Random Thoughts
I know. A terrible blogger I am for not posting. I've been jotting
down random thoughts, because I'm now officially a writer (or
officially gainfully unemployed, or officially a temp, it's all about
spin), and writers do clever things like jot down random thoughts.
That's why we look intellectual and carry note pads. My current
job-hunting forays are apparently not lost on the British. I'm 2 for 2
with applications and interviews. You know you're hardcore when a
hiring manager asks you, "how would you deal with a kidnapping threat
to your staff?" He had such a lovely British accent. It was very
tempting to say, "What, you guys aren't packing heat in the field?"
That would have been very American. And if he said "no," I could have
a great follow-up comment ("And that's the kind of innovation I can
bring to your organization").
So here are some of those random thoughts, most of them incomplete:
In Georgia, people assume that I am a missionary. In New York they
think I do Peace Corps.
The first question any woman in the development assistance profession
asks when proposed an assignment is, what is the shopping like?
(Development? Developing my wardrobe).
A conversation I had in French in Kindu, when I realized that no one
would ever "get" me:
"You don't seem very American."
"No, I'm quite American. As American as apple pie." There is no word
in French to differentiate a pie from a tart. So I say that I am as
American as a tarte de pomme.
"I thought tartes de pomme were French."
"Well, our apple tarts are different and we eat them with ice cream.
They are very American."
The two burning questions face every American aid worker: Why has Bono
never visited me? Why had the CIA never tried recruitment?
On why American cleaning products would not be able to take on Congo:
No comments:
Post a Comment