well, I haven't written for aaaaaages. Two main reasons:
- I've been flat out. The project team have been all back in Maputo this week, and it's been hectic. Have spent my entire time inbetween managing our project sponsors and coaching and working with the team. My daily routine has been to get up: eat breakfast/read the bible, go to work, flat out the whole day, finish around six-ish, go to the gym, have dinner, then watch CNN.
(on a side note - given how much fruitful time I've spent one-on-one with team members, I now understand why there was so much confusion in the first few weeks, when I was "remote managing". Doh!) - Life has been, well ... a bit more boring (the real reason!). It's been 2 weeks since I returned to the capital since my 2-week tour of Nampula, Malawi and Chimoio, and I think the normality and routine has taken a bit of brightness out of the trip.
Africa gone from being an adventure to becoming ... work!
Don't get me wrong, I'm still meeting heaps of amazing people - having dinner with cool people in cool locations - and enjoying getting to develop deep relationships along with meet many. The work we've been doing is fantastic. It's really challenging me but also allowing me to coach others; we calculated today that a moderate impact from our project would result in tens of thousands of jobs for Mozambicans. We gave a mini presentation today to one of the Technoserve Board members (an ex-McKinsey director!) and he loved it - the best thing being that it was the team, not me, that did the majority of the talking (ok, I said a few words ... here and there). I'm enjoying learning all about chickens and technical stuff as well as being a better manager, upwards and downwards.
But the drudgery of being in an office non-stop, and dealing with endless people issues in trying to keep the team happy and productive; combined with coming back day after day to the same hotel room, has resulted in me having a number of days where I've been less than excited. Counting down the hours until my dinner date (or in today's case, the weekend). Stressed and frantic, running after deadlines. It's not many days, but it's been about 2 this week!
What to do? Life can't always be an adventure, and hey, I'm no longer a volunteer. Besides, roaming around Africa in a non-stop flight of fancy isn't what normal life is like, I think?!
Anyway, I'm off for dinner.
Blessings
john
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