@theterrace

I love these three little pigs. Every year on Mother’s Day, Josie and I are treated to the sweetest brunch. This year, Sophia and Tatum decorated and cleaned and cleaned, and Clara, Georgie and Finn served us delicious lattes on the front porch while the dogs ran circles around them.

There’s nothing sweeter than coffee stirred with a laugh and a dash of love, even if I am “bruh” on occasion.

It’s confirmed! Finn and Clara have finished the youth group year with a visit to the National Cathedral to be confirmed under strands of stained glass blue sunshine and gospel blues.

The girls in their pretty white dresses and Finn in his borrowed blue suit jacket knelt before one of the priests in his ruby red robe and we laid hands on them and felt blessed. Bishop Marian was an excellent speaker—joyful, humble and clear.

Deacon Adrienne commented more than once on Clara’s very thoughtful comments and questions throughout the study process. She felt called to the occasion strongly, it seemed. Finn was more skeptical about the need to get confirmed having been baptized in late elementary school. Both perspectives were great. Having twins is so interesting.

Lunch afterwards at Cactus Cantina was a nice way to close out the year. “Eating together brings joy,” as Strega Nona advised. Amen!

Email from Regional Director Martin Reiser, South Asia Region, The World Bank

Sent via bcc to ALL SAR colleagues

Dear Colleagues,

I am pleased to announce the selection of Kevin Tomlinson as Operations Manager in the Eastern Europe CMU in ECA VPU.

I would like to thank Kevin for his dedication and contributions to our region as Practice Manager for SSI. He has ably handled a number of sensitive issues and built an exciting program of engagement on issues of inclusion and social sustainability. This new role will open up a very different but no less important set of challenges, which I am confident Kevin will take in his strides. Please join me in congratulating and wishing him all the very best in ECA!

Below is Kevin’s kiosk announcement that will be posted shortly. 

Best regards,

Martin

Kevin Tomlinson, Operations Manager, Eastern Europe CMU, based in Kyiv, Ukraine

I am pleased to announce the appointment of Kevin Tomlinson as Operations Manager in the Eastern Europe CMU, in the Europe and Central Asia Region (ECA). Kevin will be based in Kyiv, Ukraine.

Kevin is currently Practice Manager for Social Sustainability and Inclusion (SSI) in the South Asia region, based in New Delhi. Kevin, an American national, joined the Bank in 1998 in the Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Development Department in the Latin America Region (LAC) as a Project Assistant. He has since held various corporate and operational positions. Prior to his current assignment in the South Asia region, he was Practice Manager for SSI in ECA.

In his new position Kevin’s top three priorities will be to: (i) oversee timely pipeline delivery in the Eastern Europe CMU with a strong focus on quality assurance; (ii) support effective implementation of the portfolio delivering integrated development solutions to our clients; and (iii) lead and mentor the Eastern Europe CMU operations team.

Kevin was selected to this position through the Bank-wide competitive managerial selection process. His appointment is effective July 1, 2024.

Antonella Bassani

Regional Vice-President

Europe and Central Asia Region

 

What to do with two teenage girls on yet another day off school? Bonus points for being outdoors AND incorporating history AND having enthusiasm from the peanut gallery? Go on a field trip of course! Clara and Georgie were genuinely joyful about this mini road trip to Morven Park in rural Virginia, a home and manicured grounds with 240 years of stories and about as many paintings of hunting and hounds.

It was a nice respite in these months of a Barbie clothed in barbed wire. Two girls laughing, happy to do history and a little walking, and thrilled at the prospect of rolling down a huge, green hill. No concern about grass in the carefully straightened hair or eye rolls at the whimsy of such a childish activity.

In Leesburg proper, we browsed a sweet boutique and ate fries at a family diner and giggled over dumb stuff. I guess this unremarkable day was remarkable because the girls were back briefly, leaving their armor of self-tanning spray and disdain at home. I love these girls.

It can be weird to have worlds collide, but Tatum handled it with her usual grace on her 17th birthday. We brought together family, friends from Jakarta, Marina from Stuart Hall and Sophia and Georgie. Plus the relevant grown-ups. And we ate at our newly favorite restaurant, Artha Rini Indonesian in Kensington. In classic Indonesian style, they didn’t have staples like nasi goreng or jasmine tea, which made it quite perfect. Tatum ordered her favorite, sticky rice, but it didn’t compare with Ibu Nengsih’s.

