thinking and teething

Yipee, just in time! I feel like a uni student after writing a long paper. I started and finished the book I was supposed to read for tomorrow. Oh my goodness, I got so bored my legs were trembling. I'm sure you can empathize.

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I've now got 32 slides together, and it only took 6 hours of labor, one auto-restriction to see friends and one to go on the Net or fiddle around with my blog.

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Ahhh, but the restrictions are off now, my friend! The presentation still needs another 5-6 hours of time invested before it becomes conference material. (yikes) Hopefully I can slip that prep in this week after I consult a few more senior people than myself. I started late this afternoon, but I think we all need a little rest at the weekend, non? Distractions on my own laptop were too great for me to use it for this type of work. I put my boring work gear in front of the temptation. (it still was far too close as you can see!)

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Otherwise, plenty kept me busy to procrastinate on the other. We experienced a record low headcount for the French group on Saturday evening. The tremendous effort to provide a platform for conversation, discussion and socializing might have been in vain but we used the time to brainstorm. You could see that the core group was discouraged and clueless as to how to bring people together.

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What makes the French so different to any other culture in the world? Are they still interested in debates or have they moved away from that?

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I wasn't discouraged. In fact, I wasn't expecting many to come at all. I have been waiting for a chance to sit down with the leadership and discuss. It turned out to be an excellent evening (with the usual "I know someone who knows your parents" phrase). Couldn't believe how much the guys respected what I had to say. We might be moving away from the big building scenario in France to a more intimate coffeeshop or home situ' in the city (Geneva). Watch this space, something exciting is going to come out of this. Even if it takes a few years. In fact, I think when things are clearer (vision, goals, guests etc) I might even have to give up my Wednesday night committment in order to work more with these locals, less with the international expats.

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Sunday, well this afternoon, there was the quarterly house group evaluation meeting. Leaders of all these random groups got together at his nice flat to discuss progress and where we want to see things headed. Our Wed. night group seems to be the biggest - in fact that's what made me think I might be thinking more "French" in the near future. They might need me more in this teething phase.

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On verra

We'll see..