Priorities

I have been quite busy here recently and my energy level is flagging because a Sunday that was supposed to be restful ended having several fire drills in it, so the whole team pretty much missed a day of rest. We have 4 guests here right now from Swiss Development Corporation, so they take a bit of attention. But luckily, tomorrow is Flag Day, a Liberian holiday, so we get an extra day off.

I had a meeting with my boss the other day to set my priorities, and of course the top 8 were ALL the top priority. This is usually a sign of a completely clueless boss, but in this case it is simply true: there are a lot of things that need attention, and only by carefully rotating through them can I really keep things on an even keel. And as proof that my boss is not clueless when I asked for an unambiguous priority between two that I knew might compete for tangible resources like trucks or cement, she gave me a clear answer.

Happily, I had a really successful day today pushing all my 8 priorities forward, and I have even saved some of the fun things for doing on my day off. Fun stuff like drawing plans for a modification to the isolation ward, and moving an electric switch from one room to another. Also, I’m hoping to hang around the mechanic from Monrovia who came up to do a front axle overhaul on one of our Land Cruisers. Karl is probably hoping I pay close attention since he has this bizarre idea that I’ll be his mechanic when he takes a Land Cruiser across the Sahara. What he doesn’t understand is that this job is only really preparing me to buy the beer and soda for the trip. For everything else, I will expect Karl to hire subordinates, and they will show me how to do it. (But Karl, I will count the money and do the payroll for your staff.)