As I'm sure you all know (because you're holding your breath) I'll be flying out of Roberts International Airport next Sunday evening (eight days), spending a day in Brussels, eating chocolate, dining on waffles, drinking Belgian whites, and biking around the city, before flying back to Grand Rapids, MI, arriving Tuesday evening (ten days). Its been a good run, but I'll be happy to be home. This is by far the longest I've ever been away from my home, family and friends, and I'm a tad eager to see you all again.
Lets touch on the recent happenings. At work, my main priority has been preparing for my two month absence, and transitioning out of the daily activities of the LEAD mentoring relationships. Primarily, this means putting the mechanisms in place for mentors and entrepreneurs to communicate with each other so that they don't need third party intervention to prompt the scheduling of phone calls. Its also means finishing the last section of the LEAD mentoring program handbook. For whatever reason, I can't find a good (and brief) resource on Liberian history and culture. It seems everything I find is much too long for my purposes, and I haven't been feeling particularly motivated to write my own.
LEAD client Amie Kamara is impressive. She's only in her twenties, but with the help of business training and several loans she has expanded from a small table to a large container with several more tables outside. She also happens to get fed up with you if you take too long interviewing her and then take too many photos.
Enough shop talk. Its amazing how at any social gathering among friends, if there is even one new friend among us, the conversation inevitably turns to 'what are you doing here?', 'what's your role?', and the all engrossing, 'how can we collaborate on such-and-such?'. Networking is powerful, but its gotten to the point where I bore even myself when I talk about work. Also, talk is cheap, but sometimes I wonder if as an NGO community we spend more time 'netorking' and playing with our acronyms and buzzwords than we do actually working on our current projects. Okay, I started this paragraph with 'enough shop talk' and then proceeded to talk about...aaargghhhhh!
Here we go: the fun stuff. Lets see, last week I got to go to my colleague Charlie's graduation ceremony and after party. Charlie graduated in Business Management from UMU and is currently manages LEAD's loan tracking software. The graduation ceremony was, well, long but I had a chance to walk around the compound and check out the attached riverfront golf course. Green fees are $15, $5 for a caddy, $10 for unlimited balls at the driving range... I may bring my clubs back with me.
Me and Charlie, about to head over to the Unity Conference Center
BFFs Charlie and Amanda goofing off before the ceremony
Also fun was the chopper trip I recently took with some friends. Our friends Hein and Claus were gracious enough to let Joe, Andrea, Marjolein and myself go up for a quick tour of the greater Monrovia area. Segran, now also a good buddy, is a great pilot who was eager to see just how far over a chopper can go and show how we could fly up the St. Paul River about 5 meters off the water. Very cool.
Joe (left) taking in the sights while Segran (right) does some pilot stuff
Vaitown Neighborhood, next to the Freeport of Monrovia
Marjolein, Segran and Andrea join for a post-flight pose
Lots to do this week: buying Liberian trinkets and souvenirs and whatnot to take back to the US, picking up various items that I'm toting back to the US for friends, getting my Liberian residency permit, finishing up a few work items, moving my things to the new apartment I'll be staying at when I get back, packing my bags and saying goodbye to friends.
I'll be in GR from August 31 to about September 9, then in Ontario until about September 20, then in Michigan for the most part until I head back to LIB around Nov. 1!
