Getting Back To Leaving

As I write this, it is 3:20 am on October 23, 2008, and I'm in Satellite Beach, FL... for another week or so. In so many ways, this whirlwind existence of mine would be best wasted on a younger man than I. But here I am, as I am now, not back when I was that younger man, and so it goes. If that last sentence made sense to you, seek competent professional psychological counseling.

What happened in Africa? What about the rest? I hardly know where to start, and yet I have to, if I'm to commit it to text before I forget. I took the motorcycle to Mbour... Took the Landcruiser there as well, albeit briefly and in passing. I hunted for raptors, found several of the wrong species as the road took me east from Mbour on past the salt flats of Kaolack and south through the brush nearly (or more) into the Gambia. Lots of huge Eagle Owls, some Pale Chanting Goshawks...

Largely on hold, waiting on the USFWS to issue the import permits on the birds, it is only now, looking back on these writings, that I realize what happened. Somewhere, somehow, I lost track of why I was down there in the first place, and married myself to the job of getting the African Hawk Eagles for Stuart's breeding co-op. Somehow, the work that funded the journey (which was supposed to be the destination) itself became the goal. Perhaps it was financial, perhaps a sense of obligation to the Breeding Co-operative, or perhaps I just found the new and "improved:" Senegal wasn't all that after all. In any event, I just wasn't having fun any more... as anyone who came into contact with me was swiftly able to see.

When April ended and still no permits from the USFWS, with the monsoons coming soon, I elected to leave Africa for the summer, intending on returning after the mud and monsoons had passed. That was the plan, anyway. I was finally able to book a flight to Europe, (despite the scammers at the internet cafe impeding the ability to book any flights from that IP) and Left on May 10, for Paris, via Lisbon and London.

I'll save the boring details, and go into Europe at another time. Suffice it to say that I enjoyed catching up with Milkshake in Paris (thanks for the hospitality!) and Milo and Elsie in Amsterdam (I could live there, really, I could!) When I got back to the States, it was a nearly non-stop reminder of two things:
1) How good (or at least cheap) we have it in the US, and
2) How understandable it is to be dissatisfied with my countrymen.

The return flight was scheduled for September 23rd, to Amsterdam. A month later, and I'm still in the States, now planning on heading off to Santa Fe, NM, for the winter. The head of the Co-Op turned out to be a bit of a scammer himself, it seems. He never had much more than $1500 into the entire project (which was a lot less than *I* had into his project,) and planned (or is that "schemed"?) to scam others into leasing the birds for more than he paid me for them. But they're not all dull-witted suckers, and so when the Import permits were finally issued by the US FWS, it turns out that the head of the Co-Op STILL had no money.. not even the remainder of the deposit owed from back in January 2008, let alone the funds it would take to get the birds shipped back to the States once captured. So, it seems, I turned my African Adventure into a work trip, and ended up working all that time for free. Now back in the States, robbed of half a year's wages, I'm picking up the pieces that remain, and will gather myself for another launch at a later date.

More on Europe and such later. G'nite!

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