Yes it has been awhile and half the problem has been figuring out where to start. The other half is finding the time to start. I just calculated that I have traveled 43,426 miles since my last post. The photos from one of the trips include a stop at the De Wildt Cheetah and Wildlife Trust before heading to Zambia, Kenya and Botswana for up-close looks at PSI programs with a brief break on a Sunday afternoon to see Nairobi National Park.
Then stopped into the CDC National Conference on Health Communication, Marketing, and Media where I was on a panel to preview the process and begin to engage people in the development of the Health Communication Objectives for Healthy People 2020. I also talked briefly about Driving innovation in international social marketing as part of a panel entitled 'Global Perspectives on Health Marketing.' More to come on both issues in later posts.
This was followed by two PSI retreats for our Western and Central Africa (& Haiti) and Latin America, Caribbean and Eastern Europe regions. In toto, a very challenging couple of months that have left me with many new (and better known) friends and colleagues, real life perspectives on what our programs are challenged with in their daily work, many new ideas for where social marketing needs to develop in the next few years and an appreciation for what some of the people we serve live with every day. It is inspiring, humbling, troubling and thrilling all at the same time.
And no travel story, as friends and colleagues will attest, is complete without some food highlights. The best choices include #1. By far - Green Truffle, Johannesburg, South Africa and #2. Tamarind Mombasa, Kenya. The downside: a new Titan hardside bag that was broken into (locks cut!) while transferring through Johannesburg airport where theft is apparently a daily occurrence. Moral: NO electronics in your checked bags.
Now that I've broken the silence, stay tuned for many more ideas to come tumbling out. And meet Byron, the official ambassador for De Wildt. A visit to the National Zoo's Cheetah Conservation Center will never be the same.
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