Second entry for today

This seems like a good time to mention that I got the shock of my life while I was in Almaty. I was meeting one of my new colleagues for the new project I’ll be part of, and she said to me “You know, I have been reading the most interesting web journal from Turkmenistan. It’s written by an American woman and it’s an absolute hoot.” I nearly swallowed my tongue. Once my heart started beating again, I admitted that the journal was mine. This, I think, gave her the shock of her life. She agreed not to tell anyone we work with about the journal and we went on to talk work stuff.

It was a funny feeling. Here was this complete stranger I met in a work setting, and all week I felt like we had a secret. It wasn’t a panicky feeling, though. In fact, it was kind of nice. I mean, if she read my site, and kept reading it, she probably liked me, or at least my writing. In a way, it was finding an unexpected friend.

At the back of my mind, I have always known it would happen, that someone who knows me in a job setting would find the site. I didn't expect it to happen often (public health types don’t tend to surf the web for fun) but I have tried to be prepared. I told Markus about this site when he left Uzbekistan, and I have always attempted to write an intimate, emotional journal that can still be read by my colleagues. I mean, I don’t want to publicize it to them or anything. I don’t particularly need my boss knowing that I brush my teeth topless and call my dog cuddle bug*. But if my boss did know that, life would go on. This site is embarrassing, but not incriminating. (I hope).

And it’s nice to be an absolute hoot.

[Hi Judy, if you’re reading. Feel free to keep on reading.]

[I actually got my internship at BIO because of a personal website I kept at the time. It was essays, not a journal, but they were fairly intense and personal essays. I had a link to the site in my email signature and it was not an anonymous site. Well, when I was emailing with the Big Potato about the possibility of the job, I must have forgotten to delete the signature at some point and he happened to notice the link and follow it. And he was impressed by my writing skills, and decided I would be an asset to their office.

I didn't know this at the time. I found out once I arrived in Tashkent, in a conversation that went a lot like this:

Big Potato: We have some important reports I would like you to work on. I know you can write – I’ve seen your website.

Violet: You’ve seen my website? (slight squeak)

Big Potato: Yes, and you’re an excellent writer. I was impressed by the essays. Akbar was a little distressed by the essay where you said it was okay to lie to your boss, but I told him you were being figurative.

Violet: Oh. Thank you (more squeaky)]

*I do not actually call my dog cuddle bug.

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USAID is one of many donors for the project I work for. The views expressed herein are the author’s own views and do not necessarily reflect those of the author’s employer or especially those of the United States Agency for International Development or the United States Government. And I mean it. I probably give the US government heart attacks.