Work and Friends

My husband asked me what I did yesterday and I told him I worked. He asked me "at what?" Funny guy.

We had a very productive afternoon session with Mango Tree. We are working on a power point that we will take on our "dog and pony" show when we start asking for money to fund projects. It was a lot of fun. The power point is coming along very nicely and I'm thrilled. Lynn does such a good job of putting ideas down on paper. I was totally excited because I had been watching the opening plenary of the Clinton Global Initiative and heard the leaders of the world discsuss collaboration, coordination of efforts, working with the youth (which is a weird thing to say), the need for capacity building and what a great time it is to invest in the developing world. So, I had some thoughts on what we needed to put in the power point. Lynn put them in! And Baby Claire, she just kept us giggling - such a great baby and now becoming her very own little person.

We've gotten the go ahead to travel to Colombia in January - so exciting. I can't wait to meet the women at Yo Mujer and to see how we can assist them in the efforts to help the women they work with. In December we are trying to meet with the folks at Africa Bags to see what kind of work they are doing, if we like them, and if we want to do business with them. Before we can go out there, though, I need to do a lot more research on fruit drying initiatives in Africa. They're talking bananas, great option, and we're talking mangos. This is so exciting. I keep wanting to pinch myself to make sure this is all real. I keep thinking about how I got here and realize that it is because of a shift in my thought processes - from what I had to do because I should to what I can do because I want to...life transforming...of course, that and two really good friends who have allowed me to explore the possibilities of making change in the world.

I got home and went down to Club 191 in downtown Atlanta for a CARE Advocacy meeting. Kristi Wooten and I are going to be co-chair district leaders for our legislative district. Our representative is Tom Price. We will be responsible for arranging quarterly meetings with Representative Price on the issues of CARE and, for us, ONE. Kristi and I also co-chair the Atlanta ONE initiative. We heard two speakers at the meeting last night. They are women who work in the field - one is the country coordinator for CARE in the Sudan (Liz M. Laughlin) and the other is the education coordinator working in India, Bangladesh, Nepal - she actually lives in Atlanta now.

I was fascinated with the stories of Liz. She was a member of one of the first convoys that delivered aid to Sarajevo in 1993. It changed her life and she has moved from being a stockbroker (background in finance) to a caterer to a humanitarian worker. Her work in the Sudan is amazing - she is committed to the process of peacebuilding (coming from the "nationals") and is working continually facilitating those efforts. She told us that the tribal groups had their own ways for dealing with conflict and that she readily encouraged that process. I found that information when I was doing research for my senior thesis - that some countries had opted for traditional methods of dealing with the transgressions of their neighbors rather than take on the new forms of truth and reconciliation commissions. Anyway, I was very selfish and completely monopolized her time after dinner. We talked about the Balkans (where she eventually ended up working for 12 years), I told her of my passion for the area even though I had not been there and that I really hoped to be able to visit the area, she gave me her e-mail address and offered her contacts when I go. She's doing work I respect and would love to know more about. She's committed to involvement at the local level in a very dangerous place. She is committed to training locals to do jobs for CARE in Sudan. She believes that peace can come from the bottom up and remains committed to local peace building exercises. I asked her if she thought I could get someone to put me through the peace building training!?

Off today to yoga, wine store, Costco for new dog beds and then home for some research for Mango Tree, research on grants and working on a business plan. The Chairman of the board of Coca Cola lives in Atlanta. I''m going to try to contact him and see if he will be my mentor. I listened to him talk yesterday and was impressed - of course, that's why he's the COB of Coca cola! The weather is beautiful so I will probably take the dog for a nice long walk this evening. After dinner, before it's dark - I still have trouble with figuring out what to do with the evenings when no one is home - TV is good for a while but then...