Yesterday, Sherley, our family planning manager, sent me a document to review. I went over the her office to talk it over with her - it was a terms of reference for a family planning hotline for young people that will be executed by a local NGO. We worked with them pre-earthquake and had a few issues, so I wanted to make sure the terms of reference was as explicit as possible.
We then started talking about the form the telephone operators will be filling out for each call. The old form we used didn't seem to cover the things we wanted to make sure we emphasized (like the dual protective role of condoms against pregnancy and STIs, the importance of getting an HIV test before trying to get pregnant) and included some extraneous nice-to-have information (self-esteem, masturbation, sexual violence) that wasn't going to really help us make useful decisions. Sherley was a little hesitant to accept some of my recommendations for changes, then in the middle of our discussion she asked: "What is the name of that game with the colored squares that you turn and turn?" "A Rubik's cube?" She wrote that down. We continued talking.
Later in the afternoon, I was sitting next to Sherley during my farewell party. She leaned over and said, "Do you know why I wanted to know the name of that game?" "Yeah, actually." "Because when things are confusing, I feel like I can go to you and you can help me put all the colored squares in the right place and solve the puzzle."
This might be the single greatest compliment I have ever received from a colleague.
We then started talking about the form the telephone operators will be filling out for each call. The old form we used didn't seem to cover the things we wanted to make sure we emphasized (like the dual protective role of condoms against pregnancy and STIs, the importance of getting an HIV test before trying to get pregnant) and included some extraneous nice-to-have information (self-esteem, masturbation, sexual violence) that wasn't going to really help us make useful decisions. Sherley was a little hesitant to accept some of my recommendations for changes, then in the middle of our discussion she asked: "What is the name of that game with the colored squares that you turn and turn?" "A Rubik's cube?" She wrote that down. We continued talking.
Later in the afternoon, I was sitting next to Sherley during my farewell party. She leaned over and said, "Do you know why I wanted to know the name of that game?" "Yeah, actually." "Because when things are confusing, I feel like I can go to you and you can help me put all the colored squares in the right place and solve the puzzle."
This might be the single greatest compliment I have ever received from a colleague.
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