On organising a meeting

At my work back in the UK we used an online calendar to organise meetings. I’d select the participants, write something succinct, name the time and venue and within nanoseconds the invite would be issued. If I was feeling particularly generous or if I knew I would be calling in favours I may mention buns or chocolate, a small act of candy-shaped bribery which I like to think of as a legitimate management tool and which most people I was working with saw straight through (which didn’t stop them taking a sweet).

Here it’s slightly more laborious. Firstly the invite is in letter form and requires phrases like ‘most esteemed colleagues’ and ‘punctuality saves time and thanks for your usual cooperation.’ Last week I suggested to my boss that we organise a meeting. He agreed and we drafted an invite to a range of NGOs. He grinned at me as he said ‘you need to make sure they all receive the invitations’ and my eyes narrowed as I realised the online calendar option might not work this time. Instead in between supervision visits to a number of facilities regarding a vaccination campaign, I and our lovely non-English speaking driver took the landrover over bumpy red roads to a range of places which have no addresses other than – ‘on the road near X hotel’ or ‘opposite Y compound’. I called a few people, and got some vague instructions as we bumped our way through town. Of course it decided to pour with torrential rain as I hopped between puddles on a large leafy compound of an Italian organisation, trying to find the director’s office and leaving a pool of water on the floor when I finally found it. I made friends with a few security guards at another organisation with my fledgling Juba Arabic and blagged my way into their director’s office.

A few hours later I was slightly smug as I returned to my boss and his eyebrows raised and he laughed when I told him of my success and feigned exhaustion.

The day of the meeting came. The agenda was ready. The location (under the mango tree) was ready. There were no refreshments due to the fact there is no money (usually at meetings there is a bottle of water and a can of soda for everyone), and we sat and waited. At 2.15pm it was just myself and my boss and one invitee. I started to sweat, and not just from the heat. One by one landrovers started to appear and at 2.30pm, 3 others appeared. At 2.45pm, a few more. At 2.55pm we finally got started, under the mango tree, with a prayer, as it the custom. Discussion was good and timely and there are some small chinks of encouraging light which came in the action points.

In other news it is payday (only a month late) and so there are lines of people waiting outside our office for their pay… my colleagues are very happy. TGIF.