20/3/84

Another typical Tuesday. Running errands and chasing down odds and ends. Monday and Tuesdays are usually slow. I brace myself for the business of Wednesday and Thursday. Not a lot to do immediately. I talked with Jerry Hildebrand from IVS, they will be bringing in a marketing specialist to assist ORD with a long-term project. He was just checking to see if it would overlap with my efforts at the MIU, it won't. The specialist would mostly be concerned with external markets and exports. I can use him but it won't duplicate my efforts. I've been concentrating on local market information. Been giving re-organization a thought or two. I may suggest a move to MTA in a few months. The information unit and statistical unit could easily be combined under the heading of marketing intelligence. The info unit is already closely involved in disseminating the information I collect. The two statistical field officers are underutilized and could be used to collect the market information I collect. In all it would be a good move if I can work out the politics of it. That way, I could move into the background and get the locals more involved in it. The PC replacement could possibly help to continue the project and maybe work on specific weak points in data collection.

All this points to when the replacement will arrive. I got more information on that today. The EC38’s will be here on November 3rd until November 16th for 2 weeks of on-island training. I will orient him/her then which means we could early COS on November 17th. Deb's work will be finished in August when her replacement arrives so we could presumably leave then around November 17th when my loose ends are tied up. It would be nice in that we could visit Deb's brother and sister-in-law (and children) and get to Illinois for Thanksgiving. A few days later we could be in Utah and spend a few weeks there before going to Boise for Christmas. It would ease our pre-Christmas travel a bit and allow us time to get settled in before the Christmas rush. Nice idea but time, as always, will tell.

Plans are still in place to go to Barbados next Monday. some ambiguity surrounds the use of the embassy plane but I hope to have that worked out by Friday. I feel uncomfortable in leaving Deb alone but I guess I'll have to trust God to look after her safely. 

Phone call from home should be coming in this Sunday. it will be nice to catch up with all the latest in the Helgren household.