Apart from some money this last trip to Ivory Coast didn’t bring me anything worth of.
I did not meet many new people, the job was almost inexistent and no news on the MMM’AL side.
I practiced a bit of tennis (just a bit, and not exactly good tennis), and I got malaria. Totting up: balance is in red.
Lesson learned: consider more carefully the place and the job; not a simple exercise.
Possibly out of Africa: Asia, South America or Northern Europe, why not.


The art of putting words together is an old and tricky one. But intriguing and satisfactory (sometimes). I remember that once I ‘framed’ a letter I wrote at the office, as it was a good example that it always exists a way to express something in writing. No matter how complicate or delicate or controversial the issue is.

Transferring this exercise in a stranger language is not simple, and the result is often contradictory. But the challenge is bigger and therefore more appealing.

Bureaucracy offers many occasions to test your ability, but the most stimulating are the letters to customer-support services, where a difficult equilibrium between rage, rationality and claim has to be pursued.

If such a service exists and is clearly indicated: try to find any reference to customers satisfaction in Alitalia’s web site??

Balance in Cambodia

In the gym, at the end of each session of balance (the exercises I prefer) we relax lying on the floor. The monitor tells us what to do and to think, but I generally lose contact and start my own line of thought.

Today, I was thinking of Cambodia, some of the Khmer people I met there, the links that still remains. I was happy for having such memories that are a gift and a privilege.