The idea of
traveling to the US in March came to me as early as December. At that point, I
figured the chances were slim that I would eventually go. In addition to concerns
about our cash flow, remote work for two weeks is not easy to schedule given
obligations to attend meetings and participate in work events.
Things
changed when the US president announced that he was going to take down USAID,
the largest humanitarian and development donor in the world. While our program
in Somalia was not heavily impacted directly, indirectly the ripple effects
began almost immediately. I won’t go into detail, but one of the impacts on my
job was that I would see a dramatic reduction in funds to travel to Mogadishu.
From a personal standpoint, the result of spending more time with family is
welcome. It also allows me to gain more time in my week without the
time-consuming treks to the airport and all that the commute entails, not to
mention less exposure to insecurity as the situation in the country becomes
more concerning. The downside, of course, is that I get less time with my team,
with government counterparts and with other international stakeholders. I am
prevented from visiting projects and meeting with people that we serve. It’s
frustrating and, I hope, something that will not continue for too long.
In any case,
given that I would be unable to travel for work, I returned to the idea of
traveling to the US. The Muslim holy month of Ramadan throughout the month of
March, was an additional factor. I’ve spent time in Somalia during Ramadan but
it’s not ideal given that everyone is fasting and work hours are modified (no
lunch break and shorter workdays).
The third
motivation for travel was that I recently noticed that my US driver’s license
would be expiring within the next couple of months. Having an expired license
would be problematic. And there were other reasons as well that I won’t go
into.
* * *
Thus, I made
the call that I would travel assuming I could find a ticket for a somewhat
reasonable price. I went online and, given that it is not a busy travel period,
I found a relatively cheap ticket and proceeded to lock in my dates. Though I
would continue to work full-time while I was there (waking in the wee hours to
overlap with East Africa time), the effort to make the trip was increasingly
making sense.
The first
week of March, I would be on my way. My flights would take me through Brussels,
then Chicago and finally to Boise. During my layover in Brussels, I was
reminded of the Belgian culinary delights. It’s possible that there are lots of
people who disagree with me, but one thing that stood out during my two years
living in the country was the wonderful food, some of which is on offer in the
airport.
Kimberly
I landed in
Boise late on a Tuesday. The next day, somewhat jet lagged, I would pick up
some things at our storage and by late morning my sister and I would be off to
spend a few days with my parents.
I wasn’t
sure what to expect. When I am there, I try to tackle projects like pruning
trees, yardwork, cleaning (ex. like the garage we cleaned last summer). This
time of year, there was less to be done. As such, after my 2am-10am workday, I
would get a workout in and then spend time with the family. We would participate
in on a couple of outings where my parents like to go as a part of their routines.
Though not for everyone, I do like these drives. It’s a dose of nostalgia,
often taking me back to my youth and to places of significance for our family
history. I would probably go crazy if I lived there, but visiting is quite
enjoyable.
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| the Hagerman Valley |
Boise
By Saturday
morning, we would return to Boise. My sister took me straight to the airport
where I would pick up a rental car and I could regain some autonomy. I took full
advantage, beginning to run errands to take some pressure off the errands I would
need to run later. After a couple of quick days in the city, I would head north
to New Meadows.
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| East Boise and the foothills |
New
Meadows
I went to
college in northern Idaho for a couple of years and I barely remember driving
through the small town of New Meadows. At the time, it was just another small
town along the eight-hour or so drive from my parents’ house to my campus in
Lewiston. I probably stopped there on a few occasions to refuel or use the
restroom (my car was notorious for breaking down on these trips but I don’t
remember breaking down there. But I never would have thought that someday I
would be a property owner in Meadows Valley. Though I have wanted property in
the mountains since I was a kid, this area wasn’t on my radar.
Since then there
has been a gradual migration of family to the area and, when I was finally in a
position to consider real estate in the mountains a few years ago, this valley
made more sense. It’s less expensive than some mountain areas. It’s beautiful. And
when I spotted the property we would eventually buy, it seemed to be a rather
logical thing to do. Though the completion of the house was not smooth sailing,
in retrospect, it was a good decision.
* * *
I would stay
at my sister and brother-in-law’s house in a wooded area a few miles from town
only about fifteen minutes from the property that we purchased. It’s a gorgeous
log home with a driveway that can be tricky to navigate in the winter. With my relatively
small rental car, it wasn’t clear whether up to the task. I will say, I’ve always
made it up in previous years driving front-wheel drive rental cars, so I was
cautiously optimistic. In the end, I
didn’t have any problem. Admittedly, I was aided by some sand that they had
poured towards the top just before I arrived.
