For Aïd: First stop: Moulay Idriss and Volubilis with Hanna and Kai

Last weekend was a long weekend, since Monday and Tuesday we had the day off because of Aid el-Kebir: la 'Grande Fête' or the sheep holiday. We had Hannah, our German friend from Zimbabwe coming with her boyfriend, Kai, for the long weekend. So nice to see each other again after over a year, and catch up on the many changes. They spend one day visiting Rabat and Saturday morning we went on a road trip through the north of Morocco.

First stop was Moulay Idriss, a beautiful pilgrimage city nestled in the rocks, and the nearby Volubilis, roman ruins. It's close to Meknes, and really pretty, with a rich history, both spiritually and culturally.

Une formation de France Volontaires

La semaine passée, j'étais à Melun, pour suivre une formation destinée aux personnes qui partent comme Volontaires de Solidarité Internationale (VSI dans le jargon) avec France Volontaires. Comme je voulais travailler pour SFCG avec ce statut, j'étais obligé de m'y soumettre. Notons en passant que, bien que je suis plus que d'accord avec la philosophie et les approches du volontariat, je voulais surtout bénéficier des aspects de couverture de sécurité sociale (eh oui, Search comme boîte américaine ne m'inspire pas trop de confiance de ce point de vue là). 

Bref, je me suis retrouvé avec 34 jeunes (eh oui, j'étais comme le doyen), certains avec quelques expériences internationales, mais pas trop de missions de longues durées. Comme c'était la formation de base, je dois admettre que du point de vue du contenu, j'ai pas trop appris, par contre, du point de vue humain, c'était super. Un grand groupe, beaucoup de diversité, d'ouverture, de joie et de l'énergie positive. 

Le groupe de France Célibataires - avant l'envol

Toute l'expérience me renvoyait un peu dans mon passé, la formation que j'ai suivi il y a dix ans (déjà, aarrrggghh!) avec ITECO, avant de partir pour ma première fois en Haiti. C'est comme se retrouver à l'école primaire et remarquer que tout a l'air tellement petit. D'un côté, c'est chouette car on sent qu'on a grandit, qu'on a évolué, mais d'un autre il y a une espèce de nostalgie de cette époque, quand les choses étaient plus simples...

Notre petit groupe - envolé

Job hunting

This post for my last months and this specific part of life which is never great fun: looking for a job. Already before my Zim contract was over, we started looking, remembering that paradoxical piece of advice: it's easier to find a job when you already have one. With my defined life project of changing parts of the world every four years, it also meant being limited to the Arab world, and I had initially set my mind to the Middle East, Lebanon or Syria. This meant at least the search was better defined but our options more limited as well. Though I pride myself in not being a complete catastrophe at drafting CV and motivation letters, it's still never the best of times, especially if you're as picky as I am. Browsing the regular list of development jobs to see if anything new came out, sending out applications left and right, following up leads, getting in touch with people that might know someone that might know someone, and hardly ever getting replies, let alone positive ones, it's all not very good for your state of mind. I must admit, somewhere around April, it was all getting too much for me. 

I tried to do it as is recommended, keeping an active life, planning my day with Arab classes, playing my capoeira, social events, not putting too much pressure on myself and all, but I must admit I was dreading that recurring question you dread when you see friends and family:"And, found anything yet?". They mean well, but somehow you don't want to dwell on it too much, raising your hopes and expectations while they might not materialize. I am not one to stay at home and just watch series to pass time. And while volunteering is always an option, it's usually with a role and inside structures that won't let them really capitalize on your experiences 

or plan for longer term projects. Despite my growing experience, it was still hard and once Thomas had his posting in Rabat, Morocco, the range became even more limited and not very encouraging.

Once you have a job, people tend to forget how hard it was being without a job, having all the idle time, playing at occupational therapy and keeping yourself busy, without feeling as if your lazy or a parasite to society (especially if you're still on unemployment benefits). Most conversations with new people start with:"So, what are you doing?" and there are only so many original replies you can come up with, while not sounding desperate or plain undesirable, but still communicating your wish to be active. I even noticed I started avoiding meeting new people, just cause I didn't want to get into it. You also don't want to show your friends too much that it's hard, cause honestly, there's not much they can do. If you went through a bad break up or traumatic experience, it might help to talk about it, but in this case, all the good advice just seemed to make me want to shout out with frustration or sit down and cry.

Now I can write this post and explain the prolonged radio silence on this blog, since I have found a job and am very happy with it, but before entering into details about all that, I did want to have one post to explain and to help me remember how it felt...

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).