Thursday, Day 6: I made friends! ... and a spreadsheet... anyone surprised at either?

I am now also workig 1:1 with Thyroth (t-wrote), faculty member working on his thesis: sustainability with community empowerment practices. He's very sweet and quite smart and we are learning research together since neither of us have a lot of experience. We hire his research assistants in 2 weeks and then the UW teams is planning 5 days of orientationa and training for the faculty/assistants over the next several weeks on data collection, maintenance, entry, and analysis. Fun...! :)

Project anxieties are being quelled... #1 reason: I made a 9 sheet Excel workbook in Google.docs to track our schedule, deadlines, meetings, contacts, notes, responsibilities, etc. :) the team is sort of loving that. Also, now that we are getting organized and working, there is a bit more clarity - context really helps. Now as we do things we can get more feedback on out outcomes and revise our tack from there. Tracy is proving to be a good teacher at this stage too, proving good input and being patient in training us in the areas we need the help. The personal relationship seems in good order between Tracy and the group too

I need to tell you more about our team! Sothida is wonderful - 38, Cambodian-American, lives in LA with her partner (male), worked for a foundation doing international project development. She's sweet, smart, a hard worker, fun, funny, beautiful, and kind, And laid back/no drama. 

Borpha is a kick too - 31, Cambodian-American, tell-it-like-it is, fun, fun, fun, sassy, smart! She's my party girl and we keep coming up with these great inside joke one liners... "Hey Lil Vegas, where are your panties?" "Make it rain like monsoon season!" 

Borpha, pictured with Saveun

Shelby, 27, from Orange, CA, world traveler and lived in China for 2 years, worked for the Red Cross, and my School of Social Work twin since we are on like 4 committees together And working together in Cambodia. She is my roomie, my pal, my giggle buddy. 

I was commenting yesterday at dinner that I haven't spent this much time with a small group of people in years and it's interesting to watch the dynamics evolve. My new favourite are the silent moments when we are all together but too tired or thoughtful to chat... Just stare off in different directions. It's sweet to think that we have that level of comfort.

I did buy a couple of small gifts already (nothing crazy) and I bought myself a handmade blanket and some scarves. Tracy took us to a couple of great gift stores, one where all of the products are produced by children/teens that the organization supports (generates income for the youth too) and a co-op where items are made by people with disabilities, some victims of physical trauma from armed conflict or land mines. So, I feel ok about my shopping adventures knowing it supports good causes - and still freaking cheap!!!