The right place at the right time...

Sometimes it turns out you're in the right place at the right time - that's half of what anthropology is about, getting yourself in the right place for happy coincidences to happen. I was at the third day of the lifeskills training for HIV+ women (which is going great) when one of the GC staff got a phone call stating that Nafsiah Mboi, the secretary of the National AIDS Commission, was in town for a day and wanted to meet with NGO representatives this night. Akbar (GC's director) is in Jakarta for almost two weeks for a training, so we decided that I would accompany two GC staff to the meeting. We got there and it ended up being a meeting of only 15 people - I'm so glad we were there because we got to do some good advocacy work. Mboi is a remarkable woman, dedicated to the cause of HIV/AIDS and really understands the kind of networking and planning that needs to happen. All very interesting!