Marie just called me. I was lying in bed resting in preparation for an all night webcast seminar, so I was ready for the bad news. Anna, her predecessor, is coming back to Bhutan in a high paying consultant role. It’s not that we don’t like Anna. We all got on very well while she was here in the first week. On the contrary, it’s because Anna is such a well-known and respected person in the agriculture community in Bhutan. After a year and a half, Marie is only just getting respect in her own right rather than being compared to Anna.
Everyone seemed to forget that Anna had been in Bhutan for 4 years, was familiar with the culture, had developed relationships through the entire community and acted like a Bhutanese herself. It was never fair to compare her with Marie who had just arrived in the country with nothing but her knowledge of agriculture and economics. Nothing she did could ever compare to the wonderful Anna. Now that will probably start again.