A Flattery of Diplomats.

have always been fascinated by the collective nouns in the English language:  A parliament of owls, a mischief of mice, a giggle of girls.  And I have a new one.  A flattery of Diplomats.

It started with an idea. This was between our second and third training.  Jumar, Duarte and I were in the office.  Jumar was working on our corruption project and I was going over some of the details about the pilot schools.  We were talking about the evaluations that the teachers had given back.  They were all positive but often lacking in specificity especially in some of the harder parts of the curriculum.  This could mean the teachers were tired and the material was dry or it could mean that those areas were not well understood.  Overall the trainings have been a great success, I’m the only one who feels differently and I’ve got mood issues. In casual chit chat Jumar said something to the effect of, “I wish we had people in these communities who we could have assist the teachers, not teach the class just support them, lend it legitimacy. But we can’t afford that.”

I think we had the idea at the same time.  We did have people in the districts.  We had 17, smelly, underworked, bored and over eager Peace Corps Volunteers who were integrating in several of the larger communities of Timor.  I was on my feet as  Jumar grabbed a map of Timor and began to unroll it on the meeting table.  My papers were in his way and in my excitement I shoved them off and onto the floor.  Jumar began to point at the places we would have pilot schools and I pointed at where I knew my brothers and sisters to be, most of them overlapped.  And so UNIDO’s Peace Corps Mentoring program began.  As we excitedly talked we heard Duarte chuckling.  His grasp of English is not so good but he was hunched forward and grinning at us. “Ne ga komik?”  (is this funny?) I asked.  He continued to smile then gently pushed a pile of papers and a stapler off of Lilly’s old desk and shrugged. 

And so this morning, several weeks and a couple of phone conversations later, I had this meeting. I didn’t want to go.  My Country Director and My UNIDO Supervisor and my Program Director were having a face to face.  I feared that my entire house of cards was going to collapse.

Jumar did not know about the blog, or that I routinely asked for Gene’s advice, he had worked for UNIDO as a younger man, on how to deal with the daily frustrations in my office.  I had even once had to report a situation that was unfolding in UNIDO because it looked like we might get caught up in a corruption scandal.

Gene and Nina didn’t know that I had single handedly destroyed the financial records for the organization or that my in Dilli stipend was no longer on a receipt basis.  The paperwork was a pain! I SWEAR!

None of them knew that the thought of them in a room together speaking was giving me an ulcer.

Jumar and I went to Peace Corps headquarters in our best outfits.  I took great pleasure in getting out of the big white SUV with Duarte in full view of the Peace Corps lounge.  Then it was to the meeting. We shared some culturally appropriate hellos, and then the flattery began.  Jumar, expounded on how a couple of Gene’s suggestions had really helped the curriculum.  Gene talked at length about how impressed he had been with the training he saw.  It went back and forth, each of them either one upping or graciously accepting a well placed piece of praise.  At no point did one of them say, okay let’s get to business.  Jumar opined that he had been thinking about Gene’s suggestion on the use of volunteers in the districts.  He gave the idea away!  Gene gave it right back.  Saying that he had never imagined such an extensive collaboration could be possible.  When Jumar ran out of English he would drop a word in Bahasa and Gene would nod.

I knew a game was going on. I wanted to play.  But what would I say?  “You hair is pretty!  Yep it sure is pretty and it smells nice.” I felt like a country cousin.

By the end of the meeting I had gotten my share of compliments as well.  I received them, mostly, by nodding.  And our parameters were set.  Community Economic development volunteers could consent to work for UNIDO as we were not their counterpart organizations.  We could not take them away from any projects that they were already involved in. UNIDO would pay for any training necessary, and the Peace Corps seal would be on the front of the curriculum with the rest of the collaborating organizations.  Jumar had also gotten some concessions, health volunteers could be used as resources with their consent and the agreement of their program director, Gene would speak at an upcoming opening ceremony, and I was officially a UNIDO operative for the remainder of my time in Timor.  All of this was carried out in compliments.

And it looks like I will have some new responsibilities as well.  We are having an In service training in a couple of weeks.  And I will be the one to sell this new mentoring program.  They also started to refer to me as the National Coordinator for the Unido Entrepreneurial Curriculum in Timor. (schmaaaaaancy)  Do you think I can get a bump in my per deim with that new title? I’m going to have to buy a lot of beer to keep the volunteers from laughing at me.

As we walked out the door Nina dropped the bomb.  “You know, we’ll have 21 more Economic volunteers coming in July. Lets talk about site placement when they get here.” NEXT SUBJECT!