Whew! What a week!

What a week it has been!

I am currently the lone communication specialist for our country office. My former boss was transferred to China. A long-time colleague migrated to Canada. A reliable consultant finished his contract. I was left to manage three big projects for the time being.

My new supervisor and a new recruit will report in mid-April. I have a new technical assistant who is still on part-time. Our program assistant fell sick on Monday and requested to go on leave.

Monday was post-Holy Week but there was no time to take things easy. I was immediately on full gear preparing for a big outdoor launch event (Children Against Violence campaign) on Tuesday. I was not worrying that much because we got an agency to help us out. But when I could not locate my agency account executive, I went into panic mode. She was stranded in Boracay and could not be reached by phone. My yellow stress ball became handy. Just when I felt doomed on Monday night, I got a call from my AE. I was saved and assured that the Tuesday event would be a blast.

Tuesday came and I was in high spirits. I went early to the site to see how things were being set up. There were minor slip-ups but I was pretty confident that the afternoon event would be again a blast. Lunch time came and I had to scurry away to a lunch meeting with Gary Valenciano, our ambassador who would perform and speak at the event.

Two hours passed and I started receiving panic calls from the event site. Things were not yet in place. I took all in stride, knowing that these things do happen. The event started and we were going smooth sailing when I learnt that a big technical boo-boo was waiting to ruin the event. The sun was so bright that afternoon that the projector could not lucidly project our stunning audio-visual presentation and TV ad. Now that is something that I could not take in stride. The faux pas ruined the event, at least by my standards. The event still went well despite the major glitch. But I was totally frustrated.

I was tired but I had to wake up early on Wednesday to go to Pampanga for a presentation about the rights of indigenous children to an audience of leaders and teachers belonging to various indigenous groups. I aced my presentation but while I was presenting, my wife, Aires, kept texting and calling because she felt something painful in her womb. When I finally read her messages, I asked my driver to go super-speed. We bridged Pampanga and Marikina in just a little over one hour.

I watched over Aires that night and spent Thursday morning with her. She may have had cramps but thankfully there wasn't any bleeding. I had to report back to the office because of all our deadlines.

Friday was a day of donor reports and work plans. I had four donor reports and 30 work plans to complete. But I had to admit to myself that I could not finish everything. So when the day ended, I finished one donor report and all work plans.

Whew! What a week it has truly been. Looking forward to our Monday's date with the ob-gyn. Here's hoping that it will jumpstart my next week into a different kind of high.