6 Mwa nan Ayiti :)

Piti, piti, wazo fè nich li ... Little by little, the bird makes its nest.

It has been 6 months (plus a couple of weeks) since I first arrived in Haiti, and I am constantly reminded of how beautiful/complicated/wonderful this country is. I would love to try and encapsulate my perspective on Haiti in one comprehensive update to share with you; but, every time I have tried to write something down about my first 6 months, it has felt inadequate. It seems that the more I learn about Haiti and about the International Development/NGO (non-governmental organization) world, the less I seem to know and the more difficult it becomes to explain.


So, rather than trying to produce something insightful, I am just going to leave you with some descriptions of what I've been up to along with some pictures of some of the things that I have seen and done in the past few months.


And it goes.. and it goes... and it goes a little something like this (hit it!):
...(did anyone else just start singing the Aaron Carter classic "That's how I beat Shaq"?... just me? ok. great.)

1) Karnaval happened... I was able to go to some of the pre-Carnival events in Port-au-Prince (as I mentioned in my last post) as well as the annual Carnival celebration in Jacmel.

PaP Pre-Carnival on Delmas (Jess' photo)

At our place in Jacmel before Carnival (Kate's photo)

 Jacmel is a cute little beach town that EXPLODES with Carnival fervor as Ash Wednesday approaches. The Carnival parade in Jacmel traditionally happens the week before the national Carnival is celebrated. I have been to Jacmel outside of Carnival season and loved it, but Carnival is this city's shining moment. Jacmel is touted by many as the artistic capital of Haiti. Throughout the city, you can find beautiful tile mosaic murals as well as troves of papier-mâché, which is this city's artistic speciality and a particularly important part of the Carnival celebrations, with thousand of papier-mâché costumes, masks, and other accessories created each year for the celebration.

Jacmel Mosaic  (Kate's photo)

Papier-mache masks lined up and ready for the parade (Kate's photo)

On the days leading up to the main parade, all of the buildings on the main route build a new Carnival-themed facade (these facades were actually still being constructed and painted just hours before the parade began). The result is that the main street of the city is completely transformed into Carnival-mode. It was as if the entire city put on a Carnival mask just for the occasion!

In the stands (Kate's photo)

The main parade route (Kate's photo)

Now, getting to the parade itself--- You can either buy tickets to watch the parade from up in these freshly-constructed stands or you can process along with the parade as it comes down the main street (we opted to do a little of both, as you will see in the pictures). The parade begins around noon and it lasts almost until daybreak. It consists of various dance troupes, floats, and party trucks (also known as chars), but the papier-mache costumes and the Carnival music are what really provide the energy for the celebration. Click here for my favorite Carnival song (it doesn't heat up til 2:40 in, so do yourself a favor and just skip past the intro).

Barbancourt dancer (Kate's photo)

Papier-mache masks (Kate's photo)

Watching the action from above (Kate's photo)

Traditional costumes (Kate's photo)

Joining the parade (Kate's photo)

2) Work has been crazy. We are currently restructuring our department as well as re-conceptualizing the project on which I am working. During this sometimes tumultous process, three of my colleagues have resigned (in a span of 3 months). The silver lining in this is that I have gotten some street cred for stepping up and taking on new roles in the interim. We are already working on hiring new staff and we hosted some consultants who helped us think through how we would like to tackle my project going forward. This has kept me busy at work, which I am happy about. I still am not crazy about my project, but I have built a lot of confidence at work and have learned a lot about how my organization works (for better or worse).


3) I visited some new beaches and attended a Haitian wedding. One of my favorite recent adventures was a trip to Kokoye beach, which is just outside of Ti Goave. The beach is inaccessible by car, so we had to take a 1 hour boat ride to get there. It was very secluded and the water was a crystal clear Caribbean blue. It was hands-down the most beautiful place I have been to so far in Haiti.

Camping at Kokoye Beach (Maz's photo)

A few weeks later, I went to a wedding in O Kay (a coastal town just about 2-3 hours past Jacmel). It was pretty similar to weddings I have been to in the US except that the procession out involved the bridesmaids dancing to a synchronized, slow, ballet-like dance. Oh, and they also hired singers who sang love songs to the new couple after the wedding vows were exchanged. Curiously, all of the songs were in English. (For example, Foreigner's "I want to know what love is"). I didn't take any pictures at the wedding (although plenty of pictures were taken of me, owing to the fact that I was the only blan that decided to crash the wedding that day). During this impromptu trip to the South, we also made a stop at Port Salut, which is a popular beach nearby O Kay.

