Sylvia's Journal

I am in Washington now, attending the annual gathering of professionals who in the field of international health. I left blue-skied and sunny Massachusetts yesterday morning to descend through layers of clouds and disturbed air that lasted all the way down to the runway at DC’s national airport. After the recent media reports about overtired and inexperienced pilots on regional airlines, I was happy to have boarded a national airline piloted by a chipper and bald-headed gentleman with many stripes on his uniform.

The taxi-driver who took me to the hotel had a serious tremor in his hand which frantically knocked now on the steering wheel, then on his thigh. I tried not to fixate on the hammering hand but it was hard. I wondered whether I should strike up a conversation, asking him ‘hey, what’s up with that hand?” but I did not. Instead I looked sideways to avoid seeing the shaking arm and hand and stared through rain-streaked windows, hoping I wasn’t witnessing the beginning of an epileptic seizure– it was the longest ride ever.

The annual Global Health Council is where I see friends and acquaintaines, onetime colleagues; some after one year, some after 15 or 20 years. It looks like a big conference but it is actually a small family – a dynamic one: coming in are the new graduates and MPH students, going (not exactly out) into retirement (or consulting) is the cohort about 10-15 years above me. I have accumulated enough friends, acquaintances and past colleagues that a quick traverse of the lobby is nearly impossible – but so much fun.

I attended a session organized by my colleagues and was pleased to see that the torch has been handed over to a confident and competent next generation of 30 somethings – all of them women. Kristen, who also belongs to that category, and I did our 3-hour session in the afternoon. It was well attended and a lot of fun to do – it was mostly experiential with a lot of moving around, small group inquiries that made the case of why we need to pay attention to people’s management and leadership skills. We were thanked afterwards about not lecturing tour audience. I’m glad they noticed. We might have been the only non-powerpointed event in the entire conference.

During the cocktail hour I served as an extra at a demo of our suite of virtual programs. We served wine and cheese which increased traffic substantially. An entire afternoon of standing left me in some pain – I am not entirely my old self despite what others see and what I tell them; the posterior tibial tendon/nerve mess at my right ankle, rarely problematic, was painfully apparent.

Dinner was a special reunion with Stephanie and Vince from Southern Africa who I had not seen in many years. Since there are no Japanese restaurants in Windhoek and it happens to be one of our favorite cuisines we ordered a large platter of sushi, sashimi and rolls and caught up for hours about kids, work and plans. After that I could not hold sleep at bay. I had, after all, been up since 3 AM.