writings

Just because I haven’t been blogging doesn’t mean my keyboard has been idle. It’s been a whirlwind of activity the past few weeks (as usual), and travels took me back on a familiar trail… the measles vaccination “campaign trail.” You may remember my trips to Africa a few years ago with one of our most effective and truly life-saving programs. The Measles Initiative, as it is called, has now come to Indonesia, and I traveled with our health delegate to south Sumatra island (same island as Aceh) to Bengkulu province for about nine days. It was an incredible trip to a quaint and quiet part of Indonesia, which showed me again that each little corner of this enormous, sprawling country truly retains its own individuality. It was a nice change of scenery.

The story I wrote about the campaign was just posted, and you can read it here: http://www.redcross.org/article/0,1072,0_312_5659,00.html

Also, I put together a “virtual journey” that is more of a first-hand account of the day-to-day activities, along with a photo gallery. You can find it on this page: http://www.measlesinitiative.org/vft.asp and then click “Journey to Indonesia” in the top right-hand column.

If you want a more in-depth photo tour, Gene was kind enough (as always) to put lots of my pictures on his website. Check them out at http://www.genedailey.com/2006indomeasles/.

Finally, for a glimpse into some of our latest happenings in Aceh, see what our teams our doing to help communities prepare in case another disaster happens here: http://www.redcross.org/article/0,1072,0_312_5632,00.html.

It’s T-minus 18 days for me, including weekends (one of which will be on an island, the other will be back to back farewell parties) so I’m in total countdown mode… that is, of course, between small freak-outs wondering if I can finish everything and tiny glimpses of realizing how incredibly much I’m going to miss my friends and teammates here. I even had a few delusional days of considering coming back in late October/early November as a consultant to help with a VIP trip. Though I have now regained my senses and am moving forward with my eastern hemisphere travel plans, that consideration alone showed me how very attached I am to our team, our work and how very much I want to see them succeed. Needless to say, it will be hard to leave but plan on having me back in the good old U.S. of A. by late October.

Can’t wait to see you all!

Love,
Bon