Xin chào. Je prends Phở. Thank you.

You think that sounds like a weird heading....well, that's exactly how I ordered my dinner last night!

Jacci and I found a Vietnamese restaurant here in Libreville (who knew!).  The owner took our order.  He's from Vietnam, lived in Libreville for 20 years (!!!!), speaks Vietnamese (obviously) and French and a little English.

Hanoi or Libreville?

So there I was ordering Vietnamese food, in West Africa, speaking in Vietnamese, French, and English.  And people say I'm not multicultural!

No, this is not where we ate.

The hookers outside the restaurant was a nice touch.  I'm glad Jacci doesn't understand what they were saying.  There are some benefits to her limited French.

"Votre femme peut regarder."

Management, leadership, goals, team....

I have become intensely interested in becoming a better manager...I don't know why.  I think it was so easy to lead the FM section in Bangkok that I never really studied the art of management or leadership.  Even more so, the FM training at FSI that all FM's go through taught us how to manage data, how to manage equipment, manage maintenance money, but never really taught us how to manage people.  Interestingly enough, I remember on several occasions our instructors telling us they were more "people managers" than anything else...but yet we got no training on managing people.  

I've taken it upon myself to learn how to be a good manager and a good leader....note - "management" and "leadership" are not the same.  I have had some management challenges in my section and I'm not confident in the results I'm getting...so I need some sharper techniques.

I started by reading the book "The One Minute Manager" by Kenneth H. Blanchard and Spencer Johnson.  Here's a pic of the book....

This book is very famous for boiling management into 3 simple techniques: One Minute Goals, One Minute Praisings, and One Minute Reprimands. In future blog posts I'll go through more of what I've learned....I'm on my 3rd reading so I really absorb the techniques in this book.

I've also started re-reading a book that I've loved for many years - "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People" by Stephen Covey. A few years ago I went on a Stephen Covey kick, ordered his books, bought his day planners, attended a Covey training, shaved my head, converted to Mormonism.....ok....well maybe not the Mormonism...and I shaved my head out of my own laziness of having to comb my hair....but the point is I really got into his 7 Habits....again more in future blogs.

My goal is to learn more secrets of good management/leadership and add these techniques to my current management style. I think I'm a pretty good manager now and I am happy with my team, their results, their happiness, and our success....but I think I can be even better and that's why I'm digging into good management techniques.

Gabonese Turtle

The guards on our housing compound come to my door....a lot.  Whenever a light bulb goes out or a water pipe drips (last week they came to my door because a fisherman washed up on our beach...long story)...I guess they come to me because 1) I'm nice 2) I speak French and 3) my front door is close to their guard booth.

Anyway - they rang me again today to show me something cool....

A Gabonese Forest Turtle....check out the cool shell.  The guards had to go hide him because apparently they are very good eating.  At least I think he said he would take him and "hide" him...better check the French word for "hide."

We also have a bunch of these guys living in the tree next to us..

The news media doesn't know Embassy vs Consulate vs whatever?

I supposed I didn't know the difference between and Embassy and a Consulate before I joined the DoS either....now I pick up on the use of these words all of the time....and I comment to people sitting around me when I hear the mistake.  That's an annoying trait...I should probably stop.

But with all of the talk of what happened in Benghazi on the news....my ears perk up again and I'm very surprised that, well, no one is making the distinction to the media or the American people.  Even more stunning (to me at least, but I'm easily stunned) is that the US Government doesn't seem to be making the correction.

Allow me to correct EVERY person in the media with this humble blog post.

An "Embassy" is a government's business office in a host country.  The Embassy is located in the capital of that country.  So the US Embassy in Libreville is the USA's business office in Gabon led by the Ambassador.  The US Embassy works with the host government on trade, business, political, and social issues.  The Embassy is also there to process visas for people coming to the USA and to assist American citizens in the host country.

A "Consulate" is virtually the same thing, but located in cities other than the capital.  Consulates are led by the the Consul General.  Consulates are generally smaller than Embassies, but their purpose is basically the same, but on a smaller level.

Now, if you'd like to see where the USA has Embassies and Consulates, you can go to the Department of State's website.  Let's look at the listing of Consulates and Embassies in the Middle East...

What's interesting is that there is only 1 diplomatic mission in Libya and that's in Tripoli.  (Look at Morocco where there is an Embassy in Rabat and a Consulate in Casablanca).

