A newbie among the learned

First of all - I just found out my old pastor from college is reading my blog!! Lakan - We will touch base because I want to talk about the Philippines and other stuff, I will call you!!

So, yesterday was a good day. I went to this briefing put on by the ambassador at large for the state dept's bureau for international religious freedom. My boss was supposed to go, but because he had just gotten back in town, i was appointed to go, which stressed me out. I'm still having difficulty meeting people at these things, because inside my head i am thinking, "man, i'm just a newbie at this whole thing, they are going to figure that out as soon as i start talking." so as i was walking down Pennsylvania Avenue, i psyched myself up to be bold.

The meeting was good, but the more important thing was that i got to meet people in the Intl Freedom dept/ State Dept. that worked for interests in the region in which I am focused. Then, there was another guy who I had begun a conversation with before the meeting started. We had exchanged info, but he had his intern call our office to arrange a meeting to talk more about what we had discussed. I didn't realize that he was the director of an organization that we had been wanting to work with which is very cool.

In case you are wondering, the people i met were quite gracious, especially, one of the older gentlemen i spoke with who was finishing up his last year at the state dept. good people.

Anyhow it was a good day, and I am glad my boss had other plans...