The fun of my job

Twice a month I have to gather and edit contributions to my organization's 'bi-weekly report'. [I would rather not talk right now about the proper frequency of a 'bi-weekly' report.]

I often have to interpret and distill input like this:

"The Development Coordinator facilitated the NGO coordination meeting held on 5th May 2008, the international, national and local NGOs including [....] and line government entities attended the meeting. The issues of coordination among government and NGO organizations and their activities has been discussed in the meeting and decided to improve the level of coordination among government and NGOs organizations based in [....Province]."

I don't know whether to despair about the writing or the apparent lack of achievement at the meeting - but either way I change the text to something like this:

May 5: The Development Coordinator facilitated the NGO coordination meeting at which NGO and governments’ plans for 2008 were reviewed.

TLA 01

My profession ('Aid work'? 'International Development'? 'Skimming Overseas Assistance'?) is rife with acronyms. Because our program has projects ranging in nature from teaching disabled business people the motorcycle repair business to digging out clogged irrigation canals to establishing carpet weaving cooperatives to building swanky regional training centres, we hear acronyms from a wide range of contexts and it's particularly hard to keep track. My new favorite, uttered by an engineer, is CMU. A vertical structure is to be constructed from CMUs. They are Concrete Masonry Units. Blocks.

It had to happen ... but so soon?

Fearing aging as I do, I dreaded the day when a major nation would have a leader born after me. I haven't been monitoring every country but that day seems to have come now - as Dmitry Medvedev (aged 42 - I am nearly 46) takes over in Russia. Gulp. He may be younger, but at least, apparently, I'm taller...

Marmaris Peninsula

I'm trying to catch up on some of my past travel photography. Here is a photoset of the Mamaris Peninsula in Turkey which I visited in December.