Vulnerability status: Fully embraced.

04.09.2013

I met Conor this morning. He’s an Irish guy (Steph, I’m thinking of you every minute) with crazy amounts of experience in the wildlife field. He’s done the WAH Msc, a residency in San Diego and plenty of other stuff. He’s now studying for another accreditation, on top of everything else. As cool as that sounds, it makes me reconsider the wildlife path again. Is there any sense for all this? Will I be looking for a secure place for the rest of my life and be in the hunt of jobs every few years? Probably yes. Don’t take me wrong, I love changes, but only if I AM the one deciding when to take them :). The idea of a PhD in Public/One Health is growing stronger…

Cuando estaba en el aeropuerto pude sentir los años pesándome en la espalda, en las canas, y hasta en el dedo chiquito de los pies. El macuto me pesaba mucho más de esos 11kg que marcaba la báscula. Afortunadamente, en dos días me he recuperado y vuelvo a estar en marcha para viajar indefinidamente. Qué susto!

Anyway… Today after work we went to a talk at Jumeirah hotel (the one about N.Forbes I told you about). The talk itself has been unremarkable (advertising of zoo animal’s food and recovery diets*), however, I got pleasantly surprised when Carlos R. (an old colleague from Uni) popped into the hall. We kind of lost track a few years ago and finally and randomly we met here in Dubai (we were 6 Spanish people in there! You can imagine how the chatting went on and on)! C&M came to my place to catch up over a coffee: again, thoughts about the future crumbled my brain. More aquaculture, private wildlife collections, living abroad, solitude, injustices due to money and sex gender, challenges of living in a male chauvinist society, peace of mind…

After the lovely reunion, I got a lift to meet with some other CSs at Desert Palm resort, where we watched a movie in a big screen while enjoying pop-corns (:)!) in the pool. The place took my breath away and made me reconsider the idea of getting married with a rich guy (who said love?). Below, some pictures. I wore my bikini (good thing I brought it!)and soaked in the water for hours. I think my soul finally got nicely hydrated (although some salty water from the Arabian Gulf will definitely have a longer and perdurable effect). The CSs were great and I got offered another lift home and unconditional support in the city (on top of the discovery of “pipper drink”).

Me!

Some of the CS that night

 

*Just a note about the talk: I asked the cute Dutch guy about the origin of the raw crops they were using as basic ingredients for their food. I was nicely surprised (aaa-gain) when he said it was grown by local farmers in Africa, as part of a sustainable project to recover the eroded land (eroded by formerly imported “exotic” (to the area) cattle and other hoofstock). Endemic flora was deplenished by exotic species and only unorganized mats of small unproductive bushes (and therefore land) remained. Farmers are now in charge of the clearance and proper management of that land at the same time that they make a living out of it. They produce the crop, take care of the land, balance the ecosystem with regards to little bugs and soil composition and become able to support themselves and families by trading the yield with Europe (yes, there’s the  footprint stuff, but I really believe that benefits overcome the pitfalls…). Nice.