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| Stunning colours in DC |
My life has been a whirlwind the last couple of weeks but in
the best way. The first week I was away in the USA at the #AYASumit with ONE Girls and Women and I heard and learnt so much that I want to share it all
with you but I need some quite time to process. The kids go back to school on
Tuesday and from then I can imagine is when I will be able to start writing
some posts about all the different panels that we listened to and engaged with.
For now I’ll share some photos from my time in America.
I arrived into DC early evening and was collected by my
friend and ONE Strategic Relationships Manager Jeannine. We had travelled
together to Ethiopia in 2012 and she had kindly agreed to put me up for a
couple of nights before we checked into the hotel for the formal start of the
conference. I was blown away by her hospitality, she was so busy preparing for
what would be an amazing conference but still she found time to make a divine
veggie lasagne, enjoy a glass of wine with me and we got to spend some time
catching up and enjoying each other’s company.
As Jeannine headed off to work the next day I went into
central DC for to explore and found it a really nice city. The streets are wide
and clean and the buildings reminded me of being in Europe, as they were very
elegant, square and symmetrical. I particularly enjoyed the Museum of American
History and of course got the obligatory White House selfie. I didn’t actually
see quite as much as I hoped as it started to pour with rain in the afternoon
but I figured my hubby and I would come back here someday.
Wednesday was a chilled morning catching up with work and
then the afternoon was a decadent one as I checked into the hotel and had a
luxurious bath, read a good book and explored the local area enjoying a
traditional Afghan kabob for lunch.
The evening was the start of our conference and all the
delegates met at the Mansion on O Street, the agenda was jam packed drinks and
nibbles. This is the most unusual and interesting venue, it is open for private
events but is also a hotel and literally everything in the place is for sale
(at a price). You are encouraged to walk around and explore the four floors and
look for the secret doors. It was fascinating to see what treasures there were
across the property. You can stay in the bedrooms and the bathrooms are boast
things like a telephone box shower, a glass chess set in the middle of the room
and a wooden bath. You can buy a second hand novel for about a dollar right
through to guitars played by and signed by music stars that cost thousands of
dollars.
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| One of the hats you could buy at the O Street Mansion |
I didn’t know many people at this reception and felt a
little like an outsider but it only takes a few really friendly people to pull
you in and make you welcome. On this
occasion those people were Jen Burden of World Moms Blog, Cindy Levin from
Results and Aliza Sherman, entrepreneur and freelance writer/ speaker. We
enjoyed a few drinks and a great chat all around the topic of international
development and what we could do to make a difference.
The conference really got into full swing on Thursday and
the agenda was jam packed, on the one hand I would say too much so but on the
other it was all so brilliant I just can’t fault it.
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| Chelsea of Do a Little Good. I certainly want to get to know this passionate lady better |
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| Amazing women doing amazing things - more to be shared.... |
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| The awesome Ginny Wolfe, Director at ONE, who invited me to America and to an amazing steak dinner! |
After Friday lunch the summit finished and I had a wonderful time in Georgetown with Kristie which I have shared already.
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| Goodbye America, the view as I flew off |
I’m liking this post up with The Boy and Me for the 365
project. Why don’t you go and visit some of the other linkers and see what they
have been up to?
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