dubai

The trip down was smooth and uneventful except that I did not sleep until 7:30 AM, and then for just an hour or so after arriving at the hotel. Forced myself out of bed, to breakfast, and to day zero of the proposal workshop. It ended up being really good: we spent most of the day in four small groups (gender; monitoring, evaluation, research, and learning; finance and budgeting; and governance and management), first writing down issues that had come up during implementation of the first phase, then coming up with recommended solutions that we could employ in the new phase, and finally sharing out from the small groups to everyone else. I didn't work on the first project so I participated in both MERL and gender as an observer. Learned a lot. Wish I'd been more awake and less cranky. One which note: I was in a bit of a glass case of emotion today vis-a-vis SRB. Much more so than yesterday. That is attributable in no small part, I'm sure, to the lack of sleep. But I'm confused about her and myself and that was in the back of my mind until the workshop ended around 4:45 and we returned to the hotel.

Then EAH, who's the Kabul counterpart of my team member LNT, and I went to the Dubai Mall. What an insane place. We both wanted a walk, and I wanted mainly to stay awake and see if I could find some hiking shoes. She had a couple of shopping items in mind, as well. Not everything is available in Islamabad, and way, way less is available in Kabul. Massive success for both of us on the shopping front, and it was good to spend some time with her. We'll be working together a fair amount on a couple of upcoming regional or at least bi-country proposals so having some non-work time to get to know each other a bit was good. Plus we seemed to enjoy each other's company. I enjoyed hers anyway.

Now I've got a few work things to do and then I am going to pass the f out. Party starts at 8:30 tomorrow. Woohoo.