About Face

I’m learning so much here every day, not about the technical aspects of running a hotel- I still can’t mix a cocktail to save my life – but about how to deal with and manage people. Yes, it’s the most challenging thing about this job, but also the most rewarding. 

I’ve learned how to pick my battles and how to fight them. How you can never compliment too much. How to encourage people and how to solve problems. How to make people solve their own problems. How not to be bullshitted. How to stand your ground. How to take initiative and lead by example. How not to do things. How to be straightforward. How to try to be fair. How you can’t be all things. 

I’m learning so much and processing so much, and I feel so comfortable in this skin- even though I don’t always know what I’m doing or how to do things, I know how to find out what the right way is. I’ve found that if you think about it, there’s usually a relatively straightforward solution to anything. The rest is just putting the pieces together to get to it. And that can take time, but its not impossible.

And today- for the first time in a long time, everyone was doing, and everything was working properly… and I felt this satisfaction which is hard to describe.

And then the lawn mower broke and the new bar wasn’t cleaned and the beach chairs were left out at night and the wine orders weren’t done and the timesheets weren’t filled out properly and the iron stopped working… but that’s tomorrow’s problem. I’m just happy that today worked out well  :)

Beautiful

As I sit on my terrace at night and stare out into the darkness, occasionally being jabbed by a hungry mosquito I can hear the waves crashing on the beach. What a beautiful and natural sound. Its so rhythmic and soothing. I’ve always wanted to live on the beach exactly for this reason- to hear the ocean in its continuous stirring. There’s something comforting about its regularity, like a ticking clock. That smell of sea-salt churned up in the air, the freshness of a sea breeze. Beautiful.

Bequia is...

...my new home for a while.

I was lucky enough to get a job managing half of a small hotel on this Caribbean island. Yes, Bequia is an island, not an obscure tennis ball brand or a cocktail umbrella manufacturer. Its a pretty tiny island, in a pretty tiny (and very young) country called St. Vincent and the Grenadines. I think its amazing to be able to watch this place growing into its own and seeing how they deal with social issues having such little expertise and resources. But that's for another post.

This is mostly to keep in touch with friends and family and also a place to vent myself. Even though it's the reason I've come here I'm not gonna write much about my job on this blog. At least I'm gonna try not to. It does take up most of my time (and my brain), so a few posts might slip in but I wanna use this blog to explore other projects and parts of my life here.