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January 13, 2005
Exploiting Talent
I might, just might, have some very exciting news in a couple days. Well, not exciting to the rest of the world, but important to me. And in my own little universe, that's what really matters.
Anyway, today was my first day back in class--I sat through two presentations for our Strategic Management class. One was on a Zambian Electric Company and one was on the Swedish Building Authority. Yawn. Actually, the presentations were pretty good, but you can only hear about "building a vision" so many times before your eyes glaze over.
I came home after lunch and have been working on a new volunteer project, writing about women's and girls' rights in the Democratic Republic of Congo--which, ironically, is neither Democratic, nor a Republic. More like Awful Dictatorship of Congo. Anyway, I knew things were bad there (gang rapes by government "security" forces, extrajudicial executions, child soldiers who are drugged and forced to have sex with corpses, etc.) but it's overwhelming to try and summarize all the atrocities (while focusing just on the women's issues--what about the guys??) when it's almost too much to read about. But I have to admit, the international human rights organizations have done a great job at culling information from a very dangerous place.
Also of note, a guy came by this afternoon to fix our bathtub, which has been having drainage problems. Hopefully, tomorrow morning's shower won't end with me standing ankle-deep in water! I was hoping he would also fix my window pane, which is incredibly drafty. But he only spoke Swedish, and was only equipped with a plunger, so I didn't press the issue.
The sun has set and it's nearly dark--given that it's just after 4 p.m. I should be grateful for the ever-longer days. But mostly I'm still jet-lagged. I barely made it through last night's Moroccan dinner party (hosted by Heather, Laura, Roya, and Mitch--the group that spent the holidays in Morocco), which featured a tagine made in an authentic tagine pot--brought all the way from Marrakesh. Yum. By the time I made it home (almost 10 p.m.) it was all I could do to change into pajamas and climb into bed. I was up at 8 a.m. this morning, which definitely signals a return to the normal scheme of things. Sigh, I was enjoying my early morning solitude.
I guess that's all--I don't really have any deep feelings to explore. I applied for a job yesterday, which was a little exciting. It was also nice to see how my resume is evolving into a document with real potential, instead of the made-up potential I've been hawking since college. I guess this means I'm getting old.
