Sylvia's Journal

We are now fully immersed in the work planning exercise. It is disciplined, collegial and as rigorous as these things go. I think this is probably the most engaging and inclusive exercise I have ever been involved in. By Friday everything needs to be ready to present to our funder for a before-final sign off . And then the project staff will meet with their government counterparts for final approval. By then I will be in Addis and on to my third assignment of this trip.

Axel is busy planning his trip to Angkor Wat and then a boat ride do join me in Phnom Penh. It will be the second time I am in ‘striking distance’ of the famous temple complex and missing it again. I will visit it vicariously through Axel’s pictures, much like I did when we were in Japan and Axel told me about his fabulous trip to Kyoto. We have reserved a few days at the tail end of the Bangkok conference, to have a vacation together before heading home and preparing for surgery.

My colleague went to the handicraft center and asked if I wanted to come along. I said no, as I am not interested anymore in buying local souvenirs. I have distributed those I accumulated over the last 30 years among my colleagues and our house is already full of knickknacks (inside and outside boxes) from around the world. I could be easily seduced into buying more fabrics but I already have trunks full of them.

My work days are long. I leave for the office at 7:30 and when I get home at 6PM I order room service and have my phone calls with various teams and individuals at the home office. The massage place closes too early  (last call at 7:30PM) – I wished they’d be available at 11PM. It would make for a good start of the night.

With my job in Rwanda winding down I am casting my eyes to assignment 2 in Kenya which will be a nice combination of play and work for my short stay there.