Excellent friends, part 2.

I got home from work on Friday, after having written that last post, to learn from my husband that our friend who previously spent three months doing tsunami relief in Banda Aceh, Indonesia has now been tapped for an even larger humanitarian gig. The same organization under whose auspices he worked last time have now selected him to coordinate all disaster relief in, I guess, second- and third-world countries. (I'm not sure how they classify this, but I don't think he'd be handling disasters in Europe or even South America, though I could be wrong.) Anyway, he will be handling the management and coordination of aid to Indonesia and to Pakistan in the wake of its recent earthquake, along with anything else that may happen on his watch. He got the call last Wednesday, asking him to show up at his new duty station in Bangkok, Thailand next Sunday. So just like that, on a week-and-a-half's notice, he's packing up his life and moving to Bangkok. This is a 6-month posting, after which he might be asked to continue in the same position and location, or moved elsewhere to another location and/or different position, or could move to a different humanitarian job altogether if he secures one for himself. I anticipate that, once he secures himself a permanent international position, my friend who is married to him will join him there, carving herself out a humanitarian niche there. While it will be a great loss to me to lose two such good friends in my day-to-day life, the world will gain much more.