Port Salut

4) My mom, grandma, and 2 aunts visited Haiti to celebrate my mom's 50th birthday! According to the reports that I received, they had a great time here. It meant a lot to me to be able to show them the country and to give them a different picture of Haiti than most people receive via the US Media. Among other things, we went to a nice restaurant in Port-au-Prince, stayed at Moulin Sur Mer on Haiti's Arcadins coast, went to a Haitian history museum downtown, had an obligatory Rhum Sour at the Hotel Oloffson, ate a big Haitian meal at my apartment, and went to Sunday mass at one of the Catholic churches nearby.

Reynolds sisters at Hotel Oloffson 

Moulin Sur Mer's beach

Frou Frou drinks at Moulin Sur Mer

 DISCLAIMER: This is a personal blog. Any views or opinions (or grammatical errors!) represented in this blog are personal and belong solely to the blog owner and do not represent those of people, institutions or organizations that the owner may or may not be associated with in professional or personal capacity, unless explicitly stated.  All pictures are mine unless otherwise stated. 

Dominican Sand and Sun, Work Woes/Breakthroughs, Jazz in the Park, and Pre-Carnaval Sundays

I thought about trying to give an update of everything that has happened since I last wrote a blog post in December, but I kept putting off writing it because there was too much to talk about…. And now it’s mid-February and I still have yet to put up that January blog post… but is anyone that surprised about my procrastination?  So, suffice to say, I had an amazing time in the Dominican Republic.  I stayed at a beautiful beach resort in Punta Cana with my family for the first 5 days  I then met up with my friends for NYE in Santo Domingo and then (among other things) went on several wild taxi/horse/moto rides to and from Las Terrenas, which is a small beach town in the Samana Peninsula.  Below are some pictures of the trip (none of these are my pictures since my phone shit out halfway through the trip--- so, thanks to Anne, Bridget, Mom, Annie, etc. for letting me use your pictures!).  It was great to see everyone and to spend some time just enjoying each other’s company.  I couldn’t have asked for a better vacation!

 

It is always hard to come back to work after a long vacation, but it was especially difficult for me this time around.  I was frustrated and disillusioned with work before I left for the trip and these feelings had not diminished when I came back to work.  I was in low spirits for most of January and I thought a lot about leaving Haiti after my contract ended in August.  I was tired of not having anything to do at work, I was frustrated by the language barrier, and I had lost a lot of my initial motivation. It was especially frustrating because everything else here was going really well for me--- I have great friends, I love where I live, and I am enjoying learning more about Haiti and experiencing all that the country has to offer.  The only missing piece to the puzzle was work, which was odd because this was the main reason that I came here--- to work and to learn.  Not being fulfilled by my work has been such an odd feeling for me and it’s something that I’m not used to.  At the height of my frustration, I found out that there would be a change in management for my project.  We would be down one staff member and did not plan on hiring someone new.  Due to this, we would be redistributing roles and responsibilities for our project.  While to outside ears, this might sound like a bad thing, it was actually a ray of sunshine peeking out from behind the clouds for me. It has only been a few days since this change has taken place and I have found that I have much more work to take on and my role as Monitoring and Evaluation lead on the project has allowed me to have a more active role in how our project progresses.  I have also begun working on a research study that will explore the “best practices” of different health networks in Africa and elsewhere with the overall goal of producing relevant information that we can use to shape the health network that we are building in Haiti. It is the first real project that I have been given and I am excited to finally have something that I can take ownership over.  So, while work can still be very frustrating and slow and I am not always working on things that interest me, I am happy to report that it has gotten a LOT better!  I feel that I am taking tangible steps toward making real contributions to the project.

On another note, I will also (after much debate, angst, and a lengthy pro/con list) be enrolling in a more intensive French class that will hopefully help me pick up the language more quickly so that I can better participate in meetings, etc.  I’ll explain my epic moral struggle in choosing between French and Kreyol in another blog, but I’m guessing whoever is still reading has likely had enough of me waxing poetic about my internal struggles.  I’ll try to keep it to one internal struggle per post to keep you all sane.  Cliff notes version: I’ll be taking the French class but continuing to learn Kreyol through my daily interactions with coworkers, market women, etc.  French is a necessity for work, whereas learning Kreyol would just be an added bonus (despite how much I wish it was the other way around).

