CURRENT MISSION

to do financially-unrewarding, soul-fulfilling jobs...hey, it's an economic crisis...best time for it!

ABOUT ME

Currently moving my life from Dakar Senegal to...uh, not sure...waiting to hear from above...possibly back home to NZ, to Aussie, to the UK, Spain, France or Chile....or maybe the Democratic Republic of Congo...depends how I feel when I wake up tomorrow (or more precisely, who will give me a job!!)

Thus...a bit snowed under and unable to write long auto-biography. Hopefully below will suffice! :)

PHILOSOPHY

Live the Truth in Love.

There´s not much that can´t be accomplished when you´ve got good relationships and good communication.

And here´s something cool I found the other day...

Garde ta vie au soleil...
Savoure les petits bonheurs, les grands coûtent trop cher. Apprends à t´aimer toi-même et entraîne-toi, ainsi à aimer les autres. Embrasse la vie, réconcile-toi avec la vie, la tienne et celle des autres. Cultive le sourire, le parole agréable, au-déla des petites guerres froides quotidiennes. La réussite du monde, c´est aussi la fraternité des personnes dans les rencontres soudaines et libres. Habille ton regard de lumière et ton coeur de silence. Et quand ton coeur est à marée basse, dans une zone de tristesse que tu ne peux expliquer, prends patience avec toi-même. Vis au rythme de la mer, attends la marée haute. Bannis l´inquietude, cesse de te tourmenter, tu n´a pas si mal travaille. Repose-toi maintenant. Les autres, tous ceux que tu aimes et tu as aidés à grandir...laisse-les faire. Laisse-les se faire. Laisse Dieu les faire. Il chemine en eux mysterieusement. Garde ta vie au soleil.
- A. Monnon

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I've not had the chance to host officially (no couch, travelling, disorganised)...though I've hosted numerous other friends from various travels, so un-officially been changing the world one couch at a time. If sometime gives me a real job sometime soon, and I find nice flatties, I'll do my best to host. If I continue travelling, I'll be spreading CS love in other parts of the world.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Well...my christening in CS was about three years ago when my brother organised for us to CS with a Spaniard in Gottingen, Germany. That went really well. Now spending a few weeks in Madrid and four days into it, it's just fantastic!! Great folk, love CS city networks...like a bunch of instant friends!!

Interests

I enjoy to sing. Talk in front of crowds. They say that people fear that more than dying...I missed out on that. Enjoy to dance, play a bit of piano, read, be normal sometimes, a little wacky at others.

I want to work in humanitarian affairs ("Not another one..." I hear you say)...particularly with refugees...well, migration in general...hence my reason for going to Madrid...to hang with refugees and migrants there.

• culture
• singing
• dancing
• traveling
• piano

Music, Movies, and Books

Witness to Hope: John Paul II's biography
Une Si Longue Lettre - Mariama Ba
Festins de la detresse - Aminata Sow Fall

Ludovico Eunaudi. Fernando Delgadillo. Brooke Fraser. Eric Bibb. Crowded House. The Finn Brothers. Dixie Chicks.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I spent three weeks living in the bush in Vanuatu helping build primary school classrooms for a remote community...and got really angry when we found big multi-nationals mining the sand on the fragile sandspit nearby. Grr...but anyway, beautiful beautiful people...Ni-Van's were ranked happiest people in the world a few years ago.

Lived in a large Muslim host family with a polygamous father...they were brilliant. Maybe not the polygamy part, but the rest of it was brilliant.

Teach, Learn, Share

Culture is at once coherent and contradictory. Figure-toi.

Countries I’ve Visited

Australia, China, Denmark, Fiji, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Latvia, Malaysia, New Caledonia, Portugal, South Korea, Togo, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, Vanuatu

Countries I’ve Lived In

New Zealand, Senegal, Sweden

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