Following explicit instructions, I made a funfetti cake with Betty Crocker strawberry frosting, but the shark candy, mermaid candles and seahorse cookies were by own contribution.

Tatum still wants to become a shark researcher and is looking at colleges with a marine biology program, handily being those along a beach. She is indeed on tap to take AP Environmental Science next year, so she’s on the right track.

Her teacher comments have been glowing—she contributes the most of any student in her physics class, has made top gains in precalc and has “sophisticated literary analysis skills” and is recommended for AP English next year (along with AP statistics and art). She’s not loving school, but she’s doing a great job despite that. They love her.

And her friends span the Maryland-Virginia divide: in addition to lovely Marina from Brazil but a fellow boarder at Stuart Hall, Tatum is spending lots of time with Sophia, Tommy and new beau Beaman, all students at Whitman. Prom was a big highlight this spring—for Josie and me, as well as the kids. It’s something to celebrate when the children you love are doing happy things.

It was so cold! There’s nothing like the word spring to make a little chill even chillier because all one wants is for the sun to have the decency to shine. Especially if one goes south like the birds. Spring in Nags Head was a little indecent, to be honest: cold, windy and cloudy.

But we made the best of it. Well, I guess that depends on perspective. Clara said on the car trip home, grumpy for lack of UV rays for spring break tanning, “Mom, we went to four museums in four days. Is that, like, your perfect vacation or something?”

We went to the beautiful beach at least once a day, although usually we didn’t stay more than ten minutes because it was so blustery. The waves were raucous and even Bali ran from them and not into them. But we were together, except for Tay who had finished her spring break two weeks earlier. Trent, finding his Master’s at East Carolina, joined us for two nights also, happily.

One of the “museum” visits that Clara so enjoyed was a stop at a wildlife refuge near Alligator River. Aside from having a very nice visitor’s center, the back roads there were perfect to give Finn and Clara their first turns behind the wheel. The roads were made of dirt or gravel so the rare other cars on the road were going only as fast as bees sliding on honey. Clara was cautious and cool, Finn was elbows up and foot down—driving a little faster than expected! They both did great and stood a little taller when they stepped out of the driver’s seat.

Other highlights included going to Kitty Hawk and learning more about the wonderful imaginations and methodical discipline of Orville and Wilbur—and their mother’s uncanny ability to build and fix things in the home; getting brews and beer for Kevin; driving through the gorgeous campus of William & Mary; seeing the Cape Hatteras light house and learning about German U-boats being nearby during WWII and the resourceful isolation of families living in the light house; playing Bananagrams; watching the show soap opera-style but somewhat historically realistic Jamestown and visiting the actual Jamestown or at least it’s replica.

I loved the visit to Jamestown, although it wasn’t the site of the archeological dig of course. It is impressive to think of the courage and creativity all of those first arrivers had to call upon. The efforts to recreate life from England must have been both so comforting and so maddening. The Native Americans must have been astonished by the bizarre sights—neck ruffles and corsets could hardly have been helpful.

Having been to the very spot on the other side of the earth, the Banda Islands or Spice Islands, that other European ships were reaching at the same time, I can see in my mind’s eye cosmic history’s lines colliding and bursting into flame in the arc of history. The galvanizing of globalization.

Overall the trip was good family time with the exception that Tatum couldn’t be there, but it wasn’t perhaps the most springish of spring breaks because of the overcast and blowy weather. Next time, maybe we could “spring” for a place with a hot tub—or better yet, a place with sunshine. Kevin loved it though, climate and landscape alike being a true break from the frying pan that is Delhi.

Double unders, triple unders, frogs, side swings, twists, flips. Nope, I’m not talking about making flap jacks. I’m talking about Finn and his rope. The boy’s got moves. He’s had fun developing his freestyle and his pairs work with Riley. This spring, he has traveled to Virginia, North Carolina and Ohio for competitions, picking up medals along the way, although he wants no mention of it.

