Diario da Lyon e dintorni: There and back again

I’m in trouble with E for not sending an S update so here we are…. :)

Looking back through the blog it would appear my last update was from 2016 in Syria! I thought I had done something more recent so E’s pestering is warranted….

I left Syria in December 2017 as I was asked to return to Libya to restart a project that I was on between 2012 and 2014. We “mothballed” the program at the end of 2014 because the security situation wasn’t great but now things are better so we restart! The program is the normal stuff I do – blowing things up!!

Before deploying to Libya fulltime I spent a few months working on the program but based in Tunisia in a small town next to the sea called La Marsa. E came to visit twice and we both liked it there. It was an unusual place for me to live as there was a cinema, restaurants and a pub! A very different lifestyle to my normal work places, and a pleasant change. I think E put up lots of photos so I won’t replicate but I’ll be visiting again and will try and find some different places to take pictures of.

I’m working for the same organisation as E again, which can make our personal lives easier. I had to work in Lyon for a month so was able to be at home and continue E’s education in how to stock a fridge correctly, as well as teach her when to throw rotten food away, but most importantly we were able to spend some time together in a normal environment. That might sound boring but it did me the world of good apart from when the flat got burgled when I was at work and E was in Tajikistan as she has previously described, an unpleasant episode, but in the past now. It’s too easy to enjoy life in Lyon;

Cycling up the riverbank

French attack Goose

So, I’m now in a city called Misrata in the west of Libya where I’m setting up the new project. I lived in the same city before so I know lots of people – some good friends and nothing seems to have changed much. It’s not the prettiest place and it’s a complicated place to work but it’s not far from France. J

Tawergha

Tawergha is an abandoned town about 40km away from Misrata and was formerly home to 50000 people who are now living in IDP camps but who are now about to return home. It’s my job to make sure there isn’t any nasty stuff lying around when they get there.