I have literally gotten no fresh air today. Not a single breath, even from passing a slightly open door. The workshop went pretty well I guess. The room is set up wedding style, with round tables and 8 or so chairs per table. Just enough seats. Someone pointed out this morning that there's a disconnect between my table at the front (the expat table -- me, Lydia, Liz, Jack, Jayne, Dilovar, Lisa) and the rest of the attendees, who are almost all based in Badakhshan and are almost all Afghan. So if nothing else it's really valuable just to have everyone together, to make sure that our visions of what the project is going to be like align.
My time to shine part 1 came at the very beginning, when I gave a presentation to open the workshop by going over the objectives and the background of the project. I think I botched it by talking too fast. Odd, I do not normally get nervous in front of groups, but I had drymouth and everything. No one ever tells you you sucked after you give a presentation but I did. That's okay, it was just covering territory everyone is familiar with anyway. And I made up for it later. On the other hand, the most senior-level Network person in the country was sitting front and center and had immediately preceded me. Oh well.
Time to shine part 2 was at the end, presenting and answering questions about reporting and compliance. On this I was much more comfortable and did very well. Yeehaw.
And I participated very actively and, I think, constructively, in the other two main components of the day: Reviewing the implementation plan and completely overhauling the project monitoring plan. At several points I noticed how focused and un-bored I was, and was amazed by that.
This post has been very self-centered, but whatever, this blog is about me, damn it. I do think the day was productive for everyone involved, and hopefully it will help make the rest of the workshop more productive, as well.
My brain has hurt for the last three to four hours, and I am very tired despite another decent night's sleep last night. The loose movements were back this morning and early afternoon with a vengeance but I don't think that's it. I hydrated well. It's after 7 PM now. I should force myself to go to the gym and at least hop on an exercise bike and get my blood flowing a little. And go outside. I'm not hungry.
My time to shine part 1 came at the very beginning, when I gave a presentation to open the workshop by going over the objectives and the background of the project. I think I botched it by talking too fast. Odd, I do not normally get nervous in front of groups, but I had drymouth and everything. No one ever tells you you sucked after you give a presentation but I did. That's okay, it was just covering territory everyone is familiar with anyway. And I made up for it later. On the other hand, the most senior-level Network person in the country was sitting front and center and had immediately preceded me. Oh well.
Time to shine part 2 was at the end, presenting and answering questions about reporting and compliance. On this I was much more comfortable and did very well. Yeehaw.
And I participated very actively and, I think, constructively, in the other two main components of the day: Reviewing the implementation plan and completely overhauling the project monitoring plan. At several points I noticed how focused and un-bored I was, and was amazed by that.
This post has been very self-centered, but whatever, this blog is about me, damn it. I do think the day was productive for everyone involved, and hopefully it will help make the rest of the workshop more productive, as well.
My brain has hurt for the last three to four hours, and I am very tired despite another decent night's sleep last night. The loose movements were back this morning and early afternoon with a vengeance but I don't think that's it. I hydrated well. It's after 7 PM now. I should force myself to go to the gym and at least hop on an exercise bike and get my blood flowing a little. And go outside. I'm not hungry.
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