Tuesday 17th March 2009

Hello again,
Time for another update….

The Financial Management course lost it’s appeal rather quickly I’m sad to say (not that any of you will be surprised!).
It was actually all quite interesting, but pretty hardcore, doing finances 9-5 every day for three weeks! It’s also getting towards the end of term, so everyone’s completely exhausted!

However now we’ve moved onto an exciting new module called “Technical Support”, which is mostly about logistics and water/waste management – surprisingly interesting considering most of it is about how to dig a proper latrine! We’ve also learnt how to calculate “sludge accumulation rates” to assess how long it will be before you’ll need to dig a new pit!

My love life remains fairly boring, but I have recently discovered that Liverpool has quite a few hot guys, and I have been busy appreciating the view as usual!
I went to a party a couple of weeks ago, which was really fun and I met loads of nice new people. There were also several gorgeous guys there, which was great, and I was spoilt for choice between Hot English Guy, Hot Spanish Guy, Hot Scottish Guy and Hot Nigerian Guy!
Sadly, (and rather typically), as the night went on, I spent lots of time moving around chatting to people, and then Hot Nigerian guy left, Hot Scottish guy turned out to be madly in love with someone else, I’m pretty sure Hot Spanish guy was gay, and then Hot English guy got drunk and passed out on the sofa!

I really shouldn’t be at all surprised, but there we go!

Then last Saturday I went out with a few friends for a girl’s night, and the most random thing happened! My flatmate S and I were in a club, and I suddenly noticed a bunch of guys dressed up as pirates standing behind her. One of them was really quite fit, so I just said to S “Hey look! There’s a really hot pirate standing behind you”, and she promptly turned around, and said to the guy “Hi, this is my friend Maya” and then walked away!
It was actually a stroke of genius, as I got chatting to Hot Pirate, (who was GORGEOUS by the way), and he turned out to also be quite nice and interesting too. (What are the chances, a nice guy, who’s interesting and gorgeous???).
So we chatted for a while, and then he kissed me, (I don’t think I could actually be more swept off my feet at this point!).
I won’t bore you with the details of the rest of the evening, except to say that he was a perfect gentleman and asked for my number before seeing me into a cab!

So, having finally met the perfect man (26, gorgeous, nice, interesting, and likes to dress up as Johnny Depp on the weekends!), I predictably spent the whole of the next week thinking about him and did not spend a lot of time working on my 3,500 word essay on strategic financial planning (seriously, do you blame me??).

We exchanged text messages throughout the week, although I suddenly found myself completely unable to actually write a text message without consulting at least 4 people on what I should say, and precisely what time of evening I should send it, etc. It’s been sooooo long since I’ve been anywhere near actual dating that I am totally hopeless and pathetic and can’t seem to reply to a text without calling 6 people to ask if they think he likes me (I know, very sad!).

Thankfully, I have good friends with sensible advice, and after several long chats, most people agreed that I should just go ahead and ask him if he wanted to meet me for a drink. It was all a bit much, but I eventually did.
Unfortunately he replied that he’s just broken up with his girlfriend and isn’t really ready to start seeing other people, but I actually wasn’t that upset about it, as it was just such a relief to finally know whether or not he was interested! I have subsequently developed a new-found respect for men, given that they generally do the asking-out, as it’s nerve-wracking and exhausting! Also, I found that once all the weirdness of trying to flirt was taken out of the equation, we got on really well and ended up chatting for ages after that!

So,there’s a tiny possibility that he may one day decide he’s over his ex, and that I’m the perfect woman, but I’m pretty sure my hot pirate was just too good to be true, (although you never know!).
In the meantime I think I’ll just have to keep looking…..
It may be hard to find another man who can live up to the pirate though!

So, as for my upcoming trip to Sudan, I’ve been extremely busy getting passport photos taken and filling in visa application forms, and health and safety risk assessment forms (which are hilarious by the way – I have to rate the likelihood of a volcanic eruption, chemical dusts, and glaciers, crevasses and ice falls! I also had to say whether or not there was a risk of “desert”!). I’ve also been getting vaccinated against Hepatitis, Meningitis C, A, Y and W and Rabies etc. The rabies vaccine is actually quite cool – you have to have a series of 3 injections over 4 or 5 weeks, and the vaccine is bright neon pink! It looked seriously radioactive.

Unfortunately, as many of you will have seen on the news, the International Criminal Court (ICC) have announced their decision to issue a warrant for the arrest of President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, of Sudan for committing war crimes in Darfur. It’s quite the historic occasion, as the ICC has never issued an arrest warrant for a sitting head of state before. However it’s not exactly clear who is planning to enforce the warrant and actually arrest him! The Sudanese Government aren’t a signatory to the ICC, and therefore don’t recognise their decisions, so they have no plans to cooperate in the near future, but that’s hardly a surprise!

However the Sudanese Government have also just chucked about 13 NGO’s out of Darfur. It’s a huge shame, as obviously the NGO’s have nothing to do with the ICC, but nevermind. All of which makes things a bit complicated for me! CHF, the organisation I’m planning to go with, have also been ejected from Darfur and Khartoum, but they still have an office in Juba, where I’m planning to go. The government have issued a statement to say that all of the NGO’s in the South can stay and continue operations as normal, but that could all change at any time. So, CHF have asked me to postpone my trip until things calm down a bit, which is reasonable given the circumstances. However, it also means that in case it all falls through, I’ll have to come up with a plan B. I’m also now getting quite pressed for time, as I only have a limited window of time when I can conduct my research in the field. So, I’m working on a back-up plan, although the worst-case scenario is that I’ll have to stay in Liverpool and do a desk study instead. However I may still get to go to Sudan in May if things start settling down a bit – keep your fingers crossed!

In the meantime, along with the million other things I have to do, there’s a 2,500 word fundraising proposal to write for next Monday, and then a 5,000 word essay on the role of the “military logistics machine” in humanitarian aid work, due two weeks later! In amongst all that I also have to go to a friend’s birthday dinner this week, and another friend’s Beach-themed Party on Friday.
No rest for the wicked….

So, that’s all my news for the time being,
hope you’re all well and happy,

tons of love
Pirate Maya
xxx

ps – for those of you who may not have heard yet, my big sister just got engaged to her lovely boyfriend! We are all thrilled for them both, obviously! However it does sometimes make me think: My brother is married with three beautiful children and my sister has been married and is now engaged, while at 27, I’ve only just managed to get up the courage to ask someone out by text message…..
I suspect I was at the back of the queue when God was handing out dating skills! Ah well, you never know, next time I meet a nice guy, I may actually get as far as a whole phone call…….