Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Busy Week

Well, it's only Wednesday and it's been a crazy week. We're hosting the ISPO conference until Friday and while it's going well, I think our whole team will be happy when it's over.

In addition to the stress of our conference, I had my purse stolen on Sunday evening. I'd just been telling all our international speakers how safe Vientiane is, so I felt rather stupid, as well as angry and frustrated.

Sadly, I lost money, credit cards, my kindle, my android, Lao phone, etc.......so it's been a rough week and I keep having to remind myself that it's just stuff and can be replaced.

The conference on the other hand has been a great success with only occasional delays and hiccups. Monday we were at a large convention centre with the Lao Minister of Health and the US Ambassador. I played MC, which was fine and all the speakers have given great presentations. Apparently the simultaneous translation we are paying through the nose for has been rather lacking and the Lao staff are struggling a bit. Language can be such a barrier for these kind of things.

We've put some work into helping the translators with concepts and terminology, so hopefully it's improving, and the hands on portions of the conference starts tomorrow, so that should be where most of the learning happens anyway.

Ian and Saleema arrive in 4 days and I'm getting excited. I think we've finally decided upon Phuket, Phi Phi and Krabi for our Thailand holiday. We're all envisioning lots of beach lounging, napping, and general relaxation. I know I'll be in desperate need by then!


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