Sylvia's Journal

Although domestic travel hardly counts, I am on the road again, a little further south, in Washington DC. It is supposed to be spring here but today was cold and I was glad I wore my Ethiopian leather jacket, good for cold weather on the high plateau, Kabul, Massachusetts and now also DC.

I am being trained with a dozen other colleagues in the art of leading a proposal process. Since I have returned from Afghanistan I was twice put in this role – without the training – and both times the request for proposals was aborted for various reasons. Now that I am learning how I should be playing this role I am glad that happened – I would have gone about my task all the wrong way.

Later this week, on Friday, back in Cambridge, I will be in another training, this time on public speaking, delivered by a firm that does this for a living. A previous training in DC got rave reviews so I signed up. It does require some homework that has to be squished in sometime between now and Friday 9 AM. I am looking forward to the weekend, for some temporary relief – our annual Easter ritual, memories of Beirut, meeting Axel, getting married, Sita on her way, and countless new springs and new beginnings since then – a most memorable time of each year.