Sports Day! GO YELLOW!!!

Finally Sports Day came. After getting onto a bus and travelling for over an hour north of Bangkok I, along with forty other staff members, arrived at a resort called Rose Garden. It was an amazing place with vast property stretching at least a kilometre in every direction. The grass was cut to perfection and it was apparent that the gardens were tended to frequently.

The day began with outdoor sports such as relay races and tug-o-war (which my team won. GO YELLOW!). After a lunch break the activities were moved indoors until around 4:30 when the sports part of the day was over. There was still to come a dinner and Halloween party. Right after the activities ended and before dinner I spent some time on what I consider to be a cross between a Wat (temple) and a dock. It was very relaxing. We had a few drinks and I chatted a little about life in Bangkok with some of the senior staff and two interns (Julian and Beatriz) who work just behind and ahead of me at the office.

Once it was time to go to dinner we changed into our Halloween costumes (I just wore a t-shirt with a skeleton on it) and proceeded to an outdoor patio by the river. Quite a lot of the staff did not stay around for the dinner and Halloween party, mainly it was myself, a few senior staff, Thai staff, Julian, and Beatriz. All in all the party was pretty good. The waiters kept refilling our drinks, careful never to let our glasses be completely empty. In the end as we started to head back to Bangkok after the party at around 9 it started to pour. I have become used to heavy down pours though and knew that it would end in at the most an hour.

Sports day turned out to be a lot of fun. It was nice to get to see some other parts of Thailand than just Bangkok. I’m thinking about going to Hua Hin this weekend so if I end up going through with it, that should be another chance to see different parts of Thailand.

As for what is going on at the office, a whole lot. Currently I am revising PPPSD Fact Sheets for the Philippines and for Nepal, writing a concept note for the anti-corruption initiative, revising further the template for PPPSD project documentation, and researching/figuring out how to manage to create a anti-corruption program which includes/mirrors the ideas being implemented at the regional level but implement it at the local level. This is harder than it sounds. For instance, just finding out what strategy is being implemented at the regional level in tangible actions, e.g. public audits for projects, is difficult as most of the literature refers to building capacity in doing this or that or creating an environment which does so and so etc. etc. Currently to overcome this I’m talking with the author of a book I read on corruption in the infrastructure sector. His name is Prof. M. Sohail and he is one of a few people who I will be collaborating with on this project, and probably the only one outside of the UNDP, he is based at a university in the UK. Lots happening and it is all happening with political turmoil just outside the UN compound. Last Thursday there was a “small explosive” devices being thrown at people critically injuring them. Some people were shot and at least one person was killed. This all happened within a block from the UN’s front door. In fact one of the explosions, the one that occurred earliest in the morning happened literally at the front door. Everyone here though has gone through training and we know not to wear yellow or red and to avoid crowds. I haven’t felt seriously threatened at any point yet.

That is all for now. Stay posted lots coming up.