We have had a busy couple of weeks, but over all, it’s been successful as far as accomplishing our goals. We are currently in Ching Mai – sunny Thailand wrapping up the 2004 budget proposal. We had over twice as many folks on our team to do data entry/printing, than what we have had the past couple of years. Having a larger team proved to be less stressful, and less time consuming. Of course, Jackie’s responsibility didn’t lessen any, but he seemed to tackle the task with more confidence. I’m quite impressed with the organization ability of our supervisor to pull off such a large task, to distribute the work and to complete the process in about half the time. THe rest of the team have been released, except te 3 of us. I’ve just helped out tie up some loose ends all morning, but now I’m sitting idle, until Jackie can release some ending tasks for me to print. I’ve caught up on reading Taiwan news to find that the SARS travel alert was lifted yesterday. YEA! Does anyone want to come see us during our last month??? Oh, that would be fun, I bet fairs are cheaper – Taiwan is leading a campaign to revive the flor of tourist. I also read a funny article that Taiwan will fine you if your a/c drips water on the street. Those who report offenders get 20% of the fine money. We return to Taipei tomorrow (after 10 very busy days – 2 different cities/hotels)and it will be nice to attempt to return to a little normalcy. although normal is disappearing swiftly for us. With BSF over, our main commitments with the mission over the hump, all that is left is to pack out our current apartment for returning to Texas July 18. We still haven’t decided if we will stop off for a mini vacation or not on our way home, if so we will be home July 22 (my birthday) or July 23. We still need to walk through the apartment that we will move into Jan 2004 to make notes of clean up/repairs needed. We hope to get an idea of what all will need to be purchased in Taipei upon our return, and also list what will be packed out in Texas to be shipped. All these details make my head swim.
I’m looking forward to coming home for 6 months and spending quality time with our loved ones. Well, I think they are about read for me to finish up the printing. later. Fran
