Giving in to Olympic Fever

From the beginning I haven’t been the biggest Vancouver 2010 Olympic fan. In fact, back in 2008, I sewed a costume for Bity the Bedbug – the unofficial mascot of the Poverty Olympics (a protest event held by a group of community groups trying to create awareness about the ‘other’ issues in Vancouver that are in desperate need of just a fraction of funding the Olympics received). However, now the Olympics are on my doorstep I have decided I can either be grumpy about it, and achieve little more than making myself miserable, or embrace the joy and chaos. I have given in to Olympic fever.

On Wednesday I was lucky enough to get given two tickets to the dress rehearsal of the opening ceremonies. They swore all 50,000 of us who were there to secrecy, so I can’t tell all but I will say I believe tonight’s event will make all Canadians proud. The highlight for me was seeing one of my favourite Canadian musicians singing one of my favourite Canadian songs.

Tomorrow I am off to watch the bobsledding. I don’t know much about bobsledding but it will be fun to head up to Whistler and see the action. There is certainly a festive air around town. It’s kind of like Christmas – lots of hustle and bustle, and ridiculous consumerism and marketing, but all in good spirit and fun. So I will make the effort to pull out the patriotism I usually reserve for health care and human rights debates, and try to apply it to sporting events instead – Go Canada Go!

The job hunt and other adventures in my pyjamas

It’s a bit like going from 1000 Km/h to zero in a second; going from the Rotary World Peace Fellowship to being unemployed living at home. It’s an adjustment that’s for sure – with both pluses and minuses. Pluses include: I can generally wear my pyjamas for as long as I like (which is usually until lunch time), get to go for long hikes and have fabulous ski days. Minus include: I miss the lively conversations with my fellow Peace Fellows (the dog I hike with is a good listener but doesn’t offer much feedback), I crave my former hectic schedule of international travel, and even miss the constant rigour of putting my brain through the dissertation grind.
Luckily, I’m keeping busy. Besides devouring a novel every few days, I on the great job hunt. I check the various posting for work in international development/research/social policy/ other adventures every day and cast resumes, applications and letters out into cyber space. There have been a few nibbles but nothing hooked yet.
Meanwhile, I’m very lucky to have the opportunity to do a bit of contract work with HEARD, which not only keeps my brain in academic gear, but also reminds me that I do have useful skills on offer. In fact, with a few contract opportunities piling up, I’m starting to think about starting my own consulting business..... more on that in a later post though.
And final, I’m still doing what I can for Emmanuel Center. On Saturday some of the staff members attended a peace and reconciliation meeting in Eldoret, aimed at overcoming tribalism. It was inspiring to hear their stories. Daniel told me, “We’ve decided we can’t wait for the politicians. We will have to make peace ourselves, with our own hands.” It’s good hear that such initiatives are going on.
So now I will sign off and return to my job applications and other adventure, but I thought I should offer an update from ‘the field’ of my parent’s basement.
Peace