you have to struggle through it.

St Peter-and-Paul fortress.

 St Pete seems to be all about the gold and the churches, with domes and crosses everywhere.

The Hermitage with a sound and light show on the evening of our arrival

Train ride back from Saint Petersburg to Moscow. Can you make out Thomas inside the wagon?

Another thing on my to-do-list-before-I-die: taking the sleeper train in Russia. Okay, it isn't the Transsiberian, but it was already a nice experience to travel the 10h back from St Pete to Moscow by train, sharing the carriage with about 50 other Russians (we took platzkart, the 3rd and cheapest section). Still pretty decent beds, and I'm sure I would have slept fine, if the hours hadn't been a bit shitty (leaving at 7pm, getting into Moscow at 3h42 - and yes, despite our hopes, it was punctual).

From Russia with love - Moscow 1

Me, Silvija and Thomas, the first morning out afterr our arrival and admiring the snow.

Beautiful churches and buildings all over Moscoz. Here in front of Christ the Savior. 

 Jumping on the Red Square.

 And being holy in front of St Basils.



Zim-zooming out

So, after almost four years, my time in Zimbabwe and Southern Africa has come to an end. End of contract, and time to move on, to other adventures and new horizons. But that doesn’t make the goodbyes any easier. The past few days and even weeks have been pretty hectic though, with visits and reporting, trying to round it all off. And it seems that even my goodbyes have been a bit rushed, as I was each time on a tight schedule. Maybe not a bad thing, as it allows me not to dwell too much or to get too emotional, but on the other hand, I am a firm believer of giving oneself time to properly take your leave and mourn.

Looking back on my time here, a list of things that I am proud of, or glad that we did, and then a list of some regrets:

• Discovering the region: we traveled over almost all of the Southern African countries, 13 countries in total, excepting Angola and Mauritius. One country that was stuck out particularly was Namibia, one of our last discoveries and splendid.

• Professional achievements: I do feel we did exceptionally well. Numbers only say so much, but in 2 years and a half, we trained over a thousand participants, created 17 training modules and 14 new methodologies using creative arts.

During our evaluation, our partners estimated that a total of 65.000 children already benefited from in one way or another from this improved or more diversified psychosocial support. But aside from the numbers, I was really glad at how we worked and interacted as a team. It had its rough spots in the beginning, and I learned a lot about facilitating rather than coordinating, but I am proud of all we did, and of how we did it.

• Taking capoeira to the next level: this is true for the physical aspect (staying in shape, coordination, acrobatics, work out level), but also for the friendships it created and even the club in itself (that I finished chairing by the way). It was definitely something that shaped and influenced our stay.

• Continuing with video and multimedia: I counted I orchestrated or was involved in around 50 short movies, ranging from fun snip bits from weekends away to have a group of teenagers direct their own short movie. Multimedia is definitely an area I want to continue in. I would love to use it as a tool to evaluate project by beneficiaries themselves. Instead of all these reports nobody really reads, wouldn’t it have a lot more impact to show them how to use camera equipment and send them out with a tool to evaluate whatever change a project brought to them. It teaches them certain skills, will be a lot more lively and interactive than questionnaires and hardly any feedback, and the organisation could use it as documentaries or lobbying tools. A vague dream so far, but these experiences in Zim were small steps bringing me closer…

• Exploring photography and portraits: lucky enough to have some handsome people around which were more than willing to show off, it made for a fun hobby. Some of them just wanted to experiment and have some good pictures, others had ambitions of using it for album covers or as artists, and some even were linked up with casting and modeling agents.

 
 
 

• Skydiving: though we only started in August 2010, with no desire to get really into it, it was a thrilling experience. Jumping out at 4000 feet, and gradually getting more at ease and confident, landing softer and closer to where you want, it is challenging at first (every time we would go up with the plane, I would be asking myself: why am I doing this again??), but by the end we were looking forward to it. 

 Can’t say it is completely harmless though: Thomas injured his wrists, which took forever to heal, and during one of my last jumps, a rope shook my helmet so hard it cut my ear and I was bleeding all over the place. 
We however did end on a high note: our very first free fall! The first ten jumps were all done with a static line which opens your parachute immediately after jumping out of the plane (so even if you do panic, it’ll still open). Gradually we had to use a Dummy Rip Chord, a fake opening cord which allowed us to practice the move. And our last jump, just after I had cut my ear, we got to do it without the static line, which everybody told us was their best jump ever. And I must agree, it was so much gentler, not being pulled in every direction by the wind, the static line and then the chute opening. Just a shame we couldn’t repeat the experience a couple of more times and higher, so we would have had a longer time free falling.