It seems that anytime I am feeling especially frustrated or unsure of myself, there is always something amazing happening here that pulls me back in and reminds of how privileged I am to be living and learning in such a beautiful country. So, without fail, right in the middle of all of my work confusion, Haiti happened to be hosting its annual International Jazz Festival. The festival drew Jazz artists from around the world who came to play at various events that were offered throughout the week.  One of the events was a free concert in a public park down the street from my apartment.  There were thousands of people who turned out for the show (the event featured 2 Haitian bands and 1 band called “Soul Rebels” from New Orleans).  You can see a video of the Soul Rebels concert here (Start the video at 3:00--- the audio doesn't do them justice-- it was so good!). Many times I feel disconnected from my Haitian neighbors and I feel like I am living in an expat bubble, but since this concert was free, it meant that anyone could attend.  Without the prohibitive cost that many events in Haiti have, access wasn’t restricted to wealthy Haitian elite or expats as it usually is.  I felt like a real part of the community--- singing to the music and drinking Barbancourt along with the rest of the concert-goers rather than being isolated behind an iron gate at an exclusive event.  It also helped that the bands were great performers and put on a great show.  This free show ended up being one of the best concerts I’ve ever seen… and it all happened within walking distance of my apartment.  You can’t beat that!

Besides the Jazz Festival, the Carnaval festivities have started picking up.  Carnaval (also spelled Kanaval or Carnival depending on who you’re talking to) is similar to American celebrations of Fat Tuesday/Mardis Gras/etc. While Fat Tuesday is not until March 4^th this year, Haitians essentially start the celebrations right after the Epiphany holiday in early January.  This means that EVERY Sunday from early January until March 4th, I will be greeted with a rara band (or two or three if I am lucky) parading down my street in the afternoons. Rara bands are groups of musicians, dancers and, often, some bystanders that are drawn into the action that play “mizik rasin” (rasin translates to “roots”--- it involves lots of drums and heavy beats and hearkens back to Haitians' roots in Africa). These bands are an important part of the Carnaval celebrations in Haiti. Rara bands can simply be a group of people making music together, they can be symbolic performances designed to tell a story or to support a particular political candidate, they can be tied to religious themes (be they Voodoo or Christian), or they can be all of the above and more. The rara bands that I have seen so far usually have trumpet players, drums, tambourines, and maracas plus some handmade metal trumpets that look very similar in shape to a vuvuzela (think World Cup in South Africa).  Another popular instrument is a huge plastic pipe (it looks like it’s just a standard PVC pipe that you would find at a construction site) that is used to produce a loud, bellowing tone.  No matter how tired (read: hungover) I am on a Sunday morning, I can’t help but smile as I stand on my porch and watch these bands pass my apartment, dancing, waving flags, and playing spirited music as they march through the streets of Port-au-Prince.  This past Sunday, I went with a friend to watch the rara bands come down Route de Delmas (a big, busy street near where I work).  Every Sunday until Carnaval, thousands of people flood Delmas to dance, drink, play music, celebrate, and sing. Delmas becomes so swollen with people on these nights that from about 7:30-9:30pm on Sundays during pre-Carnaval season, it is literally impossible to drive on this street because it is filled to the brim with people, instruments, and party trucks.  The party trucks (called "char") are constructed on top of semi-truck beds and they serve as a platform for 50-100 people dressed in coordinated t-shirts to dance and sing to the music that is being blasted through built-in speakers on the truck. I don’t have a working camera here, so, unfortunately, I don’t have pictures that can better illustrate what it’s like; but, if you picture any large festival/parade, you'll get the idea.  The amazing thing, though, is that this parade down Delmas happens EVERY Sunday during pre-Carnaval season.  The elaborate costumes, masks, and other traditional festivities will wait until the official Carnaval events in late February and early March, but these weekly Sunday celebrations are still pretty impressive.  Each and every Sunday, people march for hours, walking from Downtown all the way up to Petion-ville, with all the raras and party trucks and partiers eventually culminating in Petion-ville and with celebrations lasting well into the night (yes--- this all happens on a Sunday night). I am still in awe of how massive the celebration was.  If this is just a typical pre-Carnival Sunday, I can only imagine what the official “warm-up” event will be like in Jacmel on February 23^rd and what Port-au-Prince will be like from March 2^nd through the 4^th when the real Carnaval events take place.  Just the pre-Carnaval parades on your “average” Sunday are a sight to behold. Hopefully I will have some pictures and videos to share with you so you can see what it’s like!

