Working from Home

One of the major perks to working here is that no one is watching me. I asked -- I can take off as much time as I like, I can work from home whenever I want and basically do as I like. I guess the theory is if we are wiling to come here and work for peanuts we must be seriously dedicated to the work. In my case this is true, but this week I have very little work and my motivation is waning. My work comes in waves, so I'll be really, really busy for a couple of weeks (usually corresponding to a week I'm traveling) and then I'll have nothing. This is a nothing week. So I figured I'd work from home. It is 1:30 and I've done very little work.

The bits I have done involved reading the news. UNICEF is having a hard time in Sri Lanka right now. This can have repercussions for Sewalanka because we too work in the north. It seems the allegations are completely unmerited, which puts even more fear into the hearts of aid workers here. Apparently, though not mentioned in this article, the papers named names. These people have had to leave the country! I have to say I'm a little outraged that there may be actions taken against the U.N. staff who participated in a protest that was protesting violence against aid workers. Is there really harm in that?

Also, the day after I post about Bali and all my hope for big changes, they announce that we shouldn't expect big changes. Oh well. I like this article, though, because it does remind the reader that although the U.S. federal government is made up of a bunch of ostriches with their heads in the sand, many U.S. cities (more than 300) and half of the states are taking action against climate change. I think people outside of the U.S. forget that Bush barely won the past two elections and that we are an extremely diverse country with many, many opinions.

So in my need to fill my time, I left work early yesterday and walked down to the big temple to take some pictures. It has been literally weeks since I went out with the camera. I think I can claim this as working because Amanda asked me the other day if I could do a photo training for staff outside of Colombo. I can use some of the pictures I took yesterday as examples in my presentation. Before Jodi left she suggested to Amanda that they send me around the country to take photos for a photo library. Amanda changed this suggestion to me training staff. Since I'm into sustainability I agreed, but a little part of me is very sad to loose the opportunity to travel and just take photos. The pictures I've managed to get thus far are me just fitting them in, but if the point of the trip was for me to take photos -- think what I could accomplish! Hmm.

I plan to create a presentation on the basics of good photography today, so that the day isn't a total waste.
I'm obsessed with making little story panels from my photos right now. These started because of my need to constantly change my blog header. Now I can't stop.