Hi everyone! I'm sorry it's been so long since my last post, and for those of you who have been on the edges of your seats waiting to hear more about my many adventures in Eritrea, I'm afraid you'll have to keep waiting. I just thought that I'd check in and let everyone know that I am still alive and that I have every intention of keeping this blog going. In fact, I am already working on a couple of post ideas. However, I have been extremely busy at work this month (we filed our counter-memorial in the Hague on the fifteenth) and haven't had a chance to write anything. Besides, there's not really anything going on in my life right now. Well, hold on, let me rephrase that: there's not much going on in my life that I want to broadcast over the world wide web, but feel free to send me an email and ask if you're so inclined.

In any case, I promise to return to the blogoshere soon and to share some other fascinating tidbits about life in the Horn of Africa. In the meantime, I'll leave you with this picture my friend Niklas (a Swedish guy who works for OCHA and was on assignment in
Eritrea for three weeks at the end of December and the beginning of January) sent me of "the UN life." What that means ... I'll let you decide. What I will say is that for Niklas, being on mission is like being on vacation from his real life. While he is usually a sober vegan, when he's on mission, he drinks, smokes, and eats meat (three things he did a lot of in Asmara). Unfortunately, my experience here has shown me that a lot of UN employees take the same approach, even when they are in the same place for multiple years. As a result, they tend to do things that I don't think they would do in their "real lives." But I won't get into that now. Maybe later.

For now, I bid you all farewell, and I promise to return soon.