It's A Small (NGO) World

The NGO expat world is a transient one. You meet a lot of people, get to know a few quite well, go your separate ways, and likely won’t cross paths again. You may stay in touch with a couple, but not too much effort is invested. However, if by chance you should bump into someone you quickly pick-up where you left off.

The NGO expat world is also a relatively small one. This has certainly has been evident to me in Sri Lanka. First, on Christmas Eve I bumped into a former MSFer now working in Colombo with another NGO. We looked at each other trying to recall where we knew each other from and then once we remembered wished that we hadn’t. The second instance was much happier when I connected with Gareth, a friend from Northern Ireland.

The last time I saw Gareth was when I in Pakistan in 2006. He had been the logistician and later the project coordinator in Quetta and he and I had enjoyed, amongst other things, sitting on the roof of their house watching the MIGs fly overhead. We also achieved prominence within MSF Holland-Pakistan by collaborating on the organization of the 2006 World Cup soccer pool. The last time I had heard from Gareth he was working in Somalia with Save The Children where he proclaimed that Quetta was like Disneyland compared to Somalia. Then the other morning I received one of his emails that he distributed to half the world, describing his holiday adventures in Sri Lanka. An email and phone call were soon-after exchanged and we agreed to meet that night at the Galle Face Hotel.

It was a great evening of recounting old stories and catching-up on new ones. Accompanying Gareth was Colin, a Scottish logistics coordinator with Save The Children. Colin has many years of international experience and in the mid 1990’s worked in Zambia with CARE with someone who I know from Canada. As I said, it’s a small world.

The next day Gareth flew back to the UK, not totally sure where his next assignment will be. He is also contemplating the possibility of settling in London for a while. Who knows if our paths will ever cross again, but if he continues to include me on his email distribution the chances are pretty good.