Premiere idée de la journée: comment je veux partir?

Je suis sain de corps et d'esprit en écrivant ce qui suit:

1. Pas de tralala religieux: j'aurai passé suffisamment de temps à assister aux funérailles religieuses des autres
2. Veillée rapide, avec plein de musique de tous les types: Rythm & Blues, Simon & Garfunkel, Beatles, Mahaleo, Symphonies, Concertos,
3. Incinération
4. Mes cendres rejoindront l'Océan Indien à Ambila Lemaitso qui reste mon site préféré... mon enfance, Lalasoa
5. Une pierre levée dans le jardin de Lalasoa à Imerinafovoany? seulement un souhait pas une obligation.

Aujourd'hui je me suis réveillé à 5h30 et levé à 5h45. Un bon breakfast de ventindranovola, saucisse et huile d'olive. Démarrage à 6h33 puis stationnement à coté de la pharmacie de la Croix du Sud. Queue à la mairie du 1er Arrondissement pour obtenir une copie d'acte de naissance à partir de 7h15. A 7h45 distribution d'un numero et d'une fiche de demande (100ar le petit formulaire demi  A4). A 8h15 c'est fini après avoir payé 2000ar parce que mon document est en français, au lieu de 1000ar si en malagasy: les vieux paient plus cher parce qu'ils sont nés trop tôt (pendant la colonisation)... Je dois récupérer le document jeudi 5 juillet à 15h30. Je suis de retour à la maison à 9h20 sans rencontrer de bouchon...
Pour avoir un nouveau passeport il va falloir en plus obtenir un certificat de résidence au bureau du fokontany, et une copie certifiée de ma CIN. Donc il me faudra envisager de déposer mon dossier ce vendredi 6 juillet et espérer l'avoir dans le courant de la semaine prochaine, avant le 13 juillet. Je pourrai remplir tout de suite après un formulaire de demande de visa...
Mon scenario idéal: I en aout, CI début septembre, DRC fin septembre... mais ca ne tient pas qu'à moi tout seul!

Qui vivra verra!

What a mess after a 3 week nice family gathering

Why is it so difficult to get access to such country? First of all need to request the visa directly from MOFA: Why would they give a visa valid from 28 May to 27 June for a workshop scheduled from 28 June to 15 July? At first I thought that it was valid FROM 27 June... Then I had to find a kind friend to take care of the endorsement of the visa on my passport in Nairobi: DHL, visa fee, DHL again to get that endorsement within 10 days... and be denied boarding on my departure day because I did not realise the mistake on the visa.

On the other side Mialy and Kevin are receiving their 4 suitcases tonight after a nice 15 day stay among us. Thanks to our persistence and desire to see all of us together we managed to enjoy these days and realise how nice it could be ... I am not sure if it is going to be possible an other time but we will keep in touch and we will see.

In the meantime I am still expected to support a team that may not need my assistance anymore: I keep contradicting what the organisation has defined as its RBM standards because they are actually not in line with the UN standards. It seems also to be difficult to get people try to think outside the box and try to adjust/adapt to an other way of doing business

Tough and pricey time: I dont know how much I may get reimbursed for what I have advanced intellectually and financially!

Love you, very proud of we all 9!

Le break?

DRAFTED ON 22 AUGUST 2007

Left Abeche a week ago and Ndjamena the day after. Spent one night at Novotel Ndjamena: nice croissants and comfortable room. It is worth it to pay more than FCFA80,000 ($160.00) per night after 8 weeks in the bush! But is Abeche really the bush? Almost 24h per day internet connection, air-conditionned office and bedroom, vegetables and all sorts of meat through the week, nice and available colleagues needing only guidance and trust, good weather despite the rain, crispy and tasty French baguette (if bought at 20.00!). We now have a powerful coffee machine and a water filter (thanks to Steve's generosity!). The stove and the microwave oven are coming. Same for the cycling machine that will equip our gym room. I come also with a boxing bag and maybe an other machine for the belly muscles... We will be equipped to face the stress of post-rainy season! I need to add some light on the front veranda and we will be able to invite friends for nice evenings (to sweat, to drink, to eat... and have fun!).

