today was a good day

I have good days and bad days: days go bad when the psychic distress of witnessing so many people living in the dirt weighs me down. Some days I feel hopeless and helpless, feeling that it will never change. It's a complex mix of political, economic, geographic, cultural factors (and more) that keep the standard of living low.

Today however was a good day. I am very lucky to have been assigned to this project and happy to discover that the project is managed by a truly high-performing team.

This morning I attended my first staff meeting with the team-- Cristina, the project administrator and my main contact directed the meeting. Also present were two staff members, Malians, who reported on the activities accomplished in the past month, status of ongoing projects and plans for the second year (beginning October 1st). These guys get a lot done! And Cristina runs a tight ship. (And, an ongoing challenge for me, all in French-- except when I tried to explain how to link MSMEs with the appropriate finance organizations, I needed help with that).

Then we visited our new office, a good-sized building with a pretty courtyard just a half block from my house. We're moving at the end of the month, we'll have AC and internet! I won't have to walk through town to get to work in the mornings. (It is a typical village in a developing country, with goats and sheep and children dressed in rags demanding "donnes-moi un cadeau" and dusty or muddy streets and trash scattered about. No worse than anywhere else, but it makes me sad, discouraged and tired.)

Also, it rained last night, a grand storm that brought with it cooler temperatures, which seems to cheer me up. It arrived with strong wind and heavy rain, followed by a steady light rain until about 9am. I enjoy the ringing rhythm of the rain falling on my roof, corrugated metal. The temperature dropped about 20 degrees and has stayed cool all morning, grâce aux nuages! It was (and will be) a good night for sleeping!

Still no photos yet. Waiting for my laptop to arrive (ETA 3-4 weeks), or one I can borrow, I don't think the computers here at the cybercafe can handle the file sizes.