Sylvia's Journal

Today was a day of wrapping up, delegating, negotiating, smoothing ruffled features, completing tasks before deadlines and writing my handover note. The interesting thing about my handover notes is that I use the notes from my last trip and then make the necessary changes. It’s a satisfying exercise because things that were very important last time have either been completed or are no longer important or can even be deleted. I did get a sense of progress when looking over notes written just 6 weeks ago when I headed out for the US.

I had been tasked to present our plans and approaches for the new management and leadership development center in the ministry at an early morning meeting. I had not entirely grasped my assignment. Watching a colleague moving from one beautiful and thoughtful slide to another I realized that I was utterly unprepared.

I scrambled, listening with one ear to her presentation while kluging together a presentation that would not present too sad a contrast with that of my friend across the table. Everything worked out in the end, including the branding logos that I had dragged quickly to cover up old logos – the color scheme was utterly mismatched but I don’t think people noticed.

Back in the office I received my jeweler friend who came with two small silver Turkmen objects, gifts for the parents of the bride and groom, one set of parents old friends from my student years in Holland, the other Indian, who I will meet in a couple of days.

I was invited to lunch in the daycare center where our one time receptionist had come for a visit. Five months after her wedding she is properly pregnant with the correct number of months to go. My Dari had improved sufficiently that we could talk more easily now than when she still worked here. It was a wonderfully joyous lunch, chaotic and loving as only a group of mothers with their young children can be. Once in a while a sleepy looking kid emerged out of the adjacent nap room where a few beds are lined up – some in pajamas – to drape themselves around their mom’s neck. If it wasn’t for my long to-do list I could have stayed there for a long time. It was lovely.

I had a couple of hours to sort out various hiccups in the organization of a big conference that will take place at the end of the month – a sort of crowning event for me because it gets me back to why I came here in the first place.

After a two hour conversation with Boston and Washington, to inform, discuss, clarify, ask and, once more sort things out I returned to my office and completed a full 12 hour workday, nonstop. It was a piercing headache that finally drove me home to eat, pack and organize for my trip to Delhi and then Kerala tomorrow. The break comes exactly at the right moment, even though some of my colleagues would argue with me about that.