Sylvia's Journal

Full with the joy of seeing friends and colleagues who I have worked with for many years, decades in some case; of seeing colleagues from Nepal. We started something there in 2006 and it is still going strong – leaders are popping up everywhere.

Full of pride in seeing Flore from Cote d’Ivoire. She was an administrative assistant, underemployed like Marzila in Kabul. I convinced the rest of her male team that we needed women on the facilitator team. Some protested (I have heard this too often: she is too young, the older men won’t accept her in an authority role). But they did and now she is here in Washington for the first time in her life. We hugged. I could have cried.

I could have cried and was filled with sadness upon hearing about the earthquake from my Haitian colleagues, the sadness of Sandra who lost her husband, her life partner, her best friend. Many are still living in tents, afraid to enter even their undamaged home. It takes courage they say. For now it is too scary, because of the continuing and unexpected aftershocks. The earth, it seems, is not done yet. What a frightening thought.

Full of the stuffiness that comes from being in a windowless hotel basement room for an entire day watching rehearsals of powerpoint presentations and doing my own.

Too full with stories to be able to stick to the 30 minutes allowed (but how does one tell about Afghanistan in 30 minutes?).

A city full of beaming students and their parents as they walk, some in their graduation gowns, others with just the tassled hat on, or simply carrying the thing in a plastic bag) on their way to the enormous GWU graduation set-up in the middle of the Mall.

Meals full of calories but so very yummy.

Full of energy after a good night. Now it is morning here in DC and evening in Kabul. The real reason for why I am here starts today. Rehearsal time is over. Curtain opens in a couple of hours.

Full of pearls; wearing my mother’s and grandmother’s pearls for the occasion. I so rarely dress up these days. This seemed like a good time.

Full of gladness that I am not leaving for Dubai tonight.