Sunday, August 9, 2009

My Personal "Welcome Home" to My Beloved Boss: While the Cat's Away, the Mice Will Mess Up His Office

First, some background info:

Some of you will remember that I've written about teaching English in two summer camps in a Central Asian country formerly of the USSR. Gosh, that was so long ago, 1998 and 2000. But the organization I went with continually sends goodwill delegations, and two of the boys in my "Crazy Love" book study group, plus a co-worker and boss have just returned from that same country.


Judging from updates we received, the team has experienced many opportunities for growth as they faced cultural challenges, gastrointestinal challenges and heat/weather challenges. For the next few days, they will be sleeping and then processing what this experience means to their lives. One message from my boss to the parents of the delegates said to be prepared to receive very changed children as a result of this trip. I think he means that they will have matured so much.

Here is the team with some orphans, I believe.



Now that you have some context for the welcome home, I must remind you that three years ago when my Texan boss went on this trip, another co-worker and I decided to do an object lesson called, "While the Cat's Away, the Mice Will Play, AND Mess with His Office." Here are some highlights--please note kitten posters, lace table cloths, Care Bears, and a real puppy, and general "pinkifying":




Well, this year, my cohort in crime is also on vacation, so that left the Oneighty intern and me to add some personal touches to his office:

Here is Chris, our intern, who moved into Jeff's office. Chris has cleverly replaced Jeff's nameplate with his own and replaced Jeff's and his wife's pics with Chris' and his new bride's pics. Nice touch, Chris! He's just kicking back here, drinking soda and noshing on chips. What a laid-back kind of boss, except he's wearing a suit. ? I could get used to this to this kind of management.



Personally, I think Jeff's office walls have been looking a little too plain lately. So I decided to make them more "relevant" to what we're doing here. Kewl!




WELCOME BACK, JEFFE!

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