Today is surgery day. It was also surgery night as various images, pre- and post op, populated my dreams; none that I can remember now, too fragile to survive daylight; if anything I remember faintly feelings of dread, despite the doctor’s assurances that this is very routine and easy surgery, a small cut and three stitches. I am lucky that I was assigned an early slot, 8:30 AM rather than the early afternoon I had at first. You have to fast until the after the procedure from the midnight preceding it, so that would have been a long fast and I am hungry already.
Axel reluctantly asked Steve to drive me to the hospital. I could tell this idea entirely went against his sense of responsibility but we all want him to stay home and receive the builder/architect who is to help install a new ‘green’ fireplace that we bought with the hope of offsetting the cost of oil. A huge Norwegian maple was cut down earlier this year and provided us with about 4 cords of firewood at no extra cost. The current fireplace is not only very inefficient, it also cannot be used when there is any wind. This is partially the reason why the chimney and much around the fireplace also has to be torn down and replaced. The other reason is that somewhere up there is a huge leak that created a large pocket of water behind the walls in the neighborhood of an electrical outlet when the edges of hurricane Kyle drenched us over the weekend. Since winter is on the horizon and craftsmen are hard to come by, we ordered Axel to stay home and focus on heat.
Because of today’s surgery, yesterday was my only day in the office for the week so all the meetings had been stuffed into that one day. Before the workday had started I had already talked with my Tanzanian co-facilitator for the senior leadership workshop that we are doing in Arusha in November, that is, if we get enough people to register. It has been hard to get anyone to focus on the design as the event approaches, one more month, but I was assured that we will have the final design conversation next week.
I was asked to spend an hour and a half with our (junior) program officers over lunch and teach them about coaching. We talked about experiences of being coached and coaching, mentoring, and what to do when things go off the rails. I enjoy these conversations. In some ways they are the centerpiece of my professional life – how to have productive conversations with others, whether or not they want to move in the same direction as you do.
My last meeting was about Afghanistan and the possibility of working with our (organization’s) president as he prepares for a consultation with senior health leaders in Afghanistan in December. It is difficult to create experiences working with senior leaders and so I jumped on the opportunity, even though the trip may come on the heels of the Tanzania trip if all goes as planned. It will be an interesting and full fall, no doubt.
On my way home I checked a message on my cell phone that came from the flight center. I heard Arne’s voice saying something about a ‘mishap’ with 69A (my plane). My heart missed a beat; then I heard the rest of the message: on landing a large deer had jumped on the runway and hit the side of the plane. The deer was instantly killed but the pilot, student pilot and passenger were all right. The plane is not and will be out of circulation for some time. I try not to be superstitious.
Sylvia's Journal 
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