Welcome home!

What a great holiday we've had, with a very full schedule. Highlights: our Hindu wedding ritual of course, but also some great get-togethers with friends and relatives. Too bad we didn't manage to see all the friends we had hoped to meet.

All my mothers children and their families were together for Christmas, a rare occasion. The New Years Eve party we were invited to by friends was heartwarming, especially when some other friends, who to my initial disappointment were supposed to go elsewhere, came party-crashing on us. Meeting with my old teacher and friend from Nijmegen was great. I also caught up with some ex-colleagues from Leiden University. One of them had made a far-reaching, extremely courageous personal decision, that seemed logical and natural to me once I met her.

We're back in Africa since yesterday after an uneventful but most uncomfortable trip. R. is becoming ever bigger, but as he is not yet 2 years old, he can’t have his own seat. The plane being full to the brim, we had to hold him all night, duh! We almost didn’t sleep, something I don’t take well at all, it’s real torture to me. Put me in Guantanamo Bay with sleep deprivation for 48 hours and I’ll confess to being Bin Laden himself!

This time the family is divided in its feelings about coming home. M.’s sentiments against our stay in Africa and for our staying in Holland forever have flared up over the past week. I am afraid that his idea of life in Holland is a little out of touch with reality. Our efforts to make him understand that children in Holland have to go to school too and that they do not have unlimited access to the Nickelodeon and Jetix kids TV channels, have been a conspicuous failure ;). A. too is lukewarm about returning this time, although she thinks it will pass. T. on the other hand is as happy as a lark, and so is R. I myself came back reinvigorated, but the news of new trouble in our host country has dampened some of the enthusiasm.

In the night of 2-3 January an army officer from the President’s tribe (Gbaya) was killed in a fight over a woman with a fellow army officer from the tribe of one the president’s most hated personal enemies (Mandja). The latter sought refuge with the UN representative (the Senegalese with the reproductive prowess) but was denied access and instead handed over to the police. Some rogue elements of the Presidential guard came to the police office, took the man out of his cell and without much further ado killed him on the spot. The Mandja quartiers of the capital have since been in turmoil.

The episode brings to the fore deep divisions within the army. If the tensions take an ethnic twist, an element that was so far lacking or in any case not very prominent, then that is definitely a turn for the worse, as ethnic conflicts in Africa are so much bloodier than others. But let´s not jump to conclusions and wait.

In the meantime however A. and I have started preparing emergency stocks of water, pasta, canned fish etc., just in case things turn nasty and we can't leave the house for some time.

I have come back with the firm intention (as usual, I hasted to add) to cut back on overtime and spend more time with the family and on evening reading. The firmness of this intention will be put to the test this week as we are drowning in all sort of internal reporting obligations to HQ, deadline end of the week.