Sylvia's Journal

I have come to enjoy the interventions of my local colleagues and co-facilitators. They have completely absorbed the methodology and the principles of our approach to leadership development and contextualize it for Benin. They are brilliant interventions, making people stop in their tracks, pausing for reflection. It is exactly what I like to see.

We finished the second day of our three day workshop, also my last, as I have a vacation on the Cape to catch, on Saturday morning.

We sat around the table with its slippery satiny table cloth and said our goodbyes while eating our afternoon snack. It was comfort food day: ‘boullie amidon’ (literally starch porridge) made from manioc. The porridge was enlivened by condensed sweet milk (I had hoped it was vanilla sauce) to give the manioc some flavor which it otherwise doesn’t have. Next to the platter with the boullie cups was a pile of sandwiches that reminded me of camp, eons ago: thick square slices of white bread, spread with butter or mayo, with one tiny circle of mystery meat in the middle. But it was to be my dinner (little did I know that the Air France dinner would not be served until 3 AM the next day).

I leave the team with one more day to go on their own. I have complete confidence that they finish the job on their own.