The last day

It's my last day at Ubisoft today. I always end up working late on my last day somewhere, usually because I've underestimated both how much stuff I needed to pack up and how much work I needed to get done before leaving. 

Ubisoft will be no exception, although since my last day falls on the same day as the Christmas party, this will be the first time I also leave drunk. 

Also, candy pills to match the
party's medical research theme.

Seriously, there are a lot of negatives to working for a company this big: the projects are gigantic, the feel is impersonal, you don't know anyone... on the other hand, the production values on everything are amazing. They are circulating a map identifying the locations of bars around the office for the pre-party 5 à 7. That's pretty cool.

Not that BioWare's party last year wasn't great. It took place a week before my last day; I was applauded for my 5-year service award and won a 50$ EB gift card in the door raffle. Did I mention my date to the party had just left the company a month earlier, too? Awkward. (Ubi is solving that problem by not allowing me to bring a date.)

I was even going to keep the gift card in the family and spend it on Mass Effect 3, but then Skyrim came along... forgive me?

Ok, ok, so things to do before leaving Ubisoft:

4 things that will kill you in Africa

Ebola

Earlier this year, I read The Coming Plague, a book that discusses the outbreaks of various new diseases in the past few decades (including AIDS, Ebola, Toxic Shock Syndrome, and more). Fascinating stuff for a geek like me, but unfortunately, all I remember of the book now is how many of those horrible diseases emerged from a continent I'm about to visit: Marburg (Uganda), Lassa fever (Nigeria) and Ebola (Zaire and Sudan), to name just a few.

Though I'm unlikely to come down with anything that exotic, in the spirit of those much-maligned "top X" lists, I present a list of 4 things (in no particular order!) that are more likely to kill you (or at least cause you significant inconvenience and illness) in sub-Saharan Africa than in North America:

Hello, world.

Earlier this week, I signed on for a 5-month internship in Malawi, organized by the Canadian Co-operative Association. I'll be working with the Malawi Union of Savings and Credit Cooperatives as, essentially, an IT manager. (The official job title is longer, but that's what it boils down to). 

This blog is intended to document my journey through the process of packing up my life and relocating it to Africa for 5 months. I officially hop on a plane in mid-January, but until then I'll be writing about the joys of travel medicine, leaving my job, and anything else that comes up. 

For now, some thoughts (and a few quick facts!):