So if there is only one diplomatic mission in Libya...that means there is no diplomatic mission in Benghazi...there's no Consulate there (no, they didn't remove it after the attack - it was never there to begin with.)  If there's no Consulate in Benghazi, why does EVERY and I mean EVERY news reporter refer to a "the Consulate in Benghazi?"  Why?

Why?

Researching potential next Posts - a moving target!

Because we need to ensure there is a speech therapist at our next Post, we started contacting Posts that we think will be on the summer 2014 Facility Manager bid list and asking about therapy services.  We choose the 6 Posts we will bid as "core" bids.  We found them because each regional Bureau in the DoS lists potential vacancies during the summer 2014 move cycle on their Bureau website.

We found a Post where we really, really, really, really want to go....the FM confirmed he's leaving in summer 2014 and we started talking to a speech therapist there that we really like.  We've been so excited and plan to make this Post our #1 bid......and then 1 day that dream Post disappeared.

Emailing some folks I know it seems my dream Post may have been reserved for entry level (people in the 1st or 2nd tour) FM's....

....but then I hear the list isn't set in stone....

...oh, man, the suspense. Bidding doesn't open until August.....guess I have to wait.  

From Bangkok to Libreville to......????

Online speech therapy for Max

Max is all set to begin his speech therapy in the US when they go back for the summer, but in the mean time we've been asked to start online speech therapy with a company in Canada called tiny eye.com.

The speech therapy sessions are via the tinyeye.com website using webcams on both ends. Now for this to work, we obviously need a good Internet connection . We tried the connection from our home where we pay $240 per month for a 4gb connection, but the connection with wonderful Gabon Telecom was not good enough. Fail #1. (Notice I said we pay for 4gb, but we actually get less than 2gb.)

The worlds worst company - PERIOD.

So we tried using the Embassy Internet connection where they pay a WHOLE lot more than $240 per month....and guess what.....FAIL #2....and now we are getting anxious. We have a son who needs therapy and we can't get him any help thanks to the lack of special needs services and the crappy Internet connection here in beautiful Libreville. I don't like knowing that my son isn't getting the help he needs to correct a problem.

We spent several days considering sending Max, Siena, and Jacci home for an extended period of time.

But finally, the Embassy installed a VPN on part of the network and we reran the test....it passed...barely.

We've had two sessions and each time we've held our breathe that the Internet connection would hold up...luckily it did, but I'm just waiting for the day when it doesn't.

Frustrating to a level you can't imagine.....

De-worming here in Gabon....yes, de-worming.

Two weeks ago I felt the affects of what I thought was work stress, too much coffee, too little water, and too much junk food.  I woke up one Tuesday morning feeling miserable on several fronts - physically, psychologically  emotionally, etc...but went to work anyway.  By 1pm I was walking out the door with Jacci waiting in the parking lot.  By 1:45pm Tuesday afternoon I was in bed asleep...

...I woke up 26 hours later.

I really thought it was just all of those factors catching up with me because, when I did wake up, I felt better. Thursday I was back at work...I had a little less energy, but felt mostly okay.  The weekend was normal, but I still didn't have my full strength and was in bed each night by 8:30pm.

The following Monday, however, it got worse.  Dizzy spells and a general sense of just not feeling right.  I kept working, went home and went to bed right after dinner.  Jacci made me promise to go to the doctor the next morning...which I did....

...and he immediately told me I had a parasitic worm infection.  The worms were attached to my intestines eating my food, drinking my blood, and spewing toxins back at me giving me the dizzy spells.  He put me on pills and said that most expats living here de-worm every 3 months or so just to clean themselves out.  Wonderful.

DON'T DRINK THE WATER!!

Fortunately, a couple days later my energy returned.  I've upped my water intake, vitamins, and sleep.  And in 3 months....I'll de-worm again.

I just wanted to come to Libreville to get the new Embassy up and running......and I get worms ta-boot.

Not only am I learning a lot about buildings and system and management (a post on that soon), but getting worms made me do some research about parasitic infections in Africa and how this problems is addressed by African health officials, NGO's, and foreign governments in Africa.

I see posters all over the city about AIDS, heck, the Embassy gives free condoms to people.....but I look around Libreville and I don't see signs about malaria or parasitic infections.  Where's the concern for those issues....

I'm debating posting my thoughts.....I'll be back on this one later.