Sylvia's Journal

During my early morning writing routine I watched a BBC documentary about the Kabul skateboarding club, Skateistan. It was founded by an Australian skateboarder who introduced the sport to marginalized youth in Kabul. The images were those of another Afghanistan than what we usually see: young boys and girls on skateboards, parents cheering them on from the edges of the skating rink and foreigners walking around freely in Kabul. The images lifted my spirits.

More spirit lifting happened during the day as we embarked on our new leadership development program with the local consulting firm CALD (Centre for African Leadership Development), a new organization founded by five enthusiastic leadership developers. We selected CALD out of a field of 7 respondents to our RFP. Our instincts (and their descriptions of themselves) appeared to be accurate.

I mostly hovered in the background and supported my colleagues and the new team by providing feedback, context and stories about sobering and uplifting experiences elsewhere. It is one of the more satisfying roles for me to play as I marvel and enjoy seeing others embrace what has become practically a way of living for me. The enthusiasm and energy were palpable. I do believe that I am in the business of energy liberation (leadership) and conservation (management).

Before I went to bed I watched the BBC again to suddenly hear a familiar voice and see a familiar face, that of our Beirut days house mate Peter from the UK. In the 30 intervening years he has become an energy intelligence specialist and participated in a heated discussion about oil transactions in Kurdistan. As an English teacher kicked out of North Yemen in the late 70s, arriving on my doorstep in Beirut, I would have been hard pressed to imagine him in a suit and tie commenting to the world on middle eastern oil.