Sylvia's Journal

The assistant of the shoulder doctor gave me another shot in the arm to quiet things down. The previous shot did that for over a year. I also need to see the physical therapist again for a refresher on the rubber band exercises. We have decided to put off the MRI, so what happened inside my shoulder remains a mystery for now.

The tooth doctor concluded, in less than a minute time that it was not my tooth that was falling apart but the porcelain crown. It had been drilled through in a previous root canal treatment which had weakened the crown. Eating a piece of licorice was the straw that broke the crown’s back. No emergency, just a costly repair that can wait while I get used to uneven terrain in my mouth.

To my great surprise I received my passport with visa stamp and my e-ticket a full 6 days before my next trip, to Addis Ababa. The March and April trips are still up in the air, with the April one probably sliding into the summer. This is just as well as we are in very drawn out and complicated negotiations with a reluctant partner organization that sees its traditional approach to technical assistant (experts flying in and out) questioned by us at every turn. It seems that they don’t understand what we are putting in place of something they believe has worked just fine. We are missing the words and language to describe what is primarily an experience that needs to be had, or at least observed close up.

One of my former students, newly hired by us, is leading the charge. It is a hugely difficult assignment, conducted mostly by phone and email and a few visits to Washington. She’s doing amazingly well but getting discouraged periodically, until I remind her that she is practicing what we are teaching others and that she is doing the work of managing and leading. She’s working the low-tech high-touch angle with a group that works the other way around.

My colleague in Afghanistan got his abstract for a conference in Washington this spring accepted. They gave him a poster session slot which is a bit of a consolation price, but he is on the program nevertheless. The title of his ‘session’ is Low Tech – High Touch Leadership for Health. I don’t think he has been on an international conference program before and I wonder whether they will fly him all the way to DC for this, but I hope they do. It’s a great experience, like a trip to a restaurant that offers a buffet with all the best dishes of the world.