As the departure date approaches, the number of farewell parties, drinks, lunches and dinners exponentially increases.Yesterday we were invited for dinner at Padma and Alex' (the prospective opera singer and the… well, it is difficult to frame Padma, as any definition would not make her justice). Healthy dinner, pleasent evening. We will miss these friends - so different from us and yet so complementary - very very much.
Today it was the turn of my farewell lunch with my colleagues from TerrAfrica. Again, a very moving moment…
When I moved to the Bank a few years ago, I was somehow worried to enter in an institution of hyper-competitive people, sharks, people ‘better-not-to-trust too much’ or ‘better-not-to-open-up too much with’ because they could knife you in your back…. Since my first day in the office, since the first persons I met (Steve in the lobby, Beula in front of Christophe’s office, Ayala in the “dangeoun-basement”), I realized how groundless were my fears. My colleagues in the TerrAfrica team soon became among my best friends here in DC, my reference points, someone I felt I could always count on.
And now that the date of the departure approaches, while the excitement for the new adventure increases, the sadness for loosing them increases in equal amount. I like to think to this experience as a long (actually very long) mission, after which I will find back all of them, as nothing has changed, as nothing has moved. However, I learnt how precarious and unstable are the lives of us ‘development professionals’... Change seems to be the driving force among us. So what we leave today, most likely won’t be found back tomorrow.
With this irrational but well clear feeling I get closer to our departure date - feeling (and fearing) that I won’t meet some of these people with whom I shared so much in the past years again.
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