Former colleague from MSF

Paul is a former colleague of my years with MSF - Doctors without Borders (1988 - 1995). When I was based in Mozambique (1988-1990), he assisted me on HR matters from the Amsterdam Operational Office and visited our projects once (and he got me running in Maputo during that visit; a good habit I continued afterwards). Then he - sort of - talked me into putting my name forward in late 1992 for the position of Director HR of MSF Holland (a new position as member of the Management Team), and he was a strong pillar to lean on for me during 1993 and 1994 when I tried my best in that position. We did not manage to stay in touch much after 1995, but this year I was able to contact him through LinkedIn and today I visited Paul and his wife Simone in their new home in Erica, a small town in the north-eastern province of Drenthe, close to the border with Germany. It was a super nice short visit.

They purchased this classic house late last year and after some renovations moved in earlier in 2022. Paul and Simone told me some interesting history of the region; one is never too old to learn. During my 35 years in Holland, I never visited this province much (just driven through it on my way to cities in the northern provinces of Groningen and Friesland). 

The garage is Paul's domain. He is an avid collector of various things, among them DKW motorcycles (he has various parts waiting to be renovated and assembled). Upstairs in the garage, Simone calls the space Paul renovated, his "man-cave".

I did not remember that Paul and Simone also had done extensive world travel during 8 months in 1986 (a few years after my travels in 1982-1983). They made great photos of which a few are displayed in his "man-cave". Paul had also done already a few MSF field missions before we worked together in the MSF Holland office in Amsterdam (my poor memory had it registered as after 1995; he also did various missions after 1995 with an emphasis on organization & management training for MSF staff). Later Paul started his own one-man consultancy business and continued to work for MSF and other relief & development organizations till recently. Last year he had a COVID infection which was followed by "long-COVID and this has been seriously affecting his health. Get well, my friend. We'll stay in touch!

PS: on the photo above, you can see a small crate with "Trappist" beer, which he argues is considered the best beer in the world (produced by monks in a monastery in Belgium).

PS2: Paul & Simone lean on their "new timer" in the first photo of this post: a classic Fiat which he keeps in mint state; it is about 40 years old and had driven only 12,000 km when Paul purchased it a few years ago. Truly a man with hobbies!!