Are the Rumours True?

Well…it depends which rumours you’ve heard.

If you’ve heard the rumour that I’ve fallen in love with a trombone-playing journalist and am secretly planning to elope in Nepal, that one’s not true.

Nor is the one that I’ve accepted the dowry offer of 250 cows from the Sudanese immigration officer at the Juba airport and have become his 3^rd wife, have learned to carry a 20L jerican of water on my head and am settling down in Sudan for good.

The rumours about me taking up bonsai tree-growing, raising non-laying chickens, flying around Southern Sudan on a plane without enough fuel looking for an airstrip dry enough to land and moving to Belgium in January – those rumours are true.

That’s right, I’m moving to Belgium.

For all of you who like to ask those “what’s next questions”, and to deal with my dread of answering them…here’s my official statement of “Kendrah’s Future Life Plans” (rest assured, this will be a relatively short post).

1. Immediate future travel/work/play plans: Will be in Sudan until the beginning of November. (Very sad about leaving.) Then planning to do a bit of travelling in Egypt with my brother en-route back to Canada. (Excited about that.) I’ll be in BC for a couple of weeks of island recuperation with my Ma & Pa. (Very much looking forward to that.) Then back to Alberta in early December for about a month of rest, playing in the snow, family fun, visiting friends and the dentist, and Christmas in Canada. (All very exciting and happily anticipated.) Then it’s off to Belgium to begin a new life adventure in early January. (A little scary but holds great potential.)

2. Job plans: I’ve recently accepted a position with another relief and development organization based in Brussels. I’ll be working at their operations headquarters as a “desk officer” (terrible job title I know…apparently my relationship with the furniture in the office is of paramount importance), providing a wide array of administrative/logistical/HR/IT support to various field programs run by the organization in Afghanistan, Armenia, Nepal, Tajikistan and Romania. It’s going to be a major change from Sudan, but the work builds nicely on what I have been doing, and I’m excited about living in Europe for a while.

3. Marriage plans: n/a

4. Child-rearing plans: n/a

5. Chicken-rearing plans: Feeling dejected about my chicken’s apparent inability to lay eggs or get along with one another (I got a new hen…she’s getting seriously bullied by the resident hen in-charge), I remain slightly hopefully that they’ll start laying again, given the new “limited-free-range” area I’ve recently constructed for them. If I’m really lucky, one of them will raise a clutch of eggs to chick-hood before I leave. Then I’m passing on my chickens to one of my neighbours who shares a passion for chicken-rearing, and has experience and wisdom that may actually make it a success.

6. Settling down plans: n/a

7. Weekend plans: Teaching a beginner computer course on Saturday morning to some Sudanese youth, working all afternoon, possible cycling excursion outside of the city Saturday evening, crepes for breakfast Sunday morning, sending off colleague at the airport, game of squash & lunch out, lazy afternoon, international fellowship in the evening.

There you have it: the entirety of my life plans.