Man it's Almost December now... the temps feel like winter now 29 degrees.
I don't really miss Vanuatu even though it is nice and warm there. I think it's because it's too warm like a sweaty armpit warm and no shower clean enough to enjoy washing the stink off in. But I would like to see Cuba. An island nation that like Vanuatu is in a time warm but there's is a 1950 semi Godfather like time warp. It sounds like a magical place at least for the short term until American's flood the place with money and turn it into a large gap, abercrombie, starbucks, apple everything looks the same hell that first world nations have become.
The holiday season is the worst time of the year... vapid commercialism, consumerism and it's mostly pointless except to drive the stock market up for the crash in January.
Hmm... I wonder how people are doing in g26 and g27. Those are the Peace Corps still serving in Vanuatu that I sort of knew. Not that they think much of how I am. But I am curious. Hope they are doing well.
My family has all been staying at my parents house over the Thanksgiving Holidays. My Bro his kid Mila and myself and the mom and dad. Lotta Bekkerus under one roof. It's been fun. Probably won't ever happen again. My parents are getting older, and Mark might not get a chance to do this again for years. But it was quite special and think everyone had a good time.
11.30.2015
11.10.2015
November - New job and stuff
Oct-Nov
The weeks sort of fly by and I log less and less in the blog. I suppose when I was in Vanuatu there was so much more free time to write and getting back home means doing more stuff and less sitting on the computer writing. I strangely miss those moments but also I was frustrated then and writing more about the hardships than about fun times. I guess it was never a perfect fit for me being in Vanuatu but it was good to be out of my comfort zone for a while too.
When I got home I figured I would throw myself into building at the Soap Factory and being around my group of friends there but that did not come to be. Most had stopped coming as the volunteer program ended, the staff changed dramatically, and the new younger volunteer made the old crew feel less welcome. I think there were some there (Haunted Basement vols) that did not want me to steal their limelight (i'm not sure) and so I let them have their fun but it was their loss because I could have contributed a lot for free but oh well. Better to move on. I had fun working with Mitch building things and getting some money as well. But it is sad that the Soap Factory is closing its' doors as it is in the throws of trying to figure out its direction in so many ways. I hope that they will find a full time director, and staff that can restart the ways in which the old org inspired us so deeply.
The best thing that came to be recently is I got the job at Catholic Charities... and I never expected that. I signed up to help in a volunteer capacity and it turned into a job offer instead. How lucky can I be? The people there are really nice and the work is meaningful helping the less fortunate get out from a bad place. I like that aspect a great deal.
Experimenting with some reporting tools such as Tableau: https://public.tableau.com/profile/david.bekkerus#!/
Also reviewed some cool stuff from a tool I learned about from Nic Karr aka peace corps a reporting tool used to show how life expectancy and wealth per nation has changed over the last 100 years at: http://www.gapminder.org/. A great tool but not available for personal use.
The weeks sort of fly by and I log less and less in the blog. I suppose when I was in Vanuatu there was so much more free time to write and getting back home means doing more stuff and less sitting on the computer writing. I strangely miss those moments but also I was frustrated then and writing more about the hardships than about fun times. I guess it was never a perfect fit for me being in Vanuatu but it was good to be out of my comfort zone for a while too.
When I got home I figured I would throw myself into building at the Soap Factory and being around my group of friends there but that did not come to be. Most had stopped coming as the volunteer program ended, the staff changed dramatically, and the new younger volunteer made the old crew feel less welcome. I think there were some there (Haunted Basement vols) that did not want me to steal their limelight (i'm not sure) and so I let them have their fun but it was their loss because I could have contributed a lot for free but oh well. Better to move on. I had fun working with Mitch building things and getting some money as well. But it is sad that the Soap Factory is closing its' doors as it is in the throws of trying to figure out its direction in so many ways. I hope that they will find a full time director, and staff that can restart the ways in which the old org inspired us so deeply.
The best thing that came to be recently is I got the job at Catholic Charities... and I never expected that. I signed up to help in a volunteer capacity and it turned into a job offer instead. How lucky can I be? The people there are really nice and the work is meaningful helping the less fortunate get out from a bad place. I like that aspect a great deal.
Experimenting with some reporting tools such as Tableau: https://public.tableau.com/profile/david.bekkerus#!/
Also reviewed some cool stuff from a tool I learned about from Nic Karr aka peace corps a reporting tool used to show how life expectancy and wealth per nation has changed over the last 100 years at: http://www.gapminder.org/. A great tool but not available for personal use.
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