Hey everyone I hope you're all doing well. Not really sure where to start this one, cuz there are about a hundred unrelated things I want to talk about. I'll do my best to keep it organized! So on Wednesday night my boss from Ottawa arrived in Burkina Faso for a visit. He's staying about a month and it's great to have him here since he's a familiar face and we get along super. Even better, he brought with him my birthday present from some of the Scottish ladies: the entire series of Sex and the City on DVD!!!! :) Oh [View Full Entry]

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Ok, so I've read this on a couple of friends' blogs and I found it really entertaining. If you're one of those people who despises these things, feel free to ignore it. 45 random things you probably never needed to know about me: 1. Whats your name spelt backwards?: Yesdnil (I don't like that "nil" is in my name somewhere... although I like that "yes" is in there... makes me seem optimisitic... or easy? Let's stick with optimisitic.) 2. What did you do last night?: Went out for dinner with clients to a swanky restaurant 3. The last thing you downloaded [View Full Entry]

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Hey everybody I hope you're all doing well and that Ottawa weather has finally come to grips with the fact that it's June. Things here have been good. More eventful than I would normally like, but I guess that's what I get for heading out on some crazy African adventure! :) So, as my faithful readership will know from a previous post, I was sick in the field about 5 days ago. Well, I haven't posted much since then because I have continued to be sick and puke up my food within an hour or two of eating it. Not pretty. [View Full Entry]

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Heya everyone Be prepared. This blog is sure to be a big one. Get a coffee and a comfy chair if you need one. Take a pee break. You won't want to get up in the middle of this. So the trip to the field was crazy and wonderful all at the same time. This was my first outreach program into the communities where we operate where we met with locals and they described to us what their needs are in both the short and long term, and how we can keep good relations with these villages. First, to recap: the [View Full Entry]

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Heya everyone, I made it to the field very painfully this morning after a very late night. The party was a huge success and everyone loved the Sangria I made. I ended up tending to a very sick driller until the wee hours of the morning, but I also made a few new friends which is always good news. So the morning came early today and we headed out to the field to a region called Seguenega. I am touring 3 villages over the next 3 days in order to get a feel for what kind of projects need to be [View Full Entry]

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Heya everybody Wow, so I feel like a million bucks! Maybe more! I finally got off my keester and took my first run. You see today is a holiday so I am only obliged to put in a few token hours at the office. So I slept in (until 9, hardly a sleep-in by Ottawa standards but I loved it!) and went to the office for a bit. Then I came back, had lunch, etc. and did more work until about 4. Then I decided for some reason that I really wanted to go running. I think being so sedentary (sitting [View Full Entry]

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Heya, everybody I hope you're all doing super. Things have sadly gone back to normal here pretty much. Not too much excitement going on now that that interns have headed back to the field. Work is busy though, and I'm attacking it with gusto so it feels good to be getting things done. Ok, I realize this is going to border on too much info for some of you but this must be said: I haven't worn a bra in 4 days, and it's AMAZING! Due to my crazy sunburn from the weekend, the straps rub and irritate it and there [View Full Entry]

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This one is for you guys: I just wanted to say thanks to everyone for their encouraging words and thoughts over the last few days. It's been amazing to feel the wave of support reach all the way across the ocean! Thank you so much for all your text messages and postings and e-mails and phone calls. They mean so much to me over here, especially when I'm going through tough stuff like last week. Luckily things are looking up and getting better every day. I couldn't have stuck it out without you. Thanks. In other news, I'm supposed to start [View Full Entry]

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Heya everyone I hope everyone is doing super. Things here are getting busier and busier. No May 2-4 here so I was back to work today after a relatively relaxing weekend. I played a little hookie from work on Sunday afternoon to take a long walk in the local forest/park with the interns. It was nice to get out and explore and take in some fresh air. I got horribly sunburned, but it was worth it. After that I hung out around the guest house for a bit and then went out for quite a nice supper with our VP Exploration [View Full Entry]

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Heya everybody! Sorry about the mega-depressing post last time. I think things here were just starting to get to me... Turns out I had a fantastic night, though!!! FINALLY SOME FUN!!!! Yesterday as we were pulling out of the guest house to go back to work after lunch, I thought I caught a glimpse of one of the interns I met last time over at the other company. So after work, I had a beer with my housemate here, then thought I would go over and see what was up next door. My housemate was not interested in coming along, so [View Full Entry]

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