Nuque et Face

Départ
Tout début a une fin. C'est vraiment un cliché mais quand même important à comprendre. Mon départ fût modeste, ce qui m'a permis de bien causer avec mes amis proches pendant qu'une pluie surprenante tombait (c'est la saison sèche).

Kaloga, un ami du cartier, m'a raconté que lorsqu'on voit la face d'un étranger, on sait déjà qu'on va un jour voir sa nuque. Ça s'est vu à mon départ puisqu'ils ont l'habitude de voir des étrangers, comme des proches, partir.

Retour
À l'exception du changement de 60 degrés celsius et 8 heures de décalage, le retour à Smithers se passe bien. Il y a eu des changements de personnel à One Sky, ce qui fait que le bureau est présentement composé de nouveaux employés (les deux "anciens" arrivent lundi). Peu importe, le rhytme lent de Smithers facilite la ré-intégration pour le moment.

Le Mali me manque déjà, c'est certain. Mais pendant que certains voient ma nuque, autres me font face. Il reste à voir si et quand ils me verront de derrière...

Joy

I received an email from Gregory Biniowsky, a One Sky Board Member, who shared an inspiring quote by Uruguayan essayist Eduardo Galeano:

"It is not a certainty that refers to the 'Great Beyond'. Instead, it refers to the 'Great Here and Now', it refers to the joy of the continuing human adventure on Earth. We have the joy of our joys, and also we have the joy of our sorrows, because we are not interested in the painless life that consumerist civilization creates, promotes and sells…and we are proud of the price of so much pain we pay to feel so much love. We have the joy of our errors, stumblings that reveal the passion of wandering and the love of the journey; and we have the joy of our defeats, because the struggle for justice and beauty is worthwhile even when it is lost. And above all, above all, we have the joy of our hopes; when disillusionment is in vogue, when disenchantment has become an item of universal and mass consumption, we continue to believe in the amazing power of the human embrace."

It has not been easy to match people here with their thoughtful wishes/blessings for the new year. I've always been accustomed to say "happy new year/bonne année" and moving on. More to come...

(I'm trying to build suspense to boost readership. It's a foolproof plan!)

Blogged with Flock

Chapeaux

Interprète

On a encore ajouté un nouvel élément à mon gabarit d'homme à tout faire. Je quitte encore une fois pour Garalo demain mais cette fois-ci, non comme photographe et journaliste mais plutôt avec mon chapeau d'interprète. Les génératrices de la centrale électrique à Garalo ont été importé des Pays-Bas et l'ingénieur-en-chef de cette phase du projet est de retour pour 2 semaines. Puisqu'il ne comprend pas très bien le français, je l'accompagne pour les quelques jours pour jouer au jeu de téléphone. Il est fort probable qu'à certains moments, il y aura un employé à la centrale qui agira comme interprète du Bambara au Français donc il faut espérer que le message traverse les haies de la langue.

Stratégiste

Les deux dernières semaines ont été acharnu puisque mes tâches de design de matériaux de communication ont cédés leurs places pour la rédaction d'une stratégie de communication. Il s'agit de la première fois que le MFC entreprend une telle tâche donc le défi se présente aussi comme une opportunité. Je suis imprégné dans le pratique. En fait, c'est une lacune sur laquelle je cherche toujours à m'améliorer. Ce nouveau chapeau de stratégiste semble un peu trop grand pour le moment mais je cherche à le faire rétrécir.

Colocataire

La délégation néerlandaise comprend aussi une consultante qui va passer 3 semaines à Bamako. Le Mali Folkcenter Nyetaa (c'est le nom officiel donc je vais l'utiliser à partir de maintenant) appartient deux apartements: celui où j'habite et un autre dans le même cartier. Puisque cette consultante va aménager avec moi pour les 3 prochaines semaines, on a décidé que ce serait mieux de s'installer dans l'autre apartement puisqu'il est beaucoup plus grand. J'ai vraiment hésité puisque mes racines commençaient à bien creuser cette terre; c'est aussi à cause que ma formation avec One Sky était surtout axée sur l'épanouissement en dehors de sa zone de confort et je crains être trop confortable. Il s'agit peut-être d'une opportunité pour découvrir différents moyens d'éviter le sentiment d'être isoler. Vous allez tous comprendre dès que j'ai la chance de prendre quelques photos.

Bon, c'est quel chapeau que je vais porter aujourd'hui...

3 Day Adventure: Days 2 & 3

Day 2

The boy who cried backpack

This day consisted of the rope challenge in the morning and early afternoon, followed by lunch and then we were given our final challenge. This mental challenge consisted of solo camping from early evening until noon the following day. Each participant had to select a spot away from the cabin to spend the night. After initially climbing up into the mountains, I decided to head down to the valley in this giant clearing where I was surrounded by mountains. On top of the mental challenge, I gave myself the objective of not eating during this entire solo camping trip. It wasn’t so hard until the next day because I must have been up around 6 or 7 and had to battle between self-reflection, temptation and hunger.

Self-control has always been something I have wanted to improve and I think I took a giant step because I had an entire bag of food hung up in a tree about 300 m from my tent. I was also able to reflect on many things, including why I am here and who I am. These are very basic philosophical questions that I, like many others, have never taken seriously enough to allocate time to reflect upon them.

The sun was going down, it must have been about 10:30 and I was preparing myself to go to sleep. I was wandering the valley when, across a creek with raging rapids, I saw a backpack hung up in a tree with a bright yellow strap. Immediately, my mind jumped out of the gates and it was running a mile a minute. I can honestly say that fear took over me for many reasons but mostly because it was no more than 100m from my tent. It is important to remind you that this was bear country and you are supposed to hang your food far enough so that the bear doesn’t associate your tent with the food it is trying to get out of the tree. The creek prevented me to cross over and investigate any further so I opted to go to sleep and not worry about it. The following day, Mike came to investigate with me and it turned out to be dead pine branches that created a copper orange colour on green. In hindsight, I can’t help but feel ridiculous and embarrassed about this backpack story but think about the conditions before you point your finger and hold your cramped stomach from laughter.

Lesson #7: A strong dose of hunger, fear and prolonged solidarity are as potent as any hallucinogen on the black market.

Day 3

Breathe

After eating what would have been the grossest wrap had I not been on the brink of starvation, we had a session of “intentional enquiry” where Mike directed questions for Pablo, and then Hillary, to explore their personal space (one of their personal challenges). It was quite intense and incredible on how quickly one can open themselves to the point where they are fragile and vulnerable.

Lesson #8: Some people go through their entire lives without examining their Self and who they are. I am one of those people until now. This adventure in the outdoors has quickly turned into an adventure within myself where I need to ask some serious questions. I suggest you try the same before you wake up one day and wonder who the hell you are and what you are doing in this world.

Quick Smithers. Bring the mind eraser device!

Smithers: You mean the revolver, sir?
Mr.Burns: Precisely.

Smithers, British Columbia, is home to 5,509 local residents. The town has a theme of alpine architecture. In fact, a town bylaw requires businesses in the area to construct their buildings in an alpine style, though there are some exceptions (including chains such as Kentucky Fried Chicken and Canadian Tire. A carved wood statue of a man blowing an alpine horn, commonly referred to as The Alpenhorn Man, is located at the entrance to the main street and has become the town symbol. (Thank you Dr. Wiki)

I promise you a picture of The Alpernhorn Man and I.





Our next lesson will be about my next destination after Smithers, Bamako (not to be confused with Barnako, a much more ironic and humorous interpretation according to the future Dr. Ménard, PhD).

That is all for now.