Sylvia's Journal

I have now observed the minister in her symbolic role, her managerial role and her political role. I finished my second day as a shadow a little bit wiser about the context in which she operates and the enormous variety of roles she has to play. I hardly exchanged a word with her as there was simple no time; every single minute of her time between 9 and 12 was taken by then this then that constituency.

I simply sat in a corner, being a fly on the wall, using one eye and one ear to take in what was happening in the room while with the other eye and one hand I drafted her speech to open the strategic health retreat on Sunday.

After my time was up I attended the closing session of the results conference, showing up just in time for lunch – a bad habit I share with many people. I don’t usually make a habit of this but it just turned out that way.

Steve and I exchanged notes on the experience of being a fly on the wall. Together we are learning some interesting things, but mostly we are learning that the person we are shadowing is doing many of the things we teach about leadership and doing them right.

I returned back to the MSH compound about 3 PM, just when things were beginning to wind down there and people started to prepare for the weekend.

I had hoped to pick up my recovering computer from the IT hospital but learned that the patient was actually fatally ill. It took nearly five hours to get me set up with a new computer which was delivered to my house by our very dedicated IT chief. The internet settings weren’t right so I am still relying on Axel’s Mac to get my story posted, as I have now done for 10 days. I am beginning to understand how the Mac works.

Our new visitor from Boston has arrived. We surprised Joseph with a gin tonic on the terrace; our first day sitting outside at the cocktail hour and actually having a cocktail.

Joseph and I had not seen each other in 6 months, when, before my departure to Afghanistan we saw each other daily. There was much catching up to do.

For dinner we had Will and Lucy over from the Turquoise Mountain Foundation. We served them a Lebanese meal, followed by Lebanese (Arabic) coffee and discovered that, some years ago, they were parasailing instructors taking people down from the top of the teleferique, just below Our Lady of Lebanon, to the sandy beaches of Jounieh, right below the place where we had our exquisite dinner with Mayssa’s dad.,Small world.

We had a lovely meal, during which we talked about vision, mission, challenges and the new US healthcare bill which our Bristish guests wanted us to explain to them. We let Joseph do that, being better informed than we were.

Our meal was accompanied by a great wine that Joseph brought in from Dubai. Things like that are a great treat. We drank the wine out of tiny glasses to make the bottle last for a long time, which it did. Life can be pretty good over here, especially at the end of a long week of 12 hour workdays.