Dear Capt. Shekhar,
My best wishes for the holiday season!
I’m writing to you from France, watching the sun set behind snow-capped mountains. For the last five months, I’ve been living with my family in a small hamlet in the French Alps. It’s a beautiful place and I’ll be sorry to say good bye when we head back to Canada in January. For me, I will have been overseas for 15 months, first in Nigeria and now here in France. In Nigeria, I was working as a management consultant with Manitoba Hydro International as part of the management team for the electrical Transmission Company of Nigeria. It was a great assignment with great people and the opportunity to lead the procurement of a major ERP system. My family stayed in Canada, but we holidayed together in Punta Cana and South Africa and, after the assignment, we all met up for a few weeks in London before settling down in rural France.
While here, my kids have been in the local school, learning about the intricacies of French Education, while my wife and I hiked the mountain passes and skied the glaciers. Taking advantage that everything in Europe is so close, we’ve introduced the kids to Rome, Venice, Aix-en-Provence, Avignon, Paris and Lyon. Its been great to reconnect as a family and we’ve been lucky to make good friends in the village here.
When not hiking or skiing, I’ve been spending my time working on an open-source ERP project that I am tailoring for an aviation business. Its called ADempiere and is a full-featured ERP system for companies. Because it is open-sourced, the software license is free and can be customized to suit specific businesses – It’s all very exciting and I’d be happy to share with you my experience!
This is our family’s first Christmas away from Canada and it brings to mind how much we appreciate the love and support of our friends and family - I hope your holiday season is also full of joy.
Michael McKay
