Sylvia's Journal

Axel and Katie cooked up a storm in the kitchen while I was chipping away at my before-leave-to-do list. There was the promise of fermented grape juice, one of the remaining bottles Katie brought, but only if I had completed my homework and pressed the ‘send’ button on my handover notes.

I spent the entire morning interviewing applicants for a deputy Program Manager position that is on my side of the organogram. It is a new position that requires travel to the provinces. I was told women wouldn’t apply for such a program. But two did. One couldn’t be bothered to come to the interview so I regretfully crossed her off the list but the other did show up and impressed me greatly; and not just me. She came out on top of a fairly strong field. I asked her how she works with older male doctors. ‘Gently,’ she replied.

When I interview people for positions I listen for their theories of changes – their underlying, and often unconscious beliefs and assumptions about how change happens, how people change. We are, after all, in the change business.

The contrast in theories of change were major. There is the one that assumes a good analysis, a needs assessment and then a plan is all you need. But the woman thought differently: you listen and find out what they know that you need to know; you present yourself as a learner and then you move softly along. These were not exactly her words, but the examples she gave illustrated the idea.

People often joke about gender balance, or rather the absence of it, as if it is something funny or ordained. I sometimes counter this with a remark that the infiltration has begun but I have to be careful because gender balance in practice remains a touchy issue. There is a double standard applied to women at work that my mother would recognize instantly. She’s dead now but if she could, she’d shake her head.

The result of Axel’s and Katie’s cooking was a delicious Pad Thai, including home grown mung bean sprouts, homemade tofu from the Korean restaurant and home-cranked pasta prepared yesterday by our housekeeper and cook. Only the shrimp were missing but we are too far away from the sea.

It’s now bed time and time to pack, so something has give. I think the packing will be delayed till tomorrow. The plane to Dubai isn’t leaving until late in the afternoon.