Na we pita! (see you later!)

Jwaye Nwèl!

Jwaye Nwèl tout moun! Merry Christmas everyone! I wanted to give you all an update about what I have been doing since I last posted. It's almost been 3 months in Haiti and I realize that I haven't posted since my 6 week mark-- time has flown!  Since my last post, I have gone to the beach in Gran Goave, had a successful Thanksgiving potluck with friends, attended my work Christmas party, made my first solo batch of Banan Peze and Pikliz, and celebrated my 25th birthday. On Christmas, I'll be meeting up with my family in Punta Cana, DR and then on NYE with some friends in Santo Domingo! Below are some pictures from my last month and a half:

Gran Goave, Haiti

Obligatory ocean picture -- Gran Goave, Haiti (Kate's photo)

Note the little kabrit  hanging out in the shadows--- I think I ate him for lunch that day ;) -- Gran Goave, Haiti (Kate's photo)

Turkey Leg Lunch on Thanksgiving Day

My First Turkey (cooked for our Friendsgiving on the Saturday after Thanksgiving) = success! 

Work Christmas Party - (photo credit to CRS photographer)

Celebrating my 25th in Haiti- with a blow torch shoved in an ice cream sundae (photo credit to Kettianne)

Successful Homemade Banan Peze ak Pikliz!!

I had this post written up for Thanksgiving, but I never got around to posting it. I figured I might as well just try and pass it off as a Jwaye Nwèl post rather than deleting it:  

This year at Christmas, I am thankful:  

-For the adorable ti moun (children) with neatly pressed uniforms walking hand-in-hand to school who make me smile every morning on my way to work and who give me hope for the future.

-For the persistent ti moun with tattered clothes who ask to wash my car windows every morning, who are NOT in school, and who remind me that statistics (that 50% of Haitian children do not attend school) have names and faces. 

-For my coworkers who excuse me for my lack of a wardrobe (Haitians are very fashionable and I am not) and who push me to be more confident about my work (lest I be walked all over)

2 of my 3 wonderful neighbors (Kate's photo)

-For my neighbors who make Haiti feel like home, who are always just around the corner when I feel lonely in my 2 BR apartment or need a cup of flour, who give my jokes way too much credit, and who keep me from making a fool of myself at work Christmas parties (or at least give their best attempt).

-For the drivers, who are constantly making me laugh, who have taught me more about Haiti and Kreyol than anyone else here, who are respectful and courteous, and who always seem happy to see me (even when I know they really were hoping I would get another ride home so that they could go home early)

-For market days, where I get to practice my Kreyol, buy fresh fruits and vegetables, and haggle with the ti machann (market women) over prices and make them laugh with my attempts to speak in Kreyol. 

Happy Hour on the roof!

-For Kompa music, which reminds me that it is OK to make a fool of yourself in front of a large crowd of strangers.

-For Kreyol food, Haiti's famous Barbancourt Rhum, Prestige Beer, and for Happy Hour on the roof. 

-For Petionville and my fancy apartment--- a constant reminder of my easy access to privileges I didn’t earn.

-For my friends back in the US who humor me with skype calls, who send me Whatsapp texts to update me on all of the hot gossip in Omaha and to dish about potential love interests… who make me feel like things won’t change despite the distance.

-For my family who has been unbelievably supportive of this journey, from cards at every holiday to offering to bring essentially everything but the kitchen sink for me when they come visit in the DR. I couldn't ask for a more loving family. 

-For the opportunity to see the world--- both its beauty and its ugliness--- and to discard my rosy-colored glasses at every chance I get.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! 

DISCLAIMER: This is a personal blog. Any views or opinions (or grammatical errors!) represented in this blog are personal and belong solely to the blog owner and do not represent those of people, institutions or organizations that the owner may or may not be associated with in professional or personal capacity, unless explicitly stated. 