My International team is made of a strong Swiss woman, a cute young German lady, a very "precious" guy (take the French meaning: precieux, language sophistique) from RDC, an enigmatic engineer from Mali (enigmatic because I could not actually "profile" him yet) and a"macho" man from Quebec.

Eight weeks were not that long between field visits, coaching of national staff, preparing documentation for a multi-donor mission, and identifying the needs of an office left to itself at least for the last 3 months. The place is also interesting for the kind of PEOPLE you may see and meet: i.e Ronny Brauman, Mia Farrow, a basket ball player from Cleveland... Pierre Poupard came for an interim of 4 weeks. I saw him last when I left Bujumbura in July 1994.
In the daily interaction it is interesting to cross your path with beautiful and clever ladies: Gwen, Caroline, Monica, Brigitte, Catherine, Muriel, Pauline. I don't need to name men...

As soon as I am out my main priority seems to fill the gaps and prepare myself for an other stay of at least 6 weeks but with the required equipment for DVD watching or music listening. I may also try to spend less time in the office, especially in the evenings.


I went to the Basilic of Saint Denis yesterday. Interesting to visit this crypt where most French kings and queens are buried

Eid Mubarak!

DRAFTED on 30 September 2008
Here I am sitting in Dakar and watching the ocean from the window of my office... Quite different from what I used to see in Abeche. Dakar is a very interesting place for many reasons. The first reason is that I am going to live on the most western tip of Africa, facing the ocean and enjoying the salty air of the place...

Instead of being stuck in a small house at the border between Chad and SUDAN I am going to cover 24 countries in West and Central Africa. I will start in a week with a 14 day trip to Chad, Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire

I am 66, still feeling lucky

Back from Niger 5 days ago after spending 7 weeks in Niamey and Dosso... Limoges, Bordeaux, Genève, Paris in January-early February; Bangkok end February; Jakarta, Bandung, Lombok and Bali in March. Niger is tough with the heat, up to 45 Celsius degrees...
Obviously I continue travelling for work or fun and I love it!

I feel particularly happy because I am surrounded by people I cherish: Lalasoa, Mama, Tojo, Safa'a & Tantely, and Andry who has just left for a 2 week training in Toronto.

I am excited because within the next weeks I will have an opportunity to meet people in Tana with a private Art exhibition of Safa'a here in Imerinafovoany on Thursday 31 May, a 67th birthday and Mother day lunch on Sunday and the big gathering of Sunday 10 June.

For the last couple of years we have dreamt of this family event: getting all 9 of us together for a few days, having met for a couple of days end of 2009 in Dakar when we were only 6. Life as a citizen of the world is not easy even if it is a very enjoyable one too.

At least 5-6 weeks at home, an opportunity to enjoy the garden and It is now the right time to have lunch on the terrace.

I will also practise my golf... so poor teeing and putting these days! 

Tough year 2017

YES! It was a tough year...
It started with Mama falling in her bathroom and breaking a pelvic bone towards the end of the first week of January. So painful that she had to move to our home for at least 6 weeks to be nursed and assisted properly (day AND night): Lalasoa should be thanked forever for what she did... But it was also an opportunity to confirm how useless my brother and his wife can be, particularly in these difficult circumstances: no offer to contribute, no recognition of what was done, and even reproaching me the unilateral decision to investigate further and take her with us because of her pain and lack of attention given to her situation. The consequences of that accident persisted during the whole year, including the usual complications because of the cold season, and she started to walk again only in December. We enjoyed celebrating her 89th birthday in November.

