What a week! I am not certain that I can even recall every day so I shall simply point out the high points (or, in some cases, the low points). I decided to illustrate each point with flowers, mainly because I am feeling the need for something pretty to cheer me up as I look back over the last week! (Check out Jennifer Fulwiler's blog on the same meme; she hosts the meme on her Conversion Diary blog, and this week her post is far cheerier than mine, I fear.)
1. The week started out not at all well (little did I know that it would be downhill from there) with the announced retirement of our Director of Operations. Now, retirements are good events, things to celebrate. However, in this case, the director, who has been retired in place for a while, decided to make a point about his boss being too demanding. (Let's see: the boss demanded that the director come to work to work every day, that he show up sober, that he put in a full day of work, and that he actually accomplish work, such as meeting deadlines on supplying equipment and desks for new employees. I suppose that was pretty off-putting.) Actually, the boss can be abrasive, for which I have informally counseled him on several occasions, the problem being that he does not know when he is. The director wanted to talk to me, stated that the retirement decision was not an act of defiance but a matter of his health (he does indeed have health problems), and that he would stay to help out with making sure our ops needs for the year were met if I would ask him to do so. Well, hm, now what to say? I told him we could not put his health at risk for any selfish need. He accepted that, but I am sure that he was frustrated because this was clearly an attempt to walk back his decision to retire. However, since he has essentially done no work for six months and two bosses in a row have not been able to keep him at work for more than 2-3 hours a day, letting him follow through on his retirement, the coward's way out perhaps, seemed the gentlest thing to do. I did ask him not to leave bitter, no matter how angry he was with his boss, because the emotions associated with his last days at work may color how he remembers his entire tenure with us for years to come. He left my office not entirely satisfied. 
2. Sunday was our annual fiesta at the mission. Donnie, Doah, and I had signed up to be the clean up crew for the first shift, 11-1. It was fun, a nice release from a difficult week with no idea that the one to come would be even more difficult. The fiesta started with our local Indians dancing and pulling the community into their dances. Clean up chores provided relaxation by comparison. After our turn at clean-up, Donnie, Doah, and I had some BBQ chicken and prepared to enjoy the fiesta activities when I noticed that only one person had showed up for the next shift, 1-3. I looked at the volunteer book, and, gulp, there was no one signed up for 3-4 or 6-7 and only one person from 4-5. The crowd, at any given point, numbered about 300, with many people coming in from out of town. After some discussion, Donnie decided to take Doah back to his group home by himself after the two of them had spent some fun time with the games. I tracked down the fiesta chair and asked her about the empty clean-up list. She said she had been unable to get others to volunteer so she was going to handle it herself at the end of the day. That being clearly a formula for disaster, I offered to fill in for all the other shifts. I enjoyed some of the activities in the midst of cleaning and got some time to talk to a priest who had just arrived from Nigeria to fill in while our parish priest is on a pilgrimage to Europe. I dragged myself home around 8:30, putting one foot slowly in front of the other until I reached the house and collapsed on the couch, where I spent the night sleeping. Morning came far too fast, and after all the bending over to pick up trash (golly, grown people can make worse messes than kids) the day before, I could barely move but by the end of the day, I had run around so much taking care of crises that I had forgotten all about my stiff legs. Oh, right, they actually were not stiff anymore! 
3. In the middle of all the cleaning on Sunday, my brother Rollie called from Ohio. It being Father's Day, Noelle had called her uncle to wish him a happy day. Then,they got talking. "Did you know," Rollie asked me, "that the doctors are planning to go ahead with amputation of Noelle's legs soon?" Ah, no. She had called Donnie that morning but somehow the conversation had not gotten around to that. It is a discussion that we have had. For years, Noelle's legs have been nothing more than impediments to her ability to move around. Her view is that she will be more mobile without them. Moreover, she is tired of having to daily clean infections; this has been going on for more than two years, with long periods of time spent on a pump. She is tired of it. As she says, "My legs are not value-added. Why would I fight to keep them when they threaten my life?" It is a reasonable question. (I will provide updates on the Twitterlets and Clan of Mahlou.)
4. Miracle! Miracle! After eight months of searching, interviews, and lost opportunities, I have a new admin assistant! Oh, blessed help! Janie showed up Monday afternoon after in-processing with Personnel. It is so wonderful to have someone keeping my calendar, doing my filing, managing people in the outside office, answering the nuisance calls, photocopying. All the things that were causing me to work until late hours in the evening so that I could do my real job during the day. Yes! I feel truly spoiled now! This was definitely the brightest spot of this week.
5. One day later, bam! There went my happiness bubble. My boss called an emergency meeting and announced that my division would be fractured into pieces, with the best projects going to a couple of my peers, leaving me essentially with the most troublesome, but visible and glitzy projects, with a higher level supervisor to step in for the glitzy part, leaving the troublesome part for me to handle. Well, there is more to the story, but since I blogged about it yesterday, I will just refer you to that post: The Price of Success. 
6. The icing on this week's cake was Thursday's visitor: one of the senior members of the Board of Directors in from Washington. Brand new to the Board, he had already made his mark by firing one of the most senior people among others on the board over which he has oversight -- well, not firing precisely but rather forcing her to resign. So, at least, that is what we heard. My boss and the CEO senior here fretted about how best to receive him, nervous about an axe falling on them. As it turned out, he turned out to be quite charming. When it was my turn to present our programs, I combined the dozens of them into like groups and quickly ran through all of them. When I finished, I asked if he had questions. His response was, "No; I am speechless." Gee, now I have confirmation that I am overworked! ;) Everyone was quite taken with him, and he was quite taken with all of us. Yes! Perhaps it was that prayer I said before the formal meeting? The one where I asked for help for all of us? It would not be the first time that God came to a staff meeting with me!
7. The week ended with an hour of brainstorming with my boss on a new project we have to provide support to some programs in Afghanistan. My staff is having some difficulty getting its hands around the various things we need to do to make the programs successful. Several have visited there to gather information and provide on-site help. I will be heading in that direction soon. It was wonderfully peaceful and re-invigorating to put aside all the concern, worry, and potential frustration (I'm still putting aside frustration after having given it up for Lent this year) and spend some time on positive activity. We came up with a plan to handle one sticky problem, and I left for home a bit re-heartened.So, some ups, some downs, and life goes on. Wishing you all a weekend filled with flowers, cheer, and relaxation!
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