My brother arrived not long after I did. We would settle in
for the next several days hanging out, watching college basketball, eating
yummy food, cutting wood, skiing, etc. I still need to deal with early bedtimes
and early wake up but, given the circumstances, I was happy to be able to get
it all done.
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| the Intersection |
Wood
One task
that was on my list was to attack several slash piles on my property. The piles
of wood were created about a decade ago when the previous owner cut down all
the trees across the 16-acres of land and milled the wood. It left a barren
landscape and piles of leftover scrap wood that are a bit of an eyesore. When
talking to people from the area about where my property is, it’s not uncommon
to hear, “Ah, that property with the slash piles.”
The felling
of those trees was a tragic event. Some of the remaining trunks are over four
feet wide. They must have been massive and majestic. The job left for me as
current owner is to clean up what remains.
While I was
in Boise, I picked up a new chainsaw. I already had a cordless one, hoping that
my environmentally sound alternative would be powerful enough to do the job.
But after taking a stab at it last summer, it was clear to me that I needed
something far more robust.
After a
somewhat failed attempt to attack one of the piles on Wednesday, by Friday I
was there again. I was out the door relatively early, braving the sub-freezing
temperatures. At first it seemed like a ludicrous thing to be doing. We had
made a trail through the deep snow just to access the pile. The south side of
the stack was accessible but the north side, exposed to less sun, was still
covered with a thick layer of snow. Some of the logs were frozen to each other
and impossible to move. But as I fired up the saw and began to have some
success, I began to feel good about the decision to push on.
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| the piles are bigger than they look in the photo |
Very quickly,
it became apparent to me how massive these slash piles are. After three hours
of cutting and amassing an impressive heap of cut timber, I was less than
halfway through the first pile. Some have suggested I just torch the piles.
Though it would be much easier, it’s environmentally problematic and wasteful.
There is so much fuel in these piles that the fires would be massive, burn for
a long time, and benefit no one. Having said that, it is inevitable that I will
torch some of it, especially the smaller limbs. I assume that over time it will
become clearer to me how much. So the plan for now is to extract a few tons of
wood that I will stack behind my shed and provide more firewood than the family
will ever need.
Skiing
When I set
up the trip, it did cross my mind that by mid-March there still may be an
opportunity to go skiing. And yes, it is one of my favorite things to do. But
at a time when we are trying to save money, the idea seemed a bit
self-indulgent, and I did want to get work done on our property. As it worked
out, the weather would dictate where I placed my focus. Not only was snow
continuing to fall and creating fantastic ski conditions, it was making my wood
cutting plans more complicated. On top of that, my brother would be unable to
ski due to an injury and he made his equipment available for me to use. The
gods were politely encouraging me to spend some time on the powdery slopes. I
accepted their invitation.
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| fresh powder |
My sister
and brother-in-law are now retired and have spent an enormous amount of time
skiing this year. They offered to take me along and I joined them on Thursday
and Saturday. On both days, we arrived early and made sure we were among the
first to board the chairlift. The reward was untouched fields of powder.
Admittedly, deep powder is a challenging way to start given
how seldom I ski. But muscle memory kicked in and before long I was carving my
way down the mountain. Though I’m in pretty good shape, I did find that I need
to stop from time to time to catch my breath and give my thighs a break. It’s a
good workout. But the views were stunning, and it was wonderful just to be on
the mountain.
The snow on Saturday was amazing, but the wind picked up by
mid-morning and there were blizzard conditions on the top of the mountain. I
was planning on returning to Boise in the afternoon, and the lack of visibility
was making it easier for me to decide to make my exit. By late morning, we
skied to the lodge. I had a quick bite to eat and then headed down the road.
Return to
Boise
Once in
Boise, it was time to continue running errands and wrapping things up on the
trip. Work was less demanding given that it was the weekend which facilitated my
ability to spend time with family, squeeze in workouts, do some shopping and make
my final trip to the storage.
Overall, I
can’t complain. It was a successful trip and a good time with family. Having
said that, I was anxious to get back to my wife and daughters, my routines,
etc.
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| San Francisco on the way back to Kenya (a bit of a detour) |
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