Warriorbern on the Move

Tonight this little bit of space is dedicated to the memory of a long-time friend who senselessly lost his life in a motor car accident last night. Thanks for all the good times Jason. Go well.

My head feels like it has been steam-rolled! The program has so many aspects and trying to remember how everything works is tricky. We started with a general introduction to FINSS had a tea break and then got down to installing the software on each of our laptops. This took TWO hours! Obviously installation proceeded at the pace of the slowest user and in some cases this was really, really slow. So we would be told one aspect and then had to wait for everyone to get to that point - very frustrating. Thankfully though everyone had a working copy and we went for lunch. The afternoon sessions were very technical introductions to some of the modules and included numerous references to programming language which were so far over my head. I think though that once we start getting our hands on the modules and using them, things will fall into place but for now I can't grasp exactly how useful the programme will be. On a different note, I am so glad that I didn't have to fly through Jo...

I know that I should have written this last night but I was so tired that I just collapsed into bed and went to sleep. For the next week I am in Cape Town courtesy of the African Union. They invited a group of us to attend a training session on some software called Fisheries Information and Statistical Systems or FINSS for short. There has been quite a bit of discussion around this program so it will be interesting to actually see it in operation. I arrived in Cape Town yesterday afternoon on a fairly uneventful flight. I had been concerned about flying as the weather conditions in Durban yesterday morning were not great – a gusting strong wind and pouring rain. Fortunately by the time my flight left though, the weather had settled and all was good. In Cape Town the wind was blowing at a hefty 20 knots but then that is Cape Town. Transfers had been arranged from the airport to the hotel but there was no one to meet me. I phoned the hotel to find out what was going on and was told that ...

It was time to start my journey home - a two day affair. This morning I was taken to the airport at 9am for an 11h5o flight. I'm not sure why the airport transfers are done so early but it is most likely as a safe guard against the traffic. This morning though the traffic was not bad and I was at Moi International by 9h30. After getting through security, which is always tight at that airport, I went to check in and asked to be given a window seat. The attendant decided that I should take the next flight out at 10h15 and gave me my boarding pass. Now everyone who knows me also knows that I pretty much do anything to get a window seat but my boarding pass said I was in seat D. In the small Embraer aircraft (that usually fly this route) this would mean being next to the person sitting at the window and that would be fine. It turned out though that the aircraft was a Boeing 767-300 and seat D is right in the middle of the plane with three seats and an isle on either side. It was also f...

Last night I made my excuses and gave dinner a skip. I was exhausted and the thought of making polite conversation just did not appeal. This morning when I found out who all had gone I was really happy that I did not. There has been some conflict between some of the SA participants because of payment (or rather non-payment) of monies and to have to sit through a whole evening of the tension would have really irritated me. So I made my excuses and went to sleep early. This morning I received the news that the project (whose meeting I am at) decided that the project that I coordinate is so important to the region that they increased the funding that they will be giving us. Of course it comes with additional work but this is work that was always on the cards but that we were unable to undertake due to financial constraints. So look out Mauritius, Madagascar and Comoros - I am on my way to visit! To get to today, it has been endless! We started off by reading through the meeting report par...

Before I get to what has been going on, I'd like to wish all my South African family and friends a very happy Heritage Day. I hope that you have enjoyed the public holiday and celebrated it in true SA style by having a braai. So yesterday, before I went to the cocktail evening, I said that I was going to take it easy because I had an early morning meeting. Well that plan went out the window almost from the moment I got to the bar. I sat at a table with the participants from the Seychelles – I should have realised that from that moment on my evening was never going to finish early! So there I was, a lone South African, with four Seychellois, two Kenyans and copious amounts of free Tuskers beer. The snacks provided were really good. I didn’t try the goat but all else was very tasty. I’m told that the goat was good too but by the time I had decided to try it, it was all finished. One of the Kenyans was nominated to find out if there would be more coming and he assured us that there wo...

Today's session was due to start at 9am but eventually got underway at 10am. Every time the session broke and was told to come back at a specific time, everyone kind of just meandered back when they felt like coming back. This just makes the day go on and on and on ..... Besides the frustration of waiting around for almost as much time as actually being busy in the meeting, it was an exceptionally interesting day. The subject matter was basically about resources in the western Indian Ocean, the management of these resources and the status of them. At one stage there was a fairly lively discussion regarding setting up agreements between regional organisations that got a few participants hot under the collar but it turned out (after half an hour's debate) that some terminology had been mis-interpreted by the translators from French to English. Not that it was their fault entirely, they did a direct word translation but the English word has different connotations to the English wo...

For some strange reason I am never able to get a decent night's sleep in Mombasa. Last night I had every intention of going to sleep early but the moment my head hit the pillow my eyes popped open and that was that. Yeah for YouTube and the quick 3G connection in Kenya. So last night I caught up on all the videos I want to watch back home but never get around to seeing. I think I eventually called it a night at 2am! Mombasa seems to be particularly blessed when it comes to beautiful sunrises and this morning was no exception. So I have two photos to show you from this morning. My room is about 30m from the beach so there are great views. And the next photo is the view from my balcony. I know that it is great and that you may be envious but the photo below that shows what I really get to see for the whole day and it is not so great! My presentation today went well and I got some really good responses from it. It also means that my funding is as good as approved so at least I have an...

Greetings from Mombasa, Kenya! I come here so often that it almost feels like I should invest in some accommodation in Mombasa and by that I don't mean a hotel room. So let me start with the journey to get here. While Mombasa is really only about four and a half hours flight as the proverbial crow flies, in reality it takes an entire day to get here. Travel to Mombasa is always rather unpredictable and this trip was no different. So I had to wake up at four thirty in the morning to make a flight from Durban to Johannesburg. The flight was very smooth which was a pleasant surprise as anyone who flies this route knows that it is usually a bit bumpy. It was freezing cold in Jo'burg - well for a Durbanite anyway - and I was glad that I took my fleece jacket along. The Johannesburg - Nairobi flight left slightly late but, as always, made up time on the way and we arrived in Nairobi 15 minutes early. I was a little concerned about making the connection to Mombasa but since we arrived...