The end before the beginning

Tomorrow marks my last day of work here at GSK before I leave for Ghana.  Between completing tasks on my work to-do list and my home to-do list, the past couple weeks have flown by.  I had a very enjoyable going-away party last Saturday, complete with pork BBQ purchased from Smokey's BBQ shack in Morrisville and Bojangle's sweet tea, two food I will sorely miss overseas.  The weather was still hotter than West Africa: current conditions in Kumasi are in the 80s during the day and 70s overnight, as compared to the blazing 90s we got here in Raleigh.  Who would have thought I'd have to go to Africa to cool off?

I attended my last group meeting today.  Most of my tasks and responsibilities had been handed off before this week, leaving me with a few days to do all the other tasks that popped up, like the end-of-year review that I had to complete in September.  Since I won't have access to any GSK systems while I'm gone, the work I do on assignment gets captured in next year's performance review.


One of the more enlightening things to come from preparing for this experience is realizing how many things I do at work.  While I created a list in July of all my major activities that needed to be handed off to others, I kept running across small tasks that I do just because they make life easier for a colleague.  I would wager that anyone who sat down and listed all their activities would come to the same realization.  Maybe it really is the little things that matter.