We have a few more tournaments this spring and summer, locally, in North Carolina and Nationals in Salt Lake City in June. Despite the hours and travel miles logged, I guess it’s too late to jump ship now!

(“Jump” ship, ha ha.)

While I’m “manning” the home front in the way only a woman can do, Kevin has been working on the far side of the moon, or it might as well be. The far side of the world, in any case. He’s around here, or was last month anyway:

Since Christmas, he has been in Kabul, Afghanistan; Colombo, Sri Lanka; Bangkok, Thailand; and several states in India. I don’t know exactly what all the work entailed, but his favorite moment and ours involved the very hearty applause for cutting the ribbon around a port-a-potty.

Thievery, nothing short of old-fashioned thievery, took place right in front of that fountain. The setting: Elon University, Elon, North Carolina. The occasion: Emily’s graduation. The object of interest: The ice sculpture. Who would have done such a thing? There damnable deed demanded due process.

But that was in the past and in February, we came facing the future, one that envisioned Sophia and Tatum in college-stamped hoodies lugging laptops. Tatum’s verdict was a “probably not” and Sophia’s was a maybe enthusiastic “maybe.”

Now, the College of Charleston was a different story. It was of definite interest to both girls. Perhaps in part, Josie and I are to blame. We drove out to the marine biology lab and snuck in through the gated car park bars behind another visitor with a pass. We breathed in the smell of salt and marsh, ogled the shells, and felt like creative castaways. That was super fun.

The UNC schools were informative but not necessarily inviting, especially Wilmington, which Tatum claimed felt like a mental hospital. Um, no thanks?

However, we had a very nice stay in Wilmington with Noelle and Mica. Tatum even got up for our sunrise walk on the beach, although she also slept in the car after feeling the arctic sand under her bare toes. But the rest of us had fun. The night prior, we had laughed our way through dinner with Noelle’s mom and boyfriend, who were exactly as cool and funny as I have long imagined. Being a library professor at Appalachian State University who gets to take students overseas regularly sounds like a dream job.

Then it was time for Tatum’s delivery back to Staunton and Sophia’s first visit to Stuart Hall. We softened the blow by staying at Penmerryl Farm, with its startling stars and mint-loving equine residents. Our first college tour required some kind of restful element (for the mothers at least).

And as for who done it, the grandparents of course. Poppy and Grams stole the ice sculpture—it’s fate remains unknown, but I can assure you it’s not hidden in the attic.

Just seeing the photos makes you feel like you’ve stepped into an old-fashioned Santa Clause fairytale. Idaho in winter is feet of snow piled outside a handmade log cabin, sturdy and cozy against the arctic temperatures, a fire blazing inside and stockings hung with care.

The Biggar girls grew up visiting Granny O there, and we ogled the magical photos, wide eyed, from our bougainvillea-laced tropical patio in Jakarta, sweat beading on foreheads and backs.

So when snows piled up in Cabin John this January, I chucked the kids outside with sleds and a wave, vaguely promising tomato soup and popcorn upon return. It was only when they stomped feet in the foyer an hour later that I absorbed the Marley situation.

While my kids peeled off snow pants and duck boots, dropped wet beanies on the hardwood floor, and draped their Columbia coats on the coat tree, slender Marley stood shivering in her gray corduroys and kept her black puffy zipped to the neck.

“You okay, Moose? You look like you could use a full body burrito wrap,” I said.

“Yeah, I guess I’m just still adjusting to this east coast weather,” she replied. She took off her puffy to stand by the fire and I saw she was wearing…nothing but a crop top.

And it was then that I realized that Marley didn’t know about the art of wintering. I got her thermal long underwear, a silk long-sleeved undershirt, pure wool socks (no synthetics) with purple snowflakes, and waterproof gloves. I explained about layering, putting waterproof pants over the tops of boot rims, and keeping ears and heads warm.

“I guess I never knew that scarves were so functional. I just thought they were aesthetic,” she mused. The next day there had snowball fights and Bali leaped like an Idaho reindeer around them. They stayed outside for ages. Education is a many-dimensional, magical process.

It also bears repetition. The next day, Marley and Finn shoveled the walkway at Hampden Lane. Marlena was gloveless.