• Couchsurfing: our link to travelers and backpackers, we hosted a total of over 200 backpackers in our house. And when the house started feeling too full, we would just give it a short rest. Some were okay, some were great and left us with memories to treasure, and some with useful contacts and possibilities for the future, but none of them we regret.

• Our series and movies: in the course of our stay here, we gathered about 2TerraBytes of movies and series. It not only made our evenings more exciting and pleasant (yes, we got hooked quite often, there are some really good series out there), but we also shared, which meant our house was sometimes a bit of a library with people copying, but that allowed for more private jokes and bonding (‘Computer says no!’, all conversations starting with: ‘did you watch that item, it was hectic!’).

Though I am generally very happy about our stay and what we accomplished, of course it wasn’t perfect, and there are always things we could have improved. So, some of these challenges:

•   Language: not learning Shona, one of the two main local languages of Zimbabwe, and spoken in Harare and by most of our partners. With almost everyone being able to express themselves in English (often better than we could), learning how to speak Shona proved to be quite complicated and time consuming. I must say, we gave it a fair shot, with classes twice a week for a year and at the end even some private lessons on a more intense level. But I must admit, we hardly got past the greetings and standard question-answers.  It was the first time I stayed in a country and had hardly any idea of what people could be discussing amongst themselves.
• Less networking: compared to my work in Haiti, I feel I could have networked, both for Volens, our network and our partners individually a lot more. Through our activities and developed tools, we had a lot to offer in terms of expertise, capacity building activities and trainings. But for some reason it never really happened. Oh, we had some meetings with like UNICEF or USAID donors, but not systematic and I never felt a real interest of involvement from their part. In a way I would like to say ‘their loss’ but clearly we also lose out on opportunities…
• Smoking: definitely one of my main regrets. Yep, I picked up the nasty habit once again in 2010. Though I had quit for several months if not over a year, somehow I lighted up one at a party, and then another one and another. And I was hooked. A lot worse than previously. But I am also using the end of Zimbabwe and the good years resolution to solemnly declare I’m quitting RIGHT NOW! The freezing-your-ass-of-in-the-snow currently as well as the 5Euro package in Belgium should help ;-)

So, I just finished typing this blog post in the airplane seeing Africa glide away below and leaving it behind, with every km taking me further away, without knowing towards what. We have been so focused on our departure and getting everything sorted out (which I think we managed quite well), our mid term future has a lot of question marks. On the short term, though, the upcoming month is looking good:

• 21-27 Dec: Christmas under the snow in Belgium, mostly family, some friends.
• 27 Dec. – 8 Jan: Russia, to visit a friend of ours, Silvija, in Moscow, and travel up by train to St Petersburg and Murmansk (one of the most northern points of Russia, same latitude as north of Alaska, more to the north than the Arctic Circle) to see the Northern Lights.  
• 8-15 Jan.: back in Belgium, sorting everything administrative out and applying as much as we can for new jobs.
• 15-22 Jan.: Cyprus, to see the girls and Zoélie.
• 22 Jan.: back to Belgium till…?

1 year, 365 places to reminisce or discover

My dad had given me for last year’s new year, a calender with for every day (well almost, Saturday and Sunday were combined) a wonderful place to discover in the world (and then he complains I travel too much ;-). We have been keeping track of them, dividing them into 4 categories:

1. Neither Thomas nor me visited the place: unfortunately still over half: 203 places (though with our upcoming trip to Russia, another 5 would shift categories ;-). 
2. Both Thomas and me visited: total of 47 places (yes, we need to work on this). Some highlights: Bahia (Brasil), Etosha (Namibia), Madagascar, Bruges (yep, we’re in there), Marrakech (Morocco), Kenya. Strangely enough, of the collection, only 1 in Asia (and it’s even the Middle East), 3 are in South America,  6 in Canada, 15 in Africa and a whooping 22 in Europe.
3. Only myself visited: 42 places. Some that stuck out: Evora (Portugal), Antartica (of course), Great Barrier Reef (Australia), Rio and 4 other spots (Brasil), Andalucia (Spain) and the Carribean (5 spots). 
4. Only Thomas has been: 23 places (not that we are in any way competiting of course ;-)

It’s sort of nice during one of our last evenings in Zimbabwe, to look back on where we have been, and also dream of all the places we can still discover.