By the numbers

Weeks 4, 5, and 6 have each brought their own challenges and rewards.  In a nutshell, weeks 4/5 were dedicated to work trips (visiting 6 of our 7 partner hospitals) and week 6 was a rather stressful and confusing work week. Between weeks 5 and 6 was Fete Gede- a Haitian holiday similar to the Mexican "Day of the Dead" celebrations. Fete Gede provided us with a nice, long 3-day weekend, and we used it to travel to Jacmel, which is a small beach town south of Port-au-Prince.  I have been very lucky to have seen so much of this beautiful country already.  I'll spare you from a day-to-day recap and just give you some stats on my first 6 weeks in Haiti (this idea was stolen from a friend's blog about her time in Kenya):

SIX:
-weeks in Haiti....which means I've now been in Haiti longer than I have been in any other country! (besides the US, of course).

ZERO:
-illnesses (fingers and toes crossed that this continues)

ONE:  
-new apartment
-quart of pikliz consumed. I am obsessed.  Pikliz is a spicy cabbage slaw that people put on all of the tasty fried snacks (fritay) here

TWO:
-bowls of bouillon (delicious Haitian soup with dumplings)
-LOUD coworkers (although they also have two of the best laughs I've ever heard)
-beaches visited

THREE: 
-bottles of Barbancourt rhum

EIGHT:
-roommates in our cottage on the beach in Jacmel

TEN:
-LONG car trips (the road to Jacmel included approx. 360 curves in the road)
-cities (Jacmel, Cap Haitien, Milot, Pilate, Limbe, Gros Morne, Fond-des-Blancs, Fond-des-Negres, Croix-des-Boquets, Port-au-Prince/Petionville)

ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY SEVEN:
-minutes stuck in stand-still traffic on our drive back from Jacmel (the president decided to have a concert on one of the biggest travel days of the year)

Too many to count:
-beautiful places and people
-broken conversations in Kreyol/Spanish/English
-times I've tripped going up a flight of stairs in front of a coworker (it probably doesn't help that my only work shoes are a full size too big)
-ants swarming in my apartment after leaving even a crumb of food out
-times the power has gone out (luckily we have a generator, so it *almost* always comes right back on)
-International Development or CRS-specific acronyms I didn't know
-times I've awkwardly greeted someone with a handshake only to realize that they were going in for the typical two-cheek kiss greeting
-adorable kids in uniforms, holding hands and walking to school each morning

And last but not least, some pictures of the beautiful Haitian countryside:

On my first road trip (we went to Southern Haiti to visit a couple of our partner hospitals):

On my second road trip (we went through the Central Plateau and up to Northern Haiti, also to visit hospitals):

On my weekend getaway in Jacmel (first row is pictures of our little oceanfront cottage and second row is from our visit to Bassin Bleu-- a waterfall near Jacmel--- photo credit to Lam for the Bassin Bleu pictures):

 





I don't have anymore trips scheduled until my much anticipated trip to the DR, so I will start putting up blog posts more regularly :)

DISCLAIMER: This is a personal blog. Any views or opinions (or grammatical errors!) represented in this blog are personal and belong solely to the blog owner and do not represent those of people, institutions or organizations that the owner may or may not be associated with in professional or personal capacity, unless explicitly stated.  All pictures are mine unless otherwise stated

Apatman mwen an Petionville!

I've had a busy last two weeks, so I'll try and give you a synopsis of what I've been up to since I last posted. Please excuse the grammatical errors (i'm sure there are many) and choppy writing as I kind of just threw this together.  

Week 2:
I spent the week finishing up the last of my logistical/settling-in tasks and trying to better define my role. Then, on Friday we went to Press Cafe for drinks.  We listened to the live Kompa music, attempted to dance, and drank too much Barbancourt rhum, which is made here in Haiti. It was the first time where I felt like I was actually in Haiti rather than trapped in an Expat bubble. Before this we had only been to places that catered to expats---places where the only Haitians in the bar were the ones working there.  It was refreshing to be somewhere that actually felt like Haiti. By the way, Kompa is a popular type of Haitian music--- click here for an example of Kompa. The singer, whose stage name is "Sweet Mickey," is actually the current Haitian president! 

