Every morning I wake up and after my shower, I sit on my porch and update my journal. I’ve developed a little relationship with a mosquito that visits me each day. We have an agreement. He comes around and buzzes in my ear reminding me to take my Malarone pill (to “reduce” the chance of malaria) and for my part I don’t kill him. There’s one more condition to this agreement. He’ll come back tomorrow and remind me again. There are a fair number of bats here so I can’t promise it’s the same mosquito but I like to think it is. This is evidenced by me whispering out loud “Merci”. Like I said, if I fall sick, I just won’t know if it’s the food, the water, the handshakes or the mosquitos. BTW: there’s nothing like listening to a band like The Tragically Hip (Ahead by a Century) in a place like this.
I didn’t do much today, or yesterday for that matter, by way of exploring or discovery. I took the same walk but found that everything seemed to be the same; uneventful. This had me thinking that perhaps I and my blog might be turning a corner. In coaching,I have learned that coaching engagements often fall into 3 spheres; Activity, Thinking and Being. Activity is when the coachee presents a problem or circumstance where they are looking for support in “what to do”. Thinking is when a coachee is looking for support in developing a perspective, “How should I look at this?”. The final level, which should be regarded as precious is, Being; “Who am I?” Like my blog, the events of the past few days, have provided me with enough fodder to share with you what I’ve been doing…and occasionally I’ve touched on my perspective. If things don’t pick up around here…I’m afraid we just might delve into the “Being; Who am I?”. I mean, I’m not looking to recreate that scene in Gerry McGuire where Tom Cruise open’s the movie with a manifesto of his thoughts on how he thinks the Sports agency business model should evolve. But I’ve made bigger mistakes. It’s quite a gift to really know someone; not an every day occurrence. It’s an entirely different gift to know yourself.
Today on lunch hour walk I came across 3 young guys crouched down in their vendor stall sharing a bowl of rice. They welcomed me over and through laughter encouraged me to try their “Riz D’Arab”(Arabic rice). Did I mention they were eating with their hands? I said “Non Merci”, but one of them continued to beckon me to try it. It was a jovial season and after a few minutes I told the guy in french….”you know while you’ve been talking to me trying to get me try your rice your buddy behind you is stealing your portion.”. Well you can’t get anymore confirmation that some has understood you than watching him turn around and start slapping his buddy, as everyone around started to laugh. It was a good time and they all wished me a good day.
Around 4:00 I went looking for someone to confirm compatibility between the excel tool I was building and the desktop configuration found on most machines here at SEMUS. The last thing you need in a limited resource environment is to have one of those “Gotch ya’s”. I’ve had enough experience;where a developer says “well it’s working on mine computer”. These computers are tricky little things…Only the paranoid survive. As I entered the hall way it seemed a little darker and as i called out “Hello….” I received no reply. The place was cleared out. I guess tomorrow is “Mouloud” (the prophet’s birthday and no one told the “Nasarah” Just like home, everyone enjoys an early start to a long weekend.
I also connected today with my MD team back home. A few days before leaving for Africa, our head office had a fire, displacing about 800 people. This has forced the organization to adopt a work from home mode. To support this, virtual meeting rooms have sprouted up with chat and video capabilities. With everyone gone here, I was able to secure a stable and fairly solid connection. So I walked right out the gate and allowed them to see the activity on the street just outside the office; including the donkey across the street. I had a few locals come up and shake hands while my colleagues looked on. It was a good time for all.
No comments:
Post a Comment