Back in the Saddle Again

Well, it's been a while. After finishing up my MEDA contract, I headed out to Egypt to visit my mother for a week, and then spent a month wandering around Europe, staying on people's couches and floors and generally enjoying life. It was fantastic.

Egypt is awesome, It turns out that the Nubian people still measure the worth of women by the number of camels they would have to give her father as a dowry. My best offer: 10,000 camels, I feel I'm worth at least 15,000. The Sphinx - overlooks a pizzahut and a KFC, AND there are people who actually believe that aliens built the pyramids! These people do a pilgramage to the Pyramids and climb into the burial chamber of the Great Pyramid to meditate and chant, hoping to call back the aliens, who will then take them to the chosen land. It's a bit outlandish I know, and I also really feel that they should have paid more attention when watching Star Gate - the aliens weren't very nice, so why would you want them to return?

And, it turns out that it is possible to do some development work from Calgary. I am currently working on a short contract for the World Bank, doing research on cash transfers in post-conflict/post-disaster zones. It's interesting work, but it's difficult to work from home, where I don't have access to all their files and information and must rely on other people to send me stuff (this become particularly difficult when the person responsible for supplying the information is transfered to a field office in East-Timor for the bulk of your project). I have some contacts for a few NGOs based in Calgary for after this project is done, and I'm heading to DC for the end of June to look for jobs and hopefully lay eyes on my boss.

I would really like to return to the UK but I'm not sure how to get there since I don't quite qualify for a Highly Skilled Migrant Visa yet. To qualify I need to make a bigger salary in the year before I apply. If I remain in the developed world that salary requirement is so high that I fear I will have to work in Oil and Gas again to make it happen, which somewhat defeats the purpose, since I won't have strong job experience in my field when I get to England. We'll see, hopefully something interesting pops up while I'm in DC. So think highly employable thoughts for me, so I can get hired by the World Bank on a permanent basis, or something like that.

Kelly!