Return to Geneva

I am in Geneva.  I've been here almost a week, briefing, waiting for the briefers to trickle back in from their holidays. Friday I fly onward.

The real gift has been my college/Australian friend Devi who lives here with her small and growing family. I've had meaningful interactions at the headquarters for about an hour each day, but that would have had me crying in my soup. Seeing Devi four of the seven days, including quality macaroon and rosé time, has been delightful.

Fondue yes please

This week I noted a progression over some years of my life, seven really. I first came to Geneva in 2006 with a sense of it as the epicenter for humanitarian work. I wanted to pursue the interest that had driven me through college but had no idea where to start.

The famous fountain

At the Paris training last year I met 24-year-old Jen who had her Master's in public administration from NYU and has now been on two missions, which still makes her five years younger than me. It's easy for me to imagine myself making a few different decisions, mostly regarding the transition from education to profession, and I'd be the humanitarian Wunderkind too.  

But on the small scale, the scale lived out in a life I've loved with people I love...

I applied to this particular organization in 2008 and they turned me down for lack of experience. They are not the end-all to me, but one of the first people I met who'd done what I wanted to do was an Australian nurse who'd been in Sudan with them in 2007. I applied to them again in February of 2011. They called me back. It was the only job I applied for, thinking things might go somewhere with Tom. 

It is beyond the scope of my imagination to guess how this part of my story may yet interact with the more domestic hopes for Tom and my future. Stay tuned. There's a lot of accounting to be done in the meantime.