Sunday, January 13, 2013

Belval Plaza's final days.

I was clicking through some Facebook photos friends had posted from the Haiti days and found this one, which was particularly poignant for some reason. It's the roof of Belval Plaza, my home for a year and a half, in mid-to-late December 2011. All of us had broken down our tents and most had already gone, returning to wherever we came from, and leaving behind the pallets, cinderblocks, and hacked-together furniture that we used to keep ourselves dry and as comfortable as possible.


Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Interviews, writings, and updates.

I don't think I ever actually posted the NPR interview I was asked to give in response to my blog post back in April of last year, but they asked me at the start of this year to do a quick follow-up. Thanks to Tinbete, Neal and the rest of the "Talk of the Nation" team for giving me the chance to share some thoughts. Links:

NPR's Talk of the Nation - Closing The Circle: Memorable Stories of 2012 (Jan. 2nd, 2013)

NPR's Talk of the Nation - Aid Worker Leaves Haiti With A Sour Taste (May 10th, 2012)

Not many updates recently, but life is good. School is inspiring and keeps me busy, and while landing in London was a rough transition, I'm feeling more and more at home in this city, and more appreciative of it. I could see myself potentially staying put for a bit if I can find a job here post-graduation that can make good use of my talents, and inspires and challenges me. As much as I love academia, it is something of a solo process, and I love team dynamic and working toward a common goal. In that, a future career excites me. We shall see.

I have managed to write the "follow-up" piece to the April 2012 blog post that some people have asked me to write, but as it was requested by a magazine, it is still being edited. Once that's finished up and finalized, I'll post it. It by no means attempts to capture all of what the Haiti experience was for me, but it does probe deeper than anything I've written to date.

2013 then. Hello there.