Wow it has been a long time since I last wrote. I have learned that people outside of my family and CANADEM staff are now seeing this (Naomie the newest intern at the UN who used it to give her a sense of how things are in Bangkok and the UN, and even Nicholas Rosellini Deputy Assistant Administrator, and Deputy Regional Director knew of this blog). As such I’ll make sure to post regularly again and use this post to bring up everyone to speed.
The political unrest that built up and which ended with a State of Emergency being declared has not really escalated again beyond some small incidences outside Bangkok primarily in Northern Thailand.
Right after the protests things at work for the CD team really picked up as everyone was putting in long hours for the CD Learning Week from April 22-28. That is the main reason why I haven’t posted for several weeks. Just didn’t have the time. A great deal of my attention was spent on the creation of a Capacity Development for Local Service Delivery (CD-LSD) Community of Practice (CoP) for the Asia-Pacific Region which was intended to be an extended arm of the current global CD-LSD CoP. In the end it was agreed however that it would be beneficial for all involved if the CD-LSD CoP were to merge with the CD CoP that was simultaneously being created. Another big portion of my time went to finding panelists for a CD Talk with the main speaker Kanni Wignaraja Director, Capacity Development Group, Bureau of Development Policy on the topic of “Reinforcing State Capacities During a Global Financial Crisis: a SMART State for a SMART Society.” In the end I found three panelists one of which cancelled the day of the event which was a bit of a disappointment. Looking back several things could have been done better. In particular I should have screened the panelists a little better or just spent more time briefing them. Even still I received some positive feedback on a job well done which was nice.
Now that the meetings are over the 2009 Workplan is being revised with the CD Learning Week as the context for future activities this year. The Meeting Report which I will be drafting up tomorrow naturally has a “Next-Steps” section and these will also need to be reflected in the Workplan. Beyond the Meeting Report I will be making sure over the month of May that the Template which will be used to document innovative practices for Local Service Delivery receives comments/revisions and that those are then consolidated. This is of particular importance because one thing that was mentioned throughout the CD Learning Week was sharing such practices with each other within the CoP. In addition to this I will be reading up on, and keeping tabs on a new project cycle Bhutan and Nepal are involved in having submitted project documents which are now being reviewed by a Local Project Approval Committee (LPAC). Lastly, I will continue developing the Solutions Network for Asia-Pacific CD-LSD (previously PPPSD, fyi) page in preparation for it potentially becoming the online workspace for the CoP.
Outside of work things have been equally interesting. A new group of interns and volunteers are slowly integrating into the intern etc. community we have at the UN. It can be a little tough saying goodbye to those who I started with but I’m keeping in touch with most, if not all of them. Just a part of the experience. Another friend for instance will be heading soon to the UN HQ in New York.
Just recently I’ve moved into a new apartment which is much cheaper than my previous one but still very nice. Last night I had a small party to celebrate which was a real good time. Lots of old friends and new ones. Speaking of old ones I’m going to be helping Julien organize a Environmental Networking party he has called LUSH which will be tentatively held at the top of a hotel building that my friends boyfriend owns. This is something I’ll have to talk to him more about because I’m still unclear about a few things.
The night before the new apartment party I had the chance to meet a relative of mine from Canada Laura Drosdowich who was very nice. As I know my family is reading this I think I should say that I kept thinking over dinner that she (who has several tattoos including a ying and yang one) was the yang where my Aunt Leo would be the ying. The two have a lot of similarities but also stark differences.
That’s about it for the time being, I think everyone is now caught up. I’d like to finish off by saying that I still don’t know where I’ll be going next but I certainly miss Toronto my mother father and brother and the whole family and my friends (we’ll certainly have a lot to talk about the next time we go to The Unicorn).
Andrew
P.S. Dad I expect to hear you’ve placed at least top five in the Sporting Life 10k :-)
On the way back the long truck ride gave me a lot of time to just let my mind wander and I found myself the most relaxed I have been in perhaps the last two years. 
