Boring - Think Again!

I wanted to begin this post writing that by and large this week has been remarkably uninteresting. But then I paused to think that maybe my hyper life-style and sometimes very high expectations of myself and people/things around me should not mean that some ‘quieter’ days are boring. And then I realized that even my ‘quiet’ times are actually pretty incredible – even if sometimes, hearing the out-of-this-world stories of my colleagues and new friends here, I consider my own life pretty standard… Yes, I know, perspective shifts all the time. Sometime, when they throw in stories from all over the world about how they were evacuated, robbed at gun-point, lived in compounds or had their cars high-jacked, I go ‘wow!’ and I find not much more to add…

And then there comes a weekend – let’s say the first ‘slow’ weekend I would have spent since coming back to Africa, settling into my new house, etc. – and a last-minute begging-request from my former employer: that I help out (i.e. pretty much do the entire media part) of the finally happening gorilla transfer (the one which I was supposed to cover last June, and that was postponed MANY, many, many times). So here I was, working like a maniac both Saturday and Sunday, from 4.30 a.m. onwards, on the Goma side, seeing these beloved orphaned gorillas at long last being transported/airlifted from Rwanda back to Congo (where they had originally been confiscated from poachers). And what a wonderful, emotional time it was too, getting together with my former colleagues from Rwanda and also meeting some cool filmmakers, with very precious advice for my camera work. What also helped, esthetically, was that the helicopter pilot was quite a hot guy – unfortunately, though, I didn’t get a chance to fly off with him… My next post MUST have ‘frequent helicopter rides’ on the job description!

Once the whole frenzy was over, my body simply collapsed from last weeks’ fatigue (I suspect that the Goma dust clouds might have something to do with it as well, even if I am not allergic or particularly sensitive to these things)… It has also been quite difficult to sleep in, as loud birds start their morning rounds VERY early, and our Congolese house staff are also very diligent at sweeping the yard and sending radio messages at 6 a.m… Hardly being able to breathe I have sort of crawled through Monday and Tuesday, and I am now about to be picked up for a first field assignment, some 2-3 hours’ drive on a bad road… If by tonight I am feeling slightly more energetic I plan to embark on a NYC reminiscent experience: salsa dancing, with an Italian instructor, on the shores of the lake.

Wait, was I about to say my life was ‘uninteresting’?!?