Andry was back home by end of December 2016 with his commercial pilot license. Born in Burundi he never lived in Madagascar and spent the last 9 years in Canada: 100% English speaking education, French mainly learned through distance education (CNED) during primary school and street Malagasy language acquired during his rare holiday visits during childhood.... The challenges started with the process to obtain a birth certificate for somebody who was not born in Madagascar: You need it to get a CIN (national ID) or an 'extrait de casier judiciaire', mandatory documents to support any job application. A formal request was made at the ministry of foreign affairs (MOFA) end January: the document had to be issued by the consulate in Nairobi. In June, nothing happening, we checked and found that the requesting documentation never left the 'valise diplomatique' office in the office of the President in Iavoloha. In one of my missions I stopped over Addis Ababa embassy and Nairobi consulate to consult with the authorities there on how to proceed. By chance I happened to know the MOFA Secretary general who started to shake the coconut tree... to finally obtain the birth certificate early October! Just to summarise this episode: It had nothing to do with corruption but rather lack of professionalism and huge incompetency

Then the Canadian pilot license has to be validated by the Malagasy Aviation authority (ACM} and fees were paid and the request was submitted in February: He had to pass theoretical and practical tests. The whole process started smoothly until it appeared that no company would rent a multi engine plane (bimoteur) for the last flying test: The examiner who was assigned for his flying test was more interested by his own business of transporting vanilla on the East coast than actually helping him to complete his validation.... ACM had its own contribution to the challenges because only in November they informed Andry that this examiner is no longer qualified by ACM to validate a pilot license, and assigned a new examiner... We are still expecting a positive outcome early this year but chasing for a job during a full year can have a devastating effect on a young man who did not expect to face so many difficulties and whose main wish is now to run away as soon as possible... And this is an endless story because the recruitment process for 27 pilots with Air Madagascar is revealing that an exclusively English speaking pilot has very little chance to be selected... Hopefully this is going to free some posts with the local small air companies.

So Mialy is now making a real career as a leading biochemist in North Carolina. With Kevin they gave me a rare opportunity when they took me at a Paul Simon concert... pure joy! In 2017 we met with Haingonirina only at Mialy's wedding but this year we have planned for 3 events together on 3 continents... She is settling in her French house, outside Geneva, continuing work with IOM and completed her series of trips to Manilla ! Tojo is struggling with management issues, still promoting herb consumption and production (!!!) when continuing to elaborate innovative projects for volunteers of Project Abroad; Safa'a's paintings are gorgeous and start to invade our house: she demonstrated tenacity and courage by going to visit her mom and siblings in Sanaa despite the bombings and the militia all over Yemen. In the middle of that 5 year old Taha is getting more and more mature and philosophic, focusing on the 'why's of life and death, always very kind with his Papy when asking for an evening TV cartoons session.

Personally the event that actually affected me most this year was the passing away of Dominique. She was a friend from my early years in Paris (early 70's) until she got sick a few years ago. We had fun together and enjoyed all our meetings even after our kids were grown up: Real understanding and love of each other for decades without falling into a romance would be a good summary of our relationship. I am still thinking of her all the time.

On the positive side indeed it was wonderful to attend Mialy and Kevin's weddings in Cary NC: I was very proud to walk with her during the procession... and it was funny to hear people talking about the sadness when your daughter leaves your home to follow her husband when actually she did leave us almost 20 years ago! Kevin is a very nice guy and they seem to get along very well.

The other exciting news was the 100th birthday of Nenitoa Ravao, older sister of Mama: we celebrated it with a cake and a bottle of Cinzano! One of the advantages of taking care of Mama during her stay was to listen to the stories from their adolescence when living in Ambohimitombo, in the wild forest of the Tanala region: Both of them despite a more than 10 year difference apparently experimented together the dangers faced by adolescent girls and young women during the colonisation period...

Professionally I am still completely immersed in the UNICEF RBM wave. I missed the opportunity to work in Ethiopia bed ridden by a massive back pain for several days just before the assignment ... but lucky enough to be invited in Budapest and facilitating training workshops in Cotonou, Bamako, Port au Prince, Niamey, Dili; getting back to Bamako to assist the team in updating their theories of change and result matrices, and contributing to RBM capacity development in Madagascar with ministry of finances and budget and ministry of technical education & vocational training.... The biggest challenge was to influence the way the Mali team was planning its programme. The most exciting time, unique experience, was to spend 2 weeks with the cousins across the Indian ocean: so funny to be taken as a East Timor citizen and expected to speak the local language. 2018 will start with a regional workshop in Bangkok and coaching for the Niger team preparing a new country programme. That will take most of my time until end of May...

Bye bye Dominique