The next day we went to the Artisanat en Fete which was an art festival that brought together artists from all over Haiti.  There were paper maiche animals and voodoo-inspired paintings from Jacmel, metal work sculptures from Croix des Bouquets, and folk art paintings from the Plateau Central (just to name a few of the things we saw). I could have probably spent an entire paycheck there, but I didn't realize that it was all going to be high-end art (aka expensive), so I hadn't brought enough money-- which was probably a good thing.  I will have the chance to visit most of the places where this art came from throughout my time in Haiti, so I figured that I would have plenty of opportunities to buy some of the things that I really liked. Below are some pictures that I took at the Fete.  (Left- voodoo-inspired paintings, Center- clever fountain art piece, Right- Huge bottle of Barbancourt rhum)

The next day was move-in day, and, in true Haitian style, I was supposed to move in at 1pm and didn't end up getting to the apartment until 6pm.  The apartment is beautiful and in a perfect location in Petionville (a suburb of Port-au-Prince). I am close to the two big grocery stores in PAP where they have ATMs and just about any American or import product that you could possibly want if you're willing to pay the price (e.g. Fage greek yogurt and Ezekial Bread.  Crazy!)  I am also within walking distance of several restaurants (although they are likely out of my price range for a normal meal since most of the Petionville restaurants cost at least $15-20/entrée--- these restaurants cater to the wealthy expats that live in this suburb).  My apartment feels very safe (there is always a guard watching the apartment) and I am able to walk around during the day.  There are two small outdoor markets that are just a short walk away.  It is very strange to be living in such a nice apartment, and I feel very spoiled with the apartment that I have.  In other places in Latin America where I've lived, my accommodations have been MUCH more basic.  Also, I have an extra bedroom, so if you know anyone who would like a place to stay while they are in Port-au-Prince, please send them my way.  I would love to have a guest! I think it will feel a little strange living by myself since I've always had at least 1 roommate. It will be nice to have my own space, though. Below are some pictures of my apartment (the last two pictures are the view from my porch and the view from the roof).

Week 3: 

This past week was VERY busy as most of the key people at the office were participating in a "positioning" workshop that lasted the whole week.  My boss suggested that I sit in on the workshop to get some context on how the organization pursues funding opportunities, and it ended up being a really interesting and informative week.  It was great because we spent a lot of time working in our small Health sector group to put together a health strategy.  I was able to contribute some of my thoughts/opinions to the group during these small group discussions, and it gave me an opportunity to really feel like I was a part of the team.  It also helped that the workshop was conducted entirely in English. (It's just another reminder that I need to find a French tutor so that I can participate more fully in future workshops/meetings that will undoubtedly be held in French! This was surely an exception to the rule). Here is a picture of one of our office's neighbors who joined me after lunch on the last day of the workshop after everyone else had left for the day (the office was technically closed for a national holiday):  
 

As I mentioned earlier, I set up a meeting with my bosses in order to go over what their expectations are for my position and to lay out concrete tasks.  We had a really great meeting and we identified several things that I could begin working on right away.  So, for those of you who had asked me what I will do every day, I can finally tell you!  I will be working on doing a review of the current literature and best practices for Hospital Networks (especially in other developing countries and in Haiti) as well as doing a lit review on some other related topics (supply chain management, electronic medical records, etc.).  I will also be visiting our some of the hospitals that are a part of the hospital network with which we work.  I'll have the opportunity to visit 6 of our hospitals just in this first month.  Tomorrow and Tuesday, I will traveling to Southern Haiti to visit two of our hospitals there, and then the following week I will be traveling to 4 of our partner hospitals in the North. I'm very excited to see the hospitals and to have the chance to see quite a bit of Haiti in my first month here! 

This weekend was a whirlwind.  I had people over for drinks at my new place on Friday night and then on Saturday I spent most of the day shopping for things that I needed for my apartment (dishware, bleach, ant traps, a mop... you name it).  Then my neighbors and I went to a cute little bar/restaurant in Croix des Bouquets on Saturday night.  I finally got to have some banan peze (called tostones, patacones, or platanos fritos in other latin american countries, it's basically double-fried disks of smashed plantains made from green/unripe plantains, which taste similar to a potato when cooked). It was also salsa night at the restaurant, so we watched people dance salsa over some really tasty Passion Fruit drinks (made with Barbancourt rhum, of course). You've gotta love the Heineken glass they're served in :)

That's all for the past two weeks... I probably won't post again until the end of the month because I've got a busy couple of weeks ahead with some works trips.  Thanks for reading :)  

DISCLAIMER: This is a personal blog. Any views or opinions (or grammatical errors!) represented in this blog are personal and belong solely to the blog owner and do not represent those of people, institutions or organizations that the owner may or may not be associated with in professional or personal capacity, unless explicitly stated.