Farewells

Today was a tough day.  Today the Mission had a farewell party for Surrendra, a colleague from the Economic Growth Office, and me.  I don’t like goodbyes and today was no different.  However, I was humbled, truly humbled about what people said about me, and the number of people who spoke.  I had given our admin person a much longer list of non-USAID people I wanted them to invite, and a good portion of them showed up. Way more than I though would have, spoke.   It’s hard hearing people say things about you when you feel like so much is left undone.  When you feel that you did no more than be yourself and work hard - much like everyone else here.  When people you don’t expect, speak in public to say something truly gracious and unexpected, it’s quite moving.  As you’ll see from my comments below, the folks that spoke of my respect for others, my willingness to take time to listen and talk to people, and, from Samba a recently arrived colleague from Uganda,  the fact that I would smile and say hello or good morning to him every morning we met meant a lot.  Finley, gave me a very special hand shake that must have gone back and forth from shake to grip to grasp at least a dozen times before it ended in a Liberian snap - with ooohs and aaahs from the Liberians there.  And Louise, well, Louise topped it off.  She let me know, and the USAID US staff know, that for the past several months she’s been referring to me as Zanzan to her Liberian colleague.  And they have accepted that name for me.  Zanzan is the title of the chief of the chiefs.  It’s not an appointed position, it’s not an elected position, it is a position bestowed by consensus.  Chief Zanzan Kawor is a man everyone in Liberia, and I mean everyone, defers to.  I felt honored and humbled.  

As much as I want to come home and be with Ann, as much as I’m tired of much that is Liberia and am ready for a new challenge, I am very very sad to be leaving.  Today was not an easy day.

[This is pretty much what I told the people gathered there.]

Unlike Surrendra, I’m used to talking.  Face it, I’m a lawyer, I could talk all day!  Even worse, I’ve been thinking a lot about what I want to say.  Fortunately, I’ve tried to whittle it down as much as possible and I can’t make it any shorter than this, so I’ll try and not drag it out.

First off, I want to thank everyone here, everyone at the Embassy.  We have a great community here and all of you have welcomed me.  Despite being away from Ann, I never felt lonely or alone.  I always knew you were there and I hate to say, I probably turned down more invitations than I accepted.  But I am grateful you are here.  When I spoke with the Ambassador earlier this week, I told her how great and important our community is for our quality of life.  So thank you.

Now to the individuals.

Alexis, thank you for picking up the job of working on that which meant the most in my work here - land.  I thank you for not just picking it up, but moving it forward despite the fact I had so little time to help you out with it.  Thank you for sitting down and letting me do a brain dump on whatever land issue or question you had, and then taking that and crafting it into something worthwhile for the land project.  I know it’s in good hands and that makes leaving a lot easier.

To Jennifer, who brought me the most interesting things I was fortunate enough to work on.  You see, I worked at the higher, policy and institutional development end of things, Jennifer worked on the front lines and her land problems appeared with people wielding machetes.  So many times I’d look up and see Jennifer coming and it was one of two things - excited face Jennifer saying, “You can’t believe what I just heard . . .” or concerned face Jennifer, “So what do you think about . . .” and after I’d give her my analysis of the situation, usually depressing, she’d say, “I thought so.”  Sometimes I felt like we were co-conspirators fighting the bad guys of Liberia.  I’m going to miss our unfortunately too frequent meetings to discuss community-land issues.

To DeVon, for some how having all of discussions eventually turn into interesting, non-work related discussions about things that replenish the soul. We all need more of that in our environment.

To Choko, who unfortunately is ill and isn’t here today, but I’ll say it anyway.  For Choko, who took great care of me despite myself.  I thank you.  And Ann thanks you for taking care of me.

To Louise, whose laughter lightened up every day I was here.  When I wound up moving to the corner office, I was worried I’d be too isolated from the rest of the team.  That very first day I heard Louise’s laugh booming through my door and I knew it was going to be all right.

To Roosevelt, who saved my bacon.  Vicki said I dove into the pool that is GEMS, she was wrong - I was thrown into the deep end, and I didn’t land gracefully.  Roosevelt arrived the same week I took over GEMS, and the next week I took over as Team Leader.  Roosevelt literally carried the straw that I am sure would have broken my back.  Thank you. 

And to Finley.  I learned more about Liberia and Liberians from Finley than anyone else. He’s walked beside me this whole 21 months and I can’t tell you how much I owe you.  Thank you. 

And last, I want to thank all the Liberians here and at the Mission.  Damn this is hard (yes, I did say that part)! 

A few years years ago, I finally figured out what my life goal is.  It had taken me several years to figure it out, and it’s really something very simple.  My goal in life is to be a decent human being.  It’s a lot harder living up to that day in and day out than you might think. 

So earlier this year, if you remember, at the Mission retreat, quite a few of our Liberian staff asked that the Americans try to better understand Liberian customs and traditions, and to not just focus immediately on work all the time, but to greet each other every day.  I took that to heart.  It’s not that I hadn’t greeted people before, especially people I knew, but I started making a conscious effort to greet everyone - look them in the eye and sincerely say good morning, hello.  Perhaps ask about their weekend, or their children if I knew them.  And it wasn’t just people at the Embassy, I would greet people on the street, and they would greet me back.  It’s such a simple thing that helps you see the humanity in people.

Now at my age, 50-something, it’s not that often you come across something that each and every day brings you closer to being the person you strive to be.  You have given me that, and that is the part of Liberia I will always carry with me. 

Thank you!