Critical Mass

This time of year, many of my coworkers are in Ethiopia carrying out
various development studies and projects. Most of them are related to
water resources, but they range from human development to equipment
procurement to drilling operations. We all got together for dinner last
night together with some Japanese public officials and hit a Chinese
restaurant along the main road that runs through town. A quick head
count and I calculated that 1/5th of my colleagues were sitting at the
table, and that wasn't counting a few people that were not in the
capital since they were working in the more rural areas of Ethiopia, in
addition to one more person arriving Wednesday. Some people will be here
for only a week or so; others, like myself, for about a month.
We sat around two large tables with glass lazy susan centerpieces to
rotate the dishes around the table. At first we ordered a round of beers
and later a few bottles of locally produced red wine. I sat next to a
senior Japanese official who had developed a penchant for South African
wines after living there for a few years on assignment. We talked about
the different kinds of wine we liked and he recommended a few S. African
bottlers I might enjoy. Apparently he had been importing S. African
wines to Japan for a few years, although he was no longer involved in
doing so.
It was an enjoyable first night back in Addis Ababa and fun to see so
many of my colleagues congregate outside of Japan. I found everyone to
be a little more laid back and at ease than they are at office parties
in Tokyo. The conversation moved around the table along with the dishes
on the lazy susans. Since we are all posted away from our family and
friends in Japan, it was nice to have this in-group while overseas,
briefly talking about work and at length about good restaurants to visit
or interesting things we've seen. After dinner, we all crowded outside
the entrance to the restaurant and gradually headed back to our
respective hotels, some of us saying "See you back in Japan" at the end
of the night. All the people on my project were staying nearby so we
walked in the cool evening air